F1 Grand prix, 'learning' and colder weather

This is Flinders Street station right in the heart of Melbourne
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Aloha!!

Hello people, yes its me, back again for another installment from Oz...........

As I write, the Melbourne area has moved from the tail end of summer and into Autumn. In predictible Australian style there was a defining day when you could actually notice the change, going from the second hottest night in victorian record (night time temperature didn't drop below 25 and was already nudging thirty at half five in the morning) and a daytime high temperature of 35, to the next night where the temp dropped to around ten with a daytime high of 24. This has been pretty much the trend ever since, and although we've still had some hot sun there is pretty much always a noticable chill in the air. All the hillsides, pastures and shrubland have gone from the dry, straw yellow colour that was everywhere when I arrived, to a lush green following the rain that has become sadly a little to common (I say sadly from my point of view because having just adjusted to the heat i'm now struggling with the cold!) The Aussies love it though because the rain has just broken the drought that has left Melbourne with just 60 days of water.

And just opposite Flinders Street is Federation Square
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The three weeks that have passed since I last wrote have been split between mind blowing experiences such as my first proper night out on the town in Melbourne, going to see the Australian Grand Prix, getting a car (not exactly mind blowing but makes life a bit easier) and sheer boredom, especially on the days where its grey, miserable and raining so hard that I actually wondered, due the massive lack of buoyancy of my Land Rover, whether rather than buying a car it would have been wiser to invest in a jet-ski.

This was the only picture where I managed to photo the car rather than thin air!
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Still, the boring days can be filled by 'learning' about wine. It is a happy coincidence that the most efficient way of 'learning' about wine is by drinking it and having the confidence to say what you think - again, another happy coincidence is that after a few hours of 'learning' your confidence is boosted to profound new levels, and the bar by which people judge what you say reduces considerably, almost to the point where you could stand and take a bow and do an encore, when after being asked "what do you think of the wine?" you reply "Its red. I think." Watch out wine critics, i'm going to be biting at your heals soon.................!!!!! Still, one has to accept that knowledge doesn't just cement itself into your head over night so i'm quite happy to play the long-game in this wine learning process.

The leaky Land Rover with a million light years on the clock!
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Anyway, so if looked at in this respect, all spare time is spent with 'learning' in mind but I have managed to escape into the city as well.........

Having been working six day weeks the general plan for your one day off has been pretty much to sleep (and maybe squeeze a little learning in as well) and recover from the hardships of winery life, but when I found out a few weeks ago that my day off was going to fall on the same day as the Australian Grand Prix I really felt that it would be rude not to haul my exhausted carcass off to Melbourne and try and get a ticket. It so happened that my boss also had the sunday off and said if I wanted to bed down at his, we could all go out as a group, get some dinner, hit a party, then go around a few bars. Having talked up my ability to work then clear all in my wake in the evenings, I agreed, painfully aware that as on many evenings after I had been working I would have a few drinks then promptly fall asleep pretty much wherever I was. I hatched a diabolical plan to drink strong coffee all day, and replace Daves' (the boss) coffee with caffeine free so that I would be on top form, he would be shattered and i'd be able to call all the shots so that things didn't get too silly - whatever happened I didn't want to over-sleep and miss the build up to the Grand Prix....................Unfortunately, my plan backfired and although i drunk strong mud-water coffee all day, I was never able to get near Daves' coffee and so come the end of the shift I was SO wired all I wanted to do was walk in circles, shaking uncontrollably. Hmmmm, not looking so good. Just to help things along, on the way back to Melbourne in the car we indulged in a few beers (something it seems quite common for both passengers and drivers alike to do here); at first I was uncomfortable with this but then thought, 'when in Rome.......'(just don't kill any Catholics!).

Daves' house in Melbourne
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Got back to Melbourne and walked into Daves' house and met his girlfriend Ellie (a rather attractive version of Sarah Jessica Parker sprung to mind i.e her face didn't look so much like a foot) who tried to be as polite as is possible when I walked in still pie-eyed from caffeine and beer and chatted complete rubbish non stop for about half an hour. Still, at least i'l be remembered...

We had a couple of G+Ts then decided we should get ready and go out (its was about half five), and asked if i'd like to use the shower room first. I accepted and they waited politely whilst it took me 45 minutes to have a shave.

A big spider that sits just outside the back door, watching, waiting for his moment to move..........
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Once we were all eventually ready to go out we hopped on a tram from the suburb of Collingwood (I will never tire of asking Australians why they have started naming city suburbs after English cricketers) which dropped us in the centre of the city at Federation Square, next to the main station, Flinders street, all of which are stunning to see, especially when they are all bathed in hot afternoon sunshine.

