Coming Home: A temporary excercise in remembrance

Back in Sydney now: the good, the bad, the ugly - and all of it lovely.  I do like Melbourne's charms, but not as much as I love Sydney's lack of them.  I am home! (For now.)

It has been a while - so pull up a chair, make yourself a cup of tea (order another Yemen)...

Melbourne

It has been quite a while, I know, so I should tell you a bit about the rest of my time at Sydney's pretty sibling.

Work continued more-or-les s without incident, with my barista skills gradually increasing - along with my passion for a good coffee.  I can now pour a very impressive cappucino, with reasonable consistency, and can point you in the direction of some seriously good coffee wherever you are in Melbourne.  The first book in a while I have considered buying is about coffee, which I think is indicative.

Getting back to Sydney has highlighted the differences in weather between the cities - Melbourne always seems those few degrees cooler in the forecasts, and being back here I can feel the relative warmth.  My arrival back in Sydney was marked with a downpour - the gusty crackle of heavy drops on the van roof was a welcome homecoming present.

My last few weeks in Melbourne saw me taking advantage of many of the local attractions.  I have heard average things about Geelong - only from Melbourne's Easterners - but my time there was pleasant, and I can confirm a variety of places worthy of visit on a Saturday night.  (It's too bad the Cats thumped the Swans that afternoon - though it was good to be there for it.)  The Sunday after I followed that road out of town, out towards the 'Twelve' Apostles.  Deviating up through the forest was well worth it, as was a brief look around Colac, though the emptiness of the lake it was built upon does leave something of a sad impression.  Riding back along the Great Ocean Road was a treat - a few of the twisty bits were excellent, and the afternoon light really brought out the seaside beauty.

A couple of weeks later I toured the areas East of Melbourne and was no less impressed.  South Gippsland (a largely dairy area) must be the greenest area of Australia, and the cattle-spotted rolling mountains make for a unique backdrop - at least as far as Australia is concerned.  The Mornington Peninsula was probably the highlight of the trip, with spectacular rocky mountains - and a good mountain road or two - rising out of the Bass Straight.  Day two included both very typical and very atypical Melbourne riders' roads: the mountains North East of Melbourne are as famous for riding as they are for the bushfires that swept through here three months ago.  I started off following what my map said was a semi-major dirt road - after some deleriously fun (but slippery) twisties, it ended up a single-lane forrest mud track, with a grader halfway along. Very dodgy riding, but the only real downside is that it would keep less adventerous riders away from finding the beautiful mountain spots that I did.  Only later did I get into the bushfire territory, which was a very positive experience.  Yes the trees are black, but the grass was green, and sprouts and foliage are sprouting up out of the ashes.  Yes people died - and I'm glad I did not need to confront that - but environmentally bushfires are essential, and everything is thriving through them.  Bare trees also made lines of sight much better, which makes it safer to go faster, and I'm not going to complain about that, am I?

Healesville, by the way, is a misspelling of Hicksville; don't be confused by the up-market tourist-oriented shopfronts.

One can't, of course, wrap up a trip to Melbourne without talking about the footy.  AFL in Melbourne is big - big in the way NRL is here, but much broader as well.  AFL is the game in Melbourne - virtually the only game in Melbourne, not just the biggest.  If you don't follow AFL, you don't follow sport.  This has the great side-effect that you don't need to be a meat-headed bogan to follow it, so for the first time in my life I will happily call myself a footy fan.  I even - in true Melbourne spirit (as much about the weather as the footy) - got myself a Swannies scarf, which is imbued with an interesting mix of emotions... I'm following your game, but my team.  A good compromise to being a temporary Melbournian, I think!

There were a string of decent festivals on over my time in Melbourne.  The Comedy was first up, and involved a few good shows, fortunately without much outlay.  Randy was a definite highlight - it is oddly acceptable for a puppet to go overboard with 'c***', and the dry, dark, often intellegent wit was both unsettling and hilarious.  The International Jazz Festival was up next - from memory I didn't attend anything.  International Festival meant International gig costs.  Googling the MIJF I was lucky enough, however, to come across the Melbourne Fringe Jazz Festival: a week and a half showcasing Melbourne's local talent, at all the hottest venues, at a fraction (typically 1/2 or 1/3) of their international alternative.  There were a few average experiences, but a some very good ones as well, which made for a very positive week.  It's bloody awesome being on holiday - I'd been to one jazz gig in Sydney in four years of uni (despite four years' cheap/free tickets with Jazz Soc), and all of a sudden I can go out every night.

