Get the Elton John reference?! Yes, that's right, I went to see Elton John on Sunday and it was a massive highlight of another absolutely amazing weekend in Melbourne. I've had some awesome adventures over the last few weeks and actually become a tourist and taken some photos, which is rather unusual for me.
So my life over the last 4 weeks starts with a girl called Maddie. We work together in a call centre in North Richmond and when we met we just clicked. After getting to know her, and her sense of humour, I decided that she is me but born on the opposite side of the world, and straight edged, subtle yet oh so vital differences! We both love Westlife, and boybands in general, have a random as hell sense of fun and like to push a joke to the absolute limit of bad taste. She invited me down to hang out on the Eastside of Melbourne since I had spent all my time in the North and West so a few weeks ago I get on the train and mission down to Oakleigh. Once there I had a whirlwind of meeting new people, her sister and boyfriend Bianca and Allan, her brother and his girlfriend Tyson and Bianca, not her boyfriend Charlie and her mates Adin and Niraj. Now I'm not quite sure how it happened but somehow we ended up going for a drive to a street called Pin Oak Court. Normal suburban street in the Southern suburbs it would seem, except that I have seen the street many, many times. Every night of my childhood at 5.35pm on BBC1 to be precise. Yes, they had only gone and taken me to bloody Ramsay Street! I ran around like a child and got Raj to take tourist photos of me, he seemed extremely impressed with this!
It was also Raj's birthday that weekend so we ended up drinking and cruising around Melbourne until the wee hours and the next morning, or late afternoon to be more accurate, it was decided I would be taken to the Dandenong Mountains to a viewpoint up there! On the way I was having a bit of a moan about wanting a picture of me with a kangaroo warning sign and lo and behold we turn the next corner and there is a kangaroo sign ripe for the photo taking! T'was fate and once again Raj was photographer and I had a new profile picture for Facebook... The viewpoint was stunning with lovely views all over the city and it was a beautiful way to round off an extremely memorable and happy weekend...
Since that weekend I have been variously taken to - the Melbourne F1 track and had my picture taken on the podium, an array of beaches both in the East and West, seen a pigeon sized dog, been to Frankston, Oliver's Hill, got pulled over by the police with Maddie at the wheel of an interlocked car, driven to the Mornington Peninsular, been up to Arthur's Seat, got confused at Dandenong Market and been driven god knows how many hundreds of kms! It has been the most amazing few weeks and the company has made it all the more special. I never expected to do much tourist stuff here but I've had immense amounts of fun being shown around by the locals.
Australia was always meant to be a very functional part of my travels, I came here to make money and save to be able to travel again. Obviously I was going to have a life and hang out with mates but there have been some very unexpected turns of events which has taken my happiness levels to new heights. And to see Elton John live... Just tops it off! I was sooooo close to him, like mere feet away from a living legend! My seat was on the floor 15 rows from the front and I was impressed with that. Then about half way through his three hour set we were allowed to go up to the front of the stage and hell yeah I was there with bells on! I've been saying a lot recently about how much I want to dance the night away and I dam straight I get my wish at the gig! I was on my own and was boogying away like my life depended on it. Oh, and when I left my mate Raj randomly turns up to give me a lift home, unexpected kindness always touches me and I was made up when he let me blast Elton in the car on the way home when we were giving a lift to some randoms!
I'm having an amazing time, and long may it continue. The people I have come to know are great, and even though Maddie is off on her own travels around Asia I feel so lucky that she brought me into her life and has shared the special people in it with me. The trajectory I have ended up on is scary, exciting and interesting, watch this space!
Tuesday, 20 November 2012
Sunday, 11 November 2012
Nearly nine things after nearly nine months...
Can't quite get over how long it's been since I wrote anything on this blog! Whilst in Malaysia some pretty negative stuff happened in my life and I needed to get my head around it myself and couldn't share what was going on. Rest assured I have considered blogging quite a few times so here are some things that I've thought about on my travels...
1) Melbourne is the City of Benches. I think. Upon arrival in Australia it was decided, due to the extortionate price of cigarettes I would be a rollies smoker. Even though I had promised myself I would quit smoking if I was too poor to smoke normal ciggies, in Australia I am by no means on the bread line (anymore...) but baccy is conducive to saving money. Being a rollies smoker I have begun to need to take a perch occasionally to roll one, and there are benches everywhere! Maybe it's because I've got a use for somewhere to sit more frequently but I swear I've been anywhere with this many benches! Such an interesting observation to kick off with...
