Lake Cobbler / I'm no longer a bum

I meant to make this post over a month ago but we all know how terrible I am on giving updates. Just had to say a blurb because my papa checks my blog once in a while to make sure I'm alive ;) These photos were from a weekend camping trip at Lake Cobbler in the Alpine National Park. 

More importantly, I wanted to say that finally have my own room after five months of bumming around. Write me a letter and I'll respond. Would love to hear from you peeps.

Princess Fiona

244 Albert Street
Brunswick, Victoria, Australia

3056

Toodles!

Sitting on guns and stepping over snakes

I can't quite remember how many resumes I've handed out and emailed in the past couple of weeks. It must be something like 25 or 2 million. I was feeling pretty helpless (not to mention extremely poor) and was about to give up and go work on a farm when one day I receive an offer for an interview. One call-back was all I needed. I would be starting 4 days later. 

Will the Botanist read my mind when he suggested that we should go for a short trip. With absolutely no planning and only the name of a remote campsite we googled the morning of, we packed our bags and kissed his cat and dog goodbye. We boarded the train at Southern Cross to Geelong, where we would start hitching. At one point, we had to stop because we saw a police car turn its sirens on (hitch hiking is illegal here) and tried to act casual on the side of the highway.

About 45 minutes later we were picked up by Brian who was on his way to Winchelsea where he lived. He worked for the marketing department for a local radio station. Having just camped at Lake Elizabeth a few days ago, he dropped us off at an intersection where he thought would have the most cars driving towards that direction. Unfortunately, it was already 6:30pm by this time and chances of someone passing by would be slim. Even worse, we were headed to a small remote township that probably wasn't of much interest to most people.

Just when we gave up and started walking towards a golf course that we decided that we would camp at for the night, a man spotted us from his pick-up and says "where you guys headed?". John was going to pick up a few truck tires and could drop us off 18km away from the campsite. Thinking that we could hike the rest of the way, we hopped in.

Halfway into our trip I realized I sitting on something really hard enclosed in a leather case. I moved my hands down its length and the moment I felt the trigger, I retracted my hand. I was in the back seat of a stranger's car that was filled with beer cans, sitting on his rifle. Better under my ass than in his hands.

John offered to drive us to Forrest in exchange for a bit of petrol money. We didn't even hesitate in accepting his offer. It was getting late and there wouldn't be any cars on the road.

From Forrest, there was 7km of uphill hiking to the campsite. My ass was sore, our path was becoming darker and there was no moon to light the way. We set our tent up in the dark.

The next morning after we had made breakfast, we hiked down to the lake for a swim. All of a sudden, from behind me I hear Will cuss loudly. I turned my head just in time to see a black snaked slithering off to the side. We had been too busy looking at the trees to mind the snakes sunbathing in the footpath.

Our water supply was running low and the closest place to get water would be in Forrest. We took a couple of trips to a stream, filled up our bottles and brought it back to our campsite and boiled the water.

Dinner!

Eating spaghetti with a wooden spoon

Lake Elizabeth is known for platypus appearances but we were both too sick and tired to hike to the river at sunset. Will went to get more water while I collected more wood to make a fire. "High-five for reversing gender roles," he said. I make a damn good fire.

On our hike back to Forrest the next morning, we got picked up by a couple that had camped beside us for just one night. The woman was from Vancouver Island! They took us all the way to the train station and we were able to relax the entire way back to Melbourne.

Time to start earning monneyyyyyyyyy

I started the year off by turning myself in

The day Chak left for Vancouver, I left for Torquay, home of Quicksilver and Ripcurl, a surfer's paradise located 97km from Melbourne. A little while after we dropped him off at the airport, we started the drive towards Will the Botanist's beach house. It was windy and the trees along the coast of the ocean were all slanted. Caution: if you have sensitive eyes, shield them now because this post contains pictures of very white men.

This was no Western Australia but it was sufficient.

Warm baths on the beach

This year's NYE celebrations were probably the tamest I've had since I was 16. Minimal drinking with no one puking (just an indication of the fact that I am indeed ageing). Most of the party went to bed by 12:30 but the cool cats stayed up to take what could potentially be considered as the world's ugliest series of pictures. 

 

Gus

Lachy picking up the phone

I woke up on the first day of the year ready to surf in pouring rain. No wetsuit? No problem. I'm Canadian after all.

