The big item for February is that Ross and I moved apartments. We are now in Windsor rather than St Kilda. For those of you who are not familiar with Melbourne, we moved about 3 miles northeast of where we had been living. We are still firmly in the greater Melbourne area but we're not next to the beach or the penguins any more. We are right down the street from our favourite art-house movie theatre though, so that's a plus.
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| Flowers on Phillip Island |
The main impetus for the move was Ross's commute. From where we were in St. Kilda, it took him 1.5 hours, on a good day, to get to the Monash University campus. From where we are now in Windsor, it's closer to 1/2 hour on a good day. My commute time has gotten a bit longer, going from 30 minutes to 45-50 minutes. It's all down to trams, trains and transfers. When I bike, which I do most of the time, it's only about 10 minutes longer than it was from St Kilda and I get to ride by Albert Lake, so it's not too bad.
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| Living room, plus we're finally using our rug from Morocco! |
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| Dining room and balcony (out the giant window) |
We're also excited to say that we have a two-bedroom apartment and we finally have a/c! The second bedroom is nice because now people can stay with us when they visit rather than being relegated to an AirBnb or the floor/couch. And a/c is basically a must when you live someplace that is regularly in the 30-40 C range (90 F to 115 F) for 6+ months of the year, though this summer hasn't been as bad (i.e. hot) as the previous two. Our last apartment didn't have a/c and, let me tell you, there were some pretty miserable days and nights sitting in front of the fan, slowing melting into a pool of misery and sweat. So much sweat.
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| Park by our new apartment |
Besides moving this month, we haven't done a whole lot. Turns out moving takes a lot of time and energy. Plus it's terrible. It took us two and a half weeks to get our internet up and working in the new apartment which seems pretty standard in this part of the world. I really don't know what the issue with internet here is, but it is a pain. The last apartment that we lived in, it took me a month to get the internet working and I think that it was about the same with the apartment where we lived in New Zealand.
I also spent a weekend down on Phillip Island with my knitting group. I don't know if I've talked about the group much but it is called the Melbourne Drunken Knitwits and it is fabulous. We meet up at pubs around the city every Thursday to knit, drink, chat and try out the various pub food. It's pretty awesome.
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| Churchill Island |
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| Saturday morning run views heading from Churchill Island back to our AirBnb on Phillip Island |
Anyway, for our Summer Retreat, we rented a big house in Cape Woolamai, which is on the east side of Phillip Island. It was a very relaxing weekend with tons of good food, good laughs and a decent amount of knitting thrown in for good measure. This was my second time to Phillip Island - Ross and I went for a weekend in 2018 but we stayed in Cowes, which is located on the north side of the island. If you happen to be visiting Ross and I, or Melbourne in general, Phillip Island is a good, calm weekend away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
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| So much knitting |
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| Beach weather on Phillip Island |
I came back to Melbourne a bit early from the knitting extravaganza because Ross and I had tickets to a Tool concert last Sunday night. They are one of Ross's favourite bands so we definitely couldn't miss them if they came all of the way to Australia. The venue that we were in was absolutely packed. The opening act was not great but Tool put on a pretty incredible show. Definitely repeatable.
To wrap up the month, Ross and I both competed in the Melbourne Corporate Triathlon. It was a baby tri - 400 metre swim, 10 km bike ride and 4 km run. This is my third year competing in the Corporate Triathlon but my first time attempting the entire event. Since it's designed for the corporate crowd, you are either on a team of three where each person completes the entire triathlon or you're on a team of three where each person does one leg of the triathlon. The previous two years I have done the running leg for my team. I had thought that signing up for the event back in December would motivate me to train, but it didn't at all. I was fine with the bike and run legs but I had a bit of a panic attack in the water and ended up getting pulled out by the lifeguard. I got to hang out at the first aid station for a bit and then head off on my merry way. Definitely not an ideal first triathlon experience, but it made me realise that I should probably take some swim lessons and, I don't know, actually train for it next year. Ross was also struggling a little bit (it was his first tri too) but he did the whole thing and didn't dislocate his shoulder, which is always a plus.
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| The motley PJRA triathlon crew this year post race. |
We're going backpacking for a week in Tasmania in the middle of March (doing the Overland Track), so the next blog will be more adventurous and have significantly better pictures. All the best until next time!
