Labour Day. Eight Hour Day Banner, Melbourne, 1856.

Happy Labour Day, Australia!

Today is Labour Day in Australia, the day in which Aussies commemorate the achievements of the Australian labour movement. Once upon a time, workers to Australia came from England under penal transportation. Under the Master and Servant Act, workers worked long hours, 10 to 12 hours a day, sometimes more, six days a week. As …

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Batman

Vote for Batman

I received a funny letter last week. It came from the Division of Batman. Melbourne is a metropolitan area, which means it is a region with a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories, which share industry, infrastructure, and housing. I live in the greater metropolitan area of Melbourne. Then, I live in the City …

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Melbourne Star

The Melbourne Star encore

Last month, we went on the Melbourne Star. This week, we went again. For our birthdays (mine is in November and Theo’s in December), his sister and brother-in-law gave us encore tickets on the Melbourne Star. That means you can go twice within 30 days. The first time, we went at sunset. The second time we …

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Between cultures. Suitcase on the floor.

Between cultures

The prompt for the Expat Blog Challenge on Saturday, February 16th was to respond to the following quote from Sarah Turbull: It is a bitter-sweet thing, knowing two cultures. Once you leave your birthplace nothing is ever the same. Growing up in Miami, I was like everyone else: Cuban. Ok, there were other people in …

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White Night Melbourne 2014

Today’s prompt in the Expat Blog Challenge is a photo prompt: a hidden gem. I’m going with White Night Melbourne. Considering it draws about 300,000 people and it takes place in the heart of Melbourne, White Night is not exactly hidden, but, surprisingly, a lot of people don’t know about it. I discovered it by …

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A coffee cup that says, "Today is gonna be a good day."

Possessed

Today’s prompt in the Expat Blog Challenge is to explore the trait I possess that most equipped me for life abroad or the trait that held me back the most, or both.   More than once in my life, friends have said that I am so brave, that they can’t believe I’m doing this or …

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