Chihiro and Masa

Martin, Gus, Lachy

So how does the title of this post fit into my tame new years?
Turns out, my student visa expired on the 23rd of December. I was in Australia illegally. I spent the holidays as an "unlawful". (This isn't the first time I've gotten into trouble with the law in the state of Victoria but I'll save the other 3 times for another post ;))

I went into the immigration office to explain to them my situation, that I had one more semester of school in Australia to go and that the university had already given me an acceptance letter. The lady at reception gave me a contact and told me that if it was crucial for me to have a valid visa before I could leave the office. This was the day that I was leaving for Torquay. I couldn't be fucked. CBF. Ceebs. So I slipped out of the office to roam the streets of Melbourne as an unlawful.

Today I went back to the immigration office again to turn myself in. I had to get a bridging visa that would allow me to stay in Australia until I either obtained another visa or departed the country. The guy who processed and approved my visa was a total angel. He gave me the application form which I struggled with because I had 2 choices, both equally appealing. I called the only man in my life who I could trust to give me the best advice - my papa. With his approval, I checked all the appropriate boxes, handed my application back to the guy at the counter, and awaited his decision.

While I was waiting, I eavesdropped on the conversation that was happening beside me. A young man had allowed his student visa to expire, dropped his studies, and decided to remain in Australia for 9 months as an illegal resident. He was told that he would be barred from obtaining any sort of temporary visa from Australia for the next 3 years.
"Did you try to apply for a visitor's visa at all?"
"No."
"Well, that was honest. What do your parents think about you dropping out of your studies?"
"I don't know."
At least I'm not that guy, I thought to myself.

"Miss Tsun?"
At the sound of my name, I approached the counter hoping they had come to a decision in my favour.
"Normally we give people one week, but I wanted you to take advantage of the weekend. You have until January 13."

As I thanked him and collected my documents, which included my new approved visa, he said "have a nice flight" and I responded with "you too... wait no, I mean have a great day!"

In summary, I've decided that I no longer want to extend my student visa. I'm taking next semester off to live and travel in Australia. To apply for a working holiday visa, I will need to be offshore. I have 10 days to book a flight and leave the country. The biggest question now is... which country should I apply from?

Fuck, I love my life.

You sound like you're a long way from home

"You sound like you're a long way from home".
I handed the last bag of groceries to the lady and responded, smiling, "Yeah, I'm from Canada".

It was Christmas eve and everyone was frantically trying to finish their last minute shopping. South Melbourne Market smelled of bread and freshly-squeezed orange juice. The owner of the bakery beside me was once again yelling "half price sourdough! Everything half price!" Customers came up to me holding punnets of strawberries, pointing at the mouldy ones like it was my fault they were rotten. These were smells and sounds of just another day in Melbourne. Christmas was definitely not in the air.

Once in a little while, a man dressed as Santa would walk by with his big red sack. His red suit was covered in white specks of dust and the whole thing looked like it had been sewn together 20 years ago. He trekked along the footpaths in his black rubber boots in 30 degrees. Down the block, a young boy set up his busking station. For the next 2 hours, off-key renditions of Christmas carols would be heard.

I had a skype appointment scheduled with my besties who were having an early Christmas dinner together. Right after work, I stripped down to my tank top and spandex shorts and raced home. Golden quotes of the night from Intan include the following:
1. "I take the ground hog to see him sometimes. I mean... greyhound."
2. "My face looks weird sideways."

"My face looks weird sideways"

And yes, I love them. I'm still waiting on my present from Jeanette being shipped all the way from Vancouver!

I called my brother a couple of days ago and he told me that he had decided to mail greeting cards out this year. I asked him why I didn't get one.
"Because you don't even have an address".
Good point.

Julie, Will the Botanist's mum, invited me over for their Christmas celebrations. Christmas is a lunch thing here apparently. Chak and I walked over to their place with plates of cookies and cupcakes. The table was decorated with cakes, cookies, and party crackers. In the corner of the living room stood a real evergreen that they had let me decorate a little while ago. Will the Botanist even made a fantastic vegetarian entreé for me!

Earl grey cupcakes with fresh strawberry frosting

Chak and Will the Botanist

Sugar cookies!

 Penguins are what inspired Tim Tams... which is a chocolate biscuit with chocolate cream in the middle, covered in chocolate.

Party favours from my party cracker

Present from Julie and David!

Raffy passing out after his Christmas meal

Walking home at 2:30am

I woke up this morning with floods of Merry Christmases from friends back home. But seriously, hands down, best Christmas greeting was from Michael Przystupa. You are too sexy for your own good.


This year I didn't have a whole lot of presents, nor did I have the holiday log. Things are a bit different down under but it's definitely good to know I'll always be taken care of. Hope you guys had a great time. Merry Christmas!