My New Love Of Footy

There’s no way I could do this sport justice in a single blog post. My choice of city to settle here in Australia was Melbourne which is also known as the capital of sport. The sheer number of stadiums here is astounding. The biggest passion here however is AFL footy - or maybe some of you may know it as Aussie Rules. Honestly it’s a fast paced sport that has all the hard hits like hockey but the constant action and scoring of basketball. Many of whom know me from back home probably wouldn’t describe me as the biggest sports fan - maybe I’d follow my home team in hockey, or an NFL team but not to the point of being a die hard fan. Boy did I ever get sucked into this!

Panorama of the Saints vs. Richmond Tigers June 1st

There are currently 18 teams in the AFL - but unlike in North America where teams are based out of a certain city, here most are based out of Melbourne’s different neighborhoods. What really got me into the sport is the die hard following each team has. Here you don’t necessarily pick who you support as families usually support teams through several generations (they even have baby jerseys and fan gear!). Each team also has a song which is then played whenever they win.

Melbourne Demons coming onto the field

I was in quite a predicament when I got here as everyone was trying to get me to support their respective team. The buddy of mine who introduced me to footy supports Melbourne and wanted to get me on his side. I soon found out they’re one of the worst teams, and quite frankly wasn’t drawn to them. Another close friend tried to get me on the Essendon Bombers but still it just didn’t feel right. My office had a strong Collingwood following - but you either love ‘em lots or hate them with a passion... too divisive! Finally I made my choice - the team that shared my Ottawa Sens’ colors and a catchy theme song - the Saint Kilda Saints. I get no love for my choice in teams, nobody I know supports them! But in all fun I can now shit talk my friends and co-workers after the barrage of jokes I get for my choice.

GWS Giants have a monks cheering squad - probably the most dedicated fanbase!

I’ve been to 3 live matches so far at both Etihad Stadium (seats about 53 000) and the MCG (seats 100 000) and spent countless weekends watching the matches on TV. The live experience is electric as fans from both teams show up decked out in their team’s colors - cheering and sometimes yelling at the umps or players. The best experience is when your team wins and you song comes on and all the supporters sing and clap along. Obviously it sucks when you lose - but hey you win some you lose some.

The season is now over - and it’s been a real nail biter! Sadly my team didn't make the playoffs, but hell I can still say it - GO SAINTS!

Hiatus Househunt Firestorm

I must say, this blog is a lot of fun to write for. So far my posts have touched 6 continents and my articles read almost 2500 times since I started the blog in December. I’ve been bringing you guys a dedicated 2 posts per week now for 16 weeks. Just to give you guys an idea to the dedication to my blog/readers, for the last 6 weeks I’ve still been churning out 2 posts a week despite working 45hrs/week and commuting 2+hrs a day. Unfortunately due to circumstances you’ll see below, I now need to prioritize getting a more permanent place to stay. At the same time I’m very thankful for my mates who’ve allowed me to stay while I look for housing.


This past weekend I couldn’t help but be enraged, and here is my story. Recently, after moving out of the hostel and staying with some friends in the West End of the city, I’ve started looking for more permanent accommodation. A friend of mine sent me a lead that someone was looking for a roommate to share her house for a decent price in a good suburb.  I phoned her up and set up a viewing, the place was nice and had everything I’d need. Everything was looking good, phone manners were good, friend of a friend, all signs pointed to yes. Set up to move in over the weekend after my camping trip. Well to my surprise my phone buzzed on Saturday with the following:  

Useless...

A text? Are you serious? I’m not so much mad at losing the place, but more at how I’m being let go. Why is she thanking me for wasting my time? In a way it’s a blessing in disguise as with this lack of class I could just imagine how things would have been living with her. While I can imagine the effort and hard work at trying to write this obscenity, it still doesn’t cover up the lack of respect. In the end I suppose I was lazy as I went into this without having a plan B (my bad! lesson learned!). Anyways now I’m in a tailspin as I need a place, and soon. Hunting mode engaged! Thankfully I came across a place Monday afternoon that fit all my criteria and more!

