A happy-go-lucky English rambler dude goes to New Zealand for a year. Here he interfaces with some of those he left behind and details his nefarious activities. Or summat.
Recently clicked on MP3s - 7th June 2005 The Lucksmiths - Warmer Corners
Jens Lekman - When i said i wanted to be your dog
The Trashcan Sinatras - Weightlifting
Teenage Fanclub - Man Made
Laura Veirs - Carbon Glacier
The Decemberists - Picaresque
The Eels - Blinking Lights
Time for an update on the day to day life of a poor immigrant in Melbourne.
It'd be nice to contine the high drama and excitement of all my previous posts, but life's settled down to a bit more of a routine these days, partly due to the fact i'm now working from home (making websites do stuff), and partly due to me being skint.
Fear not though, i'm keeping busy. My training for the Canberra Half marathon is in full swing, and i've now got a couple of fairly painful 15k runs under my belt - four laps around Melbourne's most popular running circuit, the 'Tan track'. Last night's was particularly harrowing. After 30C+ temperatures all day, i decided to leave the run till it got dark at about 7pm, like dozens of other people as it turned out. But temperatures must still have been over 20C even at that time, which combined with an overfast first lap, left me with the feeling that my head was internally microwaving itself for the next hour.
There was distraction provided during the run however, by the abundant wildlife around the botanical gardens. At night the trees there are alive with bats, parrots and possums chomping their way through as much fruit at possible. A few of the possums got particularly lairy at times, and attempted to join in with my run, before thinking better of it, and charging back up the nearest tree.
But it's not all running happily. There's plenty of free culture to be had around Melbourne, partly thanks to the ever excellent SBS telly channel, 3RRR community radio station, free Art galleries in Federation square, endless amounts of stencil graffiti and finally, courtesy of Megan's insider knowledge of the highly enjoyable Werribee Park Sculpture Competition we managed to get a slight discount on the price of entry today (I'd say more, but don't want to leave myself open to prosecution by irate sculptors).
I've made up for this however, by buying one of the exhibits, which is now installed in my flat, and in which I do 10 lengths every morning.
