Queen Victoria Markets

Located at the northern end of the city is my foodie Nirvana aka the Queen Vic Markets.  I'm not sure why, but on my first visit to Melbourne in 2001 I didn't pay much attention to the food part of the markets, instead focussing all my attention and sparse budget on the cheap clothing and leather-look bags in the section adjacent to the food areas.  I blame the fact that I was dating a petrol-head bogan at the time and had a decidedly unrefined, student's palate to match.

In subsequnet visits however, I have rediscovered the delights that lie within those huge green sheds.  Mouthwatering eye fillet steaks, tender racks of spring lamb, beautiful fresh whole fish, glistening fillets of fresh tuna, scallops, prawns and every other type of seafood and vibrantly coloured fresh vegetables and fruit.  A true feast for the eyes, and grumbling tummy! 

The atmosphere is an experience in itself with a cacophony of butchers, deli stall owners and fishmonger shouting out their specials (and they are amazing ones at that!), the hustle and bustle of dozens of people pulling their overflowing "granny shopping carts" (you know the material ones on 2 wheels) along and eyeing up the specials that day, and tourists snapping away at the delicious displays of cheeses, dolmas and goats feta stuffed bell peppers piled high.  The deli section is a favourite of mine being a self-diagnosed cheese addict.  The selection and smells are nothing short high-enducing!

Might have to pay another visit this week!

Williamstown

After a brief 3 day holiday in Sydney early last week to see my parents who were there for work, my mum came back to Melbourne with me to stay with us for a few nights.  It was so nice to be able to show her around and for her to see where we live and be able to "picture" us when we're having our trans-Tasman phone chats.

We thought we'd taken advantage of my mum being here and do some touristy stuff over the weekend.  We decided to do a river cruise down the Yarra to Williamstown.  Williamstown is a heritage area situated on a point between Hobson's and Port Phillip Bay.  It's a quiet seaside village complete with dozens of restaurants, a quaint harbour, lovely park with views of the city and a few knick knacky gift shops.  Great for a leisurely stroll on a sunny day, icecream in hand.

Not sure I'd be back in a hurry, but it was a great, relaxing little outing on a warm Saturday afternoon and would recommend a visit even just for the hour long ferry ride along the Yarra through Docklands and past Port Melbourne.

GF weekend footy fever

One sport I can safely say I have never followed or understood is Aussie Rules football or AFL.  An oval field with 36 players on it, volleyball-"dig"-style passing, basketball dribbling and goal officials who look like judges at a livestock fair?  I didn't get it.  But being in the thick of it for Grand Final (GF) weekend I couldn't help but get excited by all the hoo-ha. 

Melburnians are fanatical AFL fans.  The majority of the teams in the competition are from Melbourne and its surrounds so it's without a doubt, the most followed sport over here.  Rugby schmugby.  Cricket and tennis maybe get a look in in summer, but generally speaking, it's all about "footy".

Surprisingly; although the game, when watched, appears to have very few rules, there's a whole list of them.  Too long to type out here, but download this brochure for some compelling reading!  All 93 pages of it:
http://www.afl.com.au/portals/0/afl_docs/development/afl_explained/Laws%20of%20Football_2010.pdf

I did my last-minute homework by watching the finals (a precursor to the "grand" final, it's not sufficient to call them "semis") last weekend and got a bit of a taste for the fast-moving, goal-scoring frenzy that is AFL.  I adopted S's team, the St Kilda Saints, mainly because they were in the finals and then the GF too and because I like St Kilda as a seaside suburb albeit very touristy - yes I am aware of my "pot" status in this regard! 

We only managed to catch the last 3 quarters of the GF in a Southbank bar, and what an exciting spectacle it was!  The Pies, as the Collingwood Magpies are colloquially known, were in the lead for 97% of the game but in the final quarter St Kilda managed not only to catch up, but to overtake the Pies for the lead.  But the drama didn't stop there and a reply from the Pies meant the match ended in a 68 all draw.  Now you'd think that given this was the GF of all GFs (these teams last met in a final in 1966 where the Saints beat the Pies by 1 point so there was a lot riding on the victory), there'd be some extra time to decide the winner.  No.  These two teams have to play another whole match this weekend crown the champions.  I've never seen more dejected looking players in my life.  There were also a fair few Collingwood fans in floods of tears.  They'd almost tasted victory only to have it snatched from their grasp.

I'll definitely be watching this weekend's rematch from the couch while recovering from my wisdom teeth operation on Friday morning.  Who knows, I might even be donning a rather fetching red, black and white Saints scarf and humming "when the saints go marching in".

Here are some cute ode to GF cupcakes we spied at the Queen Vic Markets on Friday afternoon.

And a packed Collins Street for the Grand Final parade at lunchtime, last Friday.

Wisdom saga

So it turns out it wasn't as simple as getting the offending tooth, or teeth as I was hoping, yanked.  We made our way back to the dentist bright and early (well, not that early... 10am) on Sunday morning expecting to be drugged up and chipmunked up by the time I walked out of there.  Alas, after looking at my 180 degree xray for a few minutes, the dentist declared my teeth too close to my mental nerves (I just Wikipeadia-ed as couldn't remember the name of them) which control feeling in the lower lip.  If these were nicked or damaged in surgery/extraction, I could lose the feeling in my lower lip either temporarily or in a worst case scenario, permanently. 

