Back to work!
Trip Start
Dec 28, 2010
1
52
84
Trip End
Jun 08, 2012
Where I stayed
Windich Place, Leederville
Lyn & Craigs, Butler Perth
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Obviously not blogging, but I'm sure you guys are glad for the guilt free time off for not reading it, but don't feel bad, we're surprised we get any views these days it's almost been a year, oh how time flies. (Sorry this maybe a long one, may need a tea and a few biccies.)
Hmmm, so where to start.... Well to be honest since our cool road trip up the west coast of Oz we've pretty much been stuck in Perth working not hugely exciting.
We stayed with my friend Lyn and her family for a few weeks when we first arrived (it’s nice to see where people live, you get to put a face to a place.) After probably out staying our welcome we thought we should move on and find our way about Perth.
We had lived in a shared house for the last 3 months with a Czech couple Tomas & Lucie (really nice guys) & our most recent housemate Chris (aka Tone), whose room was previously a Brazilian guys called Marco (and then before him a Brazilian couple Debbie & Chris.) I'm hoping they didn't all keep leaving because of us!
I loved our house in Leederville it was in a great location about 4km from the city, 10mins to the main high street with loads of coffee shops, down the road from tennis courts, a lake & most importantly for us guzzle guts around the corner from dominos (bastards, thought we were rid of those guys!)
It seemed a little strange to write a blog while we were in Perth as we'd pretty much gone back to our normal working life routine, just different people and different place.
I suppose when we first thought of getting jobs, I thought we'd be doing something like fruit picking, or I'd be working as a waitress in a cocktail bar. But no, the office calls us back, there's no escaping that we're both destined to be chained to a desk with a keyboard and mouse underhand for the rest of our lives….
Barney got a job as a business analyst working at ECU (a university), and I joined BHP Billiton a huge mining company, it was hard work but being the muscles in the relationship one of us had to get their hands dirty!!!
But actually, having sold my soul to the office devil years ago I was able to get a job in HR. I was obviously not let loose talking to people but had a much more important role of entering data. I was pleased as it was nice easy work and I wasn't sure how my brain would cope after a few months off. Anyway, a couple of months ago I was lucky enough to be sat up in the tallest sky scraper in Perth up on level 34, with huge desk space, in an open plan office with views of the city, plus we were spoilt with a huge kitchen area with a coffee machine, toaster, sandwich maker, oven, free cookies and fruit!! (After a month we moved to less flashy offices on only the 3rd floor - brought back to reality fairly quickly.)
The good thing about working (other than the money) was being able to make some new friends. I was taken on initially with 8 other people for a specific project for HR. But me and another girl Lauren (from Zimbabwe) started a week earlier to do everyone’s favourite job, Filing! By the end of that week we were the best filers ever I think we were just relieved not to have to scan stuff!
The rest of the project team started a week later and there was a nice mix of us, British (actually Chris was also from Ringwood - how random!!), then there was Emer (Irish), Teresa (South African), & some aussies Darren, Dahlia and Kate and our boss Kim. We all actually enjoyed that project because as uninteresting as data entry sounds it was nice and easy and a fairly relaxed environment. Plus being the total geek that I am I got to use a spreadsheet again (I'm not sure everyone had the same love affair with the tracking spreadsheet that I did!) Not long after our project started soon came Friday night drinks.
After that project was over some of us moved into doing other HR work, like payroll related stuff and changes in contracts. I was always busy which is a bonus and luckily sat with another temp & traveler, Laura. Oh how we laughed! I actually think most of our laughing fits ended up in tears where I would have to leave the room, or just announce to her I couldn’t look at her anymore. Fun times….
We've not done too much else in Perth other than our cool road trip earlier, but we have spent a bit of time in pubs, strangely following the Rugby world cup, which got pretty expensive. As a reasonable price of a beer in Perth is $10 (£6.50). I was pretty shocked buying my first beer and getting no change! We had some fun nights out though. Although when I'm a little drunk I start to feel a little homesick. Especially missing birthdays, hen dos and missing Vic and Dales wedding!! Really wish I could have been there mate!
We have done a few other things though. We have been to a place called Caversham were you get to feed kangaroos and I got to rub noses with a koala. They're cute little things. We went to the Aquarium. And my favourite thing about Perth (other than some new friends I've made) is the Whales we saw a few months ago.
We took a trip to Hilarys boat harbour and headed out towards Rottnest Island with Emer & Tone (Chris) and spent an hour or so watching these amazing mammals swim and play around our boat. They really are fantastic to watch, and it was so surreal for us to be seeing something so big in the water. (It’s been a while since the Whaleshark dive.)
Other than that we have pretty much done the same usual things we might do at home- sit in some pubs and watch some sports, Friday (just one drink nights that turn into more) the occasional run round the lake (for me anyway- Barneys been much better with exercise.)
Oh and we did both take part in Perth city to surf, which is a huge event where at least 40,000 people participate over different events. I decided to do a sociable 12km walk with my friend Lyn and her mate Amy. Barney set his sights on doing the Marathon, unfortunately with only two months of hard core training to prepare. His training regime seemed gruelling and he did really well not to succumb to the temptations of Friday night drinks on numerous occasions. He managed his training runs well considering how quickly he needed to make certain distances, a couple of 10ks a week followed by a long run at the weekend. I was as supportive as ever and offered to stay at home and keep everything ticking over there! His final training run was an impressive 32km round the city, so took in the sights on his way round not bad for a morning. I'm sure I did something useful in that time (probably managed to get up!) I was very proud of his determination and dedication, I'm not sure i've been like that about anything in a long time it was inspiring. Not that I'd ever run anything like that but It made me at least consider doing something. It's a shame that after all the training the day didn't go as he'd hoped, and I know how disappointed he was for not finishing but after 26km he just felt he didn't want to carry on and didn't care enough about finishing to put himself through that anymore. I couldn't even try to imagine how tough the marathon would have been for everyone that day. It was a really hot sunny day in Perth, not a cloud in sight, but huge crowds of people all over the city, and the hills they'd have to have done were pretty hardcore. We found it tough walking at the start let alone that be the last 12km of there 42km run! I know he doesn't like to talk too much about it now but I'm 100% confident he'd be able to do it another day if he chose to, and i'm glad he stopped when he did as we heard shortly after the event there was a tragic story of a 30 yr old french man recently engaged who did complete that run but died shortly afterwards as his heart gave out, and as horrible as it sounds I'm so glad it wasn't Barney. It definitely puts everything into perspective hearing stories like that and makes you realise how lucky you are.
That being said we have now hopefully made the most of our opportunity to make & save some money to be able to go enjoy the rest of our travels.
Although I wasn't sad leaving Perth itself I was sad to say goodbye to a few friends, our housemates, and the home we'd made for the last 3 months. You’d think I’d be used to all the goodbyes by now but I’m still a snivelling little snot bag whenever I leave people. Not Barney though, tough as old boots that one. And so we hit the road again (well kind of.)
Mel.xx
