I haven’t updated this in a little bit. I thought I should coz I want to keep it moving and happening! I know my bro overseas looks to this for updates. As do I to his blog. So this is much for him as anyone!
But quite honestly, there hasn’t been a whole lot new to really report! I’m sort of done talking about the same stuff I have been the last couple of updates. Y’all get the picture or I talked to you about it in person or by email or something. I’m over talking about it to a certain extent. I want new movement and some new action.
Everything is still either moving or not moving along slowly but surely. Still no word on a date for my teeth to get done. Still not much to very little to do at work (I did apply and interview for another one that came up. No word on the outcome of that yet but I’m not super hopeful.) And so on.
I’m off to Sydney this weekend to go see Against Me play. Which should be tons of fun. For those that don’t know, they’re a rock band from Florida.
I know a lot of my friends are pretty indifferent to them or don’t see the appeal or whatever and to be quite honest I’m not out to disagree with them or win people over to them. They’re just some rock band.
But they’re special to me. I saw them a couple of years ago knowing bugger all about them. They came and played Canberra one evening and put on one of the funnest shows I’ve ever been a part of. Total energy and crowd connection (including erm, the crowd connecting with the guitar player’s head…knocking him out and putting a slightly premature end to their set…). The being a fan of their records came later. Just kinda happened. They ended up being the soundtrack to a good portion of my completing school last year (actually I think I missed getting to see them play with The Draft late last year coz I had something school related on). It’s just all these little things. I’m a total fan, It happened. And I’m looking forward to seeing them play again. And to ducking up to Sydney for the day.
As a bonus, a semi last minute show got hooked up for Canberra (same venue, which sadly now has a permanent crowd barrier in place to avoid stuff like guitar players being knocked out due to excess crowd participation. Bummer. And it still didn’t stop the dude from The Bronx hurting his back there. Guy did that all on his own. ) So I’m now spending my whole weekend watching them play! Sydney should be great and all. But Canberra should be rad up close and personal small venue show mayhem!
Other than that, seeing Helmet next week which is a totally odd one. I’ve honestly not listened to them in years. But they were sort of a pivotal part of me investigating and discovering music that didn’t suck back in the mid 90’s. I’ve not heard anything past their 90’s records. Apparently this new incarnation could more accurately be described as “Page Hamilton and a bunch of guys play Helmet covers”… And could go either way quality and entertainment value wise. But they’re playing Meantime start to finish, plus a buncha other hits/non hits. It’s a Friday night at the uni bar which is still far and away my favorite place to see bands locally. And I’m going with a bunch of other guys my age who probably also got into them in the 90’s when they were first discovering good music. So regardless of how the band ends up being it should be a good night out.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Sunday, March 2, 2008
"Public Service moment of the day" (part 1)
I Am also very amused by the sort of stuff my brother and I have termed “Public Service moment of the day”. Things like delivering a very large heavy black plastic wrapped mystery item to a guy who wasn’t there’s office. And having one of his fellow cubicle dwellers make me return it because (in his actual words/thinking “We don’t know what this is…For all we know it could be a fertiliser and chemical bomb! Nah get it out of here, I’m making an executive decision!”. The whole time I’m smiling and thinking “dude lay off the current affair. I’m sure it’s just a filing cabinet or something”. But in respecting his wish to remain alert but not alarmed, wheeled it back down to the dock (which in the event of a blast, would probably have been no more or less dangerous than his office. Either way the building is still exploding), Not caring in the slightest that this thing weighed 30kg because I was smiling too hard at how much he’d made my day.
Public service moment number two this week occurred today with Medicare’s much heralded “values launch” this morning. I’m not real sure how or why you launch a “value”. But apparently it involved free breakfast for all of us and 3 ladies delivering a speech launching said “values” while dressed as bees (there is a bee on the poster announcing that we all have values up around the building… see a theme developing here people…”
More Public service moments of the day as they come to hand. Because people who work in offices are weird and surreal and very very funny and should totally be blogged about.
Public service moment number two this week occurred today with Medicare’s much heralded “values launch” this morning. I’m not real sure how or why you launch a “value”. But apparently it involved free breakfast for all of us and 3 ladies delivering a speech launching said “values” while dressed as bees (there is a bee on the poster announcing that we all have values up around the building… see a theme developing here people…”
More Public service moments of the day as they come to hand. Because people who work in offices are weird and surreal and very very funny and should totally be blogged about.
