at home

this weekend, i've realised how much melbourne has become my home. and it's been so easy to do. it's that kind of place. i got a leaving present and vast amounts of wine plied into me from the recruitment place on friday afternoon. almost to the point when i was nearly late (and still a bit tipsy) for the theatre that evening. it did seem to put me in a good mood and make me much more receptive to the patrons (hellooooooooo! how ARE you?! come this way!!! G14? that's a GREAT seat!! ha ha!!!). and my colleagues in the theatre were all asking how long i had left in melbourne, etc. it's so nice when people notice, isn't it?

i took saturday off from the theatre in order to finally head down the great ocean road. it's along the south coast for about 300km or more to the west of melbourne. and it was soooo pretty. it reminded me a lot of barrytown, actually, and i started to get all nostaligic and homesick, in a rather weird way. it was good aswell because it was a small minibus that took us so i could sit on the side with only one seat and i wasn't forced to sit next to someone and have them talk at me all bleedin' day. i could quietly chill and look out of the window and talk to people when i wanted to. there were a couple of brits on the bus, so we ended up clubbing together cos the rest of the people on the bus were COMPLETE NUTTERS. there was a crowd of japanese kids at the back that didn't say much except squeal whenever we saw kangaroos or koalas. and i mean P-R-O-P-E-R squeal. they also took millions of photos and all of them had them posing in them doing the 'v for victory' sign. what's that all about? then at the front was a gaggle of german women all approaching middle age and talking very loudly about complete shite. one woman in an orange top insisted on singing along to the music on the bus in her loudest loudest voice. whenever i hear 'your song' by elton john i shall now always think of her and her inability to keep the timing for the line 'how wonderful life is, now you're in the world'. and finally there was a middle aged danish lady, wearing what could only be described as a turquoise tracksuit, who treated us all to a polemic on renewable energy resources. my god. it was a right adventure.

but kangaroos and koalas we did see. i've already seen kangaroos on the way to the blue mountains so they were pretty old hat but, how cute are koalas?! i'm not an animal person, but, rather like the penguins in nz, they completely won me over. it was the way that they clung onto the trees for dear life and looked like they didn't really belong up there but they couldn't get back down. i think we can all identify with that how-the-hell-did-i-get-myself-here feeling.

so the day was filled with walks on beaches, bush walks, a nice little stop for coffee out of a flask on some picnic benches in the woods. the scenery kept changing. it went from beach to rainforest to moorland. the day was broken up quite nicely so it didn't feel like we were just on a coach all day and the tour guide was actually interesting cos he was a student and knew about rainforests and the like. the final stop was the 'twelve apostles'. these are statues of rock where the coastline has eroded and left them standing in the sea. apparently, there are only seven of them so i don't know why they're called the twelve. but they were very pretty, especially as it was getting towards dusk. and, because i happened to pick the first day in aaages when it's actually rained, the coastline was quite atmospheric with the clouds and mist so i didn't really mind.

i was shattered by the time we got back to melbourne, though. i had the best night's sleep ever that night. i then had a fab day yesterday just vegging out in my pyjamas. imke phoned whilst i was watching crappy sunday morning telly and it stuck me how normal all this was and how unusual it felt. it's ages since a friend's phoned me up and we've had a right old chat, even though we would be seeing each other soon. it's also ages since i've just pottered and wandered up to the local shops to buy a couple of things. i finally found the local shops to where i live and it reminded me of when i lived in cheltenham and had a quiet stroll on a sunday to the shop and back. i also found a cafe to sit and read in so it was all quite blissful. even working in the theatre that afternoon was no bother. the best thing was that after work i met imke to go to the pub. you can't get much more normal than that. but it's sooo long since i've been able to do it. plus, it was nice having time after work at the theatre to do something (we finish early on sundays). so melbourne has been so normal for me, in a really good way. barrytown was anything but normal so that felt like home but in a v different way. it's funny how you only start to realise these things when you're about to leave.