There’s a low droning in the distance which steadily builds into a rumble. Metal slides, grinds, and bounces along metal. The sound grows closer. A bell rings again and again. The Number 1 tram rushes past the end of Miles Street on it’s way to the beach.

I grew up as a neighbour to a motorway. My life was sound tracked by the constant flow of commuters going to and from London. That endless buzz has been replaced with a new, intermittent sound that reminds me of home no less. It seems strange to think that I’ve been in Melbourne for six months now; it has been equally as long as a life time as it has been no time at all.

I’m hardly towards the north of the CBD, when I do pass by I think back on my time spent at Nomads and it all feels so long ago. I had no idea what I was doing, I didn’t know where things were, I didn’t know which tram to get where. The map of Melbourne I have built up in my head makes me feel almost certain that I’ve achieved a lot since those first few weeks.

When I think back to my previous journeys where I’d spend a few days here and a few days there and feel like I was seeing so much when in reality, I was barely scratching the surface. Even after six months there’s still so much to see and do in and around Melbourne. I’ve come to accept that I simply wont have the time or the opportunity to see it all and that’s just fine because I absolutely see myself coming back here in the future.

I was sat out in South Melbourne on Saturday afternoon sipping on a flat white, waiting patiently for my second brunch of the day to arrive while I enjoyed the simple business of my continued existence. On the tables around me effortlessly cool gentlemen with skin-tight jeans and towering, swept back hair alongside elegant young ladies with face-consuming, bug-eye sun glasses were nibbling on eggs cooked whichever way they prefer them in the morning, or early afternoon as it may well have been.

That’s when it hit me, when I realized just how much I like living here. I once again came to the understanding that living somewhere permanently makes it far too easy to take things for granted. The number of events and activities I would pass up on at home with the easy excuse of “I’ll go next time” makes me feel a little bit sick. Why not go now? When you only live somewhere temporarily, it’s much harder to come up with a justifiable excuse. What if there is no next time?

Let’s go for a drink. Let’s go to the beach. Let’s go to the Moonlight Cinema. Let’s go get brunch. Let’s just hang out somewhere in the city. Yes please! While I’ll admit that I spend a fair share of my time lounging about the apartment catching up on T.V. shows I wasn’t interested in when they aired, reading or just actively doing nothing, I do try to do as much as possible to get out and about and continue to explore Melbourne as often as I can.

Six months sounds like it should be a long time to be away from home. I’m living almost 12 hours in the future. When I’m awake and doing things, my friends and family are, or should be, sleeping. I’d be a liar if I said that I didn’t miss home. I’ve had a couple of bouts of homesickness, something I’d not experienced before which I guess might come from having time to do nothing; it gives you plenty of time to think. At the end of the day, life goes on without me at home and I do my best to make sure nobody forgets me by uploading pictures of all the exciting things I’ve been doing while they’re stuck at their probably terrible jobs.

It blows my mind that I’ve had two jobs in Australia already and I’m soon to start looking for my third. I’d never have thought that it would be this easy to pack up, move abroad and start a life of my own and yet it turns out that it really is. These past six months have given me the confidence to genuinely believe that I could, if I were so inclined, stay abroad for a significant length of time.

Boy, that was some ramble. I think I had intentionally set out to say something profound but I got all stream-of-consciousness and just let that lot all tumble out. I think what I meant to say was that it’s been six months in Melbourne so far and I have loved every minute of it, even those that I’ve spent missing home.