Now Where Was I?

Now Where Was I? Oh yeah, Melbourne.

Starting to wrap things up in yet another city in yet another country. I can hardly stay in one place more than 6 months and call myself a wanderer can I!? Thankfully that is not something I have done in over two and half years, but I am cutting it close this time.

Melbourne is a funny little city. It certainly stands out against the rest of Australia. Football crazy hooligans one minute; Versace toting laté drinkers the next. It is a city of contrasts.

In many ways it is a little slice of Europe plonked in the corner of Australia that most reflects European weather. This leads me to conclude that European sensibilities are somewhat climate born while the same could be said of Australia? Is the country's general attitude governed by its agreeable weather?

Brendan gave me a call the other day to meet up for a few beers while he was in town. He had a hotel room opposite the crown casino which gave us front row seats to the Crown nightly flame show. It is a pretty spectacular sight to see balls of fire erupting in unison 20-30 metres high. Energy crisis? What energy crisis? The flames where so massive that we could hear the fireballs erupting from about 800 metres away through the hotel's double paned glass. Brendan thought he could feel the warmth of the flames but I just told him to ease off the wine for a while. A few beers turned into a bit of an all-weekend bender (something that I do not regularly partake in of late) that was no doubt a significant contributor to me catching a cold early the following week. Mental note: stop going mental.

Another month wraps up and as such we all attend another sales launch. I keep telling myself that I only have a few weeks left and I can get out of this .... of a job. Last month I did ok but felt as though I performed far from spectacularly- much of my success to be attributed to luck more than anything. Nonethless to my surprise I was presented with 2 sales awards and had to get up a give a little speech about how I went about reaching my targets. Ouch. A bottle of champagne and a vip ticket to the Caufield Guinneas later, I sat down a little bamboozled.

The other side of my job seems to be increasing in relevance in the world. The super-sized US has long been known as the world's fattest nation. But what is little known that the latest comprehensive study into the health of Australians has won us the world heavy-weight title. Australia is the fattest nation in the world with 26% of its citizens classifiable as obese; a full percentage point ahead of the soon-to-be Barack-led nation. Experts are now calling for extreme measures like gym discounting and denial of surgery based on body mass index (BMI) to rectify the situation. Can you say subsidised personal training anyone? This is of course bad news and should not be celebrated. Bad inappropriate James. Bad.

As the days count down I am realising I have little time left to complete my certification. I better pull my finger out and smash through these last few assignments. I wrap things up in Sales at the end of October and a week later I say goodbye to my clients and disappear to the west. I am excited to have that feeling once again; waking up from a (hopefully) good night's sleep and thinking... Now where was I again?