.: Diamond Dreams

It's already the beginning of May and the things to catch everyone up on never end (it’s a good thing though)! Two weeks ago, Katie

My Salmon Poke Salad

and her husband Gerry were in Melbourne, so I decided to meet up with them there. I had been planning to take the train but then Allen and Viola graciously offered me a ride. We arrived in Melbourne at around 11am and then I took the tram to Queen Victoria Market and met up with Katie and Gerry around 11:30am. We were also meeting with Gerry’s cousin Andrew and his wife Janine, who live in Melbourne, so they were able to show us around. Gerry has an account on instagram, which is dedicated solely to food pictures, so he wanted to go to as many restaurants as possible. We went for lunch to a place called Kitty Burns, and I order a salmon poke salad, which was absolutely gorgeous (and tasted great too!). After lunch, we went to the Abbotsford Convent to take a walk through the park, and then we headed over to Fitzroy, which is kind of like a hipster neighbourhood. Katie and I got gelato, and then we all walked down the street and checked out the shops. We went back to Andrew and Janine’s house so that everyone could recharge, and then they took us to a microbrewery called Two Birds, where Katie and I split a sample tray of beer and some patatas bravas (which is all I ate when I was in Spain). After that, I had to catch my train back to Warragul or I’d have to wait a couple of hours for the next one, so they dropped me off at the station. It was such a

Drinks with Katie!

nice visit and so good to see some familiar faces in Melbourne!

On Sunday, we just had a relaxing day and walked to the grocery store to stock up on groceries for the week. The next week was a short week at work since there was a public holiday on Wednesday called Anzac Day. It’s more of a sad day and is kind of like a day of remembrance. The tomato farm wanted us to work extra fast that week since we’d need to finish the whole shed in four days this time (which we had been doing for the past couple of weeks anyway). We actually finished everything by Friday morning so then we had to do stumping, which is basically just walking through the rows, finding any of the dead plants, and cutting them down. It’s superboring and no one likes doing it, so we’ve been trying to avoid it at all costs. On my day off on Wednesday, I was in a huge baking mood so I made cinnamon loaf in the morning, followed by my traditional lemon cupcakes in the afternoon. It all disappeared quite fast, but it’s always nice knowing that people enjoy it! Thursday was the day that we got the eviction message from our landlords, so I spent the day letting out all of my emotions and then tried to forget about it for the weekend.

My hair!!

On Friday, it was my birthday!!!! I went to work that morning and one of my friends (Judy) made me some brownies! We luckily got sent home early that day (around 1:30pm), so I went home and relaxed before going out that evening. One of my coworkers (Jun) is a hairdresser back at home, so she offered to come over before we went out so that she could do my hair as a gift. She came over around 6pm and did such a nice job on my hair! I might have to see if she can be my permanent hairdresser while I’m in Australia. We all made our way to the bowling alley but didn’t get started until about 7:30. There was such a big turnout - I think about 23 people showed up! Not only that, but it’s the first Facebook event that I’ve made where everyone RSVP’d on time AND there was a 100% “Attending” list. A dream for me! I’ve never had an event planned so flawlessly! It was actually my first time playing a full game of 10-pin bowling so it’s no surprise that I didn’t do the best. But it was so fun! That entire night, my cheeks were hurting from smiling and laughing constantly. I haven’t had a birthday where I’ve felt so special in years! After bowling, a bunch of us headed to the pub (Newmason) for drinks. I was only able to keep myself awake until 12:30 and then we headed home.

The next day, I went to Melbourne with Allen, Viola, and Nina. We drove to a regional park northwest of Melbourne called Mount Macedon, where we got to see the autumn leaves in full force. We met up wth some other people from work and stopped at a cafe for lunch, and then we checked out the area. For me, it was pretty entertaining to watch everyone take photo after photo, trying to get the perfect shot of throwing leaves up in the air or jumping in the middle of the street. We spent a few hours in the area and then we drove back to Melbourne, where we met up with MORE people from work to have dinner at a Korean barbecue restaurant called Drumtong. It was so cool! There was a grill in the middle of the table and then they would cook the meat right in front of us. What I didn’t realize about Korean chopsticks though is that they’re flat instead of round, so that was a bit difficult to get used to! I ended up just using a fork instead :) We basically just ate a lot of beef and pork, and then for dessert, they had these taco-like things

So happy this girl came to see me!!
Me, Roberta (Italy), and Akane (Japan)

with green tea ice cream inside. After dinner, we spent some time in central Melbourne to check out the Asian supermarket and get some bubble tea, and then we drove back to Warragul, so I didn’t get home until after midnight again. The following day, I just relaxed as I was completely exhausted from the weekend.

