More on Melbourne

As you might be aware, I recently had a short trip to Melbourne for entirely recreational purposes. I was going to do a straight up recount of the whole adventure, but Hugo already beat me to it and covered most of the big stuff over here, so I'm just going to give impressions and thoughts.

Melbourne was a trip marked by running late, failed meetings, hanging around killing time in bars and unadulterated fun. It started, for me, with a taxi that wouldn't turn up and the prospect of missing my flight. The flight was caught in the end, at the cost of parking at the airport for the entire trip. Apart from the slight stress, it was actually really nice to cruise into town on my own at my own pace. After flights and skybuses, I had a short wander about until meeting up with Pete at his work and dropping my bags off and taking some time for a coffee in the cafe under his office. We had some excellent Japanese for lunch at a sly sushi place with vague menus - the deluxe, super special or ultra sushi lunch deal?

The rest of the day was a blur of pubs, wappers, taxi and tram rides. I met Hugo's mate Krispin, who was a bit of a legend, and a good man to slay a few beers in the sun with if you ever get the chance. I also got to visit two parts of Melbourne wholly new to me - Brunswick and Camberwell. Brunswick was a nice (if eclectic spot) and from my limited experience, Camberwell seems to be filled with rappers (American or otherwise) with names that consist of three letters living in run down share houses. We met the GDP, DNA and AOI and hung out for like a minute yo-yo.

As an aside, I used to think that if I had a rap name it would be Long Island Ice Tea, but now (and after that whole "down low" speech on SVU) I reckon it should the TLA, the public service rapper. With the dope evidence based policy styleeeeee!

The other thing I noticed about Camberwell, was that it was a bit far out. Given that it was still within tram distance, this is probably just a side effect of living in Canberra too long.

What else to say about day one, but that Hugo's gig was pretty awesome. There was a never-ending rider, and apparently my designated role as "the dude that yells at his mate on stage" was enough of a performance role to give me access to it. I love Melbourne bars! Even if the staff won't give me a Redbull and look down their noses at me for having suggested I might like to purchase one.

Day two in Melbourne was fairly laid back for me - hung around Pete's place (which is really freaking sweet) in Richmond, did the crossword, had a big breakfast at 1pm and watched season 4 of Weeds on Pete's fiddy inch plasma. Gently eased into beers and BBQ at Pete's place, with excellent company. I laughed so goddamn hard, and it reminded me of excellent bygone days in Perth at Meriwa street with my Perth boys.

I should take a moment to give some major league props to Pete and his (ZOMFG) wife Christine for putting me up and going above and beyond the call of duty in opening their front door at 2am and dashing to the airport on the day four. Better people you will not meet. And did I mention their house was friggin SWEET? Because it is.

Day three involved a pretence at shopping in town, followed by an authentic community radio experience; I accompanied Hugo to an interview at RRR in East Brunswick. It was cool to see how it all worked, and to actually sit in a radio studio. For most of the interview I hung out in the green room with the naughty offspring of the lady who does the country and western show. I was tasked with keeping their volume down to a dull roar so that their shrill voices did not make it through to the broadcast. I was not always successful.

The day then dissolved once more into bars and beers. We visited the rather yuppie Cookie in town and the rather excellent Lambs Go Bar in Fitzroy. Props to Joelle for suggesting that one. Lambs boasts over 100 beers, and we did our best to sample them all between us that night. This contributed to the night becoming pretty fuzzy by the time we headed into town to catch pots and pans music, courtesy of UK DJ/producer Dom & Roland. It's a bit hazy, but I remember enjoying the man like Dom. Unfortunately, he was not enough to keep me awake, and after a nap in the club, it became clear that it was time to head home, or at the very least, that the bouncers weren't going to let me get any more sleep at the club.

Day four of the trip, the final day, was scarily similar to the start of the trip - a very real threat of a missed flight, and an upset Henry in front of the cameras from "Airways". Thankfully Pete came to my rescue, and with an inhuman feat of driving, got me to the airport in time to check in. I think I managed to get to the counter a total of 2 minutes before check in closed - plenty of time!

All in all, the trip was excellent, caught up with some great mates, met some new people who were more than worth the time of day. It was also excellent to explore more than the CBD of Melbourne. Don't get me wrong, there's lots to see there, but I feel like I've got the feel of it for the most part, and was ready to check new places out. I can't wait to get down there and do it all again soon!