School's out!

You’ll be pleased to know that things are looking up in Perth… work is officially over for two whole weeks! After adding some finishing touches to my presentation for submission to my supervisor this morning, I had lunch with the team before wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and leaving the EaRN office for the last time in 2013. Before saying goodbye to my closest friends from the lab, I thought it’d be nice for everyone to come over to my place for a few beers, so Andy, Alex and I drove back to Peppermint Grove (via the bottle shop of course!). Getting a chance to chill out with the guys with a Rekorderlig was the perfect way to ease myself into the idea of a fortnight of freedom from thoughts of spinal cord slices, my impending literature review and other such neuroscience-related business. Breaking his long absence caused by him writing up a paper from home, Dr Ryan Doig himself showed up after a while, which meant we were just missing Marcus from our little team. No surprises there; Marcus is the lab posh boy/official flaky pastry and his last-minute decision to go to a boat party with his Claremont friends was in keeping with him bailing on the EaRN Christmas party earlier this month. He has just got a first class Honours degree, so I guess he can do pretty much whatever he wants. The four of us had a great time kicking back though; they’re all such great, easy-going guys and they’ve really made me feel welcome since I arrived almost 4 months ago (crikey!) We mostly ended up just having a laugh bitching about people in the department, but it was very cathartic either way.

Everyone had family to visit and places to be, so our little meeting was cut short, but it was great to spend time together outside the lab for once. With the tasks of packing and cleaning the house ahead of me tomorrow, I’m spending this evening glued to the sofa and getting into the Christmas spirit by watching Elf, one of my favourite Christmas movies. Bliss!

Blue, blue Christmas

When I got the offer to come to Australia for the duration of my placement year, one of the first things that came to mind (after OH MY GOODNESS THIS IS SO EXCITING) was the fact that I’d be escaping an English winter. At first, the thought of spending the festive season in the southern hemisphere felt like something of a novelty; trading in snow for sunshine, sledging for sandboarding and a roast for a BBQ all sounded pretty great. However, as the day creeps nearer, it’s time to face facts:

 It simply does not feel like Christmas.

As Michael Buble would say, it's beginning to look nothing like Christmas. I've been trying to identify the root of my lack of excitement. Considering the past couple of years have involved me finishing uni with weeks to spare and heading down to Cornwall for all the usual yuletide preparations and build-up, maybe the fact that I’m working right up until the 21st this year is partly responsible, like it's crept up on me. But it’s definitely not just that; the weather, for one, is not conducive to getting in the festive spirit. I can hardly snuggle up under a blanket of an evening when it’s 40 degrees! Instead, the screenings of Love Actually and The Holiday have been accompanied by an ice pack and a fan inches from my face: not so relaxing. Hot chocolate is also out of the question!

The strange feeling I’d been harbouring about this situation turned into a fully-fledged festive funk when I Facetimed Rachel and Chloe on Wednesday night. As I’ve mentioned before, my twin Chloe is on placement in Iowa, USA, whereas Rachel is battling through final year in Bath rather than doing a placement. Chloe flew home to the UK last weekend for the break and I have been intensely jealous of her being reunited with all our friends, but her recent journey to Exeter to see Rach tipped me over the edge. There were my two favourite girls on my computer screen, tucked up in bed and sharing plans to venture into the city together to check out the Christmas lights and bringing up a lot of warm feelings and a longing for familiar faces.

Probably the biggest contributor to my lack of Christmassy feeling, however, is living by myself at the moment. With uni done until February, Jess is back in Dunsborough for the foreseeable future, leaving me to fend for myself in the new pad. This is literally the first time in my life I’ve ever felt lonely and I’m not coping well at all. I’ve been hanging out with friends from work as much as I can and Ross when he’s not working up in the mines, but nothing can quite replace the walks in the park and evenings in front of rubbish TV with my parents and doggy that Christmas brings. Add to that the fact that my darling big brother Jordan and surrogate parents Jane & Dave, plus all three of my grandparents, are all going to be at our house on Christmas Day and I am absolutely pining for Cornwall.

