Tasmania disappeared on the horizon as I winged my way back to Melbourne on Friday, Jan 19. I had four days to say a final farewell to Melbourne before returning to Perth, work, and one last month in Australia. I caught up with Alex at his place, where he was kind enough to let me crash again. We were going to go out that night but Alex was still under the weather a bit from the night prior, so I met up with Andrew in St. Kilda and grabbed a few drinks and some food. Sunday was spent wandering around Melbourne, stopping, of course, at Stalactites for a souvlaki and to say hello to Paris, Nicole, and Vicky. I spent the next day home fixing up some of the very major problems that appeared when we moved FrankBlack.Net to a new server. In fact, I spent day and night doing that, which was a big pain, but it was a relief to finally have it working again and one less monkey on my back. Tuesday morning I met up with Melinda to go to the Australian Open tennis. She brought a full picnic once again from the Victoria markets and we watched several matches in the very reasonably priced outdoor. I’m not much of a tennis fan, but there were players there that even I recognized. Sharapova was playing in the much more pricey arena that night and Melinda and I managed to catch a game between the Williams sisters and some Chinese doubles. It was great to see these athletes so closely doing what they do better than almost anyone. I caught up with Catherine for a beer or two at Transport bar, once more with Andrew (I was trying to meet up with Ferg as well, but it just didn’t work out) and then I was off the next morning (Jan 23) back to Perth.
My first day back at work was Jan 27, the day after Australia Day. Daren picked me up at the airport, which was very good of him. I should mention that Alex also dropped me off at the airport in Melbourne, which was likewise very appreciated – it’s a pain getting very expensive shuttles really early in the morning to and from the airport. I had drinks with Daren and Janine that evening, spent the next day running around town getting some errands done (including immunizations for Asia!) and clothes cleaned, and Friday went into Matilda Bay for Adam’s farewell dinner. I probably – ok, I definitely – had a drink or two too many on an empty stomach. There was food, but it was all finger foods and as a result of one of my shots I hadn’t eaten anything all day except that. So it was that the next morning, Australia Day, I was in dire need of a greasy breakfast. Daren obliged in the traditional Australian fashion – a BBQ.
Meanwhile, it turned out that another friend from Saskatoon was in Perth, Brett Marcoux, and we had arranged to meet up at Daren’s Australia Day party and bring some Canadian camaraderie to this celebration of Australiana. It was a great day, and I was glad to not only be at Daren’s for it, but in Perth, where it’s probably the biggest holiday of the year. I caught Sydney’s New Years fireworks and I caught Perth’s Australia Day fireworks. Not to mention two BBQs of goodies, some great home brewed beer by Dazza, and various shenanigans on the foreshore of South Perth. Brett crashed at Daren’s and took the bus with me in the morning as I rode off to work. My first day back at work I was a little nervous about, but I really hadn’t forgotten as much as I was afraid I may have. And comically enough, the next day on the bus to work, who should be sitting there but Brett. The strangeness of this occurrence was a little overwhelming. When I got off the bus yesterday to transfer, he had stayed on. The girl behind us had heard us talking and discovered that we were both Canadians and Brett was looking for somewhere to stay that night. She invited him to tag along with her for the day (they were both Fremantle bound) and he wound up staying at her place, not far up the road from Daren’s, the next night. So it was that leaving her place that morning he was on the same bus line and at the same time as me.
I didn’t see much of anyone or anything but work until that Sunday when a day I had long been looking forward to finally arrived: Big Day Out. Yes, this landmark of Australian music festivals was bringing Arcade Fire, Spoon, Augie March, Paul Kelly, Rage Against The Machine, and more right to Perth, and I had a ticket. Brett had a ticket. Daren and Janine and their friends had tickets. Avram had a ticket. Friends from work all had tickets. It was going to be a great day. We arrived in style, Beno, one of Daz’s friends, drove us in nice and early and we beat the lines for tickets, drinks, and several small bands I was hoping to see. I met up with Brett and we saw Spoon and Arcade Fire together. Both were disappointing, but I feel that this is the nature of festivals. Like traveling, a festival is akin to a whirlwind tour of Europe. You see all the sights but don’t really experience the culture. Whereas an individual show is more like sitting at the café and really absorbing one band.
Add to this that Arcade Fire’s sound and energy is lost on a grand plain with lots of people who know them only in name and weren’t really too excited and Spoon was relegated to a small stage that was largely forgotten and it explains why, I suppose. Don’t get me wrong, I quite enjoyed seeing them live, both were great, it just wasn’t what I was hoping for. The only band that really impressed me was Paul Kelly, and I think that was because he was up against Rage. I would’ve stuck around for Rage but I could neither see nor be close to them in any way, it was like everyone at the festival was there for them. So Paul Kelly’s fans were excited, ravenous, and, let’s face it, the man put on a great show. He reminds me a bit of FB&C’s, which is a good thing, and I am thoroughly happy I checked him out instead of hanging out so I could name-check Rage in my “bands I’ve seen – sort of” list.
After Big Day Out, there’s little to report. I’ve been working as much as possible to save up for Asia, I’ve discovered that I should get about half the tax I’ve paid back, I’m now (hopefully) immune to several unpleasant Asian afflictions, and I have my tickets booked. I fly to Denpasar (Bali) on Feb 25th, to Singapore (tentatively) on Mar 18th, and home from Beijing (subject to change) on Aug 5th. I also booked a whirlwind tour of the south west, the as yet only remaining area of Australia for me to explore. Well, sure, there are plenty of things I missed, like the Simpson desert and outback New South Wales for a start, but I feel like, with this done, I will have seen everything I wanted to here in Australia. Meanwhile, Brett has taken off to New Zealand, leaving on Friday Feb 8. We were supposed to go to Rottnest that day but it didn’t work out with his flight, so instead we grabbed lunch at Little Creatures Brewery – chili mussels and two pizzas. And many more beer. It was a great way to spend an afternoon, and a very Perth thing to do. We’ll hopefully meet up somewhere in Asia for a few days, it was great to catch up with him and I’m sure we’ll both have plenty more stories by then.
Daren likewise is gone, which means I’m looking after his place. It would be nice to have him around but he’s up north with Janine doing a little travel of his own, and it is also nice to have a place to myself. I haven’t really had much of that as you might imagine. Still, there are times I’d like to come home and have someone to have a drink with. I guess you can’t have it both ways. At this point I have two shifts left of work – Valentine’s Day and Sunday the 17th. I can’t believe how fast the end is coming to my year in Australia. I can’t believe how fast one year came and went since I left home on Jan 15th. A lot has happened at home and abroad since then including the passing of my pappou – my Greek grandfather – one year to the day after my departure from Canada. I discovered this when I made a payphone call from Lake St Clair in Tasmania to wish my mom a happy birthday on the 17th of Jan, which was the 16th back home. They’d been trying to get a hold of me and of course I was out of reception completely. I never did get to know him all that well as a result of my poor Greek and his poor English, and that’s probably what is most upsetting about it. But the world keeps spinning down here as up there and each day brings change. I will have to spend some time with my aunts and uncles when I get home to try and piece together some of that history so that it is not lost to me for good.
But looking back at my own history, in particular this last year and all the adventures I’ve undertaken across this great land, life has been good, it has been interesting, and it has been better than I could wish for. Perfect by no means, but perhaps better. I hope that everyone following along is likewise finding and doing things they enjoy in this grand adventure we have all of us embarked upon, and I look forward to our trails crossing in the future. Until then, my path will continue to be charted here as I finish in Australia and venture into the Asian unknown.
Having recovered my laptop, my mission on the east coast of Australia was complete. Now I had to get back to Perth; and maybe see some old friends along the way. My first step, November 1st, was to completely shave. After all, it's the beginning of Movember, a month dedicated to Men's Health issues. Aussies try to raise awareness by growing out moustaches for the entire month and, hopefully, taking donations towards the relevant charities. I spent the rest of November traipsing around Surfers Paradise with the Germans and Jackie from my room as well as Chelsea, and by the 2nd I was in Brisbane again, staying with Liam at his place. In fact, I'd no sooner got there then we were out for some Vietnamese food with a bunch of his friends at the little place by a train stop. And the next day, a barbecue and other good times to be had. Finally, we went for breakfast on my final day in Brisbane at a bowling club and I discovered, as I sat on the river with a beautiful view, that Brisbane has a lot more going on than you'd expect... you just have to get out of the CBD. Liam raced, literally raced, me to my plane and I JUST made it in time to get on board and I said goodbye to Queensland for the last time. Coming up, Melbourne!
