We’re here!

Sorry about the lapse of writing, we spent yesterday sleeping off the jet leg and settling into our new home. The flight over was a killer and still no upgrade but we were given lots of cake and magazines for Alex’s birthday. After landing we queued to get through the notorious Aussie immigrations and Alex was almost charged $1000 for using his phone in the queue (why do men never listen?). Once we’d braved the gauntlet of security guards, probing questions and slobbering sniffer dogs we were out in the early morning Melbourne sun.

Alex’s uncle met us at the airport and drove us to our new home. We had originally planned to stay with the family before finding somewhere to rent, however, just before we had arrived the elderly lady next door was moved into a nursing home. Whilst extremely unfortunate it did mean that her family were looking for some house-sitters and luckily for us Alex’s family had asked if we could be those house-sitters. After a quick shower we met the elderly lady’s family, moved our things in and slept.

After fifteen hours sleep we were up the following day and ready to face what we hadn’t slept away. We first went to sort ourselves out with the necessities; namely mobile phones and some doughnuts, then headed back to the house to unpack and settle in.

So now we’re here in our homely three bed bungalow in a nice suburb called Beaumaris. From our brief time here we reckon it’ll be a good place to stay, although it is the definition of suburbia and not very backpackeresque; with lots of families and very few bars or places to go out. It is a very lovely area though and some of the houses are incredible with a beautiful beach just down the road. I’m sure we’ll survive somehow! The plan is spend the next six months working in Melbourne to raise funds for future backpacking through Asia. We’ll see how that goes; as they say “the best laid plans of mice and men...”

Rex’s Rules of the Road

• Don’t be tempted to use your phone in Aussie immigration, they don’t like it and you may get led away.

• There is no sure-fire way to combat jet-lag, just try and get into the day cycle asap.

• Mobiles are relatively cheap over here and there are several good pay-as-you-go tariffs you can choose from although many will have credit expiry limits that apply.