I know what you’re all thinking: “Oh man up for goodness sake woman, it’s only a year” and I’m trying to look on the bright side, believe me. Here’s what I came up with. Most importantly, there’s only one day of work left in 2013! Tomorrow night, after life at EaRN is officially done for the year, a few friends from the office are coming over for a few drinks, which also eliminates the loneliness issue, if only temporarily. I’ll spend my weekend cleaning the house and packing my bags and the Billinghams have invited me over on Sunday evening for dinner and a dip in the pool; their daughter is coming over from New Zealand for Christmas and they want me to meet her. So cute! Then, on Monday, the real adventure begins! I’ll be hopping on a bus that takes me down to Dunsborough for an epic two-week holiday with the McKiernans, the Boundy brothers, Chloe and John. Festive feelings or not, there’s bound to be an abundance of good friends, trips to the beach and reminiscing about the Shire. And Eagle Bay Brewery cider. Every cloud, right?

Tonight, however, it’s just me, a packet of M&Ms and repeats of Friends…

Symphony in the City

Mere hours after the events of my last post, it was time for another musical experience of a distinctly more classical nature. I’m going to see the WA Symphony Orchestra perform the tunes of Pixar in April (I’m a big kid, I know), and this weekend marks the end of their 2013 performance season. They mark this event annually with a free concert in Langley Park on the beautiful Riverside Drive, the place where The Color Run was held last month. I thought this would be a good opportunity to (a) get a taste of things to come and (b) revisit the musical roots I haven’t had chance to indulge in since leaving the UK.

Walking down through the city to the riverbank, I could hear the hum of an audience preparing for a performance get slowly louder, but I was not expecting what was awaiting me as I turned the corner into the park. I thought it’d be a popular event, but the number of people on that stretch of grass was absolutely mind-blowing; besides the taped off walkways, you could not see a clear square foot of ground. At first I thought I might be in trouble for turning up too late and forced to find a spot right at the back, but being by oneself in these situations does have its perks; I fought my way into the front centre block and plonked myself down easily in a tiny spot between the picnicing groups. With only minutes before the start of the concert, I grabbed a coffee from a stall and returned to my little camp for a little packed picnic of my own.

Just as the sun started to set over the Swan, the annoucers took to the stage. The Lord Mayor of Perth said a few words before the presenter, some hotshot innacurately named Eddie Perfect, introduced the programme. The point of the concert was to cater to everyone’s taste, both regular visitors to the symphony and those at their first concert, and they certainly achieved that with a mix of classical masterpieces and film music. Here’s the programme:

Newman Twentieth Century Fox Fanfare

Williams Star Wars: Main Title

Wagner Die Meistersinger: Prelude

Verdi Aida: Triumphal March

Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet: Montagues and Capulets

Handel Messiah: Hallelujah Chorus

Gershwin An American in Paris

Shore The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Symphonic Suite)

Elgar Enigma Variations: Nimrod

Coates London Suite: Nightsbridge March

Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture

Watching close-ups of the players on the two big screens revealed the fact that, despite the clear difference in professionalism, there are the same stereotypes present here as in the Cornwall Youth Wind Orchestra or University of Bath Concert Band pit. No matter their skill, the bassoonist will always look like a constipated, bug-eyed frog while pelting out the bassline and the principle flautist will get “lost in the music” and gesticulate and sway madly while playing, much to the hilarity of the group of guys in front of me, who couldn’t watch him without cracking up. The main difference here compared to the ensembles I’m used to was of course the presence of strings. Normally, I’m not a huge fan, but I have to admit that they provide huge manpower and richness to certain pieces and the principle violin did an absolutely incredible job of the main theme from Schindler’s List, moving the soppy woman next to me to tears! There was also a chorus, which I am really not a fan of, no matter what they sing. There’s something about their huge open mouths and variety of shocked/happy expressions that just scream that conveying the emotional power of a piece should be left to the musicians. Sorry Nan.

There were a few instances where I was glad I was listening to these pieces in a crowd full of Australians, rather than the Poms. For example, there were no idiots to point out that the epic power of Montagues and Capulets is “that song from The Apprentice”. The conductor was English, so they finished up with some Elgar and Coates to celebrate his last concert. They played the official score from the first Lord of the Rings movie, which brought me out in goosebumps, but I still prefer the original Johan de Meij version (written for the books) that we did with CYWO a few years ago. My favourite piece by far was An American In Paris by Gershwin, one of my favourite composers. It reminded me that I really must nag Jake to let the Concert Band play my favourite piece of his, Rhapsody in Blue, next year. I watched the Cornwall Youth Orchestra perform it years ago and immediately had my sights on the gorgeously bluesy clarinet part, which I hope to be capable of with a little practice, despite not having played for months!