I arrived in Melbourne in class... this time, my friend Alex (who I met traveling through the Kimberly to Broome) picked me up from the airport, ordered some food as we drove towards his place, and we got home and ate with Sandy, his roommate within an hour of having landed. I instantly felt at home here - not only do they have unlimited bandwidth internet, they have a modded X-box, and Sandy even put on an episode of Family Guy that parodies Star Wars. The apartment was in a great location, about 15 minutes walk north of St. Kilda in a place called Middle Park. I would be in Melbourne for a week to take in the Melbourne Cup on Tuesday and Alex and Sandy's collective 30th birthdays on Saturday. Today, incidentally, is Sunday, and I'm doing a whole lot of nothing this evening after Family Guy; just enjoying being in such a homey place.
I met up with Catherine the next morning for waffles at the Tropicana. Although it was a bit of a trick to get there - there happened to be a parade marching through the city and it took a bit before I noticed my tram wasn't going where I thought it would be as a result. And then streets were closed for pedestrians, etc, etc. Luckily, she had the same problems, so we were both fashionably late to meet under the clocks at Flinders. After our delicious waffles, which turned out to be a lunch instead of breakfast, we walked through Hardware Lane, over to an art exhibit of her friend's (which wasn't on until next week), and finally had some drinks at the Transport Bar. I parted company with her and met up with Andrew in St Kilda for some pizza and more beer and, as we were walking down the street, there was Paris, another coworked from Stalactites, in the cab queue... and as a cabbie! Since Staalactites was renovating for a couple months, everybody had to find other jobs, and this was his. It was cool to just run into him randomly like that.
The next morning was Melbourne Cup. Alex didn't approve of my attire, and thankfully intervened with a different shirt and tie. Now I looked classy, especially with my new hat that I had just bought with Catherine at Myer the day before. I met up with Jackie, my Canadian friend from Surfers, and Andrew at the train station, we got tickets to Flemington, and were off to the races! We all looked pretty sophisticated for backpackers, I must say. Well, Andrew's not, but he's from NSW, so he's a traveller of sorts. It was a great day of champagne, winnings, losings, and sitting in the sun enjoying the weather. We even got interviewed on TV here, I guess we looked like we were having fun. And we were. After the main race was done, I was about even for the day (minus drinks and admission) and we left for an evening of fun, stopping for dinner, eventually, at HJs for dinner (the Melbourne Cup race is a public holiday here, so everything is closed), Max Brenner's for dessert, and then off to the casino, where we played some of the games at the huge fun centre there. Definitely cheaper than the tables and we had a lot of fun, even if we were a might overdressed.
The rest of the week went by pretty quickly. Wednesday I met up with Andrew and Bianca for lunch at an Asian restaurant in QV and met Ferg at 5:30 outside the Aquarium. He took me by his new place where we waited for Carol over a Corona and listened to some of his new album. The three of us went for dinner and a second beer at London Pub, just down the street from their new home, and it was great to catch up with them again - they're both such nice people. Thursday, I went for a cycle with Norm for dinner, and then I met up with Jackie again for her last night in Australia and went out with her and some other backpackers. I spent most of Friday trying to recover my deleted photos with limited success before I finally hit on some luck by using my backup hard drive as well as my laptop one.
Saturday was the main event, Alex and Sandy's 30th. I helped them clean up and load up for the party that night, and load up we did. We filled the bath with ice and alcohol, not to mention some garbage cans, moved stuff around, and so on. They were expecting a lot of people for this little apartment, and we had to make room. The party went really well, they have some very nice friends and family, and I quite enjoyed myself. I was definitely glad I'd stayed for it. The next day I met up with Melinda for a walk through the botanical gardens. We met first at the QV markets to get supplies, I picked up a new pair of aviators (this was where I got my last pair for $15), and by the time we got to the park and found a spot it was getting late. But we had a great little picnic, I finally saw the botanical gardens, and in all it was a great way to spend a Sunday. Monday I met with Norm again, where we biked to Williamstown for crepes and cider and then back again, after which I met up with Bianca on Lygon St for some Italian cuisine.
Monday came very quickly, my final day in Melbourne, and I ran a bunch of errands and got my laptop sorted some more. I took Alex and Sandy out for dinner that night to Santiago, a tapas Spanish restaurant, and thanked them as best I could for their hospitality. I would be sad to leave, but I know I have one more time in Melbourne before I say goodbye forever. I'm definitely looking forward to it, but now, if you haven't guessed, I've spent far too much money and it's time to get to Perth, to work, and to reality (sort of) once again.
We’d been going out on Wednesday nights for two weeks in a row and the hijinks that occurred on these nights were well documented and retold at work. As such, more and more people were wanting to come out. Also, this was quite possibly my last Wednesday in Melbourne, certainly my last Wednesday at Stalactites, so it was a bit of a farewell as well. I knew Kirsty had something up her sleeve as she seemed to dodge questions I asked related to “the plan”. I thought maybe a cake or a few people shouting surprise or something. So I was a bit surprised when we met up and she led me to where we were going to be meeting and spending the night. And it wasn’t a restaurant or pub or anything of the sort, but a hotel room that the staff had all banded together to rent for my farewell party; A two-room suite on the 13th floor overlooking the old exhibition centre. I mean, to say I was touched by this doesn’t even begin to cover it. Kirsty and I grabbed some drinks and snacks, ran into up Eva in Melbourne Central, and picked up the rest of the crew at Stalactites: Andrew, Heather, Paris, Bianca, and even Nicole came out.
We all walked to the hotel with a few shot glasses in hand for the apple pie shots I was hoping to jury rig from bizarre Australian alcohol. We hung out for a time in the hotel room, discovering that the shots in question were not remotely tasty and then made our way to the pool just after it closed. The hotel staff let us hang out for 15 minutes in the sauna and pool and we put them to good use. The guys jumped in the pool for a swim and we all hung out in the sauna before heading back to the room. We basically hung out all night there, except for Nicole and Paris who had to go home, and everyone stayed the night too. We did venture out just long enough to grab some food at China Bar after an elevator split us up, and all in all it was a special night that made me realize why I love it here in Melbourne so much.
The next day we finally got out of the room by noon. Andrew and Heather had to go into work, but Kirsty and I didn't need to be at work until 6 and Bianca didn't have any work. So we went and grabbed a bite for breakfast - waffles and juice from the Tropicana. While the so-called "Best juice in the world" was not pleasant, the waffle was probably the best I'd ever had. With a second helping, the three of us wandered up to the aquarium to visit Ferg and his fish. There were all sorts of cool sea creatures, some of which were downright scary, and it was well worth a stop there. Plus, Ferg gave us the VIP tour both around the aquarium, and then up at the top of the oceanarium, an area normally closed to the public. It was really cool of him to take some time out of his busy day to do that for us and we were all quite pleased with ourselves for taking the plunge and visiting Ferg.
I worked my last shift after a quick stop to get changed and shower, a Thursday 6-5AM, after which Kirsty and I were supposed to get a little sleep before meeting Carol and Ferg at Carol’s house to do a winery tour of the Yarra Valley. As you can imagine after a night of party and a night of work this was going to be taxing, so Eva repaid the shift I covered for her so she could go away for a few days and Cathy repaid me covering the restaurant for her when I had to get Nick’s present sorted out. Which meant that both Kirsty and I left Stalactites by 1:00. We met up with Ferg, Carol, and Harry the next morning and set out for a wine tour courtesy of Ferg and Kirsty driving us around. We stopped at a vineyard called Yering Station and had quite a bit of wine there. Because Kirsty was driving, Carol and I took turns finishing her wine. So we were feeling it a bit by the time we went to Ferg’s family’s vineyard and his home, had a platter of fruit and cheese and a tasting of all the Ferguson wines. They’re really nice wines (especially the shiraz), biased though I may be, and we followed that treat up with a beautiful lunch before continuing our tour of the vineyard and finally heading down to Phillip Island where Ferg’s family has a beach house. I had some ‘port’ in hand.