My teeth...
So for those of you who haven’t already heard me complain about it before, I have really bad teeth. They’ve never ever been great but especially so in the last maybe 10 or so years. Combination of poor brushing as a kid, years of taking ADD meds (or so a learned mate of mine pointed out a couple months ago), and a less than successful attempt at getting them fixed up about 5 years ago (ironically the LAST time I possibly had enough money in the bank to go see the world) that again cost me a packet and left them worse as I lost fillings over the years.
They’d been bad but relatively stable in that period of time, although I did live in fear of the inevitable bad happening.
Which it did, right on cue, early this year. I was thankfully fine and able to enjoy myself over Christmas and my subsequent travels. But, possibly as a result of holiday indulgence and being on the go for about two weeks, I developed a small lump on my chin (which I didn’t think anything of. I thought it was just a bump or a knock or something).
And it grew, and grew, and grew over a period of about a week or so.
Turns out I’d developed a particularly vicious abscess under a couple of teeth which grew and grew into something not quite resembling a cross between the elephant man and the joker… But enough to make eating and yawning really painful for a few days. And enough for my mum to spot it within about 5 seconds of meeting me and going “Oh my god you have an abscess, you need immediate help or you’ll be poisoned”. And to drop what she was doing to find me a dentist (who incidentally, is lovely) who would see me on a Sunday. I’d actually been out looking for one when I ran into her (usually when I get the point of actually doing something about lumps and bumps, they’re bad. I have some stupidly superhuman pain threshold).
So in short…I ended up taking a bunch of stupidly huge sized antibiotics for a week (I was gonna lay off the booze post xmas/new years. So that was good incentive haha!), and then started off my 2008 year by having 2 teeth pulled.
That was just the short term solution. The long term one is that I’m now getting an entire top plate and 2 partial back ones.
So my “Oh I’ll just work for a few months, raise the bucks I need, then take off overseas early in the year”…Has now turned into “This is going to cost thousands, and the work could potentially take until the second half of the year”.
So I’m stuck in Canberra until my teeth get done (and it is a good long term solution for me. I’ve had such trouble, have horrible looking teeth, and I’ll be stoked when they’re fixed”. And then I’m pretty determined that my time here is going to be up. This city has been good to me. But I’m simply not feeling it anymore, and it’s time to move on.
Still shooting for some overseas travel in maybe September now. I have my dearest youngest brother in Holland who I’d like to go visit. I have my mum’s cousin Anne outside London who was out for Ange’s brissie wedding. I’d not seen Anne in 28 years and she is as awesome as ever. I have another aunt’s cousin in Edinburgh who is apparently the awesome. I have friends in the US I’d like to drop in on. I have an assortment of friends seeing the world. And I’d like to go join them. I have a valid international student card. Last perk/remnant of my time spent in study last year. I have a British passport (thanks mum, and the rather arbitrary fact of the place you happened to be born!). And I would like to make the most of all of these And life in general. It’s just a personal goal of mine. I figure I should aim as high and as day dreamily as possible and them try to achieve even half of it.
But if the money’s not there the money’s not there. And if that’s the case I’m planning on busting a move to Melbourne until I can afford a move a little further afield. It is after all one of the world’s great international cities and I genuinely love it to death. By me heart and my head and my stomach keep telling me try and aim a little higher and further afield first. So that’s what I’m listening to right now. I consider all of this part of my travels. And my moves from one place to the next I guess.
In the meantime, I’m in Canberra taking care of myself. After a month of aimless underemployment, I scored a fairly low level contractor job working at Medicare HQ. (In Tuggeranong, where I grew up. I now eat lunch where people used to smoke weed under the trees up from my old school hahaha. That’s one of the benefits of being here in town on account of the teeth thing and having to fund it all somehow. I can pick up some much needed work experience! I also maintain a contact register of everyone in the building. And the amount of people from my old neighbourhood that appear to have gotten jobs here after school is a bit mind boggling in an “I just wanna work there. Please don’t make me have to travel outside of the 5 km radius that is my whole entire world to have to do anything in my entire life” sort of way.