So back to my mates at Clayray to get a 3D scan of my lower jaw (at another $300 AUD) which will reveal how close the teeth are to the nerves and determine next steps.  I'm also seeing a maxillofacial surgery specialist *cue ringing till sounds* next week as had some rather unorthodox council from my dentist about lopping the top of the teeth off and leaving the roots in which didn't sound quite right.  So after consulting a family friend in Auckland, who put me onto an orthodontist, who in turn put me on to a specialist, I'm (well, the boyfriend and mother) feeling a little more confident about my pending surgery.  We'll see what he says next Friday. 

How horrible would it be to lose feeling in your lower lip?  I'm envisaging multiple incidences of burned lip on cups of hot tea, applying lipgloss to my chin because I can't feel where my lip ends and worst of all, not feeling my S's kisses.  It doesn't bear contemplation!

Flat FOMO

I'd heard varying accounts of what flat hunting is like is Melbourne.  Most people have scared me with cautionary tales of 30-people-deep inspections, all with applications filled out and at the ready.  Add to that, the dilemma of wanting to settle quickly into some kind of normalcy vs free accommodation for another 3 weeks (I know... I'm complaining why??) and not having our belongings yet and it's all a bit much.

It seems that the lead times are pretty short over here , ie don't start looking until you are ready to move in NOW.  Herein lies the FOMO (fear of missing out) problem.  All these places are available now and it's hard not to look at them!  We saw a great place the other night, opposite the Royal Botanical Gardens, 50m from the Yarra River and all the amazing walking/biking tracks along it.  It has brand new carpets, paint, bathroom and amazing kitchen, is light and large and has ample storage... oh and a carpark and ducted heating/cooling.  I fell in love with it (and even dreamt about it last night) and then realised it's probably silly to take the first place we like when there are probably dozens of others that'll come up in the next couple weeks when we're ready to move in.  Besides, it didn't have any of its own outdoor space to speak of and I'm sure come summer, that'll be where we want to be.

It really is a luxury to have time to look properly and get to know where exactly it is we want to live and I shouldn't forget that.  Having said that, we are looking at 5 more places tomorrow!  We never learn!

On a separate note, here are some photos we took last night whilst walking "home" from the movies along Southbank.  It was a beautifully still night and the reflection of the city lights on the river was quite breathtaking. 

With wisdom comes teeth

Warning: this post is not for the faint of heart. 

It was our first day in Melbourne when I noticed that the gum around my lower right wisdom tooth had been a bit tender.  Ever the optimist/ostrich, I decided not to do anything about it in the hope that it was a passing phase and was due to the large amounts of stress moving countries has caused.  I was wrong. 

So the next day, waking up with a sore jaw and still worse gum, I googled some inner city dentists, closed my eyes, circled the laptop screen with my index finger and landed on a search result (as done when on a roadie and being spontaneous...).  Kidding, like I would put my mouth in the hands of a total unknown.  The dentist I did pick turned out to be great.  The not so great part is that I have an infection and was given two large injections, a clean, xray and a bill for $185 AUD and told that for the bargain price of around $450 AUD I could have the problem permanently fixed.  So with numb mouth I bought the necessary interum treatments: 1 course of Amoxycillin capsules, some Savacol anticeptic mouth rinse and what can only be described as needle-less syringe to administer aforementioned rinse after every meal.  But only for 10 days otherwise it'll stain my teeth blue.  Lovely. 

I can tell you that despite the syringe being quite easy to operate, I did get some very strange looks walking into a public bathroom with what looks like a cross between a massive dose of blue-coloured class A drug and a spearmint enema.  Delightful.  I've since gotten over my embarrassment and don't even try to conceal my weapon of local sterilisation any longer.  In fact I welcome the glances like some sort of attention-deprived child. 

And the tooth?  Impacted.  And due to be removed 12th September.  No doubt I'll post something about that as well.

Goodbye Auckland. Hello Melbourne.

If revenge is a dish best served cold, goodbyes are a torture best kept brief.  We had some wonderfully touching moments in the build up to us leaving Auckland.  Both my and S's work put on a lovely lunch and drinks respectively.  I must admit to shedding a little tear at lunch when my boss said a few words and I was presented with a beautiful Pandora bracelet with a horse shoe (for good luck!) and rose (representing my English colleague Jeni) thoughfully attached.  And the card... well, I'm still giggling at that one.  I'm really going to miss them and hope with some luck that I'll be able to work with all of them again in the future.  Such a special company and amazing people.

We also had what turned into a lively farewell drinks party at Brew of Quay with family and friends.  I was so pleased with the turn out and really enjoyed getting to chat to each person there and filling them in on the exciting times ahead and our imminent plans.  What a great night.

Which just left Saturday to tidy up at work and spend the evening with parents, my sister, brother-in-law and nieces and nephew.

Sunday morning was a challenge and I'm not sure why we insisted on catching the 7:30am flight.  We were out the door before 5am and thankfully had a very short goodbye with my parents (they very kindly drove us to the airport).  A few tears were shed, but I think knowing that we'll see them again in November made things easier.

Koru lounge and an upgrade on the flight (feet couldn't even reach the seat in front of me and even though I'll admit that I'm a little vertically challenged, it made for a nice change) were a luxury I could get used to.  As was having a car waiting for us at Melbourne airport and someone waiting for us at our accommodation in South Bank to show us around and explain everything to us.  Thanks very very much to S's work.  What a pleasure it can be moving countries...  who would have thought!?

Sunday was spent walking around our new city, seeing S's building and just generally soaking up the atmosphere in our new home.  Had a delicious lunch in Degraves Lane and visited the Little Cupcake shop (for you Kim!).  We also met up with Marie in the afternoon which was great, have really missed her this year and look forward to spending much more fun times together now that we'll here.

Yep, I think we'll be just fine here.