As March Goes Marching By

Apologies for the long delay in posting! I was incredibly busy with my proposal and moving house in February, and have been dealing with the aftermath of those things for most of March. That makes it sound like things are bad, which they aren't.

My proposal was a sucess, sort of. My theory and critique of the literature wowed and amazed my colleagues, but my methodology sparked a rather heated debate amongst my panel, the result of which was that I had to change it. That happened at the beginning of the month and I have been working to figure out how best to go about doing some very complicated and multifascited research. Yesterday I emailed my supervisors my proposed methodology...the response to which was "let's meet on Monday." Everyone is very busy with the IASSCS conference only a couple weeks away, so that is an understandable response, though I would have appreciated some inkling about if they were happy with my justification or not. I suppose I could just ask them. At any rate, I know what I want to do and why I want to do it and why it is the best way to go about doing my research, and I'm not taking no for an answer.

I am all moved in and settled into my new place and really enjoying it. It's a lot smaller than my previous place, but the layout of the place is a lot more practical. I was worried my new housemae and I would be on top of one another, but that hasn't been an issue, other than when we both try to make breakfast at the same time, but we manage. Living with a boy has been, well, different. It's definitely taken some adjusting. On the whole though I am enjoying the change. We have very different outlooks on the world, and I'm enjoying challenging his views. ;) I make up for it in baked goods and coffee and that seems to be an exceptable balance.

I can still hardly believe that I'll be back in Calgary in just over 2 weeks. I'm looking forward to catching up with friends and family again, and I'm really looking forward to my vacation from my vacation in Hawaii! To be honest, I have mixed feelings about returning to Calgary and I am glad that it is just for a visit. I don't ever plan to live there again as living there always made me deeply unhappy. I don't consider Calgary to be home anymore -- Melbourne is my home. But Calgary is where I am from, and will always be a part of who I am and I'm not interested in denying that.

Up In Smoke

If you've been keeping tabs on what's happening in Victoria right now then you know that the state is largely on fire. The death toll from the fires has reached 35 and is expected to rise. I'm posting some links to news clips of the damage. When you see the helicopters dropping water on the fire, the scale of it looks like someone is pouring a glass of water onto a burning house.

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-au&brand=ninemsn&vid=a4940727-deea-492a-826f-296ed34fccb0&from=imbot_en-au_general&fg=rss

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-au&brand=ninemsn&vid=a4940727-deea-492a-826f-296ed34fccb0&from=imbot_en-au_general&fg=rss

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-au&brand=ninemsn&vid=a4940727-deea-492a-826f-296ed34fccb0&from=imbot_en-au_general&fg=rss

My power went out earlier and Kirsty, who volunteers in the fire department, said that across the state the power lines were burning down. My power was out for about an hour and a half so I figure that they're cutting power in rotating grids again to prevent a state-wide blackout. They had to do that during the heatwave last week.

We've gotten some rain today and the humidity has gone up (thought, yesterday there was virtually no humidity in the air so I suppose going up isn't a big ask). I witnessed a few dust storms yesterday while out with my new housemate picking up some of my new furniture. I talked him out of washing his car yesterday, which he thanked me for today as it was completely spattered with dirt from the wind last night.

Speaking of new housemates and furniture, I'm set to officially move on the 27th and have just about got myself sorted out for new furniture. The room is smaller than my current one so I'm getting furniture to better fit that space. My proposal is still set for Feb 25th and I've got lots of work to do on that still. I was hoping to get more done this weekend, but with the heatwave yesterday and the blackout today I've put study aside.

Finally, I've got all my flights booked for my trip back to Calgary, which is happening in April. I'll be back for a month, which is pretty exciting news. I managed to get ridiculously cheap flights, saving about $1000 in airfare. I'm glad I spent so long researching different options. I'm flying on Qantas from Melbourne to LA, and I was a bit suspect of flying with them, but I've actually been incredibly impressed with their website and service. I just hope my flight wasn't so cheap because of all the outsourced labour! At any rate, I expect to arrive back in Calgary in a couple of months, more or less in one piece. ;)

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.