It currently doesn’t pay a whole heap more than the centrelink/ bartender combo I had been working for years (technically I still have the bar job too. Just trying to fit it in). But it’s full time. And currently a very cruisy full time! It’s basically taking and despatching mail and deliveries around the building, and being on hand to sign for anything that happens to come in. Which only takes up a sporadic 2 or 3 hours of an 8-hour day.
I’ve got enough to do at the moment coz the rest of the time is spent figuring out how the guy I’m replacing did things and taking various inventories and updating registers and officey such. But I can foresee a whole lot of doing my own thing once that dries up in a few weeks. The temp guy I replaced said he read about 8 books in 2 months. I’m currently on my 2nd in about 3 weeks! Not that I’m opposed to the reading time at all.
I currently don’t even have the internet in my “office” (read “the stock room”). So I’m resorting to “substitute internetz”. Typing stuff up in word then saving it and pasting it to blogger when I get home.
They’d been bad but relatively stable in that period of time, although I did live in fear of the inevitable bad happening.
Which it did, right on cue, early this year. I was thankfully fine and able to enjoy myself over Christmas and my subsequent travels. But, possibly as a result of holiday indulgence and being on the go for about two weeks, I developed a small lump on my chin (which I didn’t think anything of. I thought it was just a bump or a knock or something).
And it grew, and grew, and grew over a period of about a week or so.
Turns out I’d developed a particularly vicious abscess under a couple of teeth which grew and grew into something not quite resembling a cross between the elephant man and the joker… But enough to make eating and yawning really painful for a few days. And enough for my mum to spot it within about 5 seconds of meeting me and going “Oh my god you have an abscess, you need immediate help or you’ll be poisoned”. And to drop what she was doing to find me a dentist (who incidentally, is lovely) who would see me on a Sunday. I’d actually been out looking for one when I ran into her (usually when I get the point of actually doing something about lumps and bumps, they’re bad. I have some stupidly superhuman pain threshold).
So in short…I ended up taking a bunch of stupidly huge sized antibiotics for a week (I was gonna lay off the booze post xmas/new years. So that was good incentive haha!), and then started off my 2008 year by having 2 teeth pulled.
That was just the short term solution. The long term one is that I’m now getting an entire top plate and 2 partial back ones.
So my “Oh I’ll just work for a few months, raise the bucks I need, then take off overseas early in the year”…Has now turned into “This is going to cost thousands, and the work could potentially take until the second half of the year”.
So I’m stuck in Canberra until my teeth get done (and it is a good long term solution for me. I’ve had such trouble, have horrible looking teeth, and I’ll be stoked when they’re fixed”. And then I’m pretty determined that my time here is going to be up. This city has been good to me. But I’m simply not feeling it anymore, and it’s time to move on.
Still shooting for some overseas travel in maybe September now. I have my dearest youngest brother in Holland who I’d like to go visit. I have my mum’s cousin Anne outside London who was out for Ange’s brissie wedding. I’d not seen Anne in 28 years and she is as awesome as ever. I have another aunt’s cousin in Edinburgh who is apparently the awesome. I have friends in the US I’d like to drop in on. I have an assortment of friends seeing the world. And I’d like to go join them. I have a valid international student card. Last perk/remnant of my time spent in study last year. I have a British passport (thanks mum, and the rather arbitrary fact of the place you happened to be born!). And I would like to make the most of all of these And life in general. It’s just a personal goal of mine. I figure I should aim as high and as day dreamily as possible and them try to achieve even half of it.
But if the money’s not there the money’s not there. And if that’s the case I’m planning on busting a move to Melbourne until I can afford a move a little further afield. It is after all one of the world’s great international cities and I genuinely love it to death. By me heart and my head and my stomach keep telling me try and aim a little higher and further afield first. So that’s what I’m listening to right now. I consider all of this part of my travels. And my moves from one place to the next I guess.