There it was, a place in the city centre, minutes from the trams that take me to work within 20min (rather than >1hr of trains and trams), fully furnished, 30 floors high with nice views. All that for $600/month holy shit it’s on like donkey kong. Within hours of sending my message with my number and a request to view the place, I get a message asking me to send them an e-mail to their private e-mail. Weird? Yeah, but I’ll go with it. E-mailed her my number and asked for a viewing, instead I get an e-mail with more info about the place, more pictures, but nothing on viewing the place. Reply again, here’s my number, when can I drop by to view the place? Then I get the following:

Dear Matthew,

Thanks for writing back again,, i would have really love to show you the  two vacant rooms in my three bedroom flat  in person but  am presently in Philippine on an honey moon with my husband that is why i need just two decent flatmates because i don't want to leave my apartment empty before my arrival by of  April,2012

My property solicitor who is a busy person advice me to package my apartment keys and made the deposit of keys at the FEDEX OFFICE .There is a car space which has already included in the bills including water and there is no extra fee in the $150  per week for  you and $600 for bond per room with no extra charges in the electricity, gas, cable, phone and internet.

Since you are really interested i can contact my property solicitor to make arrangement  for you so that you can proceed on how to reserve the room for yourself before my arrival

Attached is the pictures of me and my husband in our lovely honey moon over here.

Regards

*Redacted*

Wow, this looks just as legit as my winning the UK Lotto every other week (according to them I’m a BILLIONAIRE). Seriously where to start? In a previous e-mail The girl mentioned that she was looking for a “gay-friendly” housemate yet she’s obviously not gay if she’s on a honeymoon with her HUSBAND. Gay marriage isn’t legal here in Oz so it’s obviously not her female partner (she also sent pics of them making out? she’s ugly so no it wasn’t pleasant to look at.) The “solicitor” and FEDEX key deposit are key scam indicators. While I can’t help but feel angry about all this, in the end it’s part of the experience that I signed up for. Oh well gotta keep hunting...

As much as I love writing for you all, and the feedback I’ve been getting, I have to take a break. I’m not necessarily going to stop altogether, but for the time being posts will not be regular or as frequent. On days where I post I usually get to bed at around 1am or later. I can’t help but feel as if the quality of my posts has suffered in the last little bit. So bear with me while I get my shit together. I’ll be active on twitter and the comments section. Do you have questions about my posts? Want more details? Leave a comment, I will reply!

The #1 Skill You Learn While Travelling Solo

Face it, travelling solo is not for everyone. If you’re socially retarded and unable to make friends I definitely wouldn’t recommend this as you’d be VERY lonely. One of the best coping mechanisms when travelling solo is making friendships, as nobody likes being completely alone... especially on the other side of the world. But you need to be cautious, as there are a lot of bad people out there! There are many cases of theft, cons etc. among the travelling community, be it cons preying on tourists, a bum in the hostel trying to score some booze/drug money, and just some general lowlifes.  That’s why you’ll end up learning to be a great judge of character over time, and this skill will help you forge great friendships. Obviously you’ll also make some mistakes in the beginning, but you learn from them.

Good times in Greece!

A great example of this is my friend Nick who I had met in Greece. Imagine inviting someone you knew for a whole 2 days 3 years ago into your home. There’s a very big risk involved there but he chose to take a risk and offer me a place to stay my first weekend here in Australia. Who knew if I’d be some complete psycho. Same goes for me, choosing to stay over at some guy I knew for 2 days 3 years ago also had an element of risk. This is where the ability to judge character comes in handy as it turns the odds in your favor when it comes to this sort of risky element. Also without taking that risk I would have missed out on an amazing experience (camping on the great ocean road), as well I would have never ended up volunteering!

This was very late into the Oz Day festivities.

I must say that the friendships I’ve forged while travelling have fantastic, and certainly helpful in terms of integrating into the local culture. A great example would have been from a few weeks ago for Australia Day. While I could have joined the travellers here in the hostel and attend the festivities in the CBD and the fireworks on the Yarra River, instead I joined my Aussie friends for a BBQ. I also got to play cricket (more like hit the ball) which has given me more respect for the sport. It’s also something that I wouldn’t normally have tried anyways.

The friendships that you forge while travelling can certainly be some of the best. As well the skill of being able to judge a person’s character quickly helps tilt the odds in your favor. Nothings perfect and you WILL meet some bad people, but just take those as lessons learned and move on. These friendships that I’ve forged have helped me all over the world, from the Aussies who’ve adopted me as one of their own, to Stone Dogg in the Bay Area, even at home some of my Canadian friends who’ve shown me around their city. Pack your bags and get out there, you’ll learn a lot!

* Hehe you’re probably wondering... he’s talking about mistakes and bad shit happening, what happened?  Those stories are boring really, seriously who wants to hear about bar brawls and Russian strippers? Didn’t think so ;)

Matt The Conservation Volunteer?!?