By the time Pomp and Circumstance was blasting out for the encore, I was about to miss my bus home and had to bail. More than the feeling of elation I always associate with experiencing a group of talented people come together to produce such beautiful sounds, I felt a pang of longing for sitting amongst it all. If first chair is still waiting for me when I get back to Bath, I can’t wait to get stuck into mastering some challenging pieces with Concert Band. I can’t wait to hear WASO play the gorgeous theme from Up! in April!

A double dose of Passenger

As another weekend arrives, I’m delighted to say that I have continued in my persuit of fulfilling musical dreams by seeing Passenger live. Over the last year, I have well and truly fallen in love with him and couldn’t wait to experience his amazing talent in the flesh on Friday night.

I knew I was in for a good day when a group of us at work decided to give Kebab Friday a go. I took some convincing, considering that getting a kebab back home only occurs during grease cravings after a particularly drunken night out; Mega Bite was our local establishment in Bath last year and I lost count of the number of times we stumbled through their door on the way home, armed with loose change to trade in for elephant leg, chips and chilli sauce. Gross. However, I was assured that kebabs in Australia are actually nice and Andy, Alex, Marissa, new girl German Jen and I visited a restaurant a short walk away from campus in Broadway Shopping Centre. I’m pleased to say that it was delightful.

After the culinary delights of lunch, I had a crack at performing some very confusing statistics on my calixarenes data, before accepting intellectual defeat and succombing to the weekend. Next on my to-do list was a trip to the International Beer Shop in West Leederville to take care of my secret Santa present. As I’ve mentioned, I’m heading down to Dunsborough next Monday for two weeks of Christmas and New Year fun with the McKiernans. Their parents, Terry and Maggs, are absolute legends and, being used to hosting various Cornish folk each festive season, have all sorts of yuletide treats planned for us all, including organising aforementioned secret Santa. There are seven of us “young folk” this year: Candice and Chris, Oli, Jess, Chloe and John (visiting from Cornwall) and myself. I’ve got Chris and, after much deliberation about what to buy a Cornish-turned-Aussie surfing builder, I decided on alcohol. No surprises there. The Beer Shop had an absolutely crazy selection of tipples and I eventually settled on a gift set of Chimay with the help of the guy behind the counter who, judging by his belly, was quite the expert.

After a quick shower to wash off the day (we’re currently experiencing the “first heatwave of the summer”, with it hitting 40 degrees every day this weekend), I hopped on the bus into the city with plenty of time to spare in order to find something to eat before the gig. Chloe Foreman, I hope you’ll feel my pain reading this; I found myself in my usual spinster situation as the one lone diner in a restaurant full of couples on romantic Friday night dates. I need you over here; lesbian is preferable to lonely singleton! Either way, Grill’d served up a splendid Moroccan lamb burger and their healthier cooking process removed some of the guilt piled on by my lunchtime kebab. A short walk through the district of fancy bars teeming with the usual cohort of grotesquely drunk businessmen and I found myself at the entrance to Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre. I’d never been inside before and the place is huge and very modern with all sorts of functions going on. A little early to be allowed into the Riverside Theatre, I killed time people watching/admiring the outfits of the women on their way to some big corporate ball.

When we were allowed to our seats, I made my way in, cider in hand, and was instantly surprised at the beauty and size of the theatre. I was seated a little left of centre and near the front; looking back at the huge expanse of seats behind me, I’m glad I booked when I did! Passenger’s opening act was Stu Larsen, a Kiwi guy he’s been touring with for years. He’s incredible and one thing that always gets my goat with audiences is how they talk the whole way through the support act’s set and sometimes didn’t even clap him. Poor show, people of Perth. I like him almost as much as Passenger himself and couldn’t get enough of him!