In the meantime, I’m in Canberra taking care of myself. After a month of aimless underemployment, I scored a fairly low level contractor job working at Medicare HQ. (In Tuggeranong, where I grew up. I now eat lunch where people used to smoke weed under the trees up from my old school hahaha. That’s one of the benefits of being here in town on account of the teeth thing and having to fund it all somehow. I can pick up some much needed work experience! I also maintain a contact register of everyone in the building. And the amount of people from my old neighbourhood that appear to have gotten jobs here after school is a bit mind boggling in an “I just wanna work there. Please don’t make me have to travel outside of the 5 km radius that is my whole entire world to have to do anything in my entire life” sort of way.
It currently doesn’t pay a whole heap more than the centrelink/ bartender combo I had been working for years (technically I still have the bar job too. Just trying to fit it in). But it’s full time. And currently a very cruisy full time! It’s basically taking and despatching mail and deliveries around the building, and being on hand to sign for anything that happens to come in. Which only takes up a sporadic 2 or 3 hours of an 8-hour day.
I’ve got enough to do at the moment coz the rest of the time is spent figuring out how the guy I’m replacing did things and taking various inventories and updating registers and officey such. But I can foresee a whole lot of doing my own thing once that dries up in a few weeks. The temp guy I replaced said he read about 8 books in 2 months. I’m currently on my 2nd in about 3 weeks! Not that I’m opposed to the reading time at all.
I currently don’t even have the internet in my “office” (read “the stock room”). So I’m resorting to “substitute internetz”. Typing stuff up in word then saving it and pasting it to blogger when I get home.
trying to bring this up to date!
So beyond my Melbourne trip I say Pisschrist and Born/Dead a coupla times more. See the photos for that. It was a good night.
Then made another spontaneous overnighter to Sydney to go see Extortion, who are a really really great hardcore band from Perth, one of this country’s finest! Plus I figured if they were coming all the way from Perth the least I could do was travel a whopping three hours to see them play.
And it was well worth it. Not only was the rest of the line-up for the show pretty damn awesome. But I caught up with friends from all over the place that I hadn’t seen in ages (in some cases).
The best thing about it was the crowd. Extortion appeal to people from all the different varying factions of the “scene” and brought them all together for the show. Which honestly almost never seems to happen these days. It felt like a Sydney hardcore show of old! Messiest (in a really really great way) pit I think I’ve seen in ages hahaha! Including a guy in a wheelchair! He copped a few stray stage divers in the face and such and was loving every minute of it hahaha! At one point he even ended up on stage mid Extortion set. How this happened I did not see. I was too busy watching people go nuts on the other side of the room.
But he proceeded to then execute the first and only wheelchair stage dive I’ve ever seen in my life. It was a low stage, and it’s not like he was at risk of breaking his neck or anything! Definitely one of the cooler and more random thing’s I’ve ever seen in my life hehe!
Other than that… Had about a month’s worth of work free aimlessness, which included a whole bunch of stressing and complaining about not having enough to do. Oh and my old friend Bernie got married. The ceremony was in this amazing Greek church (Christina, his now wife is, Greek). Neither of them is particularly religious. It was more to please the families, and the Greek government so Bernie can someday apply for a euro passport and things like that ☺.
But if I figure if you must get married in a church, make it a Greek orthodox one!!! SO much fucking gold. Gold plating, gold paint, chandeliers, awesome religious art on every square inch of the walls. So much shiny!!!
Reception was at the Yarralumla woolshed. Most famous as the home of many an underage drinking party and illegal rave back in the 90’s (and at least one interstate white power skinhead gathering that I know of…yeesh!). None of that tonight. Just lots of legal age drinking, food, and general good times. Killer wedding all round!
Which brings me up to now. I’m currently employed as a fairly low level contractor to Medicare and am sitting at work blogging this coz I’m getting paid to not have enough to do with my days!
Then made another spontaneous overnighter to Sydney to go see Extortion, who are a really really great hardcore band from Perth, one of this country’s finest! Plus I figured if they were coming all the way from Perth the least I could do was travel a whopping three hours to see them play.
And it was well worth it. Not only was the rest of the line-up for the show pretty damn awesome. But I caught up with friends from all over the place that I hadn’t seen in ages (in some cases).
