33 | "The Most Liveable City In The World"

After spending almost 7 weeks outside a major city, it was nice to see the skyline of Melbourne greet us on our way in from the airport. This time however it was a lot more familiar and knowing where to navigate from the train station to the hostel was a huge bonus as somehow I had managed to acquire more weight in my bag (or waist).

It was business time. No more sight seeing to do in mainland Australia now, just keep my head down, stay busy and earn some cash. How simple it seems on paper but yet it turned out to be more difficult than I envisaged (especially in the summer months). The first few days involved pouring through all the online job recruitment platforms to find suitable work. A large number of jobs stated they did not hire people on a working holiday visa, which was a moral blow, however I continued on enthusiastically. Within two weeks I had got a role in door-to-door sales working for an energy company.

The first day I walked through the door to hear an echo of loud music booming down the stairway. The site I saw when I entered the room is one I can only describe as a scene out of the Wolf of Wall Street. People were dancing around; others were sales pitching to each other at the tops of their voices, mayhem! It was like walking into the set of ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’. A voice cried out “rep’s over here”.

We were given a basic introduction to our pitch on how to handle objections and what body language we should use. The 2 hour session finished with a results board announcement from the previous days work from each team then a ridiculous chant we were obliged to cry out in a 30 man circle whilst dancing around with linked arms. I have never seen anything like it. Mystified rather than motivated I headed out of the entrance to our van where we upload the maps for the day then grab a 15 minute lunch.

Our destination was Cranbourne, an outer eastern suburb which is covered every 6 months. After observing for a full day, it was a pretty disheartening job but at least the product was saving most people money on their bills. Day 2 and I was on my own, armed with an Ipad and no fake smile (I am too much of a realist for that) I set off knocking on my territory. One guy said to me watch out around here; there are 4 meth labs on the next block. Fantastic I thought, their energy bills must be high then. After a week of 12 hour days walking around in the Australian heat and finding out I would not be paid for the sales I made during the preliminary period and a $60 a day base wage ($5 hour!) that was the final straw. Another badly paid and unprofessional job in Australia; I am losing count.

Myself and Matt decided to go to the FAA Cup final between Melbourne City and Sydney. We were situated right next to the hooligans in the Sydney end who had no trouble becoming engaged in a slanging match with supporters all around us. The highlight of this non-historic event was when the Sydney right back connected perfectly with a seagull on the edge of the box which sent it down onto the canvass like George Groves. Wings spread and beak wide open he was definitely KO. The steward massaged him back to health on the side line before the tunnel camera caught a glimpse of him take off which received a roar from the crowd. 1 - 0 Melbourne City.

For NY eve we headed out to the Etihad stadium in the Docklands area where the event was a non-alcoholic area, yes I repeat non-alcoholic. There was a DJ booth setup right across from the arena which played very PG but good music for all ages. The event was surprisingly enjoyable with around 20000 gathered around the dock to witness the fireworks. 2017 is here and started with a 15-minute display to the backing tracks of Coldplay and Oasis. Great start! The post celebrations continued for another hour with the stage screen filled with shots of the crowd and many still trying to keep the ‘dab’ alive when the camera landed on them, tragic!

To see a Big Bash game at the MCG was a must see event on my travels. We had contemplated it for a while then decided to go to a Melbourne Stars game against the Adelaide Strikers. They have really managed to commercialize the game over here with KFC as the main sponsors who have fans wear bucket hats (family bucket meal) to promote their brand in exchange for someone to win free tickets. Could you imagine wearing a popcorn bucket on your head back home and thinking yeah, that’s the look I am going for. Kieran Pollard disappointed with 15 runs with the bat which pretty much summed up the Strikers season. Pieterson did not disappoint coming out and hitting boundaries all over. He maybe out off the England side but he sure has the quality still, what a player. It went down to a tense finish where the Stars hit 18 runs off the last over to secure the game. Well worth the $40.

The final sporting event I really wanted to see was the Australian Open tennis. One of the Grand Slam events on tour where all the best players head into town. We managed to get free admission for the final practice sessions on the outer courts where we watched players such as Nadal, Ferrer, Nishikori, and Gasquet play their final practice games and drills. It was fantastic for a sports enthusiast like myself to be stood literally court side in touching distance, seeing how quick they move about the court and the speed and accuracy they hit their shots with. We spent 6 hours out in the heat walking around the courts taking in the grandeur of the event before calling it a day. We arrived the next day to find out we were not allowed in because they were closed sessions. A 40 minute walk across the south bank wasted because of a scheduling error on the website. It was a shame however we saw most of the players we wanted to see the previous day.

One of the sight seeing must do’s which we overlooked last time in the city was seeing the Penguins out at the St Kilda pier. After a short tram ride away we arrived at 22:00 to a large group of people stood at the end of the pier silhouetted by the red light not to alarm the penguins. They carry out research with volunteers every night checking on the health of the population which is great for the conservation of the bay. Unfortunately I turned the Red eye filter on my phone which lit up this poor penguin like the Las Vegas strip which was responded to with a bellow of ‘flash off please’. Woops, sorry little guy. Undeterred, he walked straight across the path and down onto the rocks on the other side to catch his supper. The main attraction for me was a 1-foot rat which was swimming amongst the rock hunting for scraps and whatever he could find. It was fascinating to watch as he darted from rock pool to rock pool in a hurried fashion to find a bite to eat.

On one of the final days in our 6-week stay we went to Hopetown Tea Rooms where we had Fig cake and Raspberry cheesecake which were incredible with orange and mango infused tea. It was a very British afternoon and a very nice late Christmas present. Thanks Kristen!

Overall, I would describe my second stay in Melbourne as fulfilling on the sports side but incredibly frustrating on the lack of job opportunities. If you work in a trade job then there are plenty of avenues of work but for a person on a working holiday visa, there is little on offer. For the price of accommodation and rent I think it is high for what you get in return and I would not say in my view that it is the most livable city in the World for sure.

#City #Sport #Food #Work