2) Bali is an Australian colony. Or it may as well be, it was like going to Benidorm on the way to the UK as a cultural introduction to the way Brits work. I lost count of the amount of times I had to say 'I'm not Australian' when bartering and trying desperately not to get ripped off. I had AUD$5 to live off every day after I had paid my accommodation and that is not a lot in a super tourist area, lucky I could speak Bahasa Indonesian enough to get across the point I am not a rich Aussie but a poor backpacker who had been living, working and earning in Malaysia so was as poor as the locals! It was an interesting experience, and got an amazing tattoo - 'The People You Love Become Ghosts Inside Of You And In This Way You Keep Them Alive' in my own handwriting, going down my spine. I love the sentiment, and means so much when I spend such a massive amount of time leaving behind amazing people and trying to take just a little bit of them away with me.
3) I have pretty darn good survival skills! I might not be able to survive in the outback, or jungle, or on a desert island, or anywhere that you may actually need to survive, but I'm alive and in Melbourne! I landed in Perth airport with $10 in assorted currencies, none of the Aussie Dollars, and a hell of a lot of hope and trust in the universe. After two weeks of living in a mates camper van and about a month couch surfing with a rather random Malay dude, I've managed to get a job that I'm good at and enjoy, I have a home and a whole life and shiz. Pretty proud of myself for being able to sort my life out without having to even try too much.
4) Ask the universe and it will provide. I have become a massive believer in Karma this year, and not that 'hope Karma will come and bite you in the ass' type stuff because that just goes against what Karma is about. I believe that if you ask the universe for something, and it comes from a place of love and happiness and with no greed, then you will get what you want. Whether it's blue hair dye, going to a bush doof, getting a picture with a kangaroo warning sign, or just to be happy, I have asked for all of this and I have received it, in the case of happiness I've got it in bucket loads! It feels like all the little thing I have done to help people, to be there for them and stuff is all coming back to me and the best thing is being a good person doesn't seem to be something I have to work at...
5) My capacity for change is far beyond what I ever thought it could be. In the last year and half, since I left the UK, I have changed more than I think at any other point in my life. Physically I've lost about 30kg or around 5 stone in weight and have dreadlocks, emotionally I have grown and developed to be able to understand myself and others more, I have seen stuff, done stuff and learned stuff that I would never have considered (knitting for example) and all without making any concious effort. Therefore I have decided to actually try and change stuff, so I've taken up learning Poi. I said ages ago in Malaysia that I couldn't do it and it was the type of thing that I couldn't do. Well having done a hell of a lot of stuff that I don't do, I thought why not give it a go. It's hard but it will be so rewarding when I can do it, and rock up to a bush doof and dance with fire.
6) Melbourne is full of crazy, strange, weird and wonderful people. I am one of them! Ego aside, this is a proper funky city, smack heads will chat to you on the train, homeless people will give you a personalised rap for a dollar, yarn bombing is normal, no one looks twice at my dreadlocks, everything is just normal! I've met more people than I can mention in one post although I'm sure I'll get round to one of them 'People I've Met' blogs at some point...
7) You can rock up to the Ramsay Street set at 6pm on a Saturday evening, park on it, and get a your mate to take pictures of you in front of the houses and drive away without anyone batting an eye lid. Amazing. You can also rock up to the F1 track, after cruising around it, and get a picture on the podium and there is no one else there at 2pm to give a dam about it.
8) No matter how far away from home you get you can still meet people who are just like yourself. I find it so hard to believe that there are people in Australia who get my weird sense of humour. I've figured out that people in Ormskirk have a very specific sense of humour and way of doing things that I have brought with me on my travels, and the people I've been hanging round with get it. Or tolerate it. Or ignore it and still like me. Either way, I have a massive appreciation for the great people back home and the strangeness that still binds us together no matter how far away we may be.
9) I have used up all inspiration. It's 10.30am so I forgive myself.
I will blog more! I've met an amazing friend who I've been hanging out with a lot over the last few weeks and he asked if I kept a diary or anything. Would have been impressive to point him to a well updated blog, but alas it was not possible... It kicked in my guilt though so JoBodia is back in your life!