The best thing about it was the crowd. Extortion appeal to people from all the different varying factions of the “scene” and brought them all together for the show. Which honestly almost never seems to happen these days. It felt like a Sydney hardcore show of old! Messiest (in a really really great way) pit I think I’ve seen in ages hahaha! Including a guy in a wheelchair! He copped a few stray stage divers in the face and such and was loving every minute of it hahaha! At one point he even ended up on stage mid Extortion set. How this happened I did not see. I was too busy watching people go nuts on the other side of the room.
But he proceeded to then execute the first and only wheelchair stage dive I’ve ever seen in my life. It was a low stage, and it’s not like he was at risk of breaking his neck or anything! Definitely one of the cooler and more random thing’s I’ve ever seen in my life hehe!
Other than that… Had about a month’s worth of work free aimlessness, which included a whole bunch of stressing and complaining about not having enough to do. Oh and my old friend Bernie got married. The ceremony was in this amazing Greek church (Christina, his now wife is, Greek). Neither of them is particularly religious. It was more to please the families, and the Greek government so Bernie can someday apply for a euro passport and things like that ☺.
But if I figure if you must get married in a church, make it a Greek orthodox one!!! SO much fucking gold. Gold plating, gold paint, chandeliers, awesome religious art on every square inch of the walls. So much shiny!!!
Reception was at the Yarralumla woolshed. Most famous as the home of many an underage drinking party and illegal rave back in the 90’s (and at least one interstate white power skinhead gathering that I know of…yeesh!). None of that tonight. Just lots of legal age drinking, food, and general good times. Killer wedding all round!
Which brings me up to now. I’m currently employed as a fairly low level contractor to Medicare and am sitting at work blogging this coz I’m getting paid to not have enough to do with my days!
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Pisschrist and Born/Dead-ANU Bar Canberra-January 3rd 2008
This was the day after I got back from Melbourne. It was a good opportunity to see these 2 great bands again!
The flier I made for the show
Pisschrist
Born/Dead
The flier I made for the show
Pisschrist
Born/Dead
So Anyway....
Rocked up to The Arthouse for the New Years Eve show and ended up having a a great night. What can I say, Straightjacket, Pisschrist, both great (Pisschrist especially so. I think it’s some of the most fun I’ve ever had seeing them!) missed the NZ band coz I ran home to the hostel to change from thongs to shoes in order to not get a broken foot and/or diseases from the Arty floor.
Born Dead were fucking great. I thought so anyway because I got into punk listening to Aus Rotten and east bay punk (Econochrist, who their drummer played in apparently, Christ on Parade, etc) so it’s like this band was made for me. I know some people found them boring. But their musical ideas had me won over before they even played a note I think.
Severed Head of State were beyond incredible! Like really, even more so than Sydney. I have not enjoyed watching a band like that in ever and ever! (at one point ended up getting a shoulder ride round the pit from pete missing link. Heh heh!). I was determined to go all out and enjoy the music too. Being in that mindset from the beginning helped a lot.
No photos because uh, I was honestly too busy having a great time watching bands!
We had a sweet posse of Canberra folk there too! Either people that travelled, or ex Canberrans that live down there now. So It all felt really familiar and comfortable and homelike!
Blah blah blah got drunk, saw loads of friends from all over, had an amazing time, danced it up in the upstairs beer garden and downstairs bar area, and so on!
Sunday after involved it being hot as all hell again! (definitely in the 40’s). Being hungover, finding juice, finding a coffee (drank starbucks on lygon st. Melbourne I’m so sorry. It was new years morning and nothing was open yet. I apologise). Then did way too much walking around again, Before settling on the movies as a good way to beat the heat. Saw The Darjeeling Limited which I really really enjoyed (and I think Wes Anderson who wrote it is total hit and miss. This was definitely on the hit side of things).
Did stuff all that evening or Monday, went to the art gallery to beat the heat, stuffed around doing things on the cheap coz I was out of cash. Ran into Sarah while I was hanging out in the gallery because I was totally over Melbourne at that point! Then came home to flop!
Born Dead were fucking great. I thought so anyway because I got into punk listening to Aus Rotten and east bay punk (Econochrist, who their drummer played in apparently, Christ on Parade, etc) so it’s like this band was made for me. I know some people found them boring. But their musical ideas had me won over before they even played a note I think.