Being unemployed has its perks. Every day is the weekend, I have next to no worries, and I get to taunt everyone back home where it’s -30C with pictures of the beach. Life is great, but we also need to take into account that I’m VERY far from home AND have no money coming in... I needed to find better ways of spending my days rather than be out and about spending money. Thankfully my good friends Nick and Heidi here in Melbourne were able to hook me up with Conservation Volunteers, an organization that works on important environmental and wildlife conservation projects. Looking for a more fulfilling way to spend my day, as well as a more economical way, I signed myself up.

Our transport to and from sites.

My first day with Conservation Volunteers I was up at 5:55am as I had to get ready and take the 6:45am tram halfway across town. Thankfully I was able to do it without pressing snooze a bunch of times. Made it to the CV office on time for 8am with my Starbucks morning coffee in hand. Signed a waiver (Here in Oz you sign waivers for everything... srsly EVERYTHING) and was then on my way to the La Trobe wildlife sanctuary. This sanctuary was previously farmland and since 1965 has grown from 6.5 hectares to 28.8 hectares of wetlands. On this day we were a small team of 3 volunteers, plus our team leader Deb. Upon arriving we got straight to work on some rubbish pickup. Funny enough, I picked up several bongs made out of coke bottles and garden hose... wow! Next up we were collecting seeds from certain plants. This particular task was interesting as the seeds were tiny and made your fingers red. After lunch we went around uprooting weeds. We got to see some kangaroos and emus as well. Unfortunately the kangaroos were shy out in the wild and getting a picture of them was really tough.

If you look closely, the black things in the trees are all bats...LOTS of them!

After  a hard days work, our team leader Deb had heard me make a comment about the flying foxes in Sydney and decided to take the group out to see some at Yarra Bend Park. Now in Sydney I had seen a few but there was waaaay more! Here in Yarra Bend park there is a colony of about 30 000. During the day time they’re all just hanging in the trees so they dominate all the trees around the river. The best allusion I can give to you is that when you go out onto the lookout point, you’ll feel like you’re on stage at a major concert with 30 000 spectators. Crazy!

The bandicoot reserve fence.

Day 2 of volunteering had me out to Woodlands Historic Park on the Eastern Barred Bandicoot Project. This project is to help add a new overhang to a fence that surrounds the habitat. Originally there was electric fencing at the top of the fenced however it’s proven ineffective at keeping predators out, especially foxes who kill for the thrill of the hunt alone. On this day we were a much larger team as we had a group from the Habitat HQ hostel where I was staying. Our day consisted of cutting the old electrical wire off and then rolling it up into small batches. Boy this really was hard work! As easy as it sounds, it can be quite difficult cutting down the wire. Also when I say “rolling it up into small batches” at some points it was more of a wrestling match. Our team leaders Travis and Matt were awesome and we got heaps done. At the end of the day I was completely exhausted and my clothes covered in rust residue. 

The Habitat HQ Volunteer Crew

My third and last day was probably one of the most difficult. Once again up before 6:00am and off to the CVA office. I knew this day was going to be a real test as the forecast had a nice and warm 35C in store for us and I’m wearing long sleeves and long pants! We were off once again to the La Trobe Wildlife Sanctuary to water some recently planted vegetation. This involved filling up big buckets of water and then carrying them over and watering the plants. Later on in the afternoon we did a round of rubbish pickup. I got to meet a lot of the regular volunteers, some of whom had been helping for several years. Thankfully the day was cut early due to the very high temperatures. Since there were a few new volunteers, Deb took us once again to see the flying foxes at Yarra Bend Park. Today they were flying around and flapping their wings trying to keep cool. It was a pretty interesting sight!

 Me hard at work @ La Trobe Wildlife Sanctuary.

Overall I had a lot of fun going out with Conservation Volunteers. They’re a great organization doing a lot of good work. It’s a great way to spend a day, meet some new people and see some cool wildlife. Never had I pictured myself doing volunteer work, especially while on vacation. It does have a fulfilling aspect to it and I certainly wouldn’t hesitate to go out with them again. Those who are interested can also do longer stints of volunteer work for a reasonable cost which covers your transportation and accomodation, otherwise day trips are free. It can be hard work but it’s definitely rewarding!



For those who want to get in touch and potentially volunteer, here's a link to their site: Conservation Volunteers