Adventures with Plasma, Hairspray & Melbourne!

Hi!

Well. Late. Yep. Sorry, last weekend, and the whole week, just got away from me. So busy. But not anymore! Here I am! The little chatty lorikeets have claimed their branch for the evening from which to chirp their last thoughts before bedtime. The sort of strange "Broadway Show-tunes" radio show, the one that's on before the way cool jazz show, has been and gone, and the way cool jazz radio show is nearly finished. Got my cool glass of nice white wine.... The evening, rainy as it's been all day, is good!

So work. Yep. Is good. Don't have much to be doing just yet, but I've again been assured things are coming and then I'll apparently wish I had my idle days back again. For now I have a couple things to keep me occupied, and that's enough. Am happy, I like it the more I get settled, meet people and figure stuff out. Hooray for gainful employment!

And then the weekend(s)! Well, the week before last was way totally awesome because I went to Melbourne first thing Wednesday morning! Hooray! Was there from Wed until Sat. So a short but sweet visit. It was awesome to see Jeff and Emily after 5 years. And it was way cool to scope out Melbourne like a normal person, as opposed to my first visit there many years ago (while I was still living in NZ) which was only for 6 hours on a layover from Auckland to Germany. And my tour guides at the time were absolutely useless, to put it politely. So this was pretty much the first time I've really seen Melbourne. It's much cooler and nicer than I remember. I can't rightly say what city it reminded me of.... probably closest would be London, tho with much better weather and on a much smaller scale. But overall it had that gray, Victorian classy hip coolness to it that London has. I must say I quite liked it. And honestly, 3 days isn't enough, but it was a start! We did a lot of wandering for the most part, checking stuff out, sticking our heads into the lane-ways and teeny little malls stuffed with hip and groovy shops.

So that Wednesday we met up, dumped my stuff in the room at the hotel - the Langham (oooooh fancypants), and headed out to get some food at a place on the river called "World". Not bad food, very highly strung waiter, nice view of the river and city. Then, to walk off brunch, we headed over to the Crown Casino - it's MASSIVE. Vegas would be jealous that it doesn't have one just like it (complete with jets of flames (pardon me - "Gas Brigades"/fireballs) shooting from decorative cauldrons at night). So we stopped in there (after walking the length and breadth of it) for a beer while Emily shopped for CD's. Then we headed in to see the new Harry Potter film. If you like HP, I highly recommend it. If you don't like HP, I highly recommend you don't see it. I liked it, and the last installment will be released just before mah birthday next year (hello Gold Class again)! And by that stage it was time for us to check in at the hotel to see if their bags had arrived yet (they had, after 3 days of traveling on their own, no thanks to Alaska Air). So we quickly refreshed ourselves before heading out to get a quick bite to eat at a very totally cool little cafe down one of the little lane-ways, who's name escapes me unfortunately (will do some internet research and come back to you with the name, because if you find yourself in Melbourne and hungry, this is a place to go.... once I remember the name....). So we had a quick bite to eat before heading in to the Princess Theatre to see "Hairspray - The Musical". Now, these theatre tickets were a gift, so, kinda like you shouldn't, as a rule, speak ill of the dead, you shouldn't bag a play/musical when it was a gift, given to you with the very best of intentions. But I have to say, I don't do musicals at the best of times (for an example of a best of time - "Sweeny Todd", and that had Johnny Depp directed by Tim Burton, and I still had loads of trouble with it). And this one, well, it didn't even have Johnny Depp to help redeem it. So we three sat there very politely, very patiently dreaming of the moment the house lights would come up, alerting us to intermission. After 45 minutes I began to fear for the worst and there would be no intermission. Jeff fell asleep. Emily and I shifted nervously in our seats hoping the end would be near. Finally, an hour and a half later, the moment we'd been begging for: "Intermission". I'll tell you what, fire or no fire, no one would've jostled to get out of that theatre quicker than us. No wish to speak ill of a gift, but that show sucked. We all agreed there would be no returning. So, giggling madly with our new-found freedom, we caught a cab and bolted straight back to the hotel where Jeff and I drank beer and Laphroaig and Emily downloaded iTunes. It was an evening saved from certain death.

