Where has the time gone? Seems only yesterday we arrived in Melbourne and only a few months ago when we were here for the Australian Open in Jaunary! I've learnt many things on my adventure but one of the biggest and most cliche realisations is how quick time really does go. But its taught me to make the most of everything and add value to my time and experiences even more. True, but even more cliche!
So as usual I'll carry on from the last post in giving you a summary of the highlights of what we've done since then. Ill start with...this...
Yep yep while all you guys and girls have been basking in the summer sun back home (before the weather started to change, as I hear) Tom and I were basking in the Australian winter sun in the snowy mountains!
We were lucky enough to go with our friends Kristian and John and drove just to the edge of where the mountainous regions are in Victoria - a place called Lake Mountain - so only an hour and a half's journey! It seemed longer than it was though, as we listened to two songs from the Frozen CD soundtrack on repeat the whole way there courtesy of Kristian!
Kristian hadn't seen snow for over ten years and needless to say when he did see it he went completely doolaley and managed to take about 30+ pictures with snapchats and insta's before we'd even drove up the mountain to the resort. It was all very comical for us as you can imagine.
Lake Mountain is a family sledging and tobaggon resort - no ski runs or lifts, although you can do cross country ski. We looked into going skiing but unfortunately would have worked out way too expensive. It would have been a further drive into the mountains to a proper ski resort too.
We had a great day with loads of fun and laughs. Going headfirst, surfing and crashing into each other on sledges and of course building the best and biggest snowman in the whole resort, sparking a competitive streak from fellow snow architects and a whole load of attention from astonished children and Asian tourists.
Kristian wanted to name him Olaf from the Frozen film but we don't do things by halfs and this snowman actually finished up more similar in size to Hagrid from Harry Potter.
Here he is! This picture makes me laugh. Not sure why Krisitan put the arms there but they should be on the ball underneath the head!
Some pics from when I went off exploring...beautiful surroundings. Completely forgot we were in Austrlalia! 40cm deep snow if you go "off piste"
He kindly offered to take time out of his schedule to give us a private tour of the department buildings. He's lived in Melbourne all his life and worked at the university for almost 30 years so he knew nearly all its history and trivia. Was a great afternoon and really enjoyed seeing the buildings and studios where the Aussie students study. Here's a few pics from the rooftop of Building 100 - Architectural Research Facility...
And here's a few of my fave pics from when I've been wandering round the city...
SYDNEY!!!
As we planned, we were lucky enough to go on a little holiday to Sydney one last time before coming home. Checked into the hostel I knew in Kings Cross and nothing had changed. Nice little friendly place but weird to go back in to that environment after living in a city centre apartment for the last month. Only took 10 minutes in the kitchen to get sick of hearing all the drab dull Brits talking over all their travel stories and one night stands. Stay classy, girls.
I won't bombard everyone with pics of Sydney. There's plenty of pics on here already. But here's a few special ones of one of our favourite places to chill out and relax...or jump of a cliff!
We had a good day climbing on the rocks and getting some cool pictures as you can see. Great picnic spot hah. So this was all on the first day. Our second and third days in Sydney were spent walking around the city... darling harbour, circular quay, botanic gardens etc and visiting a couple of musuems.
We were also able to go and see the guys where we used to work; Tom went for drinks with his mates from Pottery Barn and I hung out with Peter and Marina in the store for a bit (Peter has taken an interest in cocktail making and made us piña coladas haha) then we went out and had drinks and food in Bondi. Had a good laugh and a fun night. First time I managed to stay sober while out with them.
Picked up our watches from the store too and they're looking great! Really happy with them.
Couldn't resist another snap with these two in circular quay!
And I just really like this picture of the opera bar so had to post :)
In the time we've been living here in the apartment we've got really pally with our Korean flatmates.
They are some of the nicest, funniest and generous people we've met in Australia and we're sad to be leaving them soon. They've made us awesome food, been really friendly and entertaining, constantly made us laugh as they tell us hilarious stories in broken English and are very humble and genuine people.
In return, we've been helping them improve their English - sometimes in very funny ways - and we made them this classic English masterpiece below. Of course, the infamous Full English Breakfast. It had everything! Minus the black pudding (couldn't find it anywhere here). It was a great effort and tasted delicious.
They really enjoyed it. More importantly, they survived. As we weren't sure how well they'd cope with the unusally high (for them) level of saturated fat and grease that was leaking out of it!!! They were very grateful and liked the food, as well as being initially perplexed as to why us British eat so much for breakfast! Even got them drinking Yorkshire Tea with it too!
In other news I was extremely lucky to come across an event run by the Design Insititue of Australia where every year they allow students and graduates to come and gain an insight in to how Australian design practices work within the creative industries. The event is called Emerging Designers Inside Nights. Participating studios open up their doors and give presentations on how they work and what they do. It's a great idea and gives graduates like me a chance to get a welcome foot in the door and speak in person with the managers and directors about potential employment opportunities.
I chose to see a presentation by Hirsch Bedner Assocaties - they are the biggest global name in the hospitality design industry right now and delivered a great presentation. Seems like a fun company to work for with a lot of collabortation between design disciplines, working on some huge projects. I managed to get a follow up meeting with the MD next week regarding future openings within the company! Very nervous but fingers crossed it might lead to something big, who knows.
And lastly, some tennis!!!
Last week I discovered an online voucher offering a big saving on court hire at the National Tennis Centre so I booked Tom and I on to a court today for a bit of a hit and a laugh.
The centre is just across from Rod Laver Arena, which was completely open to public - unlike Wimbledon. It was a great experience walking into the buildings, corridors and areas where the players usually go and so nice to play on the famous Australian Open hard courts.
Brought back memories of the tournament in January, and also when I came here with my family on holiday in 2007. Could still remember the court I had a little hit on all those years ago, before security found me!
The National Tennis Centre here has great new state of the art facilities and it wasn't busy today either. We played a match and larked about for a bit in what was really hot weather again today despite being the middle of winter. As you can see from the pics below, it was a great day to play.
Didn't see anyone famous lurking around. I think all the players are in Toronto or Cincinnati this time of year.
As usual Tom resorted to anger and violence when he got beat fair and square at something!
Will post again soon. Take it easy.
