Fifth Base - Flight to Melbourne

On the 26/1 was Australia day. There are probably lots of festivities which we missed because we booked our flight for that day. It was (unsurprisingly) cheaper. But since we have been at New Years Eve in Perth, have seen not one but two firework displays and there was some stuff in Melbourne waiting for us, I didn't mind.

The view from the balcony where we spend zero time because it had no room and we didn't have good access..

The flight to Melbourne was annoying and meditative at the same time for me. Here is how it goes: Behind my seat was an approximately four year old who was constatly kicking my seat. He was part of a family with three boys and the parents. The mother was sitting with two boys. In the middle seat behind me was the wild one. He started kicking my seat from behind. The mother was scolding him now and then. When it got even wilder, I turned around ready to say something, she noticed and scolded him even more. It didn't help. I thought about any possible solutions for a while but my will to find a solution faded and I noticed my anger towards him and her for not having control over him giving way to sympathy. I had to endure the little shit for 3 hours. She has to endure him for years and she is helpless. Literally. Her husband was sitting one row behind her and didn't lift a finger. I promised myself to never be like him. I could ignore the kicking so well that I even read a book. It was the end of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and although I like the book, I didn't "get" the ending. I am not even sure if there is something to get.

Looking down a bit.

We landed at 1 in the morning, took a double decker bus to the city and arrived at our new appartment on the 13th floor of a skyscraper. It looked bad. There were two bedrooms in the apartment and one of the two couples moved to the living room behind a curtain in order to be able to sub-lease the bedroom. The bedroom was extremely small - more of a box, and the bottom of the window was at my eye level. In the morning light it left an even worse impression than by night because there was no morning light to see. The next skyscraper was 8 meters next to ours, so there was so little light coming into the room that it was impossible to know, if it was sunny or rainy. If capitalism is meant to have triumphed over communism, this apartment is a testament that this is not necessarily right for everyone.

This photo captures the feeling you get living in that apartment pretty well.

But no worries! There are things to like in Melbourne. We'll get to them in the next post.