1) Melbourne is the City of Benches. I think. Upon arrival in Australia it was decided, due to the extortionate price of cigarettes I would be a rollies smoker. Even though I had promised myself I would quit smoking if I was too poor to smoke normal ciggies, in Australia I am by no means on the bread line (anymore...) but baccy is conducive to saving money. Being a rollies smoker I have begun to need to take a perch occasionally to roll one, and there are benches everywhere! Maybe it's because I've got a use for somewhere to sit more frequently but I swear I've been anywhere with this many benches! Such an interesting observation to kick off with...
2) Bali is an Australian colony. Or it may as well be, it was like going to Benidorm on the way to the UK as a cultural introduction to the way Brits work. I lost count of the amount of times I had to say 'I'm not Australian' when bartering and trying desperately not to get ripped off. I had AUD$5 to live off every day after I had paid my accommodation and that is not a lot in a super tourist area, lucky I could speak Bahasa Indonesian enough to get across the point I am not a rich Aussie but a poor backpacker who had been living, working and earning in Malaysia so was as poor as the locals! It was an interesting experience, and got an amazing tattoo - 'The People You Love Become Ghosts Inside Of You And In This Way You Keep Them Alive' in my own handwriting, going down my spine. I love the sentiment, and means so much when I spend such a massive amount of time leaving behind amazing people and trying to take just a little bit of them away with me.
3) I have pretty darn good survival skills! I might not be able to survive in the outback, or jungle, or on a desert island, or anywhere that you may actually need to survive, but I'm alive and in Melbourne! I landed in Perth airport with $10 in assorted currencies, none of the Aussie Dollars, and a hell of a lot of hope and trust in the universe. After two weeks of living in a mates camper van and about a month couch surfing with a rather random Malay dude, I've managed to get a job that I'm good at and enjoy, I have a home and a whole life and shiz. Pretty proud of myself for being able to sort my life out without having to even try too much.
4) Ask the universe and it will provide. I have become a massive believer in Karma this year, and not that 'hope Karma will come and bite you in the ass' type stuff because that just goes against what Karma is about. I believe that if you ask the universe for something, and it comes from a place of love and happiness and with no greed, then you will get what you want. Whether it's blue hair dye, going to a bush doof, getting a picture with a kangaroo warning sign, or just to be happy, I have asked for all of this and I have received it, in the case of happiness I've got it in bucket loads! It feels like all the little thing I have done to help people, to be there for them and stuff is all coming back to me and the best thing is being a good person doesn't seem to be something I have to work at...
5) My capacity for change is far beyond what I ever thought it could be. In the last year and half, since I left the UK, I have changed more than I think at any other point in my life. Physically I've lost about 30kg or around 5 stone in weight and have dreadlocks, emotionally I have grown and developed to be able to understand myself and others more, I have seen stuff, done stuff and learned stuff that I would never have considered (knitting for example) and all without making any concious effort. Therefore I have decided to actually try and change stuff, so I've taken up learning Poi. I said ages ago in Malaysia that I couldn't do it and it was the type of thing that I couldn't do. Well having done a hell of a lot of stuff that I don't do, I thought why not give it a go. It's hard but it will be so rewarding when I can do it, and rock up to a bush doof and dance with fire.
6) Melbourne is full of crazy, strange, weird and wonderful people. I am one of them! Ego aside, this is a proper funky city, smack heads will chat to you on the train, homeless people will give you a personalised rap for a dollar, yarn bombing is normal, no one looks twice at my dreadlocks, everything is just normal! I've met more people than I can mention in one post although I'm sure I'll get round to one of them 'People I've Met' blogs at some point...
7) You can rock up to the Ramsay Street set at 6pm on a Saturday evening, park on it, and get a your mate to take pictures of you in front of the houses and drive away without anyone batting an eye lid. Amazing. You can also rock up to the F1 track, after cruising around it, and get a picture on the podium and there is no one else there at 2pm to give a dam about it.
8) No matter how far away from home you get you can still meet people who are just like yourself. I find it so hard to believe that there are people in Australia who get my weird sense of humour. I've figured out that people in Ormskirk have a very specific sense of humour and way of doing things that I have brought with me on my travels, and the people I've been hanging round with get it. Or tolerate it. Or ignore it and still like me. Either way, I have a massive appreciation for the great people back home and the strangeness that still binds us together no matter how far away we may be.
9) I have used up all inspiration. It's 10.30am so I forgive myself.
I will blog more! I've met an amazing friend who I've been hanging out with a lot over the last few weeks and he asked if I kept a diary or anything. Would have been impressive to point him to a well updated blog, but alas it was not possible... It kicked in my guilt though so JoBodia is back in your life!
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