One last thing before I leave Melbourne, is a comment about how cultured the city is.  It's something people ask me: do I find Melbourne more cultured?

Frankly, if you think it is you're a douche, and I make no apologies for the problems surrounding your birth.

Perhaps I shouldn't be so harsh.  There are differences between the cities - the other being Sydney of course - and I can see what people mean, but if Melbourne is characterised as 'cultured' I pity your sense of culture.  The Melbournians (and others) who praise the beauty of Sydney and its beaches and harbours obviously haven't gotten around town much.  So much of Sydney is somewhere between unpleasant and ghastly, in a way Melbourne is not.  So much of the way Sydney is built shows a complete disregard for aesthetics - or for that matter any ongoing use of public space.  Does nobody in Sydney ever think ahead?  Are we suffering problems with our eyesight?  It seems we are making efforts to address certain problems, but the wonder is how we ended up so horribly out of whack in the first place.  The tunnels we are haphazardly crossing our city with are like bandaids on short-sighted infrastructure planning, and potential projects to free up the city's waterfront areas (Darling Harbour and the Quay) are indicative of how little value we have given to the use of public space.

This is evident on a much more micro level in Melbourne as well - in various ways.  Bars/cafes (they are not so distinct down there) offer much more interesting spectacles - much more creative uses of space - than up here.  We tend to be cold up here, as if our time off needs to reflect our professionalism, if it reflects anything at all.  Streets there are so more ambulant - there are trees, there is space.  Laneways have things other than bins down them.  'Graffiti' is common - not vandalism, but spray-can paintings of public surfaces.  If there is a space in Melbourne, it is recognised as something people might spend time in - its social value is recognised.

I have already written about the pretty people of Melbourne - the trendy areas are very much so, and the CBD is far more residential (less corporate, more of a place to actually spend time) - who make for sights interesting in the same way the city's places are.

It's misleading, though, to characterise this as more 'culture' on their part.  Melbournians put up different facades, but it remains that they are facades.  The facades in Sydney's are every bit as stylised - and every bit as trivial - but more often corporate.  We have a beach culture to rival Fitzroy's classy bohemians (Sydney's 'bohemians' are more varied, and often genuinely grungy).  In Melbourne, the main result of their longer history of migrant populations is that Italian and Greek food is expensive ('kebabs' are called 'souvlaki' and you pay through the nose for the privelege of an inferior product).  They aren't as racist against muslims, wogs or boongs, but seem less tolerant of any variety of Asian. The vast majory of the population? - if you can pick a Melbournian from a Sydneysider you're doing a lot better than me.

Beyond the architecture, there doesn't seem much difference by way of art: Melbournians have been known to look up towards Sydney's Ballet/Jazz/music/art scene in the same way we have of theirs.  The city's widespread 'graffiti' is fundamentally devoid of social comment, and that's what gets to me - the cultural facades really are just pretty layerings over fundamentally similar social detachment.  I don't lament the commissioned nature of the city's street art like my German friend does, but at least tags are a social comment.  I hate tags as much as the next person, but with so much 'artwork' going on I had hoped to find evidence of the kinds of voices which are realised in illegal graffiti - all I found was space-monsters.

Sydney

The last of my time in Melbourne was spent mainly focussing on that time remaining - now that I'm back I need to work out what I'm doing here.

There will be a bit of 'grunt' work: motorbike maintenance, sorting out possesions, selling the van and the racebike.

I'll see what I can do as far as work is concerned - I might not be paying rent, but I can't live without a bit of cash.  I like working, don't forget, and it would be a sad to hang around for months without making a coffee.  It's really good, though, not to have any pressure to earn the cash to get by.  I'm even thinking about the kinds of places I can weisel my way into by offering myself for free (or for little). With a bit of luck I'll get myself into a medical trial which will pay quite handsomely - decreasing the financial importance of work, increasing my freedom to take advantage of the time I have, both in Sydney and for the remainder of the year.

It looks, at the moment, that I will be here about two months, possibly longer.  Longer if I get into a trial which keeps me back, or have work or something pressing to keep me around.  If not, two months will be long enough to complete my 'business' here at home.

If I can get work at the snow, that is next on the todo list.  But I will be a late arrival - I don't know how well that will go.  Either way, after that I think I will head north: to WA not via Adelaide, but via Queensland and the top end.  QLD was previously absent from my travel plans, but without feeling the need to pass through Victoria, it makes a lot of sense to head that way.  I'm still hoping to make it to Tassie next summer, but that's a long way down the track.

