I was supposed to be spending a sunny Saturday on a boat trip down at the Mornington Peninsula watching seals with my boyfriend Dav, but it was canceled due to rough seas. I was still keen to go down to Mornington as it is only a short drive from Melbourne but I had never been before. Looking around online for something else to do we found horseback tours along the beach, and distracted by the romantic image of Dav and I cantering down the beach together I temporarily forgot I was actually scared of horses and agreed to go along.
So turning up 30 mins late for an interview (taxi didn’t turn up) didn’t ruin my chances for a Front End Developer role at Tangent One as I got a phone call the other day to say I had got the job with sponsorship after one month probation period. I am really excited about the opportunity and I am starting working there next week.
I have been at Visual Jazz working as a Front End Developer for four months now and due to a team restructure I found out my contract wasn’t to be extended beyond the end of May. I was really disappointed as I had made some great friends, had learnt an awful lot and I was really enjoying my role doing pure front end development. It has been great to focus on just one area of the web and really specialise in it and I hope that future roles I take will allow me to carry on learning and developing my HTML/CSS skills, even if combined with a design role.
The Front End Dev team gave me a nice send off lunch on Friday and there was a Visual Jazz night out in the evening to Taco Bill and a few drinks in a South Melbourne bar afterwards. I got to say goodbye to all my work friends in style and I hope to keep in contact with them all in the future but for now I have to say bye bye Visual Jazz and get back to job hunting!
Kat and I wanted to get out of Melbourne and do a bit of exploring around Australia, the problem was neither of us could get the time off of work so we were limited to short flights and just a weekend away. We decided on Tasmania as it was close by, the flight was cheap and there was a lot we could see in just two days.
Arriving on Friday we went straight out into Hobart, our friends had warned us it would be quiet on the night life front so we weren’t too surprised to find some empty bars and quiet restaurants around the quay area. We had a few wines in a quiet bar and after a sneaky late night curry snack we went back to our room at the Old Woolstore Hotel for a good nights sleep before a day of exploring the next day.
Since neither of us had had a lot of time to do any research we turned up the car hire place with no real idea of where we intended on going! Our taxi driver from the airport had been insistent that we went to Port Arther, we had thought about seeing a bit of a national park but the helpful assistant in the car hire place recommended the drive up to the famous Wine Glass Bay. We were pleased we did this, there were some nice places to stop and take photos along the way, a few misleading signs (a supposed small detour to 9 mile beach left us driving for ages with no sign of a beach!) and some beautiful views, and this all made for a really fun journey.
Once we made it to the national park that Wine Glass Bay is in we found out we had to walk for 40 minutes to get the look out, and further if we wanted to get to the beach itself. We settled for the look out as it was getting late and although there were a lot of steps it was worth it for the view of the bay and we stayed up there taking photos and climbing around on rocks for a while.
By the time we got back into Hobart we were starving and we rewarded all our walking and rock climbing efforts of the day by having a yummy curry and then relaxing in the room.
The next morning we headed off for The Mount Wellington Decent, an activity we had pre booked after hearing great reviews about it. The Mount Wellington Decent is a cycle ride from the top of the mountain right the way down to Hobart itself, they transported us and our group to the top, kitted us out with gloves and waterproofs (and obviously bikes!) and then we cycle down as a group. Once we got to the very top we were hit with strong winds and sleet so they took us a little way down the mountain where we could start our cycle safely and we started out on the road cycling down the first leg.
It was very cold! Kat and I were the slowest in our group but it didn’t seem to matter as we had regular stops and the further we got down the mountain the warmer and easier it got. The best bit was an off road section where we had to go down a very steep bit of muddy track that was challenging but really fun and afterwards we stopped at the Cascade Brewery for a quick drink (orange not beer!) and then we set off for our final leg into Hobart. The Mount Wellington Decent was a lot of fun and I would recommend it to anyone as long as you wrap up warm!
To reward ourselves of our morning efforts we had a nice lunch with a few glasses of wine by the water before we headed off to the airport for our journey back to Melbourne. Tasmania was a lot of fun, and although quiet and remote in areas it is very beautiful with lots of places to explore.
Easter weekend is a popular time for Melburnians to get away from the city and that is exactly what 3 friends and I did!
We had decided to visit Lorne on the Great Ocean Road as there is a pub, some good restaurants and a bit of surf there too. We managed (through luck more than anything!) to get the most amazing apartment just outside of Lorne for the four of us to stay in, it had a great view of the ocean, a nice living/kitchen area and a huge balcony with barbecue and after arriving late afternoon on Friday and having a few beers on the balcony we headed off down to the Lorne pub to explore the area a bit more. 
