Sunshine and warmth in 18 sleeps

Maximum temp in Melbourne today: 14

 

Maximum temp in Bali today: 28

 

Its only 18 sleeps until Bali, and I can't wait to get into the sunshine, swim, eat yummy Indonesian food, drink cheap cocktails, get some new suits tailor made...and just relax with no work for a whole week!

Hitler's bunker location marked

I thought this was interesting. Berlin was one of my favourite cities that I visited last year, and it is a city that is just seething with history- a lot of it quite sad history. I went on this most awesome and information free tour, and one of the places we stopped at was Hitlers Bunker. I understood the argument of not wanting a plaque to create a rallying point for extremists, but I think that those types of people will always find something to rally about anyhow, and so I think this plaque is a good idea.   http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5061280.stm   Hitler's bunker location marked

An information panel marking the site of the bunker where Adolf Hitler committed suicide at the end of World War II has been unveiled in Berlin. It is the first time the authorities have allowed the site, just 200 metres (220 yards) from Berlin's Holocaust Memorial, to be officially identified. There had been fears marking the site would attract right-wing extremists. Hitler killed himself in the bunker at the end of April 1945 as Soviet troops closed in on the city. The panel at the site shows the layout of the bunker together with archive photos and a chronology in German and English. It was put together by a history society which runs guided tours of Berlin's network of underground bomb shelters, Berlin Underworlds, and wants to demystify the site. "This is one of the most symbolic places in Berlin for the crimes the Nazis committed and we want to make sure people know the whole truth about it," said Sven Felix Kellerhoff. Car park spot One of Hitler's former bodyguards, 88-year-old Rochus Misch, who was at the unveiling, said people should be informed of history, even when it was the history of a devil. "During the last 12 days of the war, I was down here with Hitler and the other bodyguards all the time," he said. After the war, Soviet soldiers blew up most of the bunker, and in the 1980s the remaining foundation and walls were filled with rubble, making it inaccessible. It is now buried under a car park surrounded by blocks of apartments built by the former East German government.

Inspired

Today our whole office went out for lunch to a little Thai place in China town, and I ended up sitting near the two guys from the Finance Broker that sub lease part of our office, and who I don't speak to very often. He mentioned that a few years back he had backpacked through Africa, from Nairobi to Cape Town with a few friends.

 

Travelling through Europe was always my big dream, and now that I have to some extent achieved it (although there is so much else for to see and experience in Europe, and it is ever changing, especially in the 'new' Europe countries) I think I need a new dream and a new goal to sort of work toward. Hearing from someone else that has travelled through Africa and to hear that it wasn't that hard, that it is something achievable was just what I needed to get my mind ticking over.

 

So I won't be going for a while- I have to do this whole CA bit first, but it is something I definitely want to do!!

What a change

I decided that I want to get back into the blogging, because pretty much all my close friends are overseas or interstate- which once you have a fulltime job becomes very far away! My life is definitely not as flash flash exciting as it was this time a year ago, but I see this as a break between innings, and there are still plenty of things happening in my world...

 

This time a year ago I was just starting to settle into Zagreb, hoping that the problems with my traineeship would work out, and planning my first little European trip to Budapest. Although (as my regular blog readers will know) my traineeship was, well shit, my 10 or so months in Europe were altogether fantastic, and I still marvel at how much I dared to do and how many places I managed to get to. Most of the time I was in Europe I wondered if I should be feeling as though I was undergoing some profound change or something. I don't know about profound, but I think that a lot of my choices and actions since getting back have been shaped by my experiences. Maree's new boyfriend mentioned the other night that she is always going on about Finland (where she spent last year), and I am glad that Maree and I understand why we both want to tell stories about our trips- because they were such a big deal for us, full of little personal triumphs and challenges, and they have changed what we want in life too.

 

A year later I am sitting in my office on my lunch break from being an accountant/auditor. I am extremely lucky because I almost walked into the job that fit the description of what I was looking for...so far getting what I wished for has not turned out to be a curse. If I hadn't travelled after uni I know I would be sitting here with severely itchy feet, instead of focusing on my professional development and eventually my CA, and it took my trip overseas to realise that this is what I want to do, for now at least.

 

My biggest challenge over the last few months (I've only been back for 4 now!) is to not get caught up in the daily grind: you get out of the train station with a couple of thousand people every morning, dressed pretty much like them, going to do a job that is pretty much like their, and go home at night to watch the same TV that everyone else is watching. Some of this you can't avoid I guess, but I think its something I have tried to stay aware of, and as I get more settled I am trying to put to the fore the things that I identified as interests and passions while I was overseas, when I had some much time to think about the world and the future.

 

I'm going to be here in Melbourne for at least the next two years, and I guess what I am trying to say is that's something I'm happy about, especially because I did have that time away already, and although my feet are probably going to be forever itchy for more travel, its a craving I have under control.

Rugby Union coming to Victoria

Living in AFL-mad Victoria is one thing I find a bore- it takes up all the "water cooler" chatter and more time in the news than International news. So I was surprised and happy to see that there is a new Rugby competition springing up next year which will act as a step between club rugby and Super-14 (which I will admit I never got into at all)....and Melbourne will have its own team, which will be cool...I'm hoping some games will be played here!