Have I mentioned I plan on doing all this by bike now?  Yes, I know I faffed around a lot buying the van, getting it ready (reregistering it...), but I am drawn to the inconveniences of taking just the bike, and frankly I'm happy to do away with much of the value of having a van.  The money, moreover, could be better directed: even if that merely means voluntary super contribution (150% upfront government contribution is a deal hard to beat!).

As always, I'm thinking about the future.  I have been becoming a little sceptical that the (grad) jobs I have been applying for will really work me towards what I want in the long-term.  Admittedly I don't have a firm grasp on what that is, but even my inclinations are plagued more than anything by the sense that I am not engaged in working out what I can do - now - to work towards that future.  'Year off > grad job > future' is no longer an acceptable excuse, and I am working on ways to move forward.  They often seem quite abstract - but then some of my most rewarding steps forward have been abstract work merely in concrete clothing.  (I just don't have anything concrete while I'm on holiday.)

If I have an epiphany you will be the first to know.

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@JohnSBaxter
2009-traveldiary.blogspot.com
2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com
jsbaxter.com.au (coming soon!)

Easter, looking forward

11/4/2009

Happy Easter!

It is so hard sometimes not to just look at tomorrow.

I'm sitting in a cafe at Traralgon (average coffee), enjoying a weekend, some time off.  With the Easter long weekend approaching my immediate thoughts were to find a country town or holiday place that would give me a few shifts and some accommodation for the weekend.  My main occupation currently is working, earning, getting by, and with a couple of short working weeks causing problems for the balance sheets it made some sense.  But thinking about it, what I was really looking to do was to extend the status quo - the day-to-day - to a long-weekend.  No, I decided, no, fuck that, I'm going to have an actual weekend.  I'm going to have some time off, get back in touch with my todo lists, and find other ways to be productive.  It is so easy when working a lot to measure productivity in terms of the job, but if I learnt anything being unemployed in Melbourne, it's that there are more ways to produce value than working for The Man. It might seem subtle, but it was quite striking having that realisation and deciding to do something else (beyond a tomorrow the same as today).

It just so happens, being a traveller - an explorer - getting out and about and seeing places is high up the priority list. The lucky bastard I am, going for a ride isn't an indulgence, it's an investment. Am I living the life, or what?

After a rather anulled Good Friday, today's SVDownunder ride was a no-brainer that I was well overdue for.  Having had a bit of wristy fun, discovered some absolutely fabulous places (Walhalla), I'm hanging out in Traralgon, pursuing another aspect of life's todo list, blogging. It's been a while, and while I'll be brief I'll let you know the situation.

Sydney

With the parents scheduled to depart Sydney for Europe in May I've settled on a Melbourne departure; sometime soon after Sunday 17th May. I'll head home to look after the house and dog, tie up a few loose ends, and hang out in Sydney a bit.

If I've learnt one thing about Sydney in my time away it's that I don't know it that well.  Just as this trip is to get aquainted with an Australian backyard I don't really know, it will also be about learning the front yard I've always lived in.  Being 'on holidays' provides an excellent opportunity to do just that, so when I get back I'll be exploring Sydney and surroudns as well.  I'm really looking forward to it - and to getting back in touch with everyone.

I'll be doing a lot of bike (and van) work as well - including possibly painting both bikes, maybe some hearty engine or suspension work.

I'm thinking very hard about selling both the racebike and the van... - yes the van I only just bought and spent forever messing around with.  The money could be directed so much better, and I'm not using the van a great deal.  I do also have a weird desire to live rough - just the bike and luggage - which I can see being a much more fulfilling way to travel.  A few of the drawcards of having a van haven't really come into play - the only real sacrifices would be not being able to carry a bicycle, and cutting down on clothing (it's hard enough getting through a full working week with four black t-shirts and two whites).  Part of the willingness to do away with these is the realisation that the money for the van - the rego alone! - would cover purchasing new things as needed.  The van isn't worth enough that it wouldn't be worth keeping it sitting around if it weren't for rego costs - and I'm not factoring in the insurance I am still putting off purchasing.

I think I just convinced myself - the only thing really left for the sales to hinge on is finding buyers.

Anyone want to buy a minivan or a racebike?