Stu finished up and the crowd went absolutely mental as Passenger took to the stage. He was, of course, completely sublime. He is so funny and really should be known as an entertainer as much as he is a musician, putting the audience in stitches between songs. He got even funnier as he made his way through a tumbler of whisky planted next to the microphone! The gig in Perth was the last of his crazy two-year world tour and must have been pretty special for him; he told the story of how he spent the day before ‘Let Her Go’ catapulted him to stardom busking in Fremantle to about 10 people, so it’s pretty poetic that it all came full-circle in WA. My only regret was that he didn’t play a lot of his older stuff, which I much prefer to his current album, but when you’ve got a thousand teenage girls screaming for the current favourites I guess there’s not much you can do. What a shock it must be for him to go so quickly from people walking past you in the street to a whole stadium singing along to your songs! The concert finished at 10:30, just in time for me to catch the last bus back to Peppie Grove and fall into bed, pretty chuffed about being in such close promixity to one of my heroes.

I woke up late this morning and had just settled down on the sofa in my pjs for a morning of cheering on the Poms at the WACA, when I happened to check Passenger’s Twitter out of curiosity. To the delight of the groupie inside me, he was planning on busking in Freo before flying back to the UK. With less than an hour to spare, I had the quickest shower of my life, coated myself in sun cream and bolted out the door, bound for Cottesloe station. A quick train ride later and I was exploring the maze that is the streets of Fremantle, following the cheers to the very pretty King’s Square. The man himself was set up under a tree, surrounded by a crowd of only about a hundred people, so I plonked myself down on the grass and instantly absorbed by the more intimate setting. With the screaming girls removed from the equation, his old songs came out in force, the emotion in them making a much stronger impact. About halfway through, I felt someone settle himself on the grass next to me and turned to be faced with the unmistakeable straw hat, blonde hair and ginger beard of Stu Larsen. No one paid him a shred of attention without a guitar in his hands and, as I stared at him in disbelief, he said hi and seemed pretty surprised that anyone had recognised him at all. I spent the rest of Passenger’s set in my very own personal heaven, chatting to Stu about music and touring and our backgrounds and hopes and dreams; you know, all the usual stuff! Surreal, but amazing.

Before I knew it, the set was over and Passenger and Stu were being herded into the van to catch their plane back to England. For something that didn’t cost me a cent, my Freo encounter with Passenger far out-classed his official gig. Stu Larsen saying it was good to meet me = Life complete.

Jack Johnson

For me, there is no better way to spend Saturday night than curled up on a blanket, beer in hand, watching one of your favourite artists of all time. I’ve been lucky enough to see Jack twice before, both in Cornwall; in 2008 in a very rainy field at Newquay’s Watergate Bay and in 2010 at the iconic Eden Project. Despite him not doing too much new stuff since then, I’ve grown up with his music and I adore everything he’s ever written, so jumped at the chance to see him play in Australia. The gig in the beautiful Kings Park sold out in a day, demonstrating how well loved he is over here, and it seemed the perfect venue to soak up his chilled-out tunes.

In preparation for an evening in the great outdoors, I spent my morning hibernating on the sofa in front of the second Ashes Test, which turned out to be a rather depressing affair. The last thing I want is for England to lose the series (looking increasingly likely), because I will be constantly reminded of how useless we are by all the smug Aussies at work. After suffering a terrible fate of being knocked off my head and into the river when we were sailing a few weeks ago, my sunglasses needed replacing, so I hopped on the bus to Claremont Quarter for a little morning retail therapy. Claremont is pretty much the richest suburb in Perth and I felt positively dirty cruising around in my trainers and backpack amongst all the yummy mummies in their designer clothes! I also had to go into work briefly to treat my cells, so I caught the bus the rest of the way to uni and took care of that before walking the couple of kilometres to one of the footpaths into Kings. One thing I didn’t factor into my plan was the sheer size of the park; it’s the biggest inner-city park in the southern hemisphere and the concert venue was on the east side, whereas I entered on the west side (near the uni); nothing like an unexpected long walk uphill in 35 degree heat through the bush to work up your appetite! I eventually emerged from the wilderness at the Pioneer Women’s Memorial, a huge, grassy auditorium where everything was already fenced off and set up for the gig. With a couple of hours to spare before gates opened, I took the opportunity to wander around and soak up the sights for the first time; the DNA tower, Botanic Garden, War Memorial and viewing platform were incredible and it made me wonder why I hadn’t explored it properly before! I grabbed a sandwich from the café and enjoyed lunch under the trees before making my way over to the venue, where I was pretty much front of the line.

