Heat Wave

I heard a story that in the recorded history of Melbourne there has never been more than 2 days over 40 degress in a row. Well, we're sure blowing that record out of the water this week! Yesterday it was 43 degrees in the city at 4:35pm. It actually got hotter a couple hours later. It's 1pm now and it's 41 degrees and expected to continue rising. Tomorrow it's supposed to be even hotter. Fortunately, the heat wave is supposed to get a break by tomorrow evening, bringing us down to the mid 30's.

Now, before you go thinking "ooh I wish I was there" let me tell you, no, you don't! Yesterday over 120 trains were cancelled in Melbourne because of the severe heat. It's likely to be the same story today and tomorrow. The sun in Melbourne is not like the sun back in Canada. It is much more intense here, so the risk of sun stroke, heat exhaustion, sun burns, and skin cancer are higher. I went to the market to pick up some lunch today, and on my way over I saw an egg that had been fried on the pavement. I kid you not.

This isn't even the kind of weather that you'd want to have to go to the beach. There's no shade at the beach and the water won't do anything to protect you from the sun. This is the kind of weather where you find a dark, air conditioned room and pass out with as little clothing on as possible.

I was going to start moving some of my things over to my new place yesterday, but even though I'd be rewarded with A/C when I got there, I'd still have to brave the heat to get there. In retrospect, I may have been able to catch a bus from the tram stop instead of walking a kilometer in the heat. Oh well, it'll be cooler this weekend.

In other news, I'm officially not going to the IASSCS conference in Vietnam this year. I'm actually not that disappointed about it though because it would have meant a lot of extra work and money at a time when I've got plenty of work, but not so much with the money. Plus it means I'll have more funds from my student money to advertise my survey, which will make my life easier in the long run.

So now all I have to do is book my trip home. Right now I'm thinking about coming back towards the end of April. I'll know better after the weekend.

Moving House

This has been an interesting week. Over the weekend I decided that I can't afford to continue paying what I'm paying in rent, let alone pay more. So on Monday I told Kirsty that I would be moving out as of the end of February. I set up a profile online to find a new sharehouse and started contacting people. I heard back from a good number of those people and set up times to view places. On Wednesday I had my first viewing, and although the place is really small, I quite liked it and the area it's in. The guy living there said I could have the room if I wanted it and I said I'd let him know by Monday as I had some more places lined up to see.

On Thursday morning Kirsty and I talked again about the housing situation and she said that she doesn't want to stay here either and pay the higher rent, since we actually don't have a leg to stand on in fighting the increase. (Our new oven and stove top, while electric, are a good brand. We looked it up online it the landlord spent about $2600 on them. We'll be sending cookies. We've come to realize that while the landlord is pushy and has boundary issues, he's not completely evil.)

So today we are going to go and look at some rental properties and see if we can continue to live together. The most likely bet is that we'll get a 3 bedroom place and bring in a 3rd person. We still have to figure out if we are going to give notice on this place at the end of the month and take a leap of faith or wait until we have something lined up.

I'm still looking at the sharehouses that I had already agreed to see. I looked at a place yesterday but it wasn't a good fit. I've got 2 more places lined up to see on Saturday. It's possible that within a week of having decided to move out, I may have the who what when where and how sorted out. At the very least I'll have the who and when figured out.

Happy New Year!

And just like that 2008 comes to an end. It still feels like just yesterday that I was packing up my life in Calgary to move out here. I guess that old saying "time flies when you're having fun" has some truth to it.

This year, instead of spending Chirstmas at home with my family in the dead of winter I stayed in Melbourne and spent Christmas with one of the women from my campus, Sue, and her family. It was a really nice way to spend Christmas. I took the train out to her place in Frankston, which was about an hour and half from my place and got there in time to see her grandkids open their Christmas presents. It was great to watch their reactions to all the different presents. Her grandson, Thomas, reminded me a lot of a young Patrick. The rest of the day consisted of lots of food, TV, and good conversation.

I spent the night at Sue's place and then in the morning me, Sue, and her daughter Naomi hit up the Boxing Day sales. After a day of shopping and relaxing I headed back home. It was really nice to be welcomed into Sue's home for Christmas and spend it with her family. It definitely made being away from home a lot easier.

As some of you know, my housing situaton has been a bit up in the air lately. Well our landlord has decided to up our rent, but we have a good case to fight against the increase, so that's what we're going to do. We thought about moving for awhile, but have ultimately decided that we've got a good place here, and we're not going to give it up because of our crappy landlord.

Worst case scenario is that our landlord does give us notice to vacate and we have 3 months to find a new place. The rental market has slowed down, so that's doable. And if for some reason we can't find a place in that time, we can stay with Kirsty's partner until we do find something.

I had been kind of hoping that we'd move into a new place, but when I reflected on why what I realized was that I haven't put a lot of effort into making my current place feel like home. I've had ideas and plans, but mostly they haven't gone anywhere. So today I decided to do something about that and I have started to redecorate my room. Normally when I move into a place I cover the walls with postcards from around the world. My walls here are still largely bare...and a horrible peach colour. So starting today, I guess you could say it's my new years resolution, I am turning drab into fab.