Melbourne

So, with limited time (a month!), I am trying to do Melbourne to a timeframe.  A few of the things I am looking forward to:

Comedy Festival: there's all sorts of stuff on, it's a great opportunity to get out and see what the town's about.

Motorcycling: there's a few general areas and a few must-dos, like the Great Ocean Road, South Gippsland (and the Strzeleckis), the bushfire-affected East, and the greater-Melbourne metro area.

AFL: I've done cricket at the MCG, but not AFL (anywhere).  I'd love to see the Swans play, but if I want to catch an MCG match I'll have to do someone else.

Bars, restaurants, coffee... there's a famous bar or two I need to try out, some hot tapas places, some famous espressos to try, and a few restaurants - particularly the Greek cuisine so famous here, unfortunately largely expensive eateries these days.

Melbourne Discourse: by which I mean the 'talk', art etc. about and characterising Melbourne. In particular, I want to borrow Radical Melbourne (2) and wander the streets with it.

Graduate work: I'm still working on getting a job for next year, and unfortunately it doesn't look as though any application processes will have finished within the month.  I'm not that worried about whether I can find something, I'd just like it finalised.

Property: the parents have more or less withdrawn support for me to get a property down here, and as much as I could work on that, don't I have better things to do?

Speaking of which

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@JohnSBaxter
2009-traveldiary.blogspot.com
2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com
jsbaxter.com.au (coming soon!)

March Reconciliations

I haven't sat down today to write the news, but now that I'm here I'll pass you a few words.

Work and Busiment

I'm finally working a little: finished a short trial last week - cheque made to-cash;

worked all weekend at the Moomba festival;

worked all week at David's All'Angolo cafe;

except - Wednesday did a trial shift at Jimmy Watson's wine bar in Carlton, and attended Melbourne Uni's huge grad careers fair.

Next week I should be with David five days (including 6:30am Monday - lordy, lordy), and at Watson's three evenings - hopefully this is the first of many such weeks.

I also got around to doing that salsa class on Thursday which went well - I'm getting used to the steps and it's falling into place nicely.  Soon I'll have picked up a few more moves and a bit more technical competency and I can actually head out dancing.

The Situation Otherwise

I just realised, I've actually been in Melbourne two weeks longer than I was in Bright all up, and I still feel like I just arrived!

Applying for graduate work for next year - have only submitted one to Deloitte so far, but am making progress.

I have a new incentive to pick up a graduate contract sooner rather than later, or rather than becoming a 'hospitality professional', writer, freelancer or traveller: I didn't get the negative reception I expected when I floated to my parents the idea of borrowing with them guarantor to purchase a Melbourne property - only the understandable and expected reaction that they would want me to have some income security.

So, I'm back doing a bit of pre-consideration research this weekend, along with these applications, and hopefully by mid-year I'll have signed the contract on my first property, having a job and my own home (/investment property) to come back to next year.

All this stuff has, as you may have noticed, meant a little less blogging than I'd have liked.

Melbourne

I'm increasingly seeing Melbourne as a place I would love to live - I don't mean forever - necessarily - but the time I spend here I expect to enjoy. The city and surrounds are just really nice, interesting, engaging places to be, no matter what day or time it is that you're out and about.  The CBD doesn't die to the same extent Sydney does outside work/after work/Friday/Saturday, and there are worthwhile establishments in every area which can be relied upon at any time to help cure the soul.

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@JohnSBaxter
2009-traveldiary.blogspot.com
2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com
jsbaxter.com.au (coming soon!)

Enjoying the exotic and unexplored North: a home away from home

from 3/9/2009

ODO 84500


It's been so long, I know. I have a lot of ground to cover (about four thousand kms in fact!), so don't expect all the details! I can claim at least that I have kept on top of the photos (sorting, resizing etc, not as much uploading), which is the most tedious aspect of the story, so you'll have to put up with the fact that I'm content with my effort.

As I write I am sitting in the Nerada tea plantation visitor's centre. Can you believe I ordered a pot to sit out the rain? It's insane! It's so dry up here, and with nothing forecast or expected, especially not on the western side of the range... the plan today was to ride all the roads, all of them, in the area, so the bike is unpacked and I was rearing to go until water interrupted my breakfast (not that that was a shame).

The area you are probably wondering!? The Atherton Tablelands, Far North Queensland - just up the hill from Cairns. And by 'just up the hill', I mean at the top of the road I was planning on riding first thing this morning. The road I ascended last thing yesterday, which even with full touring gear left my tyres looking like I've just been to Phillip Island. And I was taking it easy, believe me! The road is the Gillies, and it is nuts. Look it up.