We met with Nicola, Lee, Afra, and Gordy (a fellow Canuck from Ottawa) as we were leaving. After a long drive down in the rain, we would’ve been happy for any shack with a bit of legroom, so you can imagine our excitement when we arrived and saw that we would be staying in a beautiful beach house for the weekend. We stretched our legs, uncorked our spirits, and had a bit of party, a bit of Trouble (the game), and a good time was had by all. But mostly by Kirsty, who drank so much (i.e. 3 coolers) that she was “crook as a dog”. The next day we wandered into town for some tea and lunch and then went to see the place where the penguins come in from a day of fishing to sit, relax, and forget about things in their burroughs. My pictures didn’t turn out and the penguins were not coming anywhere near us, but we did get to seem them quite closely as we headed up the boardwalk home. Even so, those photos also didn’t turn out. Ah well, what you do? Make some food with Ferg and Haz and have a good night.
Wrapping up and cleaning up took a long time, partly because most were too tired to do anything. Plus, Ferg took a LOOOOOONG time to pack up. But we did get out of there and finally, Haz, Ferg, Kirsty, Carole, and myself hit the bowling lanes (and McDonalds) for a couple boys-vs-girls game. My first score was very good, beating all but the Ferg. My second game score was more traditional, shall we say, and coupled with Haz’s performance, the girls took the trophy for the night. And then, we called it a night. Back to Melbourne, back to pack for the next mini-trip down the Great Ocean Road.
Which, as it turns out, was the very next day. No rest for the weary. Kirsty and I headed out pretty early, foregoing a few errands I’d hoped to run since sleep was necessary in order to salvage the day. The trip was quite beautiful. We stopped a few places along the coastline to admire the scenic cliffs dropping off at the continent’s edge, looking out towards Antarctica. We stopped at a lighthouse, hiked down to Erskine Falls, and were meant to stay the night with some friends of Kirsty’s family in Lorne but we couldn’t get a hold of them. So we made our way down to Apollo Bay and stayed the night after some hotel shopping (which was actually a lot of fun) in a bed and breakfast. It was a beautiful place. We went to grab some groceries but as we sat in the car outside the store discussing what we needed to get, the store closed. As well, the place we wanted to eat had shut the kitchen, so we wound up eating at Buff’s, which was a great choice anyway. We had some king prawns, lamb rump, and ravioli, not to mention dessert. I was quite stuffed, but it was a great first day for our roadtrip.
The second day we continued our drive, spotting my first wild koala en route! We stopped and toured the Cape Otway lighthouse and saw the twelve apostles for which the Great Ocean Road is famed. The sun was at a bad angle for photos from the viewing platform, so we drove down the road, parked, and tramped through the brush to an otherwise inaccessible cliff to get more photos. I thought we’d driven far enough to be able to look back at the apostles but we wound up right in the middle of them. Still, it was fun and we got some nice photos. We drove on to see the arch and gorge, where Kirsty got soaked as I tried to line up a photo (buahahaha!) and then we stayed at her aunt and uncle’s house and met some cousins and other family. All very nice people, her uncle looks exactly like her dad and her aunt went through their Canada photo album, which made me miss home a bit. I got a phone call that night from Nick’s mom that she was coming to the house the next day and going to have company, so we got back the next day, I bought them some flowers, picked up Nick’s present and Kirsty’s (a photo collage of finishing uni for Nick, and a 1m long Mt. Cook cloud panorama for Kirsty), and drove to Nick’s to pack my stuff.
I met up again with Kirsty and Ferg later and we went to an Irish pub for a drink and then to a place for some really nice pizza while we waited for poor Carol to finish work. We also sat and listened to some buskers that were pretty darned good and Kirsty bought a CD before we finally did meet up with Carol and returned to PJ O’Briens for some more drinks. I stayed at Kirsty’s mom’s that night and the next day was a flurry of tourist activity. We went to the NGV to see the exhibits at the gallery there (though we didn’t pay the $20 for the Guggenheim), then saw the Pixar display at ACMI, did the ferris wheel on the Yarra, and Kirsty went to work at which point I got a bunch of ridiculous stickers made to give to her. I also picked up cards for her, her parents, and Nicole, plus a few little knickknacks to give out. I met Norm for a beer and a tea before I was to leave tomorrow, and I met Andrew, Heather, and Bianca for a few drinks at El Greco café in the casino. We waited for Kirsty to be done at 4AM since the trains had stopped running, hung out for a bit, and then I went home and to sleep. The next morning, packing (where, oh where are my pajama pants??), stopping by the restaurant for a last goodbye, and so ended my stay in Melbourne.
After my trip to Ballarat and the Grampians, you might think that I was going to have a boring few weeks here in Melbourne. As it was, I was working that whole weekend, starting 30 seconds after I got back that Friday night. Saturday was to be another 7-7 shift, but Kirsty called me, or rather messaged me, at about 3:00 in the afternoon asking if I’d mind going in to work at 9:30 instead and coming out for dinner and drinks with her and her roommate (Kristy) for Kristy’s going away. I was supposed to try and get the whole night off, but she’d asked Andrew to cover me until 9:30 so at least I could make an appearance. Now THAT’S how you start a long shift. By chopping two and a half hours right off the top. We went for dinner in Richmond and had a couple drinks. Well, I had a couple. They had considerably more, but it was a fun dinner and I was sad to leave. We asked James if it was slow or I was really needed but he messaged that they were swamped so off I went to work. It was not swamped nor even busy, but what could I do?
I worked until 7AM that night and the next day 7-7 as well, not a good shift. In fact, any number of things were unpleasant and wrong and I snapped at a rude customer who wanted a coffee and got a mocha and mistook it with the apocalypse. It didn’t help that I’d stayed after my shift had ended to help him out so he didn’t have to wait for a cook to finally do it. I don’t remember what made that shift so bad, but I knew I wanted to be out of there about four hours before I was. Thankfully for coffee lovers throughout Melbourne, I had Monday off and Kirsty’s parents invited me to a barbie at their place. Now that was some good tucker, as they’d say in these parts. All sorts of sausages, steaks, souvlakis, and goodness. Kirsty also went and bought two desserts from a place she reckons is the best bakery in the city. After dessert, I was unable to dispute. Aside from Kirsty and family and Dave, Carol and Ferg were both there. I had brought a Brown Brothers bottle and he had brought wine from his family’s vineyard that was named after him, plus the Turners had a bottle on hand, so between Ferg, myself, and Kirsty’s dad, we had a great time.
Anyway, that was a great dinner and I had a blast there, that entire group is so hospitable and just great people. We were going to hit a movie later but it got a bit late, though Dave did make it. We had to pass on the Shrek 3 and instead Kirsty and I watched Blades of Glory, which I still enjoyed the second time. I was supposed to be going out Thursday with some co-workers on a bit of a pub crawl but Eva was heading out of town and I owed her for covering a shift of mine when I went to the Goldfields, so I took that shift and we went out Wednesday night instead. Andrew, Heather, Frank, and of course Kirsty came out and we all had a LOT of fun. It was probably the most fun I’d had in my whole time in Melbourne up to this point. We started at Fed Square, spinning the wheel for $8 imports (and I had a Kokanee!) and stealing each others hats and poses, stopped in at Stalactites for a bite, and went bowling at the Strike Bar, combining the sport of drink and bowl as only the Europeans can.
I worked Eva’s shift to midnight as planned the next day (Thursday) and then Nick and I went to look at a cheap clothing sale Friday afternoon. We also popped into the fairly huge and famed Victoria markets for some fruits, veg, yogurt, honey, pumpkins, and most importantly, aviators. The mileage Nick and I have gotten out of these ridiculously awesome glasses has made them well worth the $15 investment. He also took me to his campus to see where he goes, or rather, went to school, and it doesn’t seem so different from home. Finally, we went into a bakery just off campus and had a hearty feed for almost nothing. Ah, student life.
Yet another weekend disappeared in a flurry of work and Monday when I came home one of Nick’s friends, also named Dean, was drunk-as and laid out on a mattress on the floor. Dave, another friend of Nick’s, also showed up with a girl in tow and we all had a good and amusing chat before calling it a night – well, most of us. I didn’t leave my room to get a snack, put it that way. Tuesday morning I woke up, we all had baked apples for breakfast, and it was off to work. That night, I went with Kirsty, Dave, Frank, and Harry to see Ocean’s Thirteen at the Jam Factory, which is a pretty cool cinema on Chapel St. Prior to that, though, we had some pancakes and marveled at the clock with the professor dangling from the minute hand. I tried to get Nick to come, but he’s a responsible student, what can I say? Afterwards, we went down the street to Chapelli’s and had some snacks and drinks. I went with a cocktail and inexperienced bartender, which result in 4oz in my drink. Strong. It was a good time out but we were all getting a bit tired and I wanted to be home before the booze started to kick in besides, so it went.
