Ruthie and I have discussed the pros and
cons of roller derby in our lives a couple times since we started down that
crazy path back in 2009. What’s come up
again recently in conversation both with her and with a couple co-workers of
mine is the positive side effect of derby that comes in the form of an instant
social network. Savvy as she is, before
we even left, Ruthie did some research into roller derby leagues in the
Melbourne area in hopes that we might find and join a league. Fast forward to now and not only have we
found a league we like, but we’ve, once again instilled ourselves into the
operations of the league. Fortunately,
this time, it’s much less draining. The
biggest relief to our system is that it takes 15-20 minutes to get to practice
as opposed to the 55-65 it took at home.
With practices here running from 7-9p [as opposed to 8-10p], this means
that even on a derby night, Ruthie can be in bed by 9.30p. The other big non-stressor is the fact that
this league has enough people who are actually interested in keeping it running
[as well as very level-headed president] that it takes the stress off of any
one person. So even though I’ve recently
accepted a nomination for the role of Head Coach of WestSide Derby Dollz, I can
actually rely on a handful of people to help me get the job done.
But all of that isn’t the point I’m trying
to get at. Instead, it’s the social side
of roller derby. It’s a hobby that
provides quite the mixture of personalities, abilities, jobs, and socioeconomic
statuses. To that end, it’s pretty easy
to find friends in such a mixed group.
And thus it’s of no surprise that we’ve become good friends a number of
people on the league [although, let’s be real – as awesome as we are, not
everyone can handle us, so we’re not friends with *all* of them]. It is this added benefit of derby to which I
am most grateful. Sure the exercise is
good and all, but exercise won’t cook you a good dinner. As it stands, we’ve currently ingratiated
ourselves to two fantastic cooks. So,
with pretty regular frequency, Ruthie invites us over to their houses for a
good meal. Say what you will about her only
working at riding the couch for months, she’s worked pretty hard at kindling
some good friendships.
Derby isn’t our only hobby though. I managed to find a pottery studio. I took a class, and lo and behold, it’s
taught by a hippy. While she’s pretty
cool, it quickly became apparent that the thing I actually need for me to get
better at my pottery is to find a more advanced session or something resembling
more of a tutor. After the first class,
I’d fully intended to take the raku session since they are only allowed to have
fires for certain times in the year, but due to being on a budget combined with
being lazy, I never got around to it.
Maybe now that we’ve got a good hold on our budget and the winter is
[supposedly] on its way out, I’ll sign up for another class. Meanwhile, Ruthie’s found herself a pretty
awesome sewing teacher. Thursday
mornings [if not Thursday afternoons and/or Tuesdays], Ruthie finds herself in
the shed that’s been converted to a studio at the house of a fantastic
Australian. Ruthie’s also managed to
become rather friendly with the other ladies in the class, which might mean
that we’ll have even more cooks we can con into feeding us. And, although I say this with hushed tones
for fear of jinxing it, we might even have an in to the Australian celebrity
scene through the wife of a Neighbours [daytime soap] actor.
Since video games count as one of my
hobbies, I’ll use them as the first example of the economic differences. Currently, the average retail game opens in
US markets at $59.99. Here, it’s usually
$100. So take that one data point and
extrapolate. Don’t forget to factor in
that for the majority of the time we’ve been here, the US dollar has been
valued lower than the Australian dollar.
While we [meaning Ruthie] researched this before we left, we were still
shocked by just how much of a difference existed the cost of living. I’ve got two more examples. Movie tickets here start at $18, unless it’s
Tight-ass Tuesday, then it’s $11. The
cost differential between eating out and buying groceries back home is steep
enough that if you’re on a budget, you rarely eat out; here there’re barely a
difference, probably only about 10%.
I think we’ve spent roughly three weeks to
one month of total time with the American dollar being stronger than the
Australian dollar. This turns out to be
a double-edged sword because I get paid in $US, but it’s based on a formula
that reflects the differences in exchange between $US and $AU. So in the times that the $US gets stronger
than the $AU, my pay check drops a little.
Conversely, when the Australian market is doing better, my pay check
goes up a little. The fluctuations in
the market also affect us when it comes to our rent. We’ve been lucky enough to have the $US be
stronger than the $AU when the rent was due once. For that month, it was fantastic to look at
the bank transaction and see less
money than we paid actually withdrawn.
Does travel count as a hobby? We were lucky enough to spend the whole first
week of being in Oz working our way from Sydney to Melbourne via Canberra and
the inland route. It was fantastic to
get ourselves acclimated to the time difference, driving on the opposite side
of the road, and the change in general environment. Since our first night in Sydney, we managed
to get back once when Lorraine visited.
That same trip to Sydney with Lorraine also involved a road trip along
the south eastern coast of the continent, providing some lovely scenery of the
countryside.
We’ve also been out and about in the lovely
state of Victoria to do some exploring of the country side around here. A couple trips up to the Grampians as well as
to the closer Dandenong range have provided us with some good motorcycle trips,
hikes, and lovely views. We lucked out
in befriending a couple with a “country house” in a rural town about an hour
outside of the city. This has provided
for a weekend or two of escaping to live in the country for a night.
We’ve been down to Philip Island a couple
times as well as to Queensland. The
problem is that this country is so big.
Ruthie and I have covered a good stretch of Victoria and New South
Whales, and one city in Queensland, but that still leaves so much of the
country untouched. We both would love to
traverse the centre of the continent [although Ruthie would rather do it in the
style of Priscilla, just without the break downs] as well as getting up to the
Northern Territory. We quickly learned
two things about travelling Oz. One,
Australia is the size of the US, so without a dedicated travel schedule and big
budget to match, it’s hard to cover so much land. Two, it’s expensive to travel around Oz. More expensive, in fact, than travelling to
some other countries, like Thailand.
So while we’d both like to visit Tasmania
[I mean, the ferry docks right outside our front door], the other states, as
well as New Zealand … I just don’t know.
Time and money are now of the essence, and since neither grow on trees,
I have my doubts we’ll be able to see a whole lot more before we leave this
corner of the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment