Dave's journey to the land of Oz

The time has come the walrus said.... to hit the north of queensland and get some decent sun to top up the old tan.

So this post is from the warmer climate of queensland - or Cairns to be precise - the diving capital of Australia and the access point to the Great Barrier Reef.

Is kinda intriguing as the last time I was here was some 18 years ago when I was doing my round the world trip and Cairns was my first Australian city. Also during that visit, I leart to scuba dive and we had great fun spending a few days actually out on the reef. I do remember my legs being a bit wobbly though when we got back to land.

So what is the latest eh? Will had the joy of spending some three hours yesterday evening in front of a computer screen sorting out a few jobs applications. Is kinda groovy in that most of the departments had a single route through which you can apply for jobs online - load up your cv and a document detailing how you met their key selection criteria and you are away. Was pleased as well to have called up each of the contacts and spoken to each about the actual job and what it entailed. It also gave me a feel for the sort of people I would be working with. And I have to say, bar one, they all sounded pretty nice people over the phone.

So have applied so far for five jobs - mainly around change management or leadership/ management training/ coaching. The orgs I have applied to are all public sector though pretty diverse - mainly departments, though have applied for a pretty interesting job at Victoria Police too.

Done a bit more shopping - one of the major department stores - Myers - has a 30% off sale on at the mo which is pretty cool timing. Was about to purchase a rather gourgeous set of stylish saucepans when the rather amusing and dreadfully indiscrete sales lady told me there was a full on stocktake sale next wed and that I would be better waiting for the 75% and more sale offers.

Bit catching up with a few old friends - is really good to have kept in touch and sometime feel like I never left. The weather too has been pretty good - sun most days - though the temperature plummet in the evening and is pretty full on cold during the night. Added to which most houses, including the one I am staying in, do not have any form of central heating and are pretty leaking on the "keeping the heat in" front.

So here I am gonna be in Cairns for the next few days - in 27 degree C ++, back in Melbourne on Monday.

Just rememeber something else pretty amusing - went to see apartment on Tues and found a couple of cockroaches in the dishwasher - luckily they weren't doing anything too risque and to be honest I could not tell whether they were male and female or couple of same gender - they seemed pretty frisky though to me. On further enquiry - cockroaches are a common occurrence in Australia - though I would have thought it took some effort to get up two floors to my apartment - believe me - it took some getting up those flights of stairs!

And on that note signing off.

Regards to all

flip me one week gone and am still going. what an adventure this is!

so anyhow the dream of this being a day by day acccount has completely gone out the window. mainly due to the fact that wifi is not freely available and those that have it seem to be very wise and have a locked connection - they obviously got further in their instructions booklet that i ever did.

so what's been happening since you last posted i hear you say- well am making progress with my to do list almost at the point of it being a nice to do as oppose to do a must do and a nice to do.

NEWFLASH! Dave has somewhere to live.

After much agonised reading of newspapers saying there is no rental accomodation in Melbourne and where it does pop up there are 30 people queueing to apply, I have finally thrown myslef at the mercy of the Melbourne letting agents (not a customer focused breed i can assure you) and have come up trumps. Will be living in South Yarra some five mins from party central that is chapel steet and pretty close to the jam factory. also pretty bizarre is that fact that will be less than five mins from the place i was originally living in first time round.

Anyhow to say I am well chuffed would be an understatement - so looking forward to those evenings coming home from work and popping down to prahran pool for an evening dip. so now gotta to sus out how mcuh can fit in the place and try to co-ordinate so it look like the front cover of wallpaper magazine - lol.

On the wifi access, found a pretty good deal with crazy john - bit like carphone warehouse - which include mobile and internet access thorugh i thingie you plug into the side of your laptop - however when i got to the shop and starting susing out what's what - they noticed that i have only have one year left on my residency. What I actually need through is a vicroads (ie aussie driving licence). Did a bit of web research and it seemed pretty easy to get off down there this morning only to find that i have to have an appointment for something that should only take around 15 minutes. even though i had all the documentation, i have to go back next thurs - the first time i have experienced a jobsworth!

Now looking at getting bed stuff and a sofa - on the bed stuff got a pretty good idea what am gonna go for - theme is gonna be brown, red and white - japanese stylie - went to chadstone yesterdya and was well chuffed to find that one of my favourite japanese shope is still open.

After that jobs - what to do eh?

Signing off now as I hear a shot of lemongrass and an energy lift smoothie calling!

well goodness me day five in the big brother house and what a week it has been.

a week ago today was dropping of my car with mother and sampling the delights of first class travel from grantham to london. now am basking in the sun half way round the world, grappling with new forms of transport (tram) and new forms of customer service (melbournian letting agents!).

so a day by day account if you wish....

sat 17 may: well this is gonna brief as cant remember most of what happened but here goes. um er heck.... got up - grief this is going to be dull... seem to recollect spent most of day throwing stuff out else putting it in my ever expanding luggage collection. anyhow the place looked half decent by the time i left. i subsequently found out that the letting agents (god bless them) had shown two ladies round in the afternoon whilst i was at the gym. said ladies have since decided they would like to spend some 12 months in the blessed abode so by gum it must have been tidy. anyhow all was on track, andrew came over and picked up my tv and admired my little collection for harvest festival on the bookshelf. he subsequently returned at 6.15 and we had an effortless car journey to heathrow - accompanied by the four (yes four!) cases that i had packed. were you over your luggage limit i herar you ask? well yes rather - i think i got to twice my limit - all essential of course (tee hee).

so anyhow the journey to heathrow as effortless - aided by my tom tom which i had donated to andrew as a small token of appreication. and andrew being andrew completely ignored it and went his own way much to the delight of the tom tom.

when we got to the airport the check in guy almost passed out when he saw how much luggage i had brought. in fact, one of the bags was too heavy for the conveyor belt so i had to do some teeming and lading to ensure we did not have a terminal 5 moment.

anyhow after i bit of wheeler dealing and a visit to trainee on another desk and a bit of a todo with the fact that BA do not deal with switch, i was all checked in. no window seat but to be honest that fact that i had managed to get all my baggage of the same plane as me was a bit of an achievement. how on earth do the likes of posh and jackie collins cope travelling with so much baggage? had to keep reminiding myself that i had to pick up three bags at the other end of not the usual one or two.

well am begining to flag but will continue at another time, covering exciting events such as:

- the irish horse vet
- why are there no straight male cabin crew
- the "is that my case, i don't think it is?"
- the rude woman who practically accused my of assault after i tapped here on the shoulder
- the mad man at the tram stop
- catching up with old friends
- being grateful to claudia
- the mad man at hays
- should i get a car and if so what colour?
- why or why do we need letting agents?
- and yes it is still warner than the uk - ah bless!