Now I have been in Brisbane for almost four full days. Friday July 1st was still my official starting day. First day of the month, start of Aussie fiscal year and Friday which is generally the best day of the week. I woke up at 3am feeling all upbeat and perky after sleeping only 5 hours. Had no idea where I was. Took a look at the suitcase on the floor and thought this is definitely not my dear Etu-Töölö koti, peeked out of the curtains and realized this is Brisbane baby. The breakfast started only @ 6.30 so I had loads of time to kill. First I wrote few SMS. Then checked my FB. Then decided to file my toe and finger nails and polished them with O.P.I Cajun Shrimp colour. Had still a lot of time and continued reading my Lonely Planet. Finally the clock hit 6 am and I was allowed to go to shower and really really really start my very first day @ Bris! The sun was shining too, as it seems to shine every morning.
I had a long and very unsexy todo-list for my first day. Boring practicalities and running in different offices. I wanted to get away with all the bureaucracy to have it done as soon as possible and have enough time for apartment hunting. I am slightly stressed about finding a nice home for myself. Everyone says ”no worries, things will sort out” (as one needs to say inside borders of .au) but seriously, being homeless is really not my cup of tea. I want to settle down. I want to start establishing my life here. As I am homeless but not broke, I decided to start with opening a bank account. Did a bit of scanning on the offerings of different branches first and then decided to go for Westpac for the sake of better interest rate, lower costs on possible transactions to Finland and nice sales woman who wasn’t annoyably friendly. For my surprise getting a transaction and savings account was super easy. Needed only my passport and everything was done in 10 minutes. I also learned that here in Australia the interest rates for savings accounts are substantially higher than in Finland; I get 5.75% for my savings without any minimum investment. Start saving girl! The lady also complimented my nails and the ”striking colour” and I shared the brand and colour code for her. Compliments totally worth my 4am day spa session. Next was Medicare, the local Kela. I had prepared mentally that this will be a mess and I will need to wait my Medicare card for more than six months. How wrong I was, filled in one paper and was told that the card is sent to me in one week ( I am using Kaija’s address everywhere at this point). Sweet. Good luck continued with getting a local phone number (Telstra pre-paid) and applying for tax file number…smooth, fast, easy with good service. Might be that my luck will turn and eventually the shit hits the fan. No shit, no hit, yet. Keeping fingers crossed.
I have also got started with Brisbane night life. On Fridays Accenture office has a traditional Friday pub @ Firefly, a bar on Ann Street very close to a building where the brand new ACN office is. I got the information from Marijke, a Dutch girl who started @ Bris in February. She has been of great help in sharing tips&tricks how to get things sorted out and introducing me to people she knows and making my life a lot easier. We arrived to Firefly a bit late and didn’t get to see any colleagues. Guessed that all the senior managers / executives and most importantly their corporate credit cards had left early which explains the loss of Accenture representatives there. Luckily Marijke and I share a thirst for drinks even paid by ourselves, so as soon as we got there I had a glass of cold, blackcurrantish (is that a word? most likely not) and fresh Sauvignon Blanc in my hand. After two (or three) glasses of wine I had totally forgotten my jetlag and continued to a terrace bar (can’t really remember the name). It was like the roof top terrace of Teatteri, but a lot less of a meatpacking&selling district. In a good way. For the benefit of the Aussie one.
