Memoirs of an Au Pair ... - Melbourne, Australia
Melbourne, Australia
Where I stayed
ivanhoe East
Wednesday 25th September
I touched down in Melbourne and after spending the past 4 months travelling and sunning myself in Asia, I was ready for the world of work once again! I had arranged with my new host family that I would be arriving with them on the coming Sunday and then planned to start working on the Monday ...
Sunday 29th September
As I had arrived Michelle (my host mum) was in the kitchen making Key Lime Pie, Layla (5 yrs old) was sat at her table colouring in, and Jason (my host dad) was waking up Jenson (2 yrs old) from his afternoon nap. I had already been showed to my bedroom, and had off loaded my backpack and other bits. My bedroom was perfect, nice and homely, decorated in my favourite colours, with a very comfortable double bed, my own computer and built in wardrobe. I also had a bath / shower room that I shared with the kids. I'm not sure if I was more excited about having a double bed in room of my own or having a hot water shower again! Having spent the past 4 months sharing dormitories, with anything from 4 to 19 others, and only a handful of hot showers along the way, I felt like I was in heaven! I was due to start working the following day, but Jason had the next 2 days off work, so planned to show me the ropes, before Nana Sherryl & cousin Georgia flew over from Perth for 2 weeks to help me out some more. It was school holidays, so I didn't have to worry about the school run just yet.
Monday 30th September & onward ...
Jason taught me how to drive the automatic that would be my car during the weeks, a 3 month old, white Volvo XC60, which was amazing! Although I did feel like a bit of a hypocrite, previously slagging off women who cant drive these big 4x4's, when now, I was in fact one of them. On the weekends I had Michelle's little convertible Peugeot 206 to drive. My rate of pay is $325 a week, which is almost double what most other Au Pairs I know over here are paid. Plus the others don't have cars to get around, so I have got it pretty good!
Jason's 2 days off work were spent driving me and the kids around the local area, showing me where the kids went to school and daycare, the locals shops and supermarkets, and showing me how things around the house worked.
I had settled into my new home and family very easily, and enjoyed sitting down as part of the family in the evening, to share a good food and wine together, whilst we all talked about our days. I knew pretty much as soon as I arrived at this house, that I would be made to feel at home and part of the family, and I definitely was.
When Nana Sherryl & cousin Georgia came to stay, the kids were still on their school holidays, so we took advantage of this and made several trips into Melbourne central, visiting the Art Gallery, Botanical Gardens, Queen Victoria Market, War Memorial and took a lovely trip around the city on an old style tram too!
I was soon to be left to my own devices with the children, and there's no doubt about it, during my first couple of weeks, Laylas behavior towards me at times was enough to put me off ever having any kids of my own! In time, she settled, and came to terms with the fact that I was there to stay and realised that we would have a lot more fun together if she played ball!
My daily routine normally consists of waking up at about 7:30am, sitting with the kids whilst they finish their breakfast, getting the kids dressed, dropping Layla to school and Jenson off to daycare. Then I would have the day to myself to go wherever I please and do anything I fancied. At 3:30pm I would pick Layla up from school and then go to pick Jenson up from day care, take them home, feed them, bath them and then I was finish for the day at 6pm. By this point Michelle and Jason were in from work and would settle the kids and read them stories before bed time. 2 days a week Jenson doesn't have daycare, and these days we normally go for a swim, go to the play gym, go to Jam & Cream for tea & scones, go to the park, or sometimes we go shopping and for coffee. Jenson is the most adorable little boy I have ever seen. He has big, beautiful, brown eyes, and an obsession with saying "What Doing?" all the time. Everywhere I take him, I'm almost guaranteed to have someone comment on how gorgeous he is.
Settling into a new routine and having a home life here in Melbourne, has made me feel extremely homesick at times. Something I hadn't really experienced too much travelling throughout Asia. I miss my friends and family ever so much. But this homesick feeling would often pass very quickly, and I would come to appreciate that I am experiencing a completely different way of life over her in Australia. Its so laid back, with beautiful sunny days, friendly people, and so many new and exciting places to see, and of course I had my all my Australian family and friends here now too.
I had met a few different Au Pairs from the Melbourne Au Pairs Facebook group, and we would go to the mall, go for coffee and have nights out at The Deck together, which was great fun. The Deck was a roof top bar & club, that had a deal for Au Pairs, and sold 2 for 1 drinks at $9 each. This was extremely cheap for Australia, so us Au Pairs took full advantage.