Our next Wednesday night out we swore to step it up a bit. For starters, we had more people. Nick, fresh from his last exam… ever… was out for a few drinks. Andrew brought his Canadian sensei whose name is escaping me at the moment. Bianca made it out and brought her friend as well. Unfortunately, we lost Frank this time, but you win some you lose some. We started across the street from Stalactites at Mai Tai, a cheesy Hawaiian bar that at least we knew everyone would be able to find. With another Canadian, the drinks definitely went a little quicker, and soon we were at Cookies. We weren’t there all that long because we were almost all feeling the effects of the alcohol, though we were there quite long enough regardless. I can’t even remember all the drinks we had, though apparently I shouted (bought a round of) some ouzo and sambuca. I remember turning down tequila but also sucking on a lemon, so I’m not sure which was that went. Judging by, well, everything, a bit later, I had the shot too. Andrew was in the worst state of us all, and we discovered him passed out in the handicap washroom. The bouncers basically had to pull him out of the building in a chair and sat him on the curb. Bianca was going to drive him to the hospital as he did not seem to be doing well or waking up at all, but I guess he woke up en route and they just drove him home. He was at work the next day.
Me on the other hand, well, I apparently went to Stalactites for a bit of food and wound up helping Cathy alongside Kirsty for about half an hour before catching a ride home from one of the regular Greek cabbies. At which point I definitely decided I didn’t want my liver to have to process too much and responsibly took a lot of alcohol out of the equation. It took several attempts over the course of the next 8 hours to remove it all, but I was successful though not necessarily the better for it. And I was definitely not in a good state for most of the next day. I had also started upgrading Nick’s laptop with a new hard drive and I went to work a little early despite not wanting to at all so I could pick up an external drive case/USB adapter for his old drive. I got to work just at 6:00 only to find I could’ve slept for another hour because my shift didn’t start until 7. I went next door and had coffee and a chat with the boys and picked up some kourambiethes for everyone back at work. I only had to work until 5:00, but it was a long shift.
I did the 7-7 on Friday and came home, cleaned the house a bit more and did my laundry for next week so I could have the weekend off without worrying about it. Nick’s parents were coming up while we were down in Ocean Grove having a party celebrating Nick’s completion of uni. So two hours of sleep later, I drove down to Ocean Grove with Kirsty, who was planning to pop in for a drink and go catch up with some cousins she never sees from down there. But she popped in and because the both of us were so tired, she stayed at the party. It was pretty big and a good time, though it might’ve been moreso with a lot more sleep and a bit less drink on Wednesday. Still, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves in one degree or another and Nick served up a great dinner and was a terrific host as always. Everyone stayed the night at Nick’s and Kirsty and I took off the next afternoon for Melbourne once more.
The day was meant to be a return to Melbourne, but we stopped in Geelong for lunch and a walk around the waterfront again, not to mention more pancakes, and ran a few errands for Nick’s present. We got back home in time to do a quick tour of Williamstown, which is a cute little ocean town within a bustling metropolis, and then went up to the top of the Rialto to have a view of Melbourne (the tallest “reinforced glass structure” in the southern half of the world) from 55 floors up. It was a beautiful if chilly view. Then, both Kirsty and I were tired and picked up a few groceries, had some steaks and salad for dinner, and watched The Island. So it was a full and fun day filled with all my favourite things: skyscrapers, food, movies, road trips, and getting stuff done.
Finally, I spent Monday and Tuesday working two-person lunches in a restaurant needing at least one more staff. The second day we had a reservation for 17 plus a walk-in of 14 not to mention a full restaurant and a line. The cooks had to help bus tables, we were so behind (though that’s in part due to the fact that the table of 17 upstairs seemed to think they were the only ones in the restaurant). I also had to run some errands in between and around work, running twice to Flinders Lane to get Nick’s gift semi-done before he left between serving tables. That’s a good 20 blocks. But it was worth it to have it done. Now, I’m going to get some sleep, because tomorrow night is most likely my last Wednesday-Out-In-Melbourne™ and it sounds like it has caught on in popularity and will be a big one – even the boss and her husband are coming out. Maybe these Wednesdays out will continue when I’ve gone and be my legacy to the crew, who knows? Then this weekend, a trip to Yarra Valley and Phillips Island to see some penguins! So it’ll actually be an entertaining blog post next time, I promise.
Contrary to June being a month of warmth and sun, shorts and sandals, lakes and boating, and moreover, a summer month, down here in topsy-turvey Australia, winter is setting in. No, there’s no snow, and no, it’s not really TOO cold, but nevertheless, I look at temperatures in Saskatoon and Melbourne, and here the temperature is 10C and back home in Canada, 12C (in the middle of the night, expected to hit 26C tomorrow). So, perhaps my wisdom wanes in being in Australia over winter, but I am enjoying it nonetheless. However, June has started, we’ll see how it goes. In the meantime, here’s my recap of the last two weeks of May. If I may.
Starting around the 21st of May, I worked pretty much the entire week through, with a couple short lunch shifts early on that allowed me to wander around the city in the afternoons and evenings, and then some dinner shifts (6-12) that gave me my afternoons completely free. Where that time went is beyond me. I was sick with a bit of strep throat and flu during that week, but I do remember stumbling around and rediscovering that little lane where Melinda and I had crepes, which I discovered is called Degraves St. It was a pleasant discovery on a day where I was just looking for a place that wasn’t Starbucks to get a nice chai latte. I sat and had a bowl of soup at a place called, ironically, In a Rush, and then went to Hudson’s (which I later discovered is a chain anyway) and got a chocolate chai latte. Ah, therapeutic.
Jess, another girl I know from my adventures through Scandinavia, was coming down to visit Nick, who happens to be her boyfriend, and so I was determined to get out of the house for the weekend. Plus, my work schedule wasn’t remotely overlapping with Kirsti’s, so I was hoping to visit with her and Dave. It worked out quite well. We worked the 7-7 shift together, moreorless (she was done at about 5) and then I drove out to her place and crashed. It was my first Saturday night off since starting at Stalactites, and I was pretty determined to get out on the town at least a little bit. Dave called and mentioned that a friend from Queensland was in town and we were going to the MCG to see an AFL game with them, so we headed down and I stroked another item off my Melbourne todo list. The game was pretty poor until the last quarter, but the ‘G’ itself was a world-class stadium and suitably impressive, even half-filled. Afterwards, we met up with Andrew (another coworker) and went out for some food in Chinatown but didn’t go out per se as Dave was pretty tired. So, back home to Croydon, a little bit of Wii tennis against Dave (he still can’t beat me, but he’s gotten much better :) ) and then bed.
I left their house the next evening to visit with Jess and Nick before she went back to Lismore, but she missed her flight and we got to spend a bit more time together than I hoped. She’s a cool girl and it was a fun little convo with the two of them. I had a really sweet week ahead of me, and this was a nice way to kick it off. I met Norm at 1:00 “Under the clocks” in true Melbourne fashion (I felt like such a local to be told that and know what it meant) and we went on a huge ride, almost 50km down the coast of Phillip Bay all the way to Carrum. Norm was kind enough to map out the track which is on the left and you can enlarge by clicking on it. It was mostly a coastal ride, but we veered off and drove along a creek then a golf course and finally back to the coast through a canaled housing area that looked very ritzy and pristine. We stopped to have a bite in one of the man-made harbours and I bought Norm a long-overdue birthday Guiness as well. Then back on the train and Norm and I checked out the new Pirates movie which was pretty average. I suppose I needed to see the second movie more recently, because I felt a little lost at the beginning, but eventually I got back into the swing and actually enjoyed the movie better than the second one.
And so ended Monday. Tuesday, I was definitely in the mood to do some more exploring as I’d had so much fun Monday. However, it just didn’t happen. I admittedly have been waking up later than I’d like because of my night shifts and so I basically was home most of the daylight hours. Finally, as I wracked my mind for something that wasn’t a movie to do in the evening, I remembered I’d been wanting to see a play or musical here in Melbourne. I went online and found that Pirates of Penzance, the Gilbert and Sullivan classic from which “Model of a modern Major-General” comes from started in 45 minutes. Conveniently, Nick lives a five minute walk from the Arts Centre, so I walked over, got a ticket in the lower balcony, and grabbed a seat just before the lights dimmed. The play was pretty good and definitely had moments of hilarity, though I felt like it was a bit more amateur that I’d expected from a major play in an Arts city like Melbourne. Still, a good time and worth a see, I’m glad I got out of the house.