Thanks to my Brisbane guide I have also met quite a few new colleagues during the weekend. On Saturday I attended a Teneriffe Festival and met Jamie and Hannah, a very fun couple from UK. Teneriffe is cozy part of the city approx 15 minutes bus ride from CBD. There are a lot of old factory buildings renovated to apartments. I didn’t get to see any, but suppose there are pretty cool loft apartments there. The festival was all about music, good food (I had dumplings), drinks and handicraft art work. The happening was taking place on the roads (closed just for this event) and people wandering around, chit chatting and enjoying the vibe. A real small village get together, like in the Smurfs. Jamie told that before we arrived there was something going on with sheep also, like an exhibition or something. I thought it was a joke, but it wasn’t. For my huge disappointment the only thing we saw was a white little poodle, a wanna-be-sheep I though. I enjoyed the night a lot and was happy to have had the opportunity to meet new people and see new part of Brisbane. On Sunday I was invited for a super international barbeque event. We were 7 from 6 different countries; Finland, Netherlands, Argentina (x2), Hungary, Ireland and South Africa. It is quite fascinating to meet these people and hear all the stories how they have ended up in Australia; everyone has been looking for an adventure but the drivers are quite different. Anyways, my weekend once again proved right that Accenture has a lot of good and fun people, and it’s global.
My life here is pretty random. I have no plans or purpose of life besides apartment hunting and am going here and there following Marijke or just my nose. I am on holiday, so this is definitely a normal holiday mode, but I miss a bit of routines of life. I am openly out of the closet: I love routines as they bring safety. My body needs them too, it starts acting strangely in case of random rock-scissors-paper lifestyle, like now. I feel dizzy and floating, I’m living in a bubble (different bubble than the one where I broke my thumb though) and not really being able to experience all this. Like being doped. The only routines I have is the one of waking up around 4am and doing manicures and pedicures until the breakfast opens. The 4am day spa. I look dead tired and pale, have a lot of gap on the sleep but my nails look awesome. I also have routine of coming back to my room after breakfast feeling all tired and having a bit of a rest. Each time the rest has ended in waking up around noon either for the room service wanting to clean up my room or someone calling. I’ve been caught up 4 times and still I cheat myself with the idea of ”just a 15 minute rest”. I think I need the sleep badly, I haven’t felt this tired since last autumn. I also have a routine of getting my daily fresh fruit juice from the juice bar in Queen street, my current favourite is Ibiza Islander with pineapple, orange, apple and passion fruit. That makes total 3 routines after all; 4am day spa, cheat sleeping and juice bar snack…better than nothing.
Then is of course skyping (find me J ) It’s happening more on a random basis, but still happening. On Saturday evening I skyped with dad and few friends and on Sunday with my brother and little people. It felt so good to see the faces of everyone. I think my heart was beating 150 bpm, out of pure excitement. And I think I can never forget the moment of little people walking in to the room and starting to smile as soon as they saw my face on the screen. Priceless. Surprise surprise I started to cry (I think the day I have lived a week without tears should be some kind of personal celebration day. I will write a "special edition" blog post about those days). My rush of emotions was a mix of happiness of seeing their pretty faces and sadness out of not being able to give them a big hug and kiss. Both of them were a bit confused about the idea of seeing my face on the screen, but it didn’t matter. We had officially kicked-off the Kummatäti Skype-sessions. Ha, there it is! My very first real and lasting Aussie week routine; Sunday evening Skype-session! ! ! (I seriously hope my nightly manicures and 3 hour naps after breakfast are not lasting as I won't be working with Accenture for long if those continue).
All in all I am enjoying Brisbane as a city. The first impression is very lively, friendly (even bureaucracy), sunny and warm. It is mid winter and day time temperature is around 20-22°C and night time around 10°C. Like an average summer in Helsinki. On weekdays the CBD is busy with a men & women in suits. Good looking men *like like like*. On weekends it turns into more laidback and easygoing. In my doped bubble I haven’t seen or experienced a lot yet, but my first date with Brisbane is totally worth saying yes for a second date, even more serious one. Keep your fingers crossed with the apartment hunting that’s starting tomorrow...I want to start sending the Ansku B&B advertisement out soon J
Yours,
//Ansku
PS: This is published from my hotel room (again). I’m using Röyksopp Junior to fight the slight homesickness that hit after the Skype-session and practicing my inner lamplighter.”Lights on woman, you’ve been away for less than a week”. Good night from Brisbane *lights off*
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