Well, since arriving in Canberra and hearing the devastating news that a friend had been lost in the Tsunami tragedy I have tried to move on and make the most of the opportunity I currently have and am determined to see and experience everything I can. I'm now in Melbourne, having left Canberra and all its Parliament buildings behind. It is a lovely city, full of green parks and muesums, but after hearing the news about Connor I was keen to leave in the hope of leaving behind the memories of hearing the devastating news. It didn't work - I still remember finding out and the feelings of loss are still raw, but Melbourne offers new opportunities and experiences to enjoy. Melbourne is pretty well described as Australia's second city - although don't tell anyone from Victoria that because as far as they're concerned their city is a great deal better than Sydney, even if it doesn't have an eye-catching Opera House and bridge that command the horizon. Melbourne is much more relaxed and cultural than Sydney; its like comparing York to London I suppose (although Melbourne lacks a castle and a wall, but hey it can't have everything now can it!) What Melbourne does have is trams and the strangest traffic rules (you have to go in to the left hand lane to go right... to give way to the trams apparently....it's bizzare to see, and believe me its a good job I haven't got a job as a youth hostel bus driver here, like I did in Cairns!) It has lovely little coffee shops too (and having tried a few I can recommend Gloria's coffee shop at the Victoria markets... you can't argue with somewhere that puts marshmallow into hot chocolate, you really can't!) It's also a city that is sports mad. I mean, I lived in Manchester for a while and thought that as a city liked its sport, but frankly Manchester's nothing compared with Melbourne.  | | Claire's view of the court |
Within a stone's throw of each other you have the MCC (cricket and Australian Rules football which I still dont understand), the Olympic park (which hosted the Olympics a while ago) and Melbourne tennis ground, including the Rod Laver arena (Australia's equivalent to centre court at Wimbledon) which is currently hosting the Australian Open tennis. I'm pretty keen on sport and knew I wanted to see the Australian Open before I even came out here, so I organised my ticket way in advance and was lucky enough to go the other day and see Andre Agassi, Serena Williams and Roger Federer play on the Rod Laver arena all in one day. (I'm aware this was quite a stroke of luck to see so many top players in a day but hey, I'll take it!) So I sat for the day watching tennis and, being used to watching football from the stands, was shocked at how polite the crowd are - I mean there's hardly any screaming and shouting (other than when either Henman... GO ON TIM... or Hewitt... COME ON... are playing!) And there is polite applause for every point, plus people get up to go for a cup of coffee and a wander in the middle of matches. They miss a few games and then just wander back in at a change of ends. It appears no one watches all the match..... This for me was bizarre; I'd paid my money so was going to get value for it and as a result sat through every point, every change of ends and every double fault (even if by the end my body posture had moulded to the seat's frame) so I did the British thing and got every penny's worth out of the day! And do you know what, I had a really good day (I dont mean to sound surprised) even if I ended up a tad pink by then end (and yes that was with sun cream on...... factor 30 too!) So it appears I am a convert and will in future be one of those polite applauders who sleep overnight on the streets of Wimbledon to see Tiger Tim get knocked out in the fourth round by a qualifier from Solvakia - although not this year; the public ballot has already shut for Wimbledon 2005 - I checked! Claire M Could you be a student diarist?
If you hail from North Yorkshire or are studying in the county and think you could squeeze out a few hundred words about once a month (more if you want to!) get in touch with us by emailing northyorkshire@bbc.co.uk | 
