After another day of sleep (this time 08:30 until 16:30), my whole day of plans went completely up the spout. I managed to sleep through my alarm, which never happens, so I must have been tired. I’m trying to listen to my body and sleep when I need sleep as I’m trying to minimise stress, but as of tomorrow I’m on a mission to fight the jet lag, and synch with Aussie time as opposed to English time! The only positive is being on the same time zone as everyone at home means I can still chat to everyone at a normal time for them.
On the way back from the city yesterday I noticed quite a few towns along the train line, which looked like they might be nice places to visit. One of those places was Ivanhoe, and when I looked it up it seemed to have a lot of independent restaurants. I thought it would be a good idea to get out and get a hot meal, having not eaten anything hot since being on the plane on Monday morning. Despite there being so many restaurants, the majority were wood-fired pizza places (in fact three right next door to each other) and so pizza it was. It was nice to sit in a restaurant window and just watch everyone going about their business and catch up on listening to a few podcasts. Even better, now that I’ve sorted my mobile phone out I can actually use data and chat to people at home whilst I’m out and about - it makes dinner out alone seem much less lonely!
Being here now I can’t help making comparisons to when I last came to Australia a decade ago; back then I had no access to the internet other than to use internet cafes and public libraries, and had to stick with using Lonely Planet guides and maps, and asking locals for directions. Contact home had to be via e-mail at the Internet cafe. It was a completely different experience, and although having the internet at my fingers all day long gets rid of a lot of the anxiety of getting around and looking up train times etc, it also takes away some of the challenge of the experience, which I really enjoyed. I felt such a sense of achievement first time around, although this time it’s a challenge in a very different sense. Everything these days is so instant, and I do miss the simplicity of a time when we didn’t have the internet so readily available.
Tomorrow I will be going to Brunswick for the night to meet the two girls I will be living with, and spending the night at the house I’m going to be renting (I won’t be moving in until the end of next week). It will be nice to explore the area that will hopefully become a more permanent home, and meet the girls that have committed to living with me without having met me yet - either they’re brave or stupid! I’m hoping that having a few drinks and meeting some new people will help to make me feel more settled and at home. Whilst I’m waiting for my TSS Visa and AHPRA registration to come through I am going to make good use of all of this time off and enjoy myself, with a hangover or two along the way!
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