Sorry for the delay....

23rd, 24th October – St Kilda

We are sorry to leave you hanging for 2 days without word, unfortunately the perils of international travel is the distinct lack of predictable internet availability.

I have some exceptional news, we are in, 4/24 Dalgety that is, and what an absolute joy it is. So to recap -

On the 23rd we got up early to pack up our belongings and vacate the match box (turns out we didn’t do a very good job as we left 4 DVD’s and a small bag of gifts behind) then we dumped everything at reception and headed out for a proper breakfast. With that accomplished we printed some photos and I took my old school film in to be processed and was acosted by a very posh Englishman who apparently works in, or owns, the photography shop who took a shine to my Camera. He then gave me a quick lesson on how to use the aperture, told me they only made 300 and that a savvy Japanese tourist would no doubt try and swap it for a digital number. He also said that if I ever got rid of it he would haunt me for the rest of my life.
Nice chap, turns out he lives up in the Mountains, had been in Oz for about 28 years and is going to have El and I over for tea one day.
We’ve witnessed some odd things like the woman who bent down on the tram and trimmed her toe nails with a pair of clippers and then just got off. The man who commented on El’s Fatima burba hand that she wares around her neck and then proceed to rant about how he had faught the burba’s – oh yes the crazy people are still attracted to us no matter how far we seem to travel! But it makes us laugh.

So when we got to the flat we didn’t have any electricity but we did have everything else that 2 girls could ever need (except a lasagne dish and candles). So off we went out to Acland street in pursuit of candles and some light snacks. The flat soon got really dark and the candles were struggling to offer us enough light but we put all our photos up on the walls and have left plenty of space for more, El has to print some out and like I said I have a film in the shop. I bailed and got an early night after that, knowing full well that tomorrow was going to be about cleaning and shopping.

I wasn’t wrong.

We Cleaned – and cleaned and cleaned, although saying that I believe we are yet to hoover … Then we tried the mains switch – and there was light, and refrigeration and hot water. So we headed to the shops. We had a concise list and this time we got everything on it (except brown sugar) and a few extras we’d forgotten ( like tinfoil, freezer bags and a hand blender). We got some plants, and plates, and flowers but best of all we went back to the local butchers.

4 Pork and fennel massive sausages
2 gigantic steaks
2 huge chicken breasts
1kg Pork mince
12 eggs ( free range fresh from the farm )

for £20 that can’t be bad. Plus they were lovely people who chatted easily to us about living in St Kilda and their daughter who is in England at the moment.

We ate the sausages last night, and I can safely say they were about the best I’ve ever tasted. We cooked our first dinner in the mansion (we have named him Rupert as he is definitely a bit posh) and then watched a rubbish movie and drank a bottle of wine.

Today is Saturday and we are treating ourselves to a day off, well technically 2 as we have been here for a week now and haven’t sat down really. We’ve walked along the beach for a total of 10 minutes, we haven’t been for a swim or a walk or anything apart from in transit. We are off to find jobs on Monday, CV’s ready and raring to go but this weekend is all about relaxing. I can’t speak for El but I didn’t come all this way to be stressed out and frantic.

Hope everyone is well, El’s done a clip of the apartment and we have a St Kilda clip for you too, so enjoy.. and we’ll write soon, or as soon as we find another internet ready café bar!

Love to all

Leah and El xx