Friday was officially my last night in St Kilda. I left Friday Night Drinks early to pick up an SUV from a coworker Narelle. She lives in South Yarra, one of the richest neighborhoods in Melbourne, and she happens to live next to the co-founder of Two Peas in a Pod. How random is that? This girl knows everyone I am convinced (the Mini Cooper dealer, the Sony retailer, the furniture supplier, the photographer the list goes on and on). She's got connections, and now I have connections!! Anyway, I finally made it home and Phill was sitting on the couch watching Airport. Okay, I cannot even begin to describe the completely lame content of this show. I loathe this show, along with all kinds of other trash TV programs that Phill enjoys, and he knows it. Would I be one to hold back? Certainly not! He begged me to watch it with him on our last night together, so I caved to the pressure and withstood 30 minutes of torture. This program is basically a documentary of air travel gone wrong. It shows people missing their flights, airlines losing baggage, animals in cargo transport (made me happy Jack will avoid the long trip), and other disappointments and frustrations. I don't like to experience those things personally; what in the world would entice a person to watch someone else endure it? The shocker is there's another program just like it called Airline. Oh wow. The height of Australian TV!! After that riveting program, I packed up at least double what I arrived with - where did it all come from?!
Saturday morning I met Narelle for brunch down by the beach in St Kilda. One last hoorah. I keep saying that, as though I'll never return to this distant far away place, but it does really seem that way here. Although St Kilda is only 6 km south of the city, and my new house in Brunswick East is only 6 km north of the city, they are separated by the river and seem worlds apart. People don't cross the river without resistance, and with public transport, it takes about 45-50 minutes to traverse the distance. I packed up the car, cleaned the old flat, and hauled all my loot to the north side. I settled in a little, and made a quick run to Kmart. The luxury of having wheels! I practically bought out the store, feeling as though I would never again have the opportunity not to hand carry every item I purchased. I bought every heavy pot and pan and huge pack of toilet paper I could lay my hands on. Stores have tricky hours here. Something about enjoying life... these people never work! The stores close around 5-6 pm daily (during the week and weekend), so it's hard to fit it all in.
That night, I headed to The Retreat, a funky, grunge, trendy venue in Brunswick about 2 km from my house. My coworker Tuffy had a gig there with his brother. There was a good gaggle of supporters (many coworkers who live in the area), and long time friends and family of the Tough Brothers. The bar was packed, and Tuffy's gig was followed by Chris Wilson, who had a great blues and rock style (he's also played at SXSW). There was dancing galore!! This was followed by music blaring at my house at 5:30 AM. Did I tell you that the new housemates are a little crazy?! So let me recap this... there's Jade (behind the scenes girl for a TV show), Heath (rockstar in the band), and Daniel (Aveda hair stylist/educator). Those are the roommates, but what I've come to realize is that there are a few semi-permanent fixtures in the house, including but not limited to Nellie the nuzzler and Joe the shoe model. Randoms are likely. It's a really interesting little mix.
Sunday I made the trek to IKEA and managed to emerge without buying a single thing, but to know that I could (because I temporarily had a car) was exhilirating. I made one more trek to Kmart and the market (had to buy all the heavy cans!!), and headed out for dinner with Daniel. He recently (in the last week) decided to become a vegetarian, so we went to Veggie Bar on Brunswick St in Fitzroy (the place I love for all of its cute shops and cafes). It's all vegetarian fare, which I am generally not the biggest fan of, but I was uber impressed. Everything we ate was delicious! Then I had to trade in my freedom. Narelle needed the SUV back for work. Dang, that work thing just always gets in the way. I picked up Narelle at her house, where she attempted to give me everything in her house (she asked if we needed knives, then if we needed blankets, then a TV, "what can I get you?", "what do you need?" - she's definitely one of those people that would give you the shirt off her back). She had the grand tour of my new place last night and we're going shopping next weekend to fix it up a little. Should be fun!!
Sorry no pictures. I don't have internet at the new house yet, so I had to stay late at work to type this up. Pictures are all on my laptop at home. Something to look forward to... No internet and no TV right now. How archaic!!
Saturday morning I met Narelle for brunch down by the beach in St Kilda. One last hoorah. I keep saying that, as though I'll never return to this distant far away place, but it does really seem that way here. Although St Kilda is only 6 km south of the city, and my new house in Brunswick East is only 6 km north of the city, they are separated by the river and seem worlds apart. People don't cross the river without resistance, and with public transport, it takes about 45-50 minutes to traverse the distance. I packed up the car, cleaned the old flat, and hauled all my loot to the north side. I settled in a little, and made a quick run to Kmart. The luxury of having wheels! I practically bought out the store, feeling as though I would never again have the opportunity not to hand carry every item I purchased. I bought every heavy pot and pan and huge pack of toilet paper I could lay my hands on. Stores have tricky hours here. Something about enjoying life... these people never work! The stores close around 5-6 pm daily (during the week and weekend), so it's hard to fit it all in.
That night, I headed to The Retreat, a funky, grunge, trendy venue in Brunswick about 2 km from my house. My coworker Tuffy had a gig there with his brother. There was a good gaggle of supporters (many coworkers who live in the area), and long time friends and family of the Tough Brothers. The bar was packed, and Tuffy's gig was followed by Chris Wilson, who had a great blues and rock style (he's also played at SXSW). There was dancing galore!! This was followed by music blaring at my house at 5:30 AM. Did I tell you that the new housemates are a little crazy?! So let me recap this... there's Jade (behind the scenes girl for a TV show), Heath (rockstar in the band), and Daniel (Aveda hair stylist/educator). Those are the roommates, but what I've come to realize is that there are a few semi-permanent fixtures in the house, including but not limited to Nellie the nuzzler and Joe the shoe model. Randoms are likely. It's a really interesting little mix.
Sunday I made the trek to IKEA and managed to emerge without buying a single thing, but to know that I could (because I temporarily had a car) was exhilirating. I made one more trek to Kmart and the market (had to buy all the heavy cans!!), and headed out for dinner with Daniel. He recently (in the last week) decided to become a vegetarian, so we went to Veggie Bar on Brunswick St in Fitzroy (the place I love for all of its cute shops and cafes). It's all vegetarian fare, which I am generally not the biggest fan of, but I was uber impressed. Everything we ate was delicious! Then I had to trade in my freedom. Narelle needed the SUV back for work. Dang, that work thing just always gets in the way. I picked up Narelle at her house, where she attempted to give me everything in her house (she asked if we needed knives, then if we needed blankets, then a TV, "what can I get you?", "what do you need?" - she's definitely one of those people that would give you the shirt off her back). She had the grand tour of my new place last night and we're going shopping next weekend to fix it up a little. Should be fun!!
Sorry no pictures. I don't have internet at the new house yet, so I had to stay late at work to type this up. Pictures are all on my laptop at home. Something to look forward to... No internet and no TV right now. How archaic!!