The tablelands here are a great spot - tropical weather (although it should be drier at this time of year...), yet temperate, especially compared to the coast. A very rich (volcanic/clay) soil means a diverse range of specialty crops like tea and coffee, and a range of veges - as well as the usual cane and the odd banana.

I spent all of yesterday afternoon wandering around the Coffee Works coffee museum/cafe/tastery/roasters/gift shop, and thanks to their re-entry policy will be back again soon! (Especially if the sky takes to falling in.) It's possibly the most awesome place ever, and by a long way the best tourist destination I've ever been. Nothing beats conversing with roasters while sampling 20 different coffees, two liquers, 12 different chocolates, nor the witty commentry of the virtual guide through the mind-boggling collection of espresso and other coffee items. It's something you could only do on holiday though - it would be impossibly to take the time to appreciate it in a more time constrained context.

A couple of days ago I was also pleasantly surprised by a similarly well-run venture called [Pallamina??]. If you look it up you might expect some kitchy tourist destination, like a local dreamworld jungle set - but you go there and find a story, of one cane-grower's dream to build an oasis in the hills, and wander around imagining the improbable experience it would have been in the 1930s when it was in its heyday (with a variety of purposes), and the history of what you are walking through. A big tick from me!

But that's just the touristy stuff - while top experiences, not what I'm normally into. Looking backward down the coast - keeping in mind that the further we go, the worse is my memory - you would be amazed at the number and variety of waterfalls and rainforest sights down the coast just passed. If anything, I have waterfall fatigue - but some of them really are unforgettable. The [Murray Falls] are gorgeous, and the thought of them in full water (now is the dryest time of year for the falls) is inspiring. [Wallaman] near Ingham are Australia's tallest (260 odd m I think), but it was impossible to capture the fullness of that experience on film. The roads to these are all typically tight and twisty, well tarred (if occasionally bumpy) and marred only by traffic. Bloody traffic.

Townsville was an interesting experience, though not what I might have expected. Initially I was amazed at its size - 170,000 people is a few maybe, but riding into town and seing a CBD actually comprising of highrises, and feeling like the interior of a (small) city... unexpected. The giant hill which rises out of nowhere - the CBD is at its base - is impressive to look at, and more impressive to climb (by bike of course - but watch out as most of the traffic has opted for the pedestrian method). Something so tall, and steep, isolated from an otherwise flat township... they have strange mountains up here in North Queensland, they really rise up out of nothingness - and it does make for a spectacle.

Saturday I was meant to get up, go for a walk and wander in to check out townsville. The walk took forever (in my defence, it was 17km long - and included two [dips in the creek]), and it was early afternoon by the time I was riding into town. The bike was handling very, very strangely however - completely flat front tyre. A stop at the servo only served to confirm that my valve was leaking profusely from all over. With a bit of luck, the nearest bike shop had the team sitting out the back with knockoffs in hand. And with a bit more luck, they agreed to have a look at it. Unfortunately for them, doing so involved exploding my valve stem out of my rim - they didn't have much choice at that stage but to pull the wheel off and stick in another. A case of beer later I was sitting with a cold one listening to the trash that a Townsville bike shop talk about of a Satdy arvo. Not what I had expected - but one of the gems you experience being on the road.

Not much to write about - not unless I'm going to make some great story about them - but these gems have been the best bit so far. Like John the barber in Bowen (great little town - but so proud that the film Australia was shot there you'd think they had nothing else to offer), John the biker from Melbourne, doing what I am on his KLR250 (who just left here for the NT), or Hiroshi the 'retired' electronics goods business owner, trying to escape it all - living at the furthest practicable point from Brisbane. The crew at the Archer - the pub at Rockhampton with $5 camping out the back, $2 all-you-can eat on Sunday (though you have to put up with the karaoke) and a motley crew of owners/kids/cousins and friends who hang around irrespective of whether it's open.

In another category alltogether, the platypus I saw early one morning in Eungella (and an awesome road to the park - short, sweet and dodgy as all hell. Just as you might expect when you confront [the ridge at the end of the valley] on its approach). Or the [pool at the end of the Wheel of Fire walk] in Finch-Hatton gorge down the bottom - and it's not unreasonable to expect it all to yourself like I had. [The view of Rockhampton from the hill opposite Mt Archer] (though I have to apologise for not having a good shot), or the [birds] that don't seem to mind you walking through their home - or riding, in the case of the range of huge birds of prey that circle the canefields. [The view towards Cardwell and Hinchinbrook Island] - believe me, and not that crappy photo, that you can't understand how beautiful it is even when you're sitting before it. Possibly the most beautiful lookout I'm yet to find.


