Knee Deep In Paperwork

Courtyard Pano
Originally uploaded by Tracie Milner.

As Gary said I got my marriage certificate (thank you to Gary's parents for sending it), so after a bit of hassle (but not too much), I was able to get registered in the good state of Victoria. Working at a nursing agency here in Melbourne has so far proven to be quite different than it was in Perth. In Perth there was a lot of butt kissing going on which was nice since it was my butt being kissed. "Sure Tracie...Whatever you want Tracie..." Here they don't hide the fact that they're inconvenienced when I tell them I do or don't want to work. Anyway, time will tell how they are to work for. So far not so good though because my very first shift which was supposed to be last night got cancelled. Oh well, c'est la vie.

The nice thing on the other hand is that this agency has a couple of houses which they rent out to their out of town nurses. A few days after coming to Melbourne, we moved into the Miller house - so called because it's on Miller Street. It's quite spectacular, especially compared to the flat we were renting in Perth. The living room has massively high ceilings, there are four beds, two baths a courtyard in front and a little patio area in back. Seven of us live here in total...There's Me, Gary & Julie from Canada and Lynsey, Chris, Clare & Vivian from the UK. Everyone but Gary is a nurse. We have all gotten along fabulously, going out together every day and every evening. It's been really fun for us to have 5 new instant friends. I've posted a few pics of the appartment on flickr. This is a pano of our living room.

Melbourne so far has been ok. To be completely honest, we didn't know what to expect when we got here so we were neither disappointed nor pleasantly surprised. We've just been muddling around. The weather here isn't as nice as Perth...about 10 degrees colder actually...but I won't complain about weather for the sake of all of my Canadian readers. The view of the city from the Yarra river is spectacular, especially at night when all the lights are reflecting, but so far I haven't gone down at night to take photos. You can walk along the river on palm tree lined walkways take in the beauty of the city. My friend said he figured it was more beautiful than Sydney...they just need the opera house. People here have been really nice, although they have been everywhere in Australia so far. (Except the guy in Adelaide who tried to run us over...when Aussies get behind the wheel, watch out!) They have thicker accents in Melbourne than they do in Perth and at first we found them much harder to understand, although it's getting easier now.

Yesterday Julie, Lynsey, Gary and I went to the top of the Melbourne Obsevation Deck which is on the 55th floor of Rialto Towers downtown. You get a nice 360 degree view of the city, which is quite beautiful. After that we went down to the Old Melbourne Gaol which is the jail where Ned Kelly was hanged, which is now just a tourist attraction.

We are slowly getting to see the city, although we are supposed to leave in less than two weeks, so it's all going so fast and I'm sure we won't get everything in that we want to.

Well...so far I am scheduled to work tonight, so I'll let you know how it goes.