This week at work, we worked too fast once again so our supervisor put a lot of us in different departments. We ended up having to spend a full day doing random tasks, which was so boring! I think I’ve convinced the other girls to start working slower so that we don’t have to do all of the random work. I’ve been getting a ride home with one of the supervisor’s friends and he said that right now, they’re able to find us random tasks to do but soon, there won’t be much left to do. He said that if we continue working at the same speed, we’ll end up not having work on Fridays so we have to work slower in order to ensure that we get five days each week.

In other news, I received an anonymous comment on one of my blog posts from Ali’s newest ex-au pair. This is what it said:

Well, I am one of the following aupairs and made my decision to quit after 4 days.

It makes me feel a bit better to read that I'm not the only one she's upset with.

When I arrived the house was a mess! I spend my first two days with cleaning all day long - while Ali sat on the couch in front of her phone (well who'd guessed haha). The day she wanted to show me everything ended up with me asking her where to put things and where to find x y. She couldn't give me proper answers so I just tried to sort things myself. (Btw the aupair room wasn't even prepared, she was an hour late and I was told to look after Chloe 15 min after we first met ....)

After the last days of tidying up and cleaning I told her that I'm not a maid and I wouldn't tidy up HER room where she just slaps

The Dream Team - My department!
Judy, Jun, Me, Ming, Suzuka & Akane

down everything. And that she need to find someone else replacing me. I have her a week to figure out how to deal with it.

Today she came home and said "all my aupairs has helped me, but you are not" (because I didn't wash 5 cloth items to safe water, as we ran out of water the day befor!!!). I told her that she needs to find an other person and I'm not the right one for helping her. "I need to spend the whole day cleaning tomorrow" (Anzac day). Well yep. I guess that's your part then. Not mine.

(Bathrooms still disgusting, microwave still disgusting, still not organized, still "the asians", still she wants to kick people out but doesn't, still a mess everywhere... nothing has changed)

Well, I guess this lady might not change and always will have trouble in cooping with humans.

Thanks for sharing your story. Just got a hint about this story after my discussion with Ali tonight.

Church in Mt. Macedon

I decided to look into seeing if there was some way that you could report a family and prevent them from getting anymore au pairs, but it seems like there’s absolutely no protection that is set-up, which is quite sad. Interesting to read the comment though! I don’t think Ali will be getting many au pairs that would be willing to stay for a long period of time.

On the topic of looking for houses, I decided to add a post to the Warragul facebook page, saying that Gabi and I would need new accommodation by May 23rd, and I actually got quite a lot of responses back. The most entertaining comment, however, was one lady who posted, “I’m not sure if this is real. Someone just posted a similar request from Taiwan. Do these people even have visas to work here? I don’t think I’d feel safe about having someone illegal in my house.” Someone actually commented, “Yes, I agree. I have a friend who works there and I can ask about this person.” Gabi and I were shocked that people had enough time on their hands to write comments such as these! I then replied that the company has over 300 employees and we all have visas in order to work there. She responded thank you for the reassurance and then the guy commented that my profile looked real, so the post might be legit. The lady then deleted all of the comments, which was nice since it probably would have stopped us from finding somewhere to live. I got three replies from people who live in Drouin (which is where Sonia and I lived for two days but it was too difficult to get back and forth to work), and then I got three messages from people in Warragul. Gabi and I will be looking at one place tonight, and then two places tomorrow, and hopefully we'll be able to choose one of the three options. It's nice to know that we don't have any competition since all of these people are literally just opening up their homes for us - a couple of them are even going to buy us beds! As usual, I believe that everything happens for a reason so I know this will all make sense in a few months. Until then, we have some decisions to make! Hope everyone is doing well. Love always