The trip north of Brisbane was initially uninspiring. The roads were neither picturesque nor too much fun, and the Sunshine Coast proved a hole completely devoid of character, and largely devoid of liveliness. Wanting to push on, I found myself contemplating a conundrum. I was wondering what I was doing - just covering kilometres - yet wasting time taking detours trying to rectify that, and not really getting anywhere. A few nice experiences - wild horses wandering past my tent by the road in a cleared pine forest - were intersperced among general broody.

Bundaberg provide a bit of a turning point - not that much changed. I'd gotten into town - and wasted my chance to do the Bundy Rum distillery tour trying to keep you guys in the loop. I could do it in the morning.... but I need to make better time, and I was always 50/50 on spending the cash. Sitting in the campground talking to an old dude - called John (no, I am not creating some weird schizophrenic dream here, these people really are all called John) - about taking the time... He's the first person to express doubt - he liked what I was doing, but when he heard how long I had and decided he 'does not envy me at all'! The years he has spent on the road are a different timeframe to what I have available, and what I 'need' and want to do with it. But thinking about it, what I had experienced had been as he was telling me I would - covering kms, trying to experience where I've been but largely just wasting time. So I sat, and I thought.

The only real change was the money - Fuck the Money. I redid my budget, and as little as I want to spend all that I have, it is there to be spent, and I'm better off doing so and just earning it again in the future. What I figured is that I'm not spending the scant savings I have now, but spending money which I will need to save in the future. And I don't know about you, but I have no apprehension about simply saving money. I do it as simply as it sounds - I don't appreciate the trouble many seem to experience. Don't get me wrong - I still have relatively little to live six months off (plus some for a bond etc. in Melbourne...), but hell, I have enough to do the bloody Bundy tour! The new critereon has become not 'can I avoid spending it', but 'will it be worthwhile to spend next year's money on it'.

Probably the more significant change has been in the mindset of what I opt to do, than the calculation of the cost. The time for the tour (I didn't leave town til after 12 - compared to leaving camp at around 7:30) was probably the biggest factor. But if you don't make the time, there's no point doing it at all. Yes, I am still pressed for time... but frankly, I don't need to do everything. Sunshine Coast? - I only did it because I felt I should, because it's there. I was planning on doing Carnarvon Gorge, but looking at the figures, it would have been two days travel just to get there and back, let alone time spent there. Bugger the bastard - I can do it next time around. Talking to John on the KLR, this is the hardest part of travelling, at least the way we are - deciding not to do things. But in order to do anything at all, it is a decision that needs to be made.

That afternoon I had decided to camp near Monto - a paltry 150km away, but it suited me to (and it was free - otherwise known as stress-free). Having time to do what I wanted to, rather than the pressure to do it all, was good - and the riding was just what the doctor ordered. Monto is inland, on the range - away from the highway, and all that mundane shit that makes up places like the Sunshine Coast. And frankly, I grew up by the beach, what do I care about seeing the coast? (Especially keeping in mind taking the coastal route rarely actually visits the coast.) The road up the hill was a bit too straight, but the country up there is a tourer's tonic - open forest, grassy plains, cattle, country towns... (Monto, if anything, was a little too country: everything except the pub - supermarkets included - shuts by 12:30 on a Saturday. The town was empty, eerily silent - and it wasn't that small either.) Fresh air, local traffic and whatever pace you choose. That arvo and the next morning I took good advantage of Cania Gorge (though old dude John had told me not to waste my time on 'just a bunch of rocks', the limits of his advice proved welcome), an absolutely beautiful place which fit the bill perfectly - an open eucalypt wood through the valley, and tall sandstone walls with (dry) creeks and walking tracks either side. The good stuff - and amazingly homely, well beyond the similarities to the NSW tableland environment I'm used to.

So since then the travelling has been quite good, and I'm getting better at everything. I've been trying to get through massive indecision now, though - I've budgetted a week's time up here, and have had no real direction about what to do with it, merely a million similar ideas. Anyway, I've written a flexilist to keep me busy, and set about doing whatever comes along.