Soon there was a hefty queue forming and they let us in to set up camp in front of the stage. The whole venue was sweeping grass planes, apart from the deck, which was set up over a huge lake directly in front of the stage. Luckily it wasn’t a gig that warranted a lot of jumping around, otherwise I’m sure we would have all ended up in the water with the ducks. During the support acts, I lay on a rug on the grass; the gig began with local Perth girl Grace Woodroofe, who is just starting out but had a very pleasing Hannah Reid (from London Grammar) vibe about her voice. Next up was Paula Fuga, a large Hawaiian lady with a ukelele and possibly the nicest female voice I’ve ever heard; the traditional Hawaiian melodies are so beautiful, especially in the native language. John Cruz, another Hawaiian who reminded me of a Native American chief with his long hair, took us through to the big headliner and I wandered up to the stalls during his set. Jack Johnson’s concerts are always focussed on being environmentally friendly and I did my three green deeds to enter the competition to win a signed ukelele, but unfortunately didn’t win. I also made an obligatory trip to the merchandise tent, then bought a couple of beers and a bowl of chilli nachos to munch on. It was a little bit weird being at a gig by myself, but tickets were sold out before any of my friends could get involved and, besides, it did provide the ultimate chill-out atmosphere.

As John Cruz played his last song, I packed up my little camp and moved down to the deck to get as close to Jack as possible. I was only two rows back and could easily see over the heads of the girls in front of me (not being racist, but there are merits to there being so many Asians in Perth!). Just as the sun went down, out rolled Jack with just a guitar to deafening applause. He played a few acoustic favourites, before welcoming out his band. I was delighted to see his old friend Zach Gill on stage with him, who I like almost as much as Jack himself for his terrible hair, farmer’s cap and incredible range of talent on the piano, accordian, vibes and, my personal favourite, the melodica. His voice is also amazing and he stands on various items of furniture while playing solos. He called Paula Fuga and John Cruz back out for a few tunes, but mainly played a mixture of his old classics and newer songs; the thing I love more than anything about gigs is so many different people all singing along to the same song; it always gives me goosebumps.

The highlight of my evening, however, was when they started asking for song requests; I immediately screamed out “Girl I Wanna Lay You Down!”, a duet him and Zach did at Watergate that began with him asking parents to cover their kids ears; it wasn’t that rude, just hilarious and clever and awesome. Considering half the audience was probably shouting a song title or just screaming, imagine my surprise when he looks directly at me with a look of disbelief and says “Sorry, say that again?” so I did; he smiled, looked and Zach and they played it. They actually played a song that I asked for. I guess he was mostly surprised to be faced with such a die-hard fan, seeing as that song isn’t very well known and only on a special edition album. Needless to say, it was one of the best moments of my life to date! I was a bit scared for my life afterwards, when a group of Brazilian girls who’d spent the entire time screaming their undying love for him at the top of their lungs (to the pain and disgust of everyone nearby) started shooting me “I kill you” looks, but I was too elated to care. They weren't the only pain in the arse in the crowd; some douche got pulled out for pushing everyone around like he was listening to Skrillex and this incredibly tall woman who absolutely stank of weed pushed in front of me at one point. Luckily, stoned people are awfully friendly and she happily swapped with me when I asked her nicely :)

Before I knew it, he’d left the stage for good (after returning for an encore to the most deafening screams I’ve ever heard) and it was time to negotiate getting home. I decided against going back the way I’d come through the bush, which would be pitch black, and instead took the exit into the city, where I figured having to get a longer bus was worth not being murdered/eaten by snakes. I just about made it through the door before the long day of trekking up hills and being outdoors forced me to crash out on my bed for a good ten hours. My Sunday has so far consisted of a major lie-in and catching up on England’s dismal situation in Adelaide before getting back to the grindstone tomorrow. To continue my month of music heaven, I’m seeing the one and only Passenger on Friday and may go as far as to say that I’m even more excited for seeing Mr Rosenberg that I was to see Mr Johnson.

In the words of the mental Brazilian chicks, “Me love you Jack!”

