Melbourne Calling

So, tomorrow I am moving to Australia.

This is, first of all, not something I expected to be doing with my life. All St Bees students were aware of the idea of doing a gap year in Australia but it never even occurred to me that I would want to go there. I didn't know anything about it and there were too many places I did know about that I knew I wanted to visit for it to feature highly on my priority-visit list. The reason for the change in circumstances is a certain ginger from Melbourne, but that's another story. And the current chapter is this - me moving to Australia.

There has been a lot of organisation involved in this move which is possibly my favourite part but also the part I am sometimes shockingly bad at. For example until a few hours ago I was labouring under the belief that my flight was at 7.20pm tomorrow when in fact it is 9.15pm and always has been. Fortunately not a particularly dangerous mistake. Finding a visa has been my biggest headache so far. Currently, I am entering the country under visa subclass 417 - Working Holiday, which entitles me to work no longer than six months under any one employer, nor study for more than four months. This does limit my options somewhat. I am going to be applying for a Partner Visa, but since Lachy and I are not currently married nor will we be in the next nine months (very suspicious specification, Australian Immigration) we have to prove that we are in a de facto relationship, which really isn't as easy as explaining the whole 136/Laurelbank/Lion in Winter backstory (unfortunately). So that won't be going through until we have some official 'proof'.

Another minor/major headache has been searching for a job from a different hemisphere. Carefully selected search engine keywords and Google Maps can only get you so far when you don't know a city very well. I've applied for a handful of things that have taken my interest and I'm hoping that once I'm actually there with a bag full of CVs the process will become easier. At least I'll be able to start finding the sort of job that's advertised with a STAFF WANTED sign and that might be able to make me some money in the short term. On that note, I've also got to set up a bank account once I arrive, get a Tax File number, apply for a Medicare card, and move into a new flat with my fiancé.

Moving into my first flat! In a city! Actually I lived in a flat in London when I was a baby but that's like when a random family friend claims to know you because they met you when you were a toddler. As far as I'm concerned, it never happened. I don't know what the flat looks like yet but I already bought a coaster and a metre of fabric. In other words I'm totally prepared?

I have also been spending a lot of time on Pinterest, which is both a wonderful place and a dangerous one. I have been looking at chalkboard paint and having ideas.

Currently I am mid-Coke because last night I stayed up until 2am (not an achievement by the standards of my night-owl friends, but it is for me!) and slept until noon, with a brief interlude where I said bye to my parents, who have abandoned me in London with my cousins. I am feeling very fatigued but also like it is about 2pm. I don't know whether this is really going to help or not but tonight I aim to stay up until 3 or 4am and sleep most of the day, until my aunt comes to collect me for some last-minute sightseeing. Then I will very cleverly stay awake until it is an appropriate time to go to sleep in Australia and avoid jetlag all together. Yeah, right.

So. I'm going. For real. And it suddenly doesn't seem very important at all that I have no idea what I want to do as a career (or rather, too many ideas), which, for an unemployed graduate, is very refreshing. I'm going on an adventure!

Summer in the City: WWI Centenary

Yesterday was an important day for the UK as it marked 100 years since the government declared war on Germany. Once again, oddly enough, I found myself in the right place at the right time, in the capital on the 4th of August. Yet my first stop was to visit a group of women who were not commemorating the onset of war.

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) held a rally opposite Holborn tube station, near the site of Kingsway Hall (no longer in existence), recreating a rally held exactly 100 years before, in which suffragists petitioned the government not to enter the war. Though their petitions were ignored then, the WILPF, founded by several of the women who organised the rally, now works with the UN on women's issues.

The women made the most of the opportunity to draw parallels with modern wars, urging the government to cease selling arms and pursue negotiation instead. It was an interesting way to begin the day - a reminder, while we are remembering the sacrifice that so many people made, that the best way to honour the deaths of millions is to ensure that no more have to die as they did.

My next stop was St James' Park, where an extraordinary exhibition by photojournalist Michael St Maur Sheil displayed photos of WWI battlefields as they are today - beautiful, quiet places. Well worth a visit and the exhibition is open until the 11th of November (Remembrance Day).

On the Mall next to the park I stumbled upon the parade which had taken place earlier that morning, made up of Chelsea Pensioners and cars that would have been on the roads at the time that war was declared, parked up by the side of the road. Talking to a kid, one pensioner patted his red coat and called himself Father Christmas. "Thirty-eight years in the army. This is what I've got."

At 10pm lights went out across London. Though it wasn't a total blackout for safety's sake, it was still an impressive sight when the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and Tower Bridge were plunged into darkness.