Severed Head of State were beyond incredible! Like really, even more so than Sydney. I have not enjoyed watching a band like that in ever and ever! (at one point ended up getting a shoulder ride round the pit from pete missing link. Heh heh!). I was determined to go all out and enjoy the music too. Being in that mindset from the beginning helped a lot.
No photos because uh, I was honestly too busy having a great time watching bands!
We had a sweet posse of Canberra folk there too! Either people that travelled, or ex Canberrans that live down there now. So It all felt really familiar and comfortable and homelike!
Blah blah blah got drunk, saw loads of friends from all over, had an amazing time, danced it up in the upstairs beer garden and downstairs bar area, and so on!
Sunday after involved it being hot as all hell again! (definitely in the 40’s). Being hungover, finding juice, finding a coffee (drank starbucks on lygon st. Melbourne I’m so sorry. It was new years morning and nothing was open yet. I apologise). Then did way too much walking around again, Before settling on the movies as a good way to beat the heat. Saw The Darjeeling Limited which I really really enjoyed (and I think Wes Anderson who wrote it is total hit and miss. This was definitely on the hit side of things).
Did stuff all that evening or Monday, went to the art gallery to beat the heat, stuffed around doing things on the cheap coz I was out of cash. Ran into Sarah while I was hanging out in the gallery because I was totally over Melbourne at that point! Then came home to flop!
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
...
29.01.08
It’s too hot and I’m hungover after a fun as hell public holiday Cocktail arvo with some good mates. Hanging out at home coz it left me with bugger all cash til tomorrow. So I thought I’d keep on getting through back updating this thing. We’ll see how I go in my current state haha
So Melbourne…flew in from Brissie and dropped my stuff off at this really cool North Melb backpackers I found last time I was down. I’m a fan. It’s a tiny bit outta the way. But nice and quiet. Smaller rooms (you can get a cheap double and if you get lucky no one else is in there so it turns into a single.) Nice lounge, right on a tram line, walk to Carlton and the Arty. Etc
Then stuffed around for a bit in the city, Enjoyed myself, Then Went to go see Built To Spill from the US at The Corner. They’re apparently one of the more influential indie bands from the 90’s. I’d heard a couple of songs that I liked and my friends were going that night. So I thought I would too. They were cool. I enjoyed them. But probably would have been more into them if I was a fan and knew their stuff. Also, dear band, if I can cross an entire crowded pub during your feedback outro, go to the bathroom (this includes waiting for a stall), come back, and you’re still feeding back, then clearly said feedback outro is WAAAAAY too long ok!
Honestly the best part about my night was the AWESOME Mexican we had up the street before the show. Rose of Mexico or something it’s called? It’s in the same street in Richmond that the Corner hotel is on. And Melbourne people, it is a little pricey, but totally incredibly worth it! Trippy Taco in Smith Street (city end of Collingwood) also gets my vote for raddest mex places in Melbs.
Spotting about a million bats in the park across the road from The MCG instead of watching horrible support bands was also an ace part of the evening.
Friday I bummed around the city, drank a bunch too much coffee, bought some books and records and that sort of thing. (including a copy of Hunter S’s “the rum diary” which I’d been after for friggin ages! It was cheap and second hand too. That and tried to beat the RIDICULOUS FRIGGIN HEAT WAVE I FOUND MYSELF LANDED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WHOLE WEEKEND!!! Seriously. It hit like 40 and 41 degrees over a couple of days I was there! (and it’s not like I had a house to just hang out in. I wasn’t going to spend the whole time at the hostel) It meant I took aaaaaaaages to do anything. And moved super slowly the whole time I was there!
Friday Night it had cooled down nicely and I went to the rooftop cinema which was pretty awesome. They have a screen set up on the roof of one of the buildings in the city with a bunch of deckchairs and a bar up there. It’s a good deal and I watched a post apocalyptic type move called Children of Men which was really really entertaining. I managed to remain surprisingly focused on the movie despite being 6 stories above the city at night surrounded by a bunch of awesome lit up skyscrapers watching helicopters buzz about and 3 bats who spent ages playing and frolicking in the night air above the city. Lucky lucky them!
