bank hol in melbourne

i've been having a top bank holiday weekend. it didn't look like i was going to but it's funny how quickly things change. you see, i'd sussed out the whole meeting-people-thing by signing up for another tour from the hostel on friday and this is how i met carolyn and it all happened from there. carolyn and i went for a jug of beer at e55 (top tip, fred) after the tour. i like carolyn cos she's 31 and normal so we can simultaneously envy and bitch about all the little 20 year olds running round the place. after the beer we decided that we really didn't want to face the crummy ecoli infested kitchen in the hostel for another night and i had been thinking for a while that i wanted to go out in lygon street. it's a well fab place. loads and loads of cafes and restaurants with tables out in the street. v cosmopolitan and laidback. it's mainly italian places but i decided a while back that if i was going to splash out on a meal then it would have to be (a) something that i couldn't cook in the hostel (ie. def no pasta) and (b) it would have to be somewhere i really wanted to go. so a quick change and we were heading up the lygon, being called to by everyone who wanted us to eat in their place. we decided upon lebanese. i def wouldn't know how to cook lebanese, even if i weren't in a hostel. anyway, the night was going quite normally. we had a banquet so got a bit of everything, washed down with a bottle of red. occasionally belly dancers came out and it was all rather pleasant. then carolyn decided that we should 'have a little go on the bong thing'. well. i'd never heard of such a thing in a restaurant. and the waiter guy recommended the strawberry and rose flavour and said it's okay, it'll just make you feel light-headed. so i trusted the waiter guy and it was all quite exciting. you can't really see in the picture but they put the mixture thing under some tin foil thing on top of the bong and then put hot coals on top of that and then they just keep topping up the hot coal as you puff away. well. we did get light-headed and a bit giggly and everything was rather amusing. passers-by kept double taking as they walked past the restaurant as they saw everyone at the tables all smoking bongs. it was v amusing.

and then.

carolyn hit the point where she felt she should stop before me so i carried on merrily, giggling all the way. and then about 15 minutes later i hit that brick wall. i don't know what happened but suddenly my legs refused to work. i had to sit for about 20 minutes before i felt i could stand up and not fall over. clearly, the waiter man lied. the lying lebanese man. i went to the toilets and fell over a bar stool, in a graceful stylee. disaster. but the walk back to the hostel helped and then we did what any self-respecting person would have done after a night on the bong - carolyn taught me how to play backgammon. now THAT was fun. it was also a bit of a man magnet as people kept coming and joining us, asking whether we actually were actually playing backgammon at 2am. well, yes we were. and i liked it. i think, when i grow up, i'll be one of those old blokes in seville who play it in the streets all day.

so then we went to bed and i, somewhat luxuriously, spent the whole day lying in bed, reading a mag and napping. it's not often you get to do that on your holidays. bliss.

and then i'd arranged a night out in st kilda (a cool place where all the cool kids go) with a couple of lasses i'd met. except we had a glass or two of wine in the ecoli kitchen before we got ready and suddenly we ended up with a massive mob of people coming. it was great. we had a bit of a boogie, requesting such classics as 'like a prayer' and 'the final countdown' AND they played them. brrrilliant. and before we knew it, it was 4.30am and i was like, blimey it's 4.30am. so carolyn and i decided we would leave at this point but, instead of going home, we decided that what we really needed was a cup of tea and could the taximan take us somewhere where we could get tea at 5am. he took us to 'embassy taxi cafe' - a special caff for taximen. anyway, we made new best friends in the form of the ladies behind the counter who loved us so much they gave us a free refill of tea and a snicker bar. god bless them. and then we chatted until 6am when we thought perhaps we should go to bed soon. so the taximan we'd got chatting to while we were having our tea and he was having a burger gave us a lift back to the hostel. for free and everything. result. taximan caff is clearly the place to be at 6am.

but i couldn't sleep much because the moomba waterfest has been going on this weekend and i had spotted the birdman rally in the programme and really wanted to see it. i imagined all those black and white silent films and their hilarity. so after about 3 hours kip i dragged my arse out of bed to get down the river where all the normal people who slept all night had gone. and it was, indeed, hilarious. men and women dressed in capes and homemade wings and strange plastic structures and threw themselves off the platform. the picture is a bit blurred (perhaps my hand was a little unsteady with sleeplessness) but you can just make out the guy's white wings just below the white roof of the marquee. but the best thing was the guy who was commentating. every time the contestant started his run the guy said 'see you later, aviator. FLY, BIRDMAN, FLY!' and then when the guy plummeted into the water and was picked up in the dinghy, the man would announce 'he's okay, ladies and gentlemen - HE'S O-KAY!!!'. and he just kept saying it. it was really funny at the time.

we hung around the festival all day. it was really hot and we sat by the river, occasionally watching the jetski competition. it was quite strange having a conversation and then suddenly seeing someone flying through the air on skis out the corner of your eye. i had an ice cream, too.

i had to go back for a little nap but then returned later for the outdoor film. this was cool. we got our spot by the river and watched the new 'charlie and the chocolate factory' with a load of little kids and their mums and dads. it was beautiful, if a little chilly. you could see all the lights of the fair and hear the music and people's screams on the breeze and it was all reflected in the river, though, again, it's a bit blurred in the pic. it felt a really special evening. and we'd got the big group that had gone out the last night together again so it felt like we were in a gang and everything. liz got a hot chocolate and i had a bit.

so today we went to watch the final day parade down swanston street. it's cool being in the city centre cos you don't have to walk v far to get anywhere. we then spent the afternoon up brunswick street in the fitzroy area of the city. this is the cool place for cool kids. it's basically a long street full of boutique shops full of trendy gear and also lots of arty, scruffy cafes. we had a happy hour wine or two. brunswick streets also has lots of small beautiful homes, built when melbourne was first founded. they remind me a lot of new orleans with their ornate railings. would love to live in one of those.

so tonight i'm off back down to the river to meet the others and watch the fireworks. it's been a great weekend, getting a whole crowd of mates. most of them will be moving on again in a few days so i'll have to do it all over again. how exhausting. but it's been cool and i might be getting an apartment with darren and karen cos they're staying. they have rhyming names which amuses me and, i think, it the best recipe for housemate harmony. what fun.