The First 4+ Months
As we now have the internet in our apartment, I thought I would post some extracts from an email I sent out some time ago about me moving to Melbourne and how I've found things so far...
Pre-arrival
Mid-last year, I was offered positions at the Melbourne offices of several law firms. I ended up choosing a role in the banking and finance team of one of the biggest law firms in Australia (and the world). This is quite exciting as it means for more international work and perhaps one day the chance for a secondment to another office. The firm was great in helping me make such a smooth transition, and so I arrived a week or so before the Melbourne Cup, along with the other 649 Kiwis who depart permanently for Australia every week.
Arrival
Work generously put me up in a hotel around the corner from work until I found a place to live. Quite fortunately, a couple of fellow Kiwis were looking for a flatmate to fill a gap after the previous one moved in with his girlfriend, so I was in the right place at the right time to slot in. I am living in a suburb called East Melbourne, which is the suburb directly adjacent to the central city grid. It's very small, maybe 4-5 blocks square, and a 2 minute walk from the MCG (the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which I believe is the largest sports stadium in the world). We're in an apartment, which is very generous in size - 3 dbr, 2 bathrooms, huge living room and kitchen, massive outdoor courtyard (we are on the ground floor). Funnily enough, it's also only marginally more than I was paying back in Wellington (which some of you may recall was an absolute bargain). It seems that the cost of living over here is reasonably comparable to NZ, although the wages are higher. Hurrah!
Getting Set Up
The location of where I live is very ideal - I have a tramstop literally metres from our front door which that runs straight through the city to work. I have, however, started walking and biking in to work. On the bike I can zip in in about 6-8 minutes, and a leisurely stroll takes about 25-30 minutes. The walk is absolutely gorgeous, as our apartment backs on to the Fitzroy Gardens, which then turns into the Treasury Gardens, which turns into the top of Collins Street. This end is known as "The Paris End" of Collins Street, which is one of the main shopping areas in the city. It has this name because it has gorgeous old buildings on a tree-lined avenue, and it's full of top designer brand stores (LV, Armani, Versace, Mont Blanc, Chanel, Gucci, Ralph Lauren, etc etc). It's a great (and relaxing) way to start the morning and finish the day.
I have only just managed to finish unpacking, despite haveing come over with no furniture at all. For a long time, the only thing in my room was my bed. My wardrobe didn't even have a pole to hang clothes on! Thanks to Ikea, my room is now fully furnished, having bought a couple of huge bookshelves for all of my books which I unpacked just the other day. For the Ikea fans out there, my room probably looks like it's from their catalogue, as I have purchased the following from them: all my bedding/linen, 2x bookshelves, 2x DVD shelves, 1x table, 2x lamps, 6x potplants, 1x set of drawers, 1x rug, 3x drawers for the wardrobe, 1x mirror and 54x coathangers. Because I don't have a car here, I have been doing small trips to Ikea every other weekend, and carting what I can home with my two hands. Originally I was planning to collect the bookshelves, pop them on the tram and trundle home, as Ikea is only a couple of k's away by tram. That plan fell through when I went to fetch and discovered that the shelves were 40kg each - so I had to use the delivery service!!
Incidently, it's very difficult to get the internet set up over here. We tried before Xmas, and it's supposed to be installed today, 2.5 months later. Ridiculous. Once it's up and running, hopefully I'll be able to be in touch a bit more, as work access to email is very very limited (time limits, etc). [Update: it took us somewhere in the region of 4 months to finally get set up - that's disgraceful].
Work
Work is going really well. I have a great team, very supportive and friendly, and we don't usually work silly hours. I think I have only had to be in at work one Saturday the time I have been here. As you may expect, I have been doing a lot of banking/finance work, and it is a nice change to be working for the banks (rather than the borrowers, as the lenders generally call the shots). I have been doing a mix of commercial work to keep things interesting too, and am getting into an area involving counter-terrorism. Certainly the work is at a different level both in terms of quanta and complexity, and I have enjoyed this. I also have an office (rather than a cubicle which is what I was stuck in at my old work), which is great - it's a decent size and there's acoustic privacy which is sometimes appropriate when having confidential conversations.