The next day, I went and did some shopping. I picked up some new shoes since my existing pair is running low on, well, sturdiness, and some clothes at CMs, fulfilling my vow to get at least one or two things from there before leaving Melbourne. The checklist gets shorter and shorter! I also got a parking ticket as they apparently changed the parking zone and that wasn’t so nice but I suppose that for all the free parking I’d been doing it’s not too horrible, as long as they aren’t a regular occurrence. I went to work from 6-midnight and then Nick and I had a few drinks and called it a night. Thursday night, Kirsti planned a night out since I hadn't really been 'out' in Melbourne as such. Although we wound up going out in Croydon instead, it was still a lot of fun and I met some of her other friends as well as seeing a few again. We went out to a place with a live acoustic act, hung out there for a spell, and then went back to Kirsti's and Dave's and played a little bit of Wii before Nick and I hit the road for home. Definitely good times and as always Kirsti was very cool organizing this particular night.
Friday I got some internet things done and worked the night shift, which went pretty fast. Saturday, another night shift and I met some of Nick’s friends from school that I hadn’t met at the Thy-Thy-Thai nights before heading out. It was a long shift and I was wiped out before it even started, but there were a few customers that made it worthwhile. Finally, Sunday, I headed to the historic Astor theatre and watched a double feature of Humphrey Bogart movies, African Queen and Treasure of the Sierra Madre. The former was filmed in that just-discovering-blue-screen era and wasn’t a particularly notable movie though I could see how its exotic location would’ve been a thrill for movie goers in that era. Treasure of the Sierra Madre, an older black and white number, is definitely a worthy classic. I loved that movie. The theatre itself was awash in art deco stylings with a real aura to it of an older time when a night at the movies was a little more special. Incidentally, Nick and my experiments are going fairly smoothly. We've ruled out the 'poo taste' apple in favour of pink lady, and hit a bit of a snag in that I chose Red Delicious over Royal Gala while he chose the Gala, meaning both apples will advance to the next delicious round. I like that the gala is a nice compromise in tartness and sweetness but I like the sweet apple flavour that goes with the Red Delicious for the baked apples while Nick prefers the contrast. The next round, coming soon, is the green apple round. I suspect neither will compare.
And so we arrive on today. I wandered around the city a bit and tried to see some things I’d not seen. I took a stroll through the historic Block Pl, the oldest Arcade in Australia (I think) and up as far as Williams St before doubling back towards the more familiar Swanston and Russel St. I finally found a place called Hardware Lane that I’d heard so much about. While walking through, a painting caught my eye in an art gallery and I wandered in and had a chat with the guy running the show there. It’s kind of impressionistic, the paintings are made of circles of paint, aerosol paint no less, but look absolutely fantastic. If I had money to spare and a wall to hang it, I’d definitely pick up one of his pieces in original form, but even the smaller paintings were $4500. Still, I bet those paintings are worth a lot more than that in a few years’ time and if not, well, they’re almost worth that price to me, so much do I enjoy them. I took a photo of a couple of them though the photos don’t really do paintings justice. And I’ll probably stop by the gallery for the official opening night on Friday before work to meet James Cochran (the painter) and see what an art opening is all about.
In the meantime, I’m hoping to hit the road for a few days before working again on Friday. We were planning to do a camping trip through the goldfields of Victoria but as that has fallen through, I’m thinking of driving out to Ballarat (a gold rush town) and then the Grampians for a day or two of hiking and/or camping on my own. I don’t think I’ll be in Melbourne too much longer as there is so much more of Australia to see, but I definitely do love it here and wouldn’t mind coming back before I leave. But I’m thinking that I’ll hang around until Nick’s big post-uni party in Ocean Grove and see his hometown a bit before taking the Great Ocean Road to Adelaide to visit Dave and Belinda and of course Adelaide itself. From there, well, who knows? I may head up through the desert to Alice Springs and Uluru, or maybe just fly there and then drive my way back up the east coast into Queensland. Either way, I’m heading north for the winter, but I’m going to enjoy my last few weeks here in Victoria and Melbourne.
The week started a bit askew as the overnight shifts had proven too much for my mind to keep track of. Going to bed at 9AM on Monday morning and waking up at 4PM on the same day – well, would you look at that. I actually was talking about Sunday. Going to bed Sunday morning, it felt like I was waking up on Monday and it’s completely thrown off my week. I spent the day at home, enjoying the fact that I had Nick’s place to myself and getting some things sorted out plus cleaning the house a bit. Thinking it was Monday, I was expecting that Nick was going to be back that night and was starting to worry a bit before I realized it was Sunday. When Monday did come, I went and met Norm at his lifesaving club and we went kayaking. The weather was great but the water was sure cold. I know because Norm gave me one of the more advanced and unstable ones first and I tipped into the shallow water within seconds. We moved down to the more simple surfskis and it was much better. Through the harbour looking at all the boats and back, and I saw my first penguin! It had swam right into the harbour and was floating with the yachts and katamarnas… and us.
As always, it was fun to catch up with Norm. Aside from the ocean trek and a second fall into deep and cold marina water, we went to a mall, walked around and had lunch in Hampton, and I fixed up his internet connection and got him onto Facebook. Yeah, I’ve become a Facebook user and I now understand why people do this social networking thing. And while I’m giving the geek report, I should mention that I now have some videos from the trip up on YouTube. Just follow the link of search djkatsiris and you’ll find all the videos I’ve uploaded.
I was supposed to have every day off until Friday, but I went to work for Kirsti on Tuesday, which was my first day shift since starting. It went pretty fast and it’s so much easier serving at lunch because everyone just orders souvlakis and a soft drink. No water bottles and glasses to haul/fill, no cutlery or plates to carry/roll, nice and quick. Wednesday, I went out with Nick and a few of his friends from Ocean Grove for what was supposed to be $5 chicken parmas. Except that one of his friends wanted to go to a place that he thought had much better ones (with chips and salad) for $10 at the Union Hotel. So we went there instead, and that was just not such a great idea. The place was, to use a term from here, utterly bogan in every way. A dive that survived on gambling more than drink or anything else by the looks of it. Wall to wall screens of stats and computer-generated horses vying against statistics to win a fictional race that, for some reason, people might actually bet on. Still, it was fun to visit and sit in a place like that, since I haven’t yet been to the Outback. We later went to the Waterloo Hotel, which was surprisingly upscale and much better on the eyes in more ways than one.
Thursday, I was slated to go see Cirque du Soleil at 4:00, so I left at 3:00 hoping to run a few errands, namely picking up my new watch (that I got for a steal of a price, hence why I got it) and exchange an generic iPod cable that was not working at all for an Apple one. Well, it took longer than I thought to get in to the city and I had to leave the watch and just exchange the cable, except that they wouldn’t exchange it as it worked with their iPod. So, I had to bring mine in another day. Nice. Because exchanging an iPod cable is some sort of scam I run. Customer service at its finest. But that small annoyance aside, I was then on the tram to Cirque du Soleil. I got to the site and, after some significant queuing, under the big top and was delighted to find out how good my seats were. I was about 6 rows from the stage and could see every eyelash on the performers.
And boy, did they perform. While the spectacle doesn’t compare with Ka, which I saw in Vegas, it really was an amazing feat of human performance. There were also a few flubs, but that just increased the sense of dangers as these guys launched each other 60 ft plus across the stage and towards the top of the big top, landing in a big sheet and sliding down, not to mention one guy laying on his back and using his feet to spin another person in flips like a dolphin flipping a ball with its tail. The show finished at 6:30, and I went home, met up with Nick, and we went out with some of his friends for Vietnamese food at a place called Thy Thy. The food was pretty good and definitely reasonably priced and we enjoyed our meal when all the restaurant lights dimmed. They carried out a birthday dessert and the waitresses started singing and the whole restaurant joined in, including me. And then they turned, coming towards our table and I looked, wondering who they could be coming for before realizing it was for me. Well, I was pretty embarrassed by the whole thing as it was, then I saw what it was and my face probably did turn red. It was a banana and two scoops of ice cream. Yup. Like that.
