Okey, dokey, update time...

Will try and do this as concisely as possible...

Walked out of my vile job.  They decided not to pay me.  Have taken action to make them pay me since they are legally in the wrong.  We shall see the outcome since it's $650 that I'm currently short of, which is by no means a figure to be sniffed at.

On the other hand, have found a wonderful, wonderful job at a lovely Italian restaurant in the Crown complex and I love it there and the boss is absolutely lovely and so I'm very happy there.  Added to this I am working a couple of days a week on the tour desk at my hostel, which is good fun and also it means that I get to do tours for free (ie three day Great Ocean Road trip next week.  Win.) so I will see lots of Victoria.

Am still really liking Melbourne.  Friend from England was here for a couple of weeks and I haven't seen her for years and we had a fabulous time catching up over coffee and shopping and things like that and she took me to the Neighbours night (she used to work for the company that runs them) and even though there were a couple of moments of cringeyness and it was very, very cheesy it was also so much fun.  But now she's gone back to England.  Boo.

I have also, to be fair, met some really wonderful people here who are 18 and as a result make me feel incredibly old because now I say sentences that start with things like, 'I remember when I was your age...' and frankly I am far too young for this to be happening but I am dealing with it by being a grumpy old woman and I feel I fulfill that role really rather well.  But anyway, so I share a room with them and we've hung out and I work with two of them but now they're all leaving to go to Surfers Paradise so I will be here all by myself except that luckily Gemma is coming here in June so I will have at least one friend.  We will also be planning how to smuggle a Cambodian child back to London to raise.  I'd prefer a Vietnamese child but she's convinced Cambodian is the way to go.  Something about border control.

I will have to leave Melbourne relatively soon, though, because I have to go and do fruit picking or some sort of banal rural work in order to get my second visa.  It's not too, too bad (I hope!) but equally I'd rather be able to bum around in Melbourne and be able get my second visa anyway.

Anyway, frankly that is basically everything.  I'm still beyond excited about the coalition situation in England.  I would actually compare it to when I first saw Sydney Opera House.  When I first got to Sydney it was amazed disbelief and this need to pinch myself that it was real and then that was the case the first few times I saw it, just the awe and wonderment.  I actually have that about the coalition.  Sad but true.  Also I think it will be good for Britain with a bit of a balancing act going on.

Oh, I am also on an actual diet and it's day 4 and I'm SO hungry and it's ridiculous.  I had dinner ages ago and I had three meals and three snacks that were all decent sizes.  This is proof of just how stretced my stomach was.  Turns out I didn't really need the double Angus meals and 10 McNuggets.  More's the pity.

Wonderful novelties

I just got an abusive email about how I'm whinging about things that I miss so to make a point (I love making points!) this is to rectify the situation.

Beer.  There is a plethora of beer to choose from and all of it is good.  Especially the trivia questions inside the Tui and also the fact that the beer is twist off so you don't have to look for a bottle opener every five minutes.

The vegetation here is really interesting and it's cool, because there are these tropical trees in amongst the evergreens and (I think this is what they're called) deciduous trees.

I like the fact that it's normal to play pool here and there are pool tables everywhere.  It's weird because in England the pubs have maybe one pool table hidden away if at all and here they're everywhere and it's normal to play pool.

The meat.  The meat is cheap and it's good and it's plentiful.  I heart all the meaty goodness, even if it is probably the cause of my almost permanent heartburn.

Tim Tams are amazing.  Especially a Tim Tam slam.  I know it's not strictly speaking NZ, but it's Aussie and that's practically the same thing.

It's cool to have beaches nearby and the contrast between beachy goodness and then all the parks including wonderful Auckland Domain and actually One Tree Hill Domain.

The fish and chips here are divine and are about a million times better than fish and chips.