Getting admitted over here was a breeze, so I can now add the Victorian and Australian Federal jurisdictions as ones to which I am admitted. Funny that there are certificates for those, yet in NZ I don't recall receiving anything aside from a Court Order upon being admitted as a barrister and solicitor.
We also have a work cricket team which plays in an inter-law firm competition (about 20 firms play). We have advanced through to the finals after being undefeated from 5 games, and are playing for the "Bolton v Stone Trophy". Lawyers amongst my recipients may recall that this is the case in which the plaintiff sued after being hit by a 6 by the Cheetham 2nd XI. [Update: we were beaten by a handful of runs in the final, which was very disappointing].
Work also has a good "social conscience" in that it is very active with promoting pro bono work and has a number of specific programmes in place. I attend a legal clinic on a regular basis, and have found that to be something very different that makes a big difference to others. A legal clinic is where people who can't normally afford to see a lawyer can come to discuss various legal issues they may be facing. While I have no experience in criminal or family law, a lot of issues require common sense and so I am developing a new batch of skills. It is very satisfying, and I really enjoy doing this. It is a completely different world to what I am used to when I normally go to work.
Life
It's never too boring over here, and there's always plenty to do. I'm in the habit of visiting the Victoria Markets in the weekends for fresh food (fruit, vegies, smallgoods, meat, seafood, etc), which is always nice to cook up and try new recipes with. I'm slowly getting into routine, which is nice. I play touch rugby for a couple of hours on Sundays with other Kiwis and the occassional Pom and South African, and have managed to get in lots of golf. I shipped my bike over as well. Melbourne is a fantastic city for cycling in - there are plenty of dedicated bike lanes, it's reasonably flat, and most importantly, the traffic is far more tolerant than what I was accustomed to back in NZ, so I have been doing a lot more cycling. Weather has been beautiful - it's probably rained about 5 days in the whole time I have been here. The weather is regularly in the 30's, and I'm slowly acclimatising to it. I'm even getting a nice tan!
In the last few months there has been plenty on...
- The Melbourne Cup was in full swing as I arrived, and for a month there were people dressed up and it was a great atmosphere.
- Boxing Day Sales: I spent a small fortune at David Jones and Myer, along with the other ten thousand people out there looking for bargains.
- Boxing Day Ashes Test: Friends came over to visit and I had tickets to the Boxing Day Test, where we saw 12 wickets fall on the first day, including Shane Warne's 700th.
- Commonwealth Bank Cricket: watched several games at the G - an amazing cricket ground and a wonderful atmosphere. I was there when they banned the Mexican wave - rather, tried to - it didn't really work.
- Yarra Valley: some more friends came over and visited, and we went out to the Yarra Valley with the intention of visiting half a dozen vineyards. We didn't get beyond the first one…
- Open Air Cinema: one of our clients sponsors this http://www.stgeorgeopenair.com
- Microbreweries Showpiece: about 30 microbreweries show their wares in Federation Square - you pay $20 for 20 tickets, which entitles you to 20 (rather generous) tastings of different beers.
- Australian Open: the Rod Laver Arena is literally next to the MCG, so it was a 30 second bike ride away from home. I wandered down there a few times after work as there are after 5pm passes for around $20 in the early stages. I didn't, however, see the brawl that broke out…
- Australian Grand Prix: this is on in a fortnight's time, so with another mate popping over that weekend, we'll aim to catch it.
- Melbourne Victory: our soccer team won the minor premiership and the competition after downing Adelaide at the Telstra Dome (which is about 2 blocks from work).
- And coming up in June, the Socceroos are playing Argentina at the MCG, for which I have my ticket.
- And also in June, the All Blacks play the Wallabies in the Bledisloe Cup.
- The other weekend was Labour Weekend and Caulfield Cup Autumn Carnival Race Day action, so that was a big day at the races, a good chance to get dressed up (dressing up, horses, booze, a deadly combination)!
- We recently had Melbourne Fashion Festival, enough said!
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