EaRN Christmas party

This afternoon at work, the Experimental and Regenerative Neuroscience team did a staff Christmas party the only way the Australians know how: by throwing a shrimp on the barbie! A Thursday night of a fancy dinner in the city accompanied by a bucket of red wine, followed by a rather widespread exploration of Lafayette’s cocktail menu for good measure, meant that I was nursing a monster of a hangover this morning, so I slept in and ditched the bike for the bus. Luckily, I only had a few media changes and a light treatment to attend to, so rocking up at 10:30 allowed me to finish my week’s work in time to down tools at midday.

A few weeks back, Marissa (resident hilarious crazy woman) asked us all for some cash and in return organised the whole culinary situation, which was perfect. With our numbers significantly reduced (Marcus and Tamasin have flown the nest after finishing honours, Alex is down south on holiday, Andrew and Kalina have gone to Europe for the break and Andy was presenting at a symposium and going to be late), it took us a fair few trips to cart all the food and drink from the lab to our chosen spot across the road; a patch of grass under the trees by the river. The barbecue was fired up in no time and I decided a hair of the dog approach was necessary, so ventured over to the coolbox containing the booze. For the amount of cash that Marissa gave him, Andy did incredibly well in obtaining a huge array of alcoholic beverages; the polystyrene boxes and dry ice from tissue culture came in useful for something interesting for once! There was a lot of wonderful food and even crackers, which felt a bit weird with it being hot but hey, Christmas is Christmas.

A few bottles of cider inside us and Alexia and I were ready for causing some mischief. We ditched our shoes and waded out to the ladder onto a little jetty in the river, wandered down to the end and lay in the sun with our bottles; she’s such a little Russian babe and the closest girlfriend I’ve got at work now Tamasin’s left me for the outside world! Back at the shore, it was great to chat to people I don’t normally get the chance to. Jenny, one of the other supervisors, studied at Bath 20 odd years ago and it turns out some of the old fossils who lecture me were around back when she was an undergrad! Carole retained her role of lab Mummy and looked after us all with her delectable boozy desserts; that woman continues to go up even further in my estimations. In a similar fashion to Melbourne Cup day las month, Lindy was knocking back the bubbly and she’s so cool when she’s had a drink! Her and her family head off on a round-the-world cruise for 5 weeks this weekend, so I have a feeling it’ll be a slight case of “while the cat’s away” in our contingent of the lab… With some of our other colleagues, however, seeing them in a social situation is just plain weird. Sort of like seeing teachers in the supermarket.

I was just thinking that it felt like someone was missing from the party when Ryan appeared. Ryan is Lindy’s PhD student and the one who’s taught me pretty much everything I know, seeing as Lindy’s so busy, and he’s become one of my best Aussie mates. Tales of his hectic life always amuse me; he was late because a gunman was on the loose near his house and he had to wait around while his little brother’s school was on lockdown and check that he didn’t get murdered. As you do! By this point a lot of people were either returning to work (they must have something wrong with them) or carrying on the party inside, so Ryan and I grabbed some munchies and a few beers and crashed out on the grass for a catch up. The high abundance of ducks reminded me so much of Bath and I spent a moment picturing its chilly streets and Christmas markets with a tinge of sadness. It’s a good job Ryan was around to distract me from missing home; we basically ended up laughing about the funny ways of some of the more eccentric members of the lab, but it was nice to have him around following his absence over the past few weeks while he moved house. Turns out we only live five minutes apart now, so we’ve vowed to meet up and cycle to work together in a bid to keep fit/motivate each other.

Back in the office, all the leftover food and drink was set up on the mealroom table, so we tucked into mince pies and continued drinking with the more hardy of the bunch that were still around. Considering he’d provided us with all these alcoholic delights, a group of us were determined to hang around until Andy returned from his symposium. He eventually rocked up and we had a merry old time, coming to the conclusion that we’re actually quite good fun and should definitely go out together more often. By 5pm, I was majorly flagging and Ryan dropped me home to wallow in my hangover with gallons of tea and Magic Mike. Most of which I watched with my mouth open. Putting Channing Tatum and Matthew McConaughey in the same film should be illegal!

The big move

After three months of life in the apartment in South Perth, the time has finally come to fly the nest and shack up with Jess in Peppermint Grove for the remainder of my Australian stay. The Billinghams have become my temporary parents and Prachie my sister, so leaving their care is going to be pretty hard, but I'm too excited about moving in with the lovely Miss McKiernan to worry about it too much.

