Eureka towers, Melbourne cricket ground, Telstra dome, Federation square, The Yarra River, Mumba festival, Great ocean road, Mt. Buller, Exhibition centre, DFO, Chadstone Mall, Chapel street, Swanston street,  IKEA furniture, Pride march at the ST. Kilda festival, Hawks win over Geelong, Geelong back in 2009, Mario’s on Glenferrie, short stack at pan cake parlour, fried calamari at docklands, Thai food at Your Thai, China Town, Victoria Market, Cookies at Subway, Medium Mcchicken meal at McDonalds, Late night at the Laundromat, The monster Pizza near Caulfield station, The global financial crisis, the racist attacks, the bumble bee tram, connex trains, this was Melbourne in my eyes in 2008 and 2009.

Misunderstanding was a part and parcel of life while living with flatmates, making new friends was a quest but wasn’t a challenge as a natural extrovert. Time management wasn’t my best strength, seeing trains and trams leaving the station while making a run for it was a usual. Peak winter hit us in July of 2008, I sure wasn’t prepared for the skin piercing cold. Electric heaters became best friends, hot Chocolate became my favourite drink and Johnny Black on the rocks was a good reason to kickback on my white leather bean bag. Working in the time share industry told me where Australia loves to holiday, holiday experiences from different people was intriguing and talking like you’ve been there was a funny experience. Human nature is to always want something that you don’t have or is a rarity, so was the case with summer in Melbourne. Winter made me lazy and sluggish and was depressing at the same time, I was already looking forward to summer.

It was august of 2008, it was going to be my first road trip in Australia, and Mt Buller was the destination. Layers of T-shirts, hoddies and jackets had to be put on, finally I was going to feel natural snow. Being from a tropical country I never witnessed snowfall or anything close to winter. It was a long but a truly rewarding journey, it was a 4 and half hour long drive. It was a beautiful sight watching the never ending fields on the country side. The dew settling on the long grass was a heavenly spectacle. Driving up the mountains watching koala bears lazying around on the tree branches was amazing. Sitting on ropecars which take you to the mountain peak felt like I was on top of the world, it is a beautiful spectacle just to look down from the rope cars and see virgin snow, with no footprints or traces of any human activity just like the wonderful camera work on national geographic. It was an epic journey with lots of junk food, speeding tickets and lots of crazy photos. The next big thing which hit us was the GFC, no I am not taking about the Geelong footy club, I am talking about the Global financial crisis. The situation became grim for a lot to people, as a lot of people were made redundant including me. It dint effect me much though as I going away for 10 weeks, I was going back home to visit family.

Back in Melbourne on the 4^th of January 2009, I had a new place to stay and there was nothing better than staying close to the beach at St. Kilda during summer. The Australian open began and I witnessed the 3 hottest days of my life 43, 45 and 44 degrees, three days in a row was too much to handle, I thought to ma self “now I know what a turkey feels like in the oven for 10 straight hours on Christmas day”. My world was surrounded with sunscreen, beer, boardies and beachbums. The St. Kilda festival was the next fun thing to do and I had a chance to witness the pride march, to see a 120000 people all together at one time except the MCG was a rare spectacle in Melbourne. Warm summer nights and a walk down to 7 eleven to get a slurpee was always on the agenda. Black Saturday would certainly qualify as the most horrific day of 2009, thousands of people lost their homes and lives to bush fires, my thoughts still with the unfortunate ones.

2009 proved to a good year for me academically, I was back in the groove. A new workplace was a welcome change from unemployment during summer. Great ocean Road drive and the 12 apostils was the best thing I did during summer. Fish and Chips became favourites, I love the seafood in Melbourne especially during summer, a lot of good places at port Melbourne and Richmond for some fat fried fish. 2009 was definitely the year for socializing, I met a lot of new people and new faces towards the later part of the year, which made life better and enjoyable, some of the more prominent places was the Asian beer cafe at Melbourne central called Cho-Gao, cheap beer great ambience and a student couldn’t ask for any better. I even moved into a new apartment in Kew and I am still herein 2011 sitting on my red couch enjoying yet another year of Australian summer along with chicken, beer and cricket.

 

Hang around and there is more to come about my favourite spots in Melbourne....