School's Out For Summer!

Okay, so maybe school technically isn't out, and maybe the weather we've been having is closer to winter weather than summer weather, but still! I'm done!

On Monday I had my practice proposal. I had been losing sleep for the past month or so over this presentation, and last weekend I was pretty much locked indoors, glued to the computer, pulling it all together (well, that and it was raining and cold, so going out wasn't all that appealing anyways). All the hard work and lack of social life paid off though -- my presentation went great! Everyone was really impressed and excited about the direction I'm going in, and I got lots of great feedback from people too.

My actual panel presentation is scheduled for the end of February. It's probably more time than I need, but as Gary, one of the professors here, was pointing out, that gives me time to work on my ethics application. And, if I do get accepted to the IASSCS conference, I'll have to write a paper for that as well.

Having passed through the first of a series of hurdles to get my research off the ground, I have decided to take a mental break. With the pressure of a looming deadline off, I quickly realized that I really do need a bit of brain rest, and that if I start up now with the readings and making changes to my proposal, that I'll get right back into the cycle and push myself through the Christmas break. So, since my campus is closing next week for the holidays anyways, I have decided to just not do any uni work until after Christmas.

Instead I have been catching up on my RA job, catching up with friends, and catching up on sleep. I've also got some catching up on Christmas preparations to do. I am going to treat myself to a couple of luxuries I've been putting off as well -- like getting a haircut and checking out the new cheap bookstore near my tram stop. Over the holidays I'm just looking forward to being able to get out and explore more of Melbourne without having that lingering guilty feeling that I really should be finishing that book or typing up my notes or whatever.

The other thing I now have time to do is house hunt! No, I'm not buying a place, I haven't suddenly won the lottery. My housemate and I are looking for a new place to rent as our landlord has taken to devaluing our place and upping the rent. And, despite my love for northern Melbourne, I have agreed to moving south of the Yarra. So today we're heading out into the southern suburbs to check out a couple of houses.

It's funny, when I first moved here being near the city was so important to me. But now that I've been here nearly a year and have established myself, that has become much less important to me. I love my neighbourhood, and I love the next neighbourhood up even more. If we can find a good place in the same area we're currently living in, we'll stay. But so far we haven't found anything there that's a step up, or even sideways, just down.

Even if we do find something in our neck of the woods, it's actually more convenient for me to live in the south. Most of my friends live in the south, the group I go to on Thursday nights is in the south, and pretty much any activity I'd be interested in getting involved with in the future is probably going to be in the south. Everything seems to happen in the south. So as far as I'm concerned, right now, I'm happy to make the change.

Time Flies When It Matters

All of a sudden it's December and I'm 10 days away from the practice run of my proposal! My anxiety levels are pretty high right now. While everything does not need to be perfect, or complete, for the practice run of my proposal, I do actually need a theory section, a method section, and a powerpoint presentation. So while we are enjoying some lovely summer weather, I am hunkering down and getting to work. Any minute now.

I decided to take yesterday off and spent the afternoon wandering around Collingwood, something I told myself I'd do back when I first moved here. Yesterday we had really nice summer weather and I was very glad that I decided to go out and enjoy it, so any minute now I'll get back to work.

I had some visitors towards the end of November: Jeannine and Drew came out to Melbourne for a couple of days. It was really nice to see them, especially since it's been something like 5 years. I was happy to have people come out to my city and have a chance to show them around. Unforunately, they were only staying for a couple of days at the end of their vacation in Queensland, so we were limited in both time and energy. I took them up to Carlton and we had dinner at an Italian restaurant, then gellato as we headed back into the CBD. The next day we met up again and I got to show them a bit of the Queen Victoria Market, which is right across from my campus. Then we went on a couple of river cruises on the Yarra. It was a nice, relaxing way to spend the afternoon, but I didn't feel that the river cruises did Melbourne justice.

Well, I guess that's enough avoidance of my work for the time being. So I will leave you with this: a picture of the latest creature to set up house in our back yard.