Week 1 - We got very excited as we approached the sights of Melbourne. Driving down the freeway it was very similar to driving into Glasgow. A few wrong turns and hair-raising moments dodging trams we made it to the Hotel Bakpak, a massive hostel in the city centre. We were very pleased to find it was WARM unlike any of the other hostels we'd stayed in on our journey. We'd booked there for 2 nights until we found our feet. Headed into the centre for a supermarket but you know us we stopped off at a few clothes shops en route and felt the need to purchase a thing or 2. Our sensible heads from Torquay were well and truly out the window. It was too exciting being in a big busy city again!!!!! Walking around the centre we discovered it was full of funkatrons and much more our scene. After dinner we treated ourselves to a few vodkas, made a few phonecalls and stared open mouthed at all the youngsters in the hostel. We are definitely getting too old for that scene. Note to Lyndsay's little bro - you won't be taking a gap year after seeing the behaviour of the young ruffians in that backpackers! The next day was spent wandering around the recruitment agencies handing in our CV's. But more positively than Perth we got a few appointments to register the following week. That afternoon we arranged to view a few flats the following day so we booked another night in the Hotel Bakpak (only cause we were too lazy to look for a better hostel). Planning a chilled evening we were accosted by a member of staff to come to the "meet the Neighbours" evening that was happening in the bar. There was not a hope in hell of us paying $25 to see some of the cast but when he said he'd let us in free (clearly needing to up the numbers) we thought what the hell. This was to be a bad decision. The words school trip don't even cover the rabble! We only hope that these Aussies don't think all British are like that crowd. The cast (Stuart the blind Policeman and Cindy the prostitute one) actually seemed quite funny and nice and you could hang about to have a drink with them. This would've have been quite cool if we could have stomached the jeering, drunken, immature, question firing crowd. We were never like that at that age! Thank god we hadn't paid....... We were picked up at our hostel the next day to go and view a couple of flats and were pleasantly surprised by the 1st one we saw. We headed to St Kilda to view a couple more but called to take the 1st place that afternoon. Liking the sights of St Kilda and getting a tad excited at Fitzroy Streets similarities to Shoreditch we felt it would be rude just to go back to the hostel without sampling its hospitality. Yip we only lasted 10 days off the wine!!!!!! A tad on the tipsy side and with another bottle of wine in tow we decided, through the drunken haze that maybe these young immature boys in the hostel were worth giving a chance and talking to after all. Luckily for us young Paul from Bath struck up a conversation in the lift, this was when we'd given up all hope and were heading to bed. It helped that his best friend was a David Beckham lookalikey who we'd been perving over for 2 days! With no David in sight we are ashamed to admit we followed Paul and another mate back to the kitchen and pretended to make some supper to suss out the situation. We did lose them BUT another young fellow who had been smiling at us earlier in the evening was unfortunate enough to walk past at that point and say hello. So, we turned our attentions to him and followed him to the reception chill area instead. Within 5 minutes we were at a table with Andy and Joe, 2 youngsters from Nottingham. Struggling with our conscience anyway when the boys mentioned that they weren't even old enough to rent a car (i.e. under 21) we realised actually how OLD we were and that we should retire gracefully (well not before a last ditch attempt at inviting them to see Eric Morillo with us the following evening hahahahaha)....... Waking up with hangovers and realisation, our 1st thought was "thank goodness we're checking out and moving into our flat that morning!" Safer for all we feel. We dumped our backpacks in our new bedroom and headed to the Kylie Minogue exhibition. Maro you would have loved it. All Kylie's best outfits and awards on show, and cover-shots over the years adorning the walls. Well worth seeing. We headed to a department store to buy some bedding, an easy task you may think but on returning home we discovered we owned a queen size bed not a double so nothing bloody fitted! Never mind we had a night out to get organised for. Having discovered Erick Morillo was DJing at a club in St Kilda that evening we calmed our excitement enough to get ready and sink a few cheeky vodkas. Our excitement soon turned to dismay when we rocked up at the Prince of Wales to find what can only be described as an absolute shambles. No queueing system just 100's of people trying to fight their way in. We gave it 15 minutes but when the full-house sign went up at almost 1am we gave up the fight and found a few other funky bars in the area. Trying not to be too disappointed we were getting back into the swing of the evening when events took a turn up for the books. Tommy, Melbourne guy we met in Thailand txt'd. If only it had been caught on camera, we both jumped 10 foot in the air, threw our vodkas and suddenly lost the ability to breathe. We weren't sure if we would get the chance to hook up with him again. A good txt conversation ensued and we're gonna catch up soon. A bit drunk and worse for wear we headed home about 3am and received a drunken call from the Skipster who was clearly missing her drinking buddies also....... Very hungover the next day we dragged our sorry asses to Victoria Market and back to the department store to change our bedding. Having only vowed that morning not to touch a drop of alcohol we found ourselves at a loose end that evening. Deciding there was nothing else for it we poured ourselves another voddie. Yes willpower is a fantastic thing. Unfortunately it did little to abate the headaches. Lynne retired to bed whilst Lyndsay went to call Ken in Ireland. The Monday was a holiday for Anzac Day so yet again we found ourselves on Fitzroy Street. Sat in a very cool bar / restaurant sipping wine and chatting to the barmen. Feeling on good form we headed to what is quickly becoming our local "The Cushion Lounge". Another bottle of wine followed. Clearly thinking we're millionaires we jumped in a cab home deciding en route that we would stop at the pub at the top of our street for more. It was a blessing in disguise that it was shut! This was only 7:30pm in the evening. So, we had another vodka when we got home. The poor irish girls that we live with must have been thinking the stereotypical scots had moved in! We dissected every second of Desperate Housewives for them! Tuesday (yesterday) we had to register with Hays Recruitment. Not feeling the sharpest we struggled through our interviews and managed to update the website with our photos. Had to wait until today to do the postcards as our brains were not functioning! Keeping in theme for the day we misjudged our tram stop and got off about 2k before our house. A chilled evening having dinner and watching the OC was definately called for. Fingers crossed that we hear from the agencies for work next week. The rest of this week will probably be spent exploring other parts of Melbourne. I'm sure a couple of drinks will be had at the weekend. Although the girls in the flat have invited us for a drink on Thursday evening, the day before they leave. It's fabulous darlings WE'RE BACK.......