And from then on I’ve pretty much been working and sleeping. I saw a guy walking by outside the restaurant the other day with a rooster on his head. Really. A rooster, on his head, as he was walking around. To say that I found this hilarious is an understatement. Only in Australia. But I have a few days coming up that I’m going to have off, so I’m definitely looking forward to having my own chance to wander the streets, perhaps with a rooster on my head, most likely, not.
My first week had been one that would be difficult to top. I got a job, caught up with Norm, cycled 30 km, saw a Thanos Petrelis concert, saw the live comedy stylings of someone obsessed with Ferris Bueller, and took a few scenic drives around the city. Surely I couldn’t keep up the pace, but we’ll see. I had the weekend off of work until she worked me onto the schedule, so that was a good start. Saturday, I drove Marietta out to the doctor’s office and then we went to the markets for some fruit, meat, and groceries. It was pretty busy though she insisted it was slow, but we definitely stocked up on some food. Then we went into the shopping mall and I bought another pair of black pants for work and was looking around at belts and shoes though to no avail. Nice shoes but I’d probably suffer some sort of catastrophic knee failure trying to wear them for a 13 hour shift. We sat down in the food court, however, and I tried my first Japanese pancake, which I have to say is delicious. The closest thing I can relate it to is a spring roll, as it’s filled with veggies and anyway, good. And then she directed me to a hill that overlooks downtown Melbourne and had a pretty nice view. I tried to squish downtown, but was unable.
We went home and were going to go to a Greek night but as I looked into it I realized that it looked pretty lame, and we put the kaibosh on that and hung around the apartment watching movies. Which may not sound like much, but I guess I was pretty tired from getting back into the swing of work. My legs were killing me. Plus, I saw Spiderman again, Last Action Hero, and some Chinese movie about a pickpocket. Not amazing or thrilling, but hey, I’m here to live an everyday life for a few months and that includes hanging out and resting too. Plus, I had a big day on Sunday. I was to meet Kirsti, another waitress from the restaurant, to go see an AFL game in Geelong. So let’s skip over Saturday and go right to Sunday, shall we?
I met up with Kirsti at the restaurant just past noon, they were running late from traffic. Since I was running early, I had an almond crescent from the café next door and some spanakopita while I waited. Then, Dave and her pulled up and we were off. Really slowly. See, we stumbled into some construction and got quite slowed up, but we did eventually hit the highway. It was a good drive to get to know Dave and also Kirsti some more, and they’re both exceptionally nice people I was pleased to spend the day with. I tried in vain to pay for gas and then for chips and drinks but I think they had a man on the inside: the clerk always took their money over mine. I vowed to get them some drinks, then, and we set off on the highway again.
Dave’s bad ankles got us a really terrific parking spot right next to the main entrance and also a VW bug covered in grass. I took a photo of it for uncle Russ, thinking he’d definitely love it. And then we went inside just as the game started. Kirsti had brought me a Geelong vest to wear, and so it was her and I cheering for the home team while Dave cheered for the hated North Melbourne. That said, he actually disappeared to the loo for a minute and came back with a scarf for me as well. I mean, what do you do in the face of such generosity? So I ran down after the first quarter and procured some beer for us, and then some more at the half. As for the game itself, well, it’s AFL, which is to say Australian Rules Football, and it’s not football in the Canadian sense nor in the soccer sense, but its own animal altogether. It is a hybrid of basketball (tips, occasional dribbling, and, in the preseason, what is effectively a three-point arc), soccer (the game is based on punt-passes), and rugby (man, it gets rough!). Very easy to catch on to and entertaining, I enjoyed the game thoroughly. Unfortunately, Geelong lost, which left Dave happy and Kirsti less so (especially since she’s now slave for a day) but we all enjoyed ourselves.
After the game, it is tradition to run out on the field and race to the centre, but because of rain it was called off. It’s also tradition to go to the park and kick the footy around, and that much we did, though I wasn’t exactly an all star, they claimed I didn’t do too poorly. After, they took me to the waterfront and we snapped some photos before going to a pub, having a few more beer and dinner. We were with, I should mention, Ash and Dani, which, through the magic of Australian terminology (Dani ~ dunny -> toilet = potty) has the nickname Potty, and also met Ash’s new boyfriend, Matt. They were all very nice and we had a great time hanging around the pub and chatting. But all good things must come to an end and so we drove back to Melbourne and called it a night – but not before making plans to see Spiderman 3 on Thursday. I’m now doubly excited about that movie.
The next day was beautiful out. I dropped my car off to get the radiator hose replaced and went into St. Kilda to look around. I should perhaps have done more research as I wasn’t sure what to look at, but I walked up and down Acland Street, around the esplanade, and beach. Then, I headed downtown and walked around some more, finally trying out my new internet café, and yes, it is very nice and fast. I even had a video chat with Larissa. So, new photos, podcasts, music, movies, and TV show episodes to combat homesickness. Perfect. And that was the last I’d written in almost two weeks.
So, recapping a bit. In the last two weeks I’ve started working in earnest. This past week, already my third in Melbourne (though it still only feels like I’ve been here a week) I worked 37 hours, although 27 of those were on Friday and Saturday which left me with days to explore. I met up with Melinda, a friend from Budapest and we had crepes in a little shop carved into an alley somewhere near Collins St. It was fun to catch up and I’m excited to find more places like that around town. I’ve taken a couple days of just strolling around downtown. I moved out from Marietta’s, and into Kirsti’s for a weekend before coming to where I am now with Nick here in Southbank on the, yup, southern bank of the Yarra river. From here it’s only a twenty minute walk to work which means that even when I’m at work I’m still getting in a good 40 minutes of exercise, not to mention the uncounted kilometers at work.
Continuing the recap, while at Marietta’s I didn’t do much else of note. While there, I would often walk Chapel Street, and I found some cool things doing so. One of which, as I believe I mentioned last time, was the Astor Theatre, which plays old classics during the week in $13 double-features and then new releases on the weekends. Another was Urban Burger, which makes the best burgers I’ve had since Fergburger. Of course there was CM’s. They also have lots of cool shops and lounges and cafes beyond description. And on High Street was a music store where I could venture in and play piano for a spell. A very nice location.
I also went to see Spiderman 3 with Dave, Kirsti, and Mariolla, after having dinner and a drink at Dave’s old work. A really nice and upscale place, especially considering it’s in a mall. The movie itself was entertaining, but they got to ambitious with it and it didn’t feel like it held together. Two villains back and forth, sometimes friends, sometimes enemies, and so on. Not to mention his struggle with his dark side. Still, it was worth admission just to see Pete do his ‘cool’ walk. Hilarity. Anyway, my time at Marietta’s was short lived after that, I thought I’d be able to get some sleep between finishing work at 7AM and moving out of there, but when I got home at 8:30, I found out that I needed to be gone by noon, so I just packed my stuff and strolled Chapel for one last time as a nearby resident. Then off to Kirsti’s where I met her mom and saw the house before basically crashing for five hours.
When I woke up, we went out with some of her friends at a nearby lounge that was pretty cool and a lot of fun. I really like her friends, very nice people. I can’t remember the place we went for the life of me, but it was a memorable night in spite of that. Another free day, I headed to the Dandenong mountains, not far from her house and on the outskirts of Melbourne. I’d meant to have a hike around and do a bit of exploring, but we went and met her family first and wound up visiting for a bit. They’re really nice people and invited me to also stay with them or at least come for dinner one night. Leaving there, I took my car and went exploring the mountains looking for a trail. But I was hungry too, and I past a bakery that had won some awards for its pies and stopped. It was delicious, though unfortunately still not the Arthur’s Pass lamb pie, and it was so delicious that I debated between seconds or dessert for quite some time before making my final decision: both. I had to be at work that night for the 7-12 shift, so time was short and I took a ride on Puffing Billy, a historic steam train out in the Dandenong mountains on the outskirts of Melbourne. My grandpa would’ve loved it. It was nice but I would’ve liked a hike, too.
I forgot my iPod in the house and she’d locked the door although there were two chances for me to go back and get it, I didn’t bother. This turned out to be one of the most fortuitous accidents I’ve had. First of all, I discovered local radio station triple-J, which plays a lot of good music. Secondly, through them I discovered something called Splendour in the Grass, coming to Byron Bay in August. Thirdly, I found out that the Kaiser Chiefs will be playing at this festival as well as Bloc Party and The Shins, to name a few. And finally, leaving my iPod behind meant it wasn’t stolen when my car was broken in to.