Well we were a little surprised that the small seaside towns local bar not only had two scary looking bouncers on the door, they scanned our IDs and took photos of us as we entered the club. This was security more extreme than anywhere I have been in the UK or on any of my travels!
In contrast the Lorne pub in the afternoon of the next day was a calm and nice place to grab some food and admire the views of the beach and the surrounding area. We even managed a swim in the sea although true to form I got cold and left the boys to it!
The next morning, after a fry up breakfast on the barbecue we decided to get out of Lorne and go exploring so we went to Cape Ottway, stopping in Apollo Bay for some beach time and another swim in the sea (I managed to get up to my knees before wimping out this time!). After leaving the beach we drove to Cape Ottway and headed down towards the lighthouse and we were lucky to see several koalas in the trees on our way down there.
It was a great weekend away and being lucky with the weather and the amazing apartment (as well as the amazing friends!) made it a great weekend get away.
Having friends over to visit is great as it is an excuse to get out, do touristy things and see a bit of the country and that’s exactly what I did when my Bournemouth buddies Ross, Paul and Sophie came over for a visit. Our road trip started in Melbourne, went down the Great Ocean Road, through the Grampians and ended in Adelaide. Here are the photos and a few stories from our 5 day road trip…
When I announced on Facebook that I had got another contract (the third in as many months) a friend referred to me as a nomadic designer which I quite liked. Having been in my previous job at Redweb for 4 years its been great to get out and experience new companies and new ways of working.
My current company were going through a lot of changes and even though they had a lot of work in the pipeline I wasn’t really needed as an extra resource. I decided to leave to work at Visual Jazz, a well respected agency in South Melbourne, who not only have a great list of clients, have a great social life surrounding work and even have their own roof terrace and barbecue!
The thing that I was most worried about was having a pure Front End Development role but I thought this would be a good experience to see how much I enjoyed doing one specific role rather than the mixed Creative and Front End Developer role I have been doing for years.
To begin with the change wasn’t too different as I got thrown into the deepend with a lot of challenging HTML based work, but after a while I started craving a bit of design work, having absolutely no say over the design of the sites I was building was driving me crazy! I am lucky to be able to take on creative work outside of work so this helps with the need for doing design related jobs and I am also lucky that VJs provided me with a real variety of jobs in my first few weeks here. I have had the opportunity to work on WordPress blogs, including styling them from a blank template. I have built several eDMs for Jenny Craig and Wesley College, for which I have had to learn Campaign Monitor, a really good and useful piece of email marketing software. I have also been working on some Flash banners for Tourism NT, as well as all the standard HTML build work you expect to come with a Front End Development role.
I feel that I have learnt a lot in just the few weeks I have been here, and as aside from the work I took part in thier Friday night Treasure Hunt around South Melbourne (involving a few bars along the way!) and I’m looking forward to VJ Picnic in the Park in a few weeks too. So far everything is very going well!
Having the Australian Open right on our doorstep and it being easy to get tickets (no ballot system like Wimbledon) we really had no excuse not to go along, and we did, 3 times! After buying Semi Final tickets back at Christmas time we knew we were going to get to see some good tennis in the Rod Laver arena, but we also got told that the middle Saturday of the tournament was a great day to get a ground pass, wander round and soak up the atmosphere.
We got down to the grounds nice and early and after the obligatory stop at the Jacobs Creek wine tent, and picking up lots of freebies we went on a wander round the outer courts to see what was happening. After picking a court at random we realised the person we were watching practicing was fellow Brit Andy Murray! We also wandered around and saw a few mixed doubles games on the Margret Court arena and finished off our day by watching/drooling over Rosco Hutchins, a British doubles player, who actually lost but we had a lot of fun cheering on!
Its funny being a Pom in Australia as the locals love to talk about the weather with you, however when ever I made a comment about the temperature being hot it was always met with a reply that went along the lines of “Oooo you wait until it hits 40 degrees, last year it was about 45 degrees for 4 days straight and then you’ll know its hot”. And they were right.
My contract at Draftfcb ended just before Christmas and so I was straight back into job hunting after the Christmas break. I was a little worried about being able to find contract work again and so spent the whole morning of the 4th January researching and applying to companies for freelance work.
I am Gill Farley from Bournemouth in the UK. In October 2009 I decided to quit my job, leave my house and go out to Australia to live and work for a while. I am going to be living in Melbourne and I am going to update you all on my adventures in and out of work on here.
