Given that it was more east than usual over the weekend and they made it twice as long to celebrate the fact, I decided to go visit my Dad’s dogs down in Nearly Melbourne. I also took the opportunity to visit my Dad and his wife at the same time, given that where the dogs are, they generally are. Unless Dad’s at work, but that doesn’t happen when it’s commemoratively more east weekend. This retelling starts before then though, as the stage must be set for such things. So relax dear reader, and be taken on a journey through the power of my words. Or something.
Firstly, let me point out for the uninformed, my new job tends to lead to a few drinks or so on the last day of the week. In fact, the first two fridays lead to being pleasently surprised to find myself at home the next morning, but I digress. Last thursday was no exception, only without excess. This is mainly because after lunch (in a pub) an afternoon drink at the RSL, some drinks and nibblies put on by new work to celebrate an Occasion and a couple more back at the pub to farewell a team member, I popped off to Newtown (or N00btown if you prefer) for a few cocktails and some dinner/wine with a friend who was temporarily back from London. This was followed by heading into the city for a few beers with her other half, then getting home shortly before 2am, checking into my flight and packing my bag. I managed to forget nothing, which suggested to me that getting drunk the night before a trip isn’t such a bad thing after all.
5 hours later however, with the alarm cacophanising me from lovely slumber, that was revised back to ‘not ideal’. Tired and slightly queasy I staggered downstairs, called for a cab, leapt into the first one that came along instead and was whizzed off to the airport by a complete nutter. Nice guy, but part of the 95% of cabbies that give the rest a bad name when it comes to driving. A bit of lining up and a ham and cheese croissant later I was waiting to board, alternating between keeping my eyes open enough to read my book and closing them for a recharge. Which is also pretty much what I did after I boarded.
As an aside, I hate flying. If I had time/means I’d rather drive to places, but as flying is much faster and cheaper, that means I don’t get to do it as often as I’d like. Still, at least I’ve done it a few times.
So anyhoo, that started a sleepy day in Nearly Melbourne. That afternoon we visited a Buddhist temple that’s nearby (well, it took over an hour to get there.. we went the scenic route). It was in a great spot, but it was kind of a non-descript building with the gold horns chucked on the top. Nice though. On the way back we spotted a pub that had all day meals on, so with it being 3pm at that point we decided to stop and have a feed. Very tasty fish and chips, and Asahi on tap. Yum. Not pictured: everything.
The nice thing about visiting Dad is that I can drink his wine. He has very nice wine. He also has some Raki, which is a Turkish spirit that tastes like aniseed and burning until you put a bunch of ice in. Then it’s aniseed and nice. The other side of it is helping around the shop/restaurant they run, which is fine most of the time.. cleaning out the rangehood over the kitchen was a mucky job though. Ergh. Still, I earns me keep. Also I got to play with the pressure washer, so it wasn’t all bad. Squwoooosh! Only got a bit soaked…
Anyhoo, I got back last night. I decided to take the train and bus home from the airport, which is actually the first time I’ve done it from a flight home. Usually I’m too tired/cranky to be bothered with anything other than queuing for a cab, but I decided that the line would be huge and I might as well spend half the cashola to get home. (Though seriously, $15 is a ridiculous fare for about half a dozen stops.) Sitting on an empty train makes me want to think of something to write about, but it never happens.. probably because I’m not much of a writer.. I get writer’s block before I start. I think I shall call it aspirant’s block. Kinda makes you wonder why I’d have a blog with an imaginary flipside, but heigh.. why the hell not.