Yes, they broke in, somehow, without smashing a window or anything thankfully. They sat around, it seems, and had a smoke as my car was quite smelly on my return (my second clue that the car had been broken into, but the first one that hit me) and then emptied EVERYTHING out of my glove box except for an empty Mentos wrapper (too bad for them, as a smoker they probably could’ve used one) and a piece of string. Documents citing my vehicle’s registration, my insurance, my international driving permit, and most importantly my glasses were taken. Not to mention that I’d finally found a pair of sunnies that I didn’t hate that very afternoon and bought them and they were taken. Ah well, nothing irreplaceable anyway, and thankfully I had a second pair of glasses that I brought with me.
Finally, work. Work itself is pretty hectic. For example, on Friday when I showed up to work at 4:30, it was just Paris and I working until almost 7:00. Now, this is a place that’s generally lined up at almost any given hour, and so it being Friday, it was especially hellish for the two of us to be taking cash, seating, cleaning, busing tables, serving, bringing out food, drink, and so on. That day, even when we did get extra help finally at 7:00, though we were still short-handed, I didn’t even get to sit down until just after 1AM, and even then, it was only for about 15 minutes. That’s a full eight hour day running around serving tables. And even when help arrived, we were still short-handed, to the point that we couldn’t even keep enough cutlery cleaned and rolled for our tables and I had to pop in the kitchen to do dishes just so the people we had seated could actually eat. But, for the most part, I enjoy it, as long as I’m not working too many night shifts. I woke up today at 4:00. Ick. But coming up, I’m going sea kayaking with Norm, cheap Parma with Nick, and Cirque du Soleil on Thursday. And more. So stay tuned.
My first day in Melbourne had mostly been spent walking around upper downtown (i.e. Chinatown and what remains of Greektown) and Chapel St. looking at high fashion. You know, plus the hen’s night. My first week in Melbourne was likewise packed with getting-to-know-you type activities. After a recuperation day on Saturday, from which we ventured out only to get groceries and dinner from St. Kilda (not to mention the examining the many cakes), I went out on Sunday and walked some more along Chapel St. I definitely am going to be picking up some clothes at this CM Store and there were plenty of other cool stores and boutiques to be seen. I also got some internet stuff done, discovering that my bank was near zero and so it was finally time to sell my Apple stock. Which, I want to add, was done with the utmost reluctancy as I feel it is sure to be up in the $100 range very soon (as I write this it’s up from the $92 I sold it at to $99), but hey, Visa wants to get paid, who am I to say no? This was a reminder that I definitely had to get the job hunt going.
I met up with Marietta later that day, and she mentioned that she had taken a bit of part-time work with a catering company as their secretary, just to help out a bit. She also mentioned they were looking for people and so I’ll probably stop in there and have a chat – my feeling on finding a job right now is to cast a wide net and then see what comes in, so whether it’s really a job I think I want or not is irrelevant. Money’s money, besides which, and if nothing else, I kind of see how things work around here and get my feet wet. On that note, she and I took a drive around St. Kilda, the Docklands, Bay St., and all the way up to Lygon (which is basically Little Italy) where we walked around some more. We wound up chatting with an Italian restaurant owner who asked me to come by on Tuesday if I wanted to and try out his job. I’m not too keen on it, either, as he essentially tries to get people who are looking for somewhere to eat to eat at his place, but I think it would be an interesting experience for a day or two here and there, so I may do it just to see what it’s like and what I can take from it. You know, besides money.
The next day, Monday, I met up with Norm down in Hampton, which was good fun. Incidentally, he drives a black Land Rover which I felt would’ve been a bit better than Great White, but I digress. He took me on a 30km cycle ride around the city, and we saw quite a bit in that 30k. We started off with a bit of tea and meeting up with one of his friends along Beach Rd somewhere, and then set off on the bike trail following the ocean. The metropolis as he likes to call it, or downtown, or the CBD, or whatever you will, was on the horizon and of course ocean surf and palm trees along the way made it a nice trek. I actually wanted to go into the city itself to one of the Greek music stores, as Marietta and I had discovered just the night prior that Thanos Petrelis was in town and playing a show on Tuesday night, and I definitely wanted tickets.
So we biked along the Yarra, crossed up into downtown and towards Lonsdale St, and I managed to pick up my tickets. I also discovered that Stalactites, a cavern-style Greek restaurant downtown, was hiring, so I’ll be swinging by there in the next few days, too. Everytime I’ve walked by it is at slowest steady. I’m not sure what the deal is with Greeks and cave-themed restaurants, but again, off topic. And while I’m off topic, I want to reiterate that, yes, I have tickets to see Thanos Petrelis. Tomorrow. I wanted to see him while I was in Greece but he wasn’t playing, and now he happens to be here. Lots of Greek musicians are coming through, as it turns out. Ploutarhos is here in June, Sarbel in early July, etc. And it sounds like I really missed out not being here for Greek Easter, but I suppose you can’t win them all. Wilco was also here recently, not to mention the Pixies. And there’s an International Comedy Festival going on for a few more days that I definitely want to check out a bit of. So I think I’m going to love this place.
Continuing on with the bike ride, after downtown and all the delights along the Yarra River (including Fed. Square, Flinders St. station, one of the many ferris wheels, plus the views of downtown), we started making our way back. Norm brought me through Kings Domain park, where we saw, besides the parkland, a music bowl in the style of the Hollywood Bowl, the Victoria government house, the Anzac Memorial where the dawn service will be on Wednesday (and I may attend since I have to walk home from Petrelis and the concert ends around 3 AM), and back into St. Kilda. St. Kilda has a lot of cake shops, in fact it’s somewhat renowned for them, so we stopped and had a vanilla slice that was, to quote Norm, delectable, and also stopped at the gates of Melbourne’s Luna Park for a photo. I think I may actually have to try a ride in this one, as they have a wooden rollercoaster. And you know how I feel about wooden rollercoasters.
Norm dropped me off at the train station and I ran but just missed the train. And then the next train was cancelled, which meant I was waiting to catch a train back for almost half an hour. Luckily I brought my iPod. By the time I got back into the city, it was dark and cool, and everyone was walking around in winter jackets while I strolled around in gym shorts and a t-shirt getting funny looks. I wish I had a camera on my back so I could see how people reacted when they saw the maple leaf on my backpack. “Ah! That explains it.” It was chilly though, and I was happy to get home. I did some work on my resume, which I had to start again from scratch since I didn’t put it on my Mac before leaving, and that ended Monday.
Tuesday I went into the city a bit earlier than usual and, while on the internet, looked up the phone number of the stalactite restaurant that had caught my eye. Always busy, lots of Greeks, in what’s left of Greektown here. I called and chatted with the manager and said I’d be in before she left, then did some other internety stuff when I got to chat with most of my family back home. The bandwidth was barely up to the task of IMing, much less video conference, but it was still nice. I resolved to find a good place with decent speed to do subsequent surfing and found one not much after. I went home to print my resume and headed up to Stalactites, and chatted a bit with the manager there. She told me to come in Thursday. Well, I wasn’t thinking, because I had no white shirts and Wednesday is a holiday, namely Anzac Day, so I had to run all over trying to find cheap white shirts for work before all the stores closed. I found a nice Cypriot on Lygon St that had a dress-clothing store and he gave me directions to a place I could get cheaper ones than his ($95 plus) and his cell/mobile number in case I had any questions or couldn’t find the place. Say what you want about their cricket skills, this is really a country of nice people.
Since I had some time to kill in town before heading to see Thanos Petrelis in concert, I went to see Shooter, which was actually a pretty decent movie first, and then called up Dimitri, who was DJing the pre-show. We met up and he introduced me to his brother, Stelios, who hung around with me most of the night and introduced me to some of his friends. Then some guy came on, sang, then some girl, sang, and they were both decent but I an the other three were wondering who they were aloud when Petrelis walked on stage. He gave us a good show, playing all the songs I wanted to hear including H Oraia, Kernao, Thymesies Kati Apo Ellada, and others. Some of which six times. Kernao, in fact. By the way, this photo on the right is my 6000th photo with this camera. Wow.