Saturday same deal. Got up reeeeeeeeal late. Checked out docklands coz I’d never been down there and in hindsight wasn’t missing a goddamn thing. It’s exactly like a good portion of Canberra. Melbourne does not need to tout something that’s exactly like Canberra as being it’s future! Saw the Sea Shepherd ship before it headed south to go harass Japanese Whale Poachers and be generally excellent though. So that made it kind of worth it.
Then did the city thing some more before catching up with Irene,jasmina, and sarah (Canberra mates past and present!). I had made vague plans with my mate jess the night before to beat the heat by going to a beach somewhere. But ended up catching up with her and all my friends, and making it no further than a kiddy pool full of water with glasses of wine in hand, sitting in her backyard in Prahran. Still had a great time and stayed cool. So that’s what counts.
It’s too hot and I’m hungover after a fun as hell public holiday Cocktail arvo with some good mates. Hanging out at home coz it left me with bugger all cash til tomorrow. So I thought I’d keep on getting through back updating this thing. We’ll see how I go in my current state haha
So Melbourne…flew in from Brissie and dropped my stuff off at this really cool North Melb backpackers I found last time I was down. I’m a fan. It’s a tiny bit outta the way. But nice and quiet. Smaller rooms (you can get a cheap double and if you get lucky no one else is in there so it turns into a single.) Nice lounge, right on a tram line, walk to Carlton and the Arty. Etc
Then stuffed around for a bit in the city, Enjoyed myself, Then Went to go see Built To Spill from the US at The Corner. They’re apparently one of the more influential indie bands from the 90’s. I’d heard a couple of songs that I liked and my friends were going that night. So I thought I would too. They were cool. I enjoyed them. But probably would have been more into them if I was a fan and knew their stuff. Also, dear band, if I can cross an entire crowded pub during your feedback outro, go to the bathroom (this includes waiting for a stall), come back, and you’re still feeding back, then clearly said feedback outro is WAAAAAY too long ok!
Honestly the best part about my night was the AWESOME Mexican we had up the street before the show. Rose of Mexico or something it’s called? It’s in the same street in Richmond that the Corner hotel is on. And Melbourne people, it is a little pricey, but totally incredibly worth it! Trippy Taco in Smith Street (city end of Collingwood) also gets my vote for raddest mex places in Melbs.
Spotting about a million bats in the park across the road from The MCG instead of watching horrible support bands was also an ace part of the evening.
Friday I bummed around the city, drank a bunch too much coffee, bought some books and records and that sort of thing. (including a copy of Hunter S’s “the rum diary” which I’d been after for friggin ages! It was cheap and second hand too. That and tried to beat the RIDICULOUS FRIGGIN HEAT WAVE I FOUND MYSELF LANDED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WHOLE WEEKEND!!! Seriously. It hit like 40 and 41 degrees over a couple of days I was there! (and it’s not like I had a house to just hang out in. I wasn’t going to spend the whole time at the hostel) It meant I took aaaaaaaages to do anything. And moved super slowly the whole time I was there!
Friday Night it had cooled down nicely and I went to the rooftop cinema which was pretty awesome. They have a screen set up on the roof of one of the buildings in the city with a bunch of deckchairs and a bar up there. It’s a good deal and I watched a post apocalyptic type move called Children of Men which was really really entertaining. I managed to remain surprisingly focused on the movie despite being 6 stories above the city at night surrounded by a bunch of awesome lit up skyscrapers watching helicopters buzz about and 3 bats who spent ages playing and frolicking in the night air above the city. Lucky lucky them!
Saturday same deal. Got up reeeeeeeeal late. Checked out docklands coz I’d never been down there and in hindsight wasn’t missing a goddamn thing. It’s exactly like a good portion of Canberra. Melbourne does not need to tout something that’s exactly like Canberra as being it’s future! Saw the Sea Shepherd ship before it headed south to go harass Japanese Whale Poachers and be generally excellent though. So that made it kind of worth it.
Then did the city thing some more before catching up with Irene,jasmina, and sarah (Canberra mates past and present!). I had made vague plans with my mate jess the night before to beat the heat by going to a beach somewhere. But ended up catching up with her and all my friends, and making it no further than a kiddy pool full of water with glasses of wine in hand, sitting in her backyard in Prahran. Still had a great time and stayed cool. So that’s what counts.
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