My two Perth homes are very different and each has its benefits. My daily bike ride to work is definitely something to consider; my cycle thus far has been on safe trails the entire way and only 5km, whereas Peppermint Grove is a little further away from UWA and requires me to ride along the highway for the first couple of kilometres before heading through the suburbs. I can only hope that Australian commuters are less angry and fonder of cyclists than those in England, else I'll be spending half my ride being rammed off the road. On the bright side, I'll be swapping the nearness of the city for being within walking distance of Cottesloe beach (perfect for post-work sunbathing sessions) and there'll be direct trains to both the city centre and Fremantle if needs be. It goes without saying that I'll miss having all my meals cooked for me, but I'm used to cooking for myself when I'm in Bath and I've been promised regular invites to South Perth for dinner! I’ve also been eating far too much with the Billinghams, so it’s time to take control of my diet. Above all, I'm so excited about the prospect of living with Jess and having a little more eventful social life, not that I haven't enjoyed our evenings of playing cards and watching Lost reruns!

The move also draws attention to the fact that, as of this weekend, I've been down under for three whole months. With a third of my placement already under my belt, it's safe to say that time is absolutely flying by and I know I need to make the most of the time I have left, as I'll be home before I know it. Not that I'm not looking forward to being back with my family and friends of course, I just want to stay true to my word and do as much as possible while I'm over here. There are still a lot of exciting things to look forward to before I return to rainy old England! I spent Friday and Saturday gathering my belongings, realising during this process that I appear to have accumulated loads of stuff since arriving. Sending home a box of clothes via post/purchasing an extra bag at the airport may be necessary by the time June comes around.

This morning (Sunday), I was treated to a slap-up breakfast and packed a few last things; turns out a Greek couple are moving into my room this afternoon, so they’re not hanging around to replace me! I said goodbye to Prachie, who gave me a little friendship bracelet as a leaving present (she is adorable) and Vic and I piled all my stuff into her car. My bike wouldn’t fit in the boot, but John saved the day and rode it over to Peppermint Grove to save me exerting myself on such a busy day. By the time us girls got our act together and pulled up outside my new place, John was already there. They helped me inside with my bags, we had a hug, I thanked them for everything they’ve done for me and they left me to settle in with Jess, who had come up from Dunsborough especially to help me move in; such a star! I dumped my stuff in my new room, but unpacking would have to wait until we got the shopping out of the way.

Call me sad, but one of the best things about moving to a new place is the obligatory trip to IKEA. Sian left me a bed, desk and clothes rail and I didn’t want to go buying lots of things for the sake of just six months, but the need for some hangers and various items of storage gave Jess and I an excuse to enter the realm of cheap Swedish furniture and run amuck “500 Days of Summer” style. I’ve decided that I want a house of my own ASAP, just so I can deck it out entirely with stuff from that glorious place. Sadly, we found no Fluugs and resisted the Fnastig, but we did purchase a Skubb and several Sakis. I could have spent all day in there if the place wasn’t filled with screaming kids… From there, it was on to Clarement Quarter to do a food shop; basically my least favourite job ever. However, it was reasonably quick and painless; Jess directed me around Coles to everything I wanted with excellent efficiency and we were back in the car bound for Peppie Grove by 1:30.

Back at home, I went about unpacking and making my room homely while Jess eleviated the task by bringing me tea and chatting to me. We are basically a married couple already with our designated drawers in the bathroom and I’m very glad to see that she shares my love of organisation; the flat is so pretty and tastefully decorated. I managed to get the Dongle working (going back to the 90s as there’s no phone line or Wifi here) and have spent this afternoon reading my book on the sofa and listening to Ben Howard; bliss! Jess is heading home in the morning, so I’ll be left to fend for myself for a few weeks until I head down south for Christmas; she updated me on all the plans for the break and I’m feeling pretty excited about escaping the city for two whole weeks! Her parents have organised a Secret Santa for all us “young ones”, which is pretty cute; any advice on what the eldest Boundy boy would want for Christmas would be greatly appreciated. Tomorrow morning is my first attempt at negotiating the death trap that is Stirling Highway on my bike… wish me luck!