The next day, Thanksgiving, saw us wandering to the Blue Train Cafe for a very nice breakfast before heading over to the Botanical Gardens. Even with the rain, which stopped just as we entered the Gardens, it was wonderful. It was huge, lush and hilly. We spent a good 4 hours or so wandering around in there taking pictures, trying not to get lost. We stopped for a lovely spot of scones and jam at their Terrace Cafe before continuing on through the rest of the Gardens, ending up at the Shrine of Remembrance (war memorial). Then the rain really started up with gusto just as we crossed the road, forcing us to take cover in the National Gallery of Victoria. Unfortunately they were closing shortly, so we had just enough time to dry out whilst wandering around the book/gift shop. Pretty cool. Like I said, 3 days is not much to scope out such a cool city. Then we headed back to the hotel to freshen up before heading over to the Marriott where they were putting on a Thanksgiving dinner (tee hee, complete with clam chowder starter... hmmm). Also meeting friends of mine that I'd invited to join us, Talava and her fiance Josh (I used to work with Talava at my last gig at Health. They've just moved down there and love it). The dinner was pretty good considering, and the pumpkin pie even got Emily's nod of approval. Happy Thanksgiving in Australia!

And then Friday was last-minute shopping for gifts for them to take home for friends for Xmas. Boy, we covered most of the inner-city. Whew! And then, gifts successfully acquired, we headed out to St. Kilda via #16 tram, took about 20 minutes, where we had a bit of a wander along the beach, stopping for a bite of pizza and chips (fries) and a glass of wine at a really pretty cool beach-side restaurant (again, name escaped). And then that evening we met Jeff's new boss and his girlfriend for a very lovely Italian dinner right on the river (again, name escapes me, will get back to you). It was a very busy, but very good day.

And then Saturday saw us off to the airport for their flight back to the States at noon and mine back to Brissy at 2pm (delayed 30 mins, to be expected these days). And then that was me and the end of a way totally cool Adventure and reunion! And I have to say, I must be getting old because that night it was all I could do to stay awake until 8pm and Sunday it was all I could do to do a load of washing. And then there was the week, and then it was the weekend and now here I am. Boy time sure flies when you're having fun and recovering afterwards!

So yes, that brings me back to a couple days before heading to Melbourne - that Monday I took delivery of mah brand spankin' new 42 inch, Panasonic Plasma TV and "complimentary" Panasonic blue ray player (valued at around $350)! Hooray! But that evening I'd met my friend Jan for dinner at a lovely little Thai place up the road from me (name escaped), so aside from quickly turning the thing on before heading to bed, I didn't watch much. But, a week later - it died! GASP! I was in the middle of a James Bond movie! Aaaarrrgggghhh! So this past Tues I trotted back to the shop where they took pity on me and my mere week of fancy tv ownership and arranged for a brand spankin' new replacement to be delivered this Saturday. Hooray - again! So far so good! The guy at the shop told me they either drop dead within the first 7 days or after 3 years (good to know, will start saving for the next tv if that's the case).

So Saturday was reserved for one load of laundry and tv shows from the 80's - Magnum PI, A Team, Knight Rider - it was what was on tv while I was tuning it in and adjusting all the contrast and brightness, etc levels..... Boy, I gotta say, after all this time with no tv, and just mah poor little laptop, this tv is totally awesome! And massive! Bloody thing fills the room! But yes, Xmas has come a little bit early..... HOORAY!

And then there was today, Sunday. What typical weekend of mine would be complete without a dose of chores. So now the little apartment is clean, the lorikeets have gone to bed, the TV is settling in.... I must find a couple of Blue Ray discs and see what this thing can really do.... I'm thinking either a James Bond or the first Raiders of the Lost Ark........

So there you have it! Now you can understand a little why I was a bit late checking in. WHEW! An Adventure was happily had! And that's the best excuse! So hope you're all well up there - now when you come down, time allowed, we'll hit Melbourne too! C'mon down!

BYE!
J!