The first Au Pair I met from this group was Kia (lovely girl from Colorado, who had just turned 21 and was a complete lightweight) We had arranged through the Melbourne Au Pairs facebook group, to meet up for coffee one day, and when we met we had decided we were going to plan a trip over to Tasmania the following weekend. So that night, having only met this girl once, very briefly for a coffee, we both randomly booked flights over to Launceston in Tasmania, for the coming weekend. It was crazy, random moments like this that made me love travelling life!
(SEE TASMANIA BLOG ENTRY ...)
Life in Melbourne is pretty sweet. My job is pretty chilled out, I hang out with the most awesome 2yr old and get paid for it, and when I'm not working I'm exploring the city that has been voted the best city to live in, in the world!
iv never worked as an Au Pair before, so coming into this role was quite testing for me at times, it's not all been a walk in the park! For instance, changing my first ****** nappy, good god! Let just say, Jenson found it very amusing when I had to tie a scarf round my face to change his nappy. I also cooked a chicken pie for the kids one night, without realising I had left the bright blue plastic on the pastry.
A typical day for me and Jenson might involve going for a baby'chino in the morning, then to the play gym in the afternoon (I found this place more fun than he did ... Giant foam pit was my personal favourite!) or sometimes, we would go to the mall together and do some shopping. Jenson is the best behaved child, he doesn't do tantrums and crying. He's just a little chilled out chubby dude, who has the most beautiful eyes, that would melt your heart.
On Friday morning Jenson has swimming lessons. I have to get in with him, as the little kids need an adult in the water with them. Jensi is like a fish ... He loves the water! All other kids were puss'ing out of putting their faces in the water, but not Jens, he puts his head under like a pro!
Jenson had a new word in his vocabulary and a slight obsession with telling people they have a penis, and one day decided he'd show me up at the pool by shouting out "Sammie you've got a penis!" A little embarrassing to say the least!
Christmas was soon approaching and Michelle and Jason asked me if I would like to come and spend Christmas with their family, at their beach house in Perth. I was sooo excited to visit Western Australia, and was told that my flights would be paid for, even though I would be on annual leave and wouldn't be looking after the children ... What a sweet deal! I had a ticket to see the ashes in Sydney on January 5th, so Michelle and Jason also kindly paid to fly me from Perth to Sydney. The street we lived on in Ivanhoe East, was just a road off of the famous Boulevard, which is renowned for it's annual Christmas lights display. In the run up to Christmas, the area was flooded with people to see the Christmas lights, and the roads in our surrounding area were heavily congested. It was so amazing to be part of this experience every night, and whilst I felt that my Christmas here in Oz wouldn't be anywhere near as "Christmassy" as back home, it very almost was!! In my opinion, our next door neighbours Denette and Colin had the best display on the whole street. It was obvious they took great pride in making their display look perfect. They nailed it.
I had bought a few little gifts to send back home for Mum, Dad, Mel and Georgia, and have managed to squeeze them all into a shoebox somehow! I took the shoebox to the local post office and paid about $80 (£45) to send it back to the UK. Unfortunately for me, as I was honest about the value of the goods I marked down as £100+ I got royally stung when the parcel reached the other side of the world and I had to pay heaps in tax!! Turned out to be rather an expensive Christmas for a traveller.
The week before I left for Perth, I had several packages and Christmas cards arrive from my loved ones in the UK. Mum, Dad and Georgia had sent me a huge box with a Christmas stocking packed with gifts! Mel had also sent me a box full of goodies. Another box came from my Luce with dream time tea (good times!) and a beautiful keyring to tie on my backpack. Beautiful cards from Bex & Gill, Lou, Shelly and Amy also came which was a lovely surprise. Christmas was hard for me at times, thinking of all my loved ones back home, and feeling quite homesick at times. I guess being out of your comfort zone, and experiencing a different kind of Christmas kind of played a part in this.
Michelle and Jason had a big Christmas gathering at our house a few days before we flew to Perth. It was such a great night! We had sparkling red wine out in the garden whilst Jason cooked the steaks on the barbie and we all enjoyed some sunshine, then we gradually moved in as the evening went on. Jason had cooked up a cheese dip, which was served up in a loaf of bread that had been scooped out and turnt into a bowl. It was incredible! We ate steak for dinner and drank more wine as we chatted. Later that night, we all went for a walk up the boulevard to see the Christmas lights. We took the kids too, and they loved it! They had neon light sticks that they were rather pleased with! There were carol singers, and children playing musical instruments along the way too. At one house, there was a little fat Greek looking child, who was dancing to some Christmas music, and he had the crowd going wild. Me and Michelle found this hillarious and were in stitches as we merrily walked up the road. I absolutely loved this night, and felt like part of such an amazing family here. I absolutely love my Australian family!
Christmas Eve .... Perth bound!!