I didn’t like that he always held up the mic for the audience to sing lots. Who comes to this to hear themselves sing. If I wanted to do that, I’d hop in the shower. And, love Kernao though I do, it kind of seems cheesy to do it again. Especially saying things like “solo” every time. Especially when the solo is the same every time. In spite of those things, though he did it and managed to avoid international scandal. Whew.
I walked home, which was quite a bit farther than I expected. I intentionally strolled by the ANZAC shrine hoping they would be starting the dawn service soon, but it was still an hour away and the night was chilly. Still, there were many huddled around a fire and getting ready for the big holiday, and I strolled around a bit before continuing my walk. Well, I walked and I walked and hit, I think, Toorak road and walked some more, until finally I decided I wasn’t going to get home until 6AM at that rate, and hailed a cab. It turned out I’d made it pretty close, but it was still a $10 cab ride. Marietta had been out and arrived home shortly before me, so she was still up and we talked about the concert and how her night out was for a bit and went to sleep. Then, Wednesday, we walked all over trying to find cheap but decent white shirts before the stores closed at 5:00, and I finally found a few that were more decent than cheap but still only about $70 for the two of them, and got some cologne samples to try since I’ve run out. I think RSVP is my choice but I have a few to try out first. There’s an international comedy festival going on in Melbourne, and I wanted to see an act, so I took Marietta out to see a comedian and have dinner as thanks before heading home as it had been an exhausting day and I had an early morning to come.
8 AM to be exact, as I had to be at work by 10. One hour to get ready, 30 minutes to get downtown on the tram, and that gave me 30 mins early. There was nobody there in spite of it being a 24/7 restaurant aside from the cooks, the grandfather, and a few assorted people. So I studied the table numbers and reviewed the menu again and then one of the cooks gave me the prep list. So I cleaned and set up for lunch, alone, until almost 11:00 when finally others started to come in and I got a little assistance. I worked until 7PM instead of 4PM because it was busy, and it was a piece of cake. Yeah, I’ll have to get used to their system, table numbers, and so on, but it’s pretty straightforward. No soup/salad first, it’s just a question of whether or not they get bread and side plates with cutlery, which they do for everything except gyros (which they call souvlaki here).
My biggest complaint about the place is that the focus is more on getting food out than customer interaction, which means that everyone does everything for every table, but it seems to get the job done. We also split tips which, on the first day, I think I did pretty well with considering Aussies don’t tip. One guy tipped $11 on a $50 meal, telling me to buy a Mythos with it since I couldn’t drink with him and his wife during work. As it was coming up on 7:00, one of the waitresses, Marjolla, came back and told me to come next door with her to the bakery, so when my shift was done and we hung out with ?? and Stelios there with a Kok and some good hot chocolate and getting to know more people. Then she and I went for a beer, which I’d been craving once in a while since PC2, and I caught the 11:20 tram home. I was due back to work tomorrow, this time noon to midnight. That should be a long day indeed and I’ll be ready to celebrate my first week in Melbourne long before midnight, I’m sure.
And so, my final day in week one, or maybe my first day in week two, but Friday came and I was back at work. The shift went well mostly, except for me giving a table the wrong bill because I hit the wrong button and didn’t double-check, but I’m definitely starting to get comfortable. I met the owner (the manager’s father) today and he seems a really nice guy, too, as do most of the staff here. Plus, because so many of them are Greek, I’m getting a little practice too. This place is definitely busy. It slows down between about 3:00 and 5:00, by which I mean that we only have three or four tables, but from 5:30 on to when I left at 1 AM, it is lined up. Sometimes only a couple tables, sometimes out the door. I worked with Paris, a Greek guy that seems pretty nice if a little stress-prone, Marjolla again for the afternoon (she made me a little coffee-making booklet since flat white or skinny long bla mean nothing to me), the French couple, and Kirsti, who is an absolutely excellent waitress (really, she’s on top of EVERYthing) and very nice as well.
We were busy enough that we didn’t get the waitress station restocked by midnight and she told me to go and she’d do it, but obviously if it was supposed to be done by us, I was going to do it. So we restocked everything, plates, glasses, water bottles, pop, etc, and as we were in the middle of loading the fridges, a fight broke out between two tables. Nice. Who needs bar work? I ran over and a table was flipped and I went and broke them up and helped the owner send the one table packing. I guess this is what happens at a 24 restaurant. I should ask Touly about that. It was getting late to catch a tram and Kirsti gave me a drive back, which again, was very nice, and I walked upstairs to find Mariella in pyjamas. I’d been sure she’d be out, but on account of the fatigue gripping her, no. And so, with a few night-out options for tomorrow (Greek dancing competition, Greek night, live Serbian music, etc) and an AFL game in Geelong (jah-long) on Sunday, I concluded my first week in Melbourne. Not a bad week, though.
This was it. The great three day trek from one shining Australian city to another. So it was fitting that, in my attempt to take the tunnel and faster route out of Sydney rather than the bridge into city centre, that I took a wrong turn. There would be no fast way on this trek, it was all about seeing as much as I could en route and I was starting right in Sydney whether I meant to or not. It took a couple more turns and getting stuck going the wrong way looking for somewhere to turn around before I found myself on the expressway out of Sydney, and it was worth it. The trip out was pretty smooth and the traffic kept flowing quite freely, contrary to previous drives through Sydney. My first stop was a place called Loftus, where I was to take a left and head into the Royal National Park south of Sydney. So I was quite fortunate to see the turn off considering that it was actually still in the sprawl of Sydney and not some small town outside of it. Thus began my trip down the Grand Pacific Drive.
The Royal National Park itself was a pretty nice drive. It never quite reached the coast, so I took the liberty (in spite of not having a pass) of driving down towards Wattamolla to look at the beach there. It was actually pretty nice, a little peninsula of sand at the mouth of some forest river. I also jogged to the curve in the Sea Clif Bridge, a bridge floating over the ocean along a cliff face. Unfortunately, as I was running behind because I tried (and failed) to switch my phone to Telstra and then decided to top it up before my trip and, long story short, I left Sydney at noon with some Krispy Kremes and using Vodaphone. So, although the itinerary Dave gave me called for me to arrive in Thredbo Village and spend the night in a YHA there, it was already dusk by the time I reached Shellharbour. I used the last rays of light to gets some photos of the Crooked River vineyard and then decided I wasn’t going to drive through all the scenery in the dark, so I went along to Bateman’s Bay and spent the night there. My roommates were Dutch and German and both computer programmers and project leaders. I chatted with both of them for a while and read my new novel, Michael Connelly’s The Closers, before going to bed. Since I was now behind schedule, I resolved to wake at sunrise and hit the road shortly after, which meant an early sleep.
I woke at 6AM, showered, and hit the road. Unfortunately, today was mostly overcast, but it really didn’t ruin anything. I took the turn from Bega towards Cooma along the Snowy Mountain Highway and … yes … into the Snowy Mountains. Which, given the season, the weather, and the fact that they were burning a lot of brush to prevent wildfires, should’ve instead called Smoky Mountains instead. Still, it was a beautiful drive through green hills and purple wild flowers and small rustic cottages with windmills spinning. Plus, it being fall, or autumn as they most certainly call it here, there was a lot of colour in the drive. I got to Jindabyne, which is actually on an alpine lake, and took a little walk before grabbing lunch at Banana’s Café. The best burger I’ve had since Fergburger, oh so long ago. I also stopped at the information desk, luckily for me. Dave had told me to drive from Tom Groggin through towards Mt. Beauty, but the people there informed me it was a 4WD track with a decent river crossing right at the beginning. Plus I’d need maps and so on. So, new plan. Up to Khancoban, across to Corryong, and then see where the wind takes me.
It was a beautiful drive along the Alpine Way. Some parts had trees completely devoid of any leaves, others were covered in vines and still others were full of fall colours. I wasn’t supposed to stop anywhere in the park either, but I did several times for photos. I passed through Thredbo Village, which was pretty quiet for the time being but looked like a great little ski village, and also at the Murray 1 Power Station, which had free tours. I figured I’d take a look and see if they had any Startco equipment. Unfortunately, the tour wasn’t with an engineer and I couldn’t see much for security reasons, but it was a worthwhile stop. The Snowy Mountains Scheme is an intricate system of dams and pipes stretching kilometers and kilometers to feed them, and all told, the dams in the Snowy Mountains produce something like 45% of all of Australia’s power. Consider that in terms of Cana
