Living in Melbourne Pt.2

It was my birthday recently and I was lucky enough to get a lovely new vintage style bike, complete with wicker basket! Now that it's full on winter here it's pretty cold. On a nice fresh sunny day I went a cycle down the east coast of Melbourne. St Kilda to Mordialloc. It was windy. But worth it for the lovely sea views.

I would really recommend checking out Japanese Dessert Kitchen in the Asian district in Melbourne. Also for an 'American style' grilled cheese sandwich, the Prahran market does one that's the bomb!

The bike!

 This book was on display in a cafe at Acland Street and it reminded me of the mixed media project I did a couple of years ago.

I enrolled in a short course on Children's Book Illustration. I wanted to do it mainly just to meet people with similar interests and encourage myself to create more for my portfolio.

And some pretty blue skies!

Me loving the bike.

I am still enjoying living in Melbourne. Homesickness has struck but I just need to give it a bit more time to get used to the new surroundings. There is so much to do at weekends so I am rarely bored.

Thanks for stopping by!

Warrior King

This illustration is probably the best one that sums up my current illustration style. I actually did the original sketch for this about a year ago on my lunch break in work. I got my inspiration for this from some photographs of people dressed up as warriors with helmets, swords and viking style clothing.

At the weekend we went up to Yarra Valley, done some wine tasting and ice cream tasting. yum!

Life in Melbourne so far

I have been living in Melbourne for just over a month now. I'm still looking for a place to rent as well as find an area I'd like to live in.

Me at Luna Park the other week. St Kilda beach is a really cool area for drinks, food and quirky shops.

Classic Flinders street station pic with the Eureka sky deck peeking over the top.

I went to the State Library of Victoria in the centre of Melbourne. Huge building, I sat in the main reading room. It was busy but very quiet. If someone was to cough it would echo forever.

Sun Theatre, Yarraville. We briefly wandered about the main street here, it was a nice little area.

Wander round Malvern - another area with the typical small quirky style shops you will find throughout Melbourne.

Lunch, including a Tim Tam milkshake which was ridiculous but amazing! I'm definitely going back here!

One of my recent book purchases - Anne of Green Gables. I've never read it before but I thought it would be a good book to read for inspiration for future illustrations.

 Been trying out a new style of drawing with ink and adding watercolour over the top. This was a first attempt, I think it worked out not bad.

Chicago

We arrived in Chicago on the 2nd of February. It was a huge difference to New York. Freezing cold! We stayed on the Magnificent mile at the Sheraton, which was really nice. On the first day we got some amazing pancakes for breakfast from a place called Wildberry Pancakes. So good! Then we walked through Millennium park to take some pictures of the bean and make our way to the art institute. The rest of the time we did some shopping and got a tour of the stadium Soldier Field. We obviously tried some deep dish pizza but never got round to getting some Garretts popcorn.

New York

I have started making my way across America. My first stop was New York! We left Glasgow on the 28th January on a 9am flight to London and from there we boarded the plane to New York. It was very exciting, this is a huge trip we are on plus the fact we are emigrating adds to all the excitement and nerves.

New York was massive, busy, colorful, smelly, loud, dynamic, energetic, fun, scary, chaotic and fast!
To sum it up in a few words, it really is the city that never sleeps. Our hotel was smack bang in the middle of it all so we were right next to all the shops, Madison Square Garden and the Empire State Building.

It's a great city and I really enjoyed walking about Times Square, Central Park and all the other famous landmarks. It was just a bit too overwhelming for me. Saying that I would visit again.

Leaving Scotland

So eh.. I thought I should probably post an update on this blog.
In four weeks I am leaving Scotland to visit America for one month. Then I will be going on to Australia.
I am so excited because I have never been to America before. First stop will be New York, then Chicago, Tuscon, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Hawaii then it's on to Sydney! Exciting times ahead. It's a long holiday which I wont be coming home from. So I'll be going to Australia to live and find work. It's scary and I'm nervous but you know what? I've lived in this shitty town in Scotland most of my life and there's nothing left for me here. Scotland will always be my home and I'm sure I'll miss it and if things don't work out I can easily book flights back.
I'm looking forward to more sunshine (fingers crossed) and a change of lifestyle. I will have to adapt to the Australian way of life and how they have conversations and their little sayings etc.

I am going to blog my experience to let others who are thinking about emigrating get an insight in to what it's like. Getting a visa was not easy, it was a long and tedious process.

bye for now

Nicola