We first headed to a few bars actually in Fed square but only had time for a couple of beers (although this was enough to keep my in that 'fuzzy warm place') and had to jump on a tram and meet some of Ellies' work friends at a restaurant across the city. Once we got there we all sat there and chatted over a few bottles of wine, and I gradually relaxed into the evening, feeling comfortable with the gentle pace and nice conversation, glad that there wasn't a shot or cocktail to be seen. This was all soon to change though and after a couple of hours in the restaurant we wished everyone adieu, and headed off to a house party. My accent once again stirred my feeling of being a little bit of an exhibit in a glass cage, with people either looking at me funnily or asking the same old questions - where are you from? what do you think of the weather? etc. As we hadn't had the forethought to bring our own drink we were left with the 'punch' which was a red liquid with some shrivelled fruit thrown in, maybe to add some elegance. There was however nothing elegant about the drink, even to the untrained eye it was merely pure evil in a bowl that left me literally gasping for breath. The host kept appearing offering to refill our glasses, and we were all in agreement that it would probably be rude to refuse. I began noticing a sudden need to lean on things when I wasn't actively walking about. Oh dear; the beginning of the end! Having walked to the house quietly and turned up relatively sobre, the exit couldn't have been a bigger contrast. Running in fits and starts across roads, singing (or something loosely connected to singing) and then nearly being asked to leave our taxi after Dave took offence when the taxi driver refused to listen to his business plan to create taxis which had miniture ovens in the back selling pies and sausage rolls.

An ant (yes it is ACTUALLY an ant) which I snared at work. This is an inch ant. He just looks like danger!
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After exiting from the taxi weheaded around a few more bars drinking Jeger-bombs (a glass of Red Bull with a Jegermeister shot dropped in it) and it was fairly soon the end of the night for all concerned and we headed back to the house for some much needed sleep.

Woke up the next morning feeling shall we say 'a little tender' and headed off to try and find Albert Park where the Grand Prix was being held. In the finest tradition of not bothering to read any signs I jumped on a few different trams hoping to magically appear where I wanted to be, until I finally noticed that apart from the trams i'd got onto, most of them boldly displayed signs saying "GRAND PRIX ONLY". Guessing these would probably get me in the right direction I hopped on one, and after about five minutes was deposited right next to the entrance to Albert park. It couldn't have been a more perfect day, bright blue skies and temperatures rising into the late twenties and having paid my $100 entrance fee I wondered around and looked for a nice spot to sit. As i'd turned up quite late I got to see the end of an air display (something similar to the Red Arrows) and a a military jet strutting its stuff and had time to have a quick walkabout and perv at some pit girls before the action commenced. The place is so huge though I almost couldn't be bothered to wander too much, so I just bought a couple of beers and went and sat by the track waiting for things to kick off. Now i'm no F1 fan really, but the sound of the cars moving off on their warm up lap is something that will probably stay with me forever - the sheer volume of them, even from the other side of the track a mile and a bit away from where I was standing was awesome, and when they actually passed me its hard to describe how ear splittingly loud they are...couldn't help it but just had to break into a smile. You may see more of the race on the TV but it just simply cannot provide that strange buzz you get as multi million pound bit of machinery absolutely screams past at nearly 200mph - odd, but you can suddenly see how how and why petrol-heads get such an adrenelin kick out of racing.

As learning is about to commence....
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The only problem was that as soon as you could say 'perforated eardrums' the cars had come and gone so I opted to watch a few laps by the side of the track to say i'd experienced it but ultimately ended up sitting infront of one of the many big screens where you could watch the whole race progress. The big screens were also convieniently closest to the bars, enabling you to watch the race even whilst queueing to get more tinnies. An all round winner really!

At the end of the race the sun and beer had taken their toll (largely the sun though i'd like to believe) and I wobbled out of the park and back towards the centre, only stopping once to quench my thirst at a bar serving Stella Artois (oh how I miss you my good friend) before heading back towards Daves' house in order to mentally prepare myself for getting up at half four the next morning to go back to work. Suffice to say it hurt.....................

Learning well under way!
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I also mentioned i'd managed to get a car, which is a white land rover discovery - perfectly functional for all of the off-roading that I wont ever do, and even if I were going to do any, there would need to be petrol stations both at the bottom of the hill and at the top to try and satisfy its unquenchable thirst. The scant consolation is that petrol is about half the price that it is in England, but even so I have enquired about purchasing my own oil well and am currently awaiting a reply as to whether there is actually enough oil in Australias' reserves to fuel 'Landy' for the remainder of my trip. I momentarily thought that its huge petrol consumtion might have something to do with the fact that both the driver and passenger doors fill up with water everytime it rains but this hope I have been told was a little optimistic. When you drive a car that weighs as much as an elephant, a little extra weight in the doors is going to be like a pebble in the ocean - oh well, it gives the car a kind of nautical feeling which coincides with the kind of sea-sickness you get everytime it pitches and rolls around corners.

Again, in running with the general unpredicibility of Australia we were told that there would be no more work for us past the week just gone, then on friday we were told there was another month of work and that we would be going back onto nights. Joy, will really get to sample the coldest Australia has to offer armed only with some scanty shorts and t-shirts (sobbing silently) but its all money, and as they keep on saying (as though it actually makes it any better) "if you aren't out then at least you aren't spending".

Well that is about it for whats been going on for me people - routine smattered with a few really cool things which is going to be the same until I head up to Sydney towards the end of April

I will once again put a few piccies up to have a look through, including big spiders, huge ants, the car, Melbourne and most importantly of me, so once again, for the moment that is about about all - the sun is actually out today so may try and get out into it so that i dont start turning a kind of transparent blue colour again - going to go and celebrate another week by drinking more Jeger-bombs.......................

hope every one is well back home

Signing off,

Felix.