On the topic of which - the sun has come out. : )



[Final note: I have some photos from Brisbane which I should link to from here...
Only I haven't uploaded any of them yet. That's what all the square brackets are for, to remind me to link...]

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@JohnSBaxter
2009-traveldiary.blogspot.com
2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com

Success never paid so poorly

The Employment Predicament

I had three interviews today, all of which went quite well.  I think in each of them I spoke well, sold my skills, created a good impression and developed a positive relationship with the potential employer.  In two of the three cases it became apparent that the interviewers had quite high perceptions of me - indeed, surprisingly so!  If I was looking to settle down and make a career in hospitality I don't think I would have a problem.

But I'm not.  I want three (er... make that two now) months of solid work.  I'm willing (and able) to work hard, work well - be a model employee with extras.  Even skirting around this issue employers can smell temporarity on my breath.  The market is such that, for most places, I'm not even worth considering.

Tomorrow I'm doing a bit better than three interviews - I have two trials.  Trials are what you want because if you can do the job it makes it hard for someone not to give you work - even if they don't need you.

Other News

In other news, the aikido sessions I was hoping to get involved with have been moved to 7am - with my present sleeping habits I would be getting up little more than halfway through the night to make them.  If I can bring myself to it, though, I would really love to have the impetus to get up early three days a week.  We'll see how it goes.

The 'free salsa' classes are not as utterly free as hoped.  They are, however, pretty damn good regardless, and when I start earning enough not to be depleting my savings on groceries I'll hit them up for sure - $9 classes with a pretty cool teacher, a really positive class in funky establishments, with ALL PROCEEDS GOING TO CHARITY.  How hot is that?  You'll have to let me know if you're interested, AFAIK they are an SMS + mailing-list only organised affair. 

My 'daily occupations' list has grown beyond what could reasonably done in a day - it's great being able to keep myself busy, and I'm finally getting to the point of needing to prioritise and cut out (otherwise worthwhile) occupations.  Only problem is not getting paid for any of it.

I really am sounding like a broken record, aren't I.

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@JohnSBaxter
2009-traveldiary.blogspot.com
2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com
jsbaxter.com.au (coming soon!)

Melbourne - perhaps not as 'Sydney' as it first seemed

Today has been really the first time that I have started to pick up on distinct differences - in the people, and other things - between Melbourne and Sydney.

After a few days faffing around online, and some short shifts at Roberto's fine Italian restaurant, I was back out and about running around trying to give people my resumes.

One thing I can say, Melbourne is a shit town to be finding hospitality work in. Yes at the moment I think it is unusually tough, but in general it seems like a place very hard on its servicepeople. I was sitting at one prospective today, the manager looking over my experience and basically explaining that Melbourne is too particular about its coffee for my experience to qualify me. Then explaining, that while that particular establishment didn't offer rates like that, a good barista could be earning as much as $18-19 an hour.
In Sydney that is award wage! At the agency I worked for, they would apologise for offering me shifts as a standard waiter, which Only pays $18.50.
Today's most promising lead explained that the starting rate there is $11. No, that's not per half-hour, that's per hour! And you know what, I'm not in a position to complain. If I'm offered work there, I'm taking it.

With a bit of luck, one of my other leads will pull through, however. Wandering down Brunswick St this evening, a number of the pubs there are looking at hiring in the next few weeks - if not immediately - and if my previous employment is anything to go by I might actually earn reasonable wage behind the bar.

Don't think I am becoming disheartened, however. I mean, my current financial situation is on the lean side of undesirable, but I am enjoying wandering around Melbourne. I do have memories of jobsearching as overly unpleasant, but as often as I'm being turned away, wandering the streets and chatting to whoever I can find is quite an engaging way to pass a day.

I will get back to the point I started with: Fitzroy. It is a beautifully vibrant place, on first impression. I was walking the streets at 10:30pm, and there was as much traffic as there was at 6:30. Pubs were busy! Busy! On a Monday night - and not one, but many - probably about half of Brunswick St, and every 'trendy' pub, had a whole crowd. It was quite a shock, but really very cool. And the people...? I don't know what they would be like to live with, but great to get a taste of - SO trendy. You think in Sydney you know what 'trendy' is? Think again. Pick your average, young, semi-grungy fashinable Newtown type. Add money, and multiply by a few hundred, and you have the Bimbo Deluxe punterage on a Monday night - and this is not an average, but the rule. Everybody was young, and everybody done up an an effortful, moneyed-up grungy sort of way. I was wearing black trousers and a blue business shirt, and I was getting looks - the kind of looks Sydney people are too polite/scared to undertake in public. Not since wearing a trenchcoat to Manly in my teens have I really found myself an odd one out. I should be glad, I suppose, that I'm old enough not to care, which is good, because that made it quite an interesting experience.

And the CBD? It is not at all uniform like that, but there are still pockets of extreme trendiness. Melbourne is not like Sydney, with a CBD composed virtually entirely of suits. The city is pocked with laneways, which are oases of pretty people. A fabulous place to wander and oggle - it is not just attractive girls, but excessively fashionable, painstakingly pretty people, of each gender. Really quite a show, and really somewhere worth going to just hang out in a way that nowhere in Sydney really offers. (Pretty people are my favourite people after all.)

So Melbourne... I'm really enjoying hanging about, though my stay is yet to actually involve actually getting anything done. With a bit of luck my next post will be about how that is changing.

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@JohnSBaxter
2009-traveldiary.blogspot.com
2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com
jsbaxter.com.au (coming soon!)

Melbourne Town: New Revisions - am I really a Sydney Boy?

You know what's worse than not updating a blog?:
Teasing your readers by leaving a post unfinished, thinking up five more posts in the meantime, and still not writing anything!


I will start at the end - at the present - and work my way back.

Warning: ranting follows

I am sitting here wondering whether I really am a 'Sydney Boy' - or, more accurately, reconsidering whether I should be calling myself one. (If you want to engage me with ranting ontology I suggest you do, but not here - for today that's enough!) Sydney has always featured as the hub and my home, the centre and the default, of all my travel plans. It's like bar (think Tip - remember playing that?), but also a wall against which all other travels cast their shadows. You, my readers, are in the large a big part of that - my shadows are not just a perspective, they are being written here most literally!

Melbourne is bringing this on. No, I am not - not yet - falling in love with Melbourne Town. I'm just thinking about my plans, and these thoughts are bringing out with clarity the assumptions I have made about my locus, making me reconsider the authority of these assumptions.

You can take the student out of the university, but you can't take the anti-authoritarian bloodlust out of the student. ;)

Well this student is trying to 'work things out' in Melbourne, and the plan is needing to be changed. I expected to walk into town, pick up two or three choices of job, 40-50 hours a week - locally, I might add - and be fine and dandy. It is not to be! The reception I am getting, as someone planning to be in town six weeks (five now), is lukewarm at best. Most places aren't even bothering to take my resume off me.

So the plans are changing. But the change is good!

You so often hear about the importance of being positive and optimistic - opportunistic - when faced with unexpected and adverse situations. This, I can tell you, is more than smiling at the clouds and telling yourself you're happy for the garden... Having my plans slip away under the influence of reality is actually quite exciting: the plans are no longer failed plans, but memories making way for new plans.

I don't yet have those plans, I don't know what they will be - but I am excited, because they will be good. I am not hoping on it, I am working on it - I will make them good. That is exciting too - the agency.

That is one of the goals of this 12 months: developing agency. The kind of agency which not only develops the plans, but the kind of agency which refuses to submit to the default.

DO NOT ACCEPT THE DEFAULT. DO NOT LIMIT YOUR AGENCY TO THE BOXES OF EXPECTATION.

Bright was becoming a box. I did not express it to myself as such at the time, but I could feel it - I spent a week too long there, and it was not just because the town was getting quiet, it was because I was getting quiet too. The grass of Bright was growing beneath my feet, the grass that was defining the paths that I was walking on. I can't live in a place like that, in a job like that. I need a town that lives and changes of its own accord - and a job which does not sit still, a job which does not asymptote to a standard of excellency and that is That.

As long as I'm ranting, I will point out how this rant could follow the disestablishmentarian pathway; how I could vent against The Man who will be attempting to pin me down into being The Employee at every corner. But I won't, I will save you that. That rant is a box neither of us needs.

I will ask you, though: if what I am describing is the world that I am looking for, how can I go about finding it? Today, I am working towards agency - and I think I am doing alright, except that I am yet to hit on results. But in all the years to come? Is there some sort of stable instability I should be searching for, or should I always be looking to go 'the other way'?


As one last gasp (before I go under?), I want to thank everyone who is reading these, and an especial thanks to everyone who has responded to them, in whatever way - your responses make a world of difference. Thank you.


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@JohnSBaxter
2009-traveldiary.blogspot.com
2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com
jsbaxter.com.au (coming soon!)