Australia Day

I spent the morning working and having a laugh with Isis and Yboe the receptionists before shooting down to the beach with Kristian to meet Danni, Kirstin, Nick, Leah, Amy and Katie down the beach.

We had a few beers and played some never have I ever before coming back to the hostel for more drinks.

I had an amazing night and had a few to many! Yboe the receptionist lost a beer pong compitition and had to streak naked through the bar and down the street. I ended up mingling with so many people playing drinking games and chatting. I ended up with a group of young Aussie lads and decided to go down the riverbank after bars closed and tried to do some cartwheels. I ended up in a thorn bush! Then I ran off and bumped into some couch surfers so hung with them for a while before heading back to my hostel.

Good times!

More Melbourne

After meeting with Steph and later with Lauen on Monday I enjoyed a few quiet days Being productive 

And visiting the Library museum and the Ned Kelly exhibit. Ned is a folk hero in Victoria as he robbed banks and killed corrupt police officers. He was most famous for being the original iron man. I. Fashioned a metal suit out of plough parts so during fire fights he was indestructible.

On Thursday I did my first shift at the hostel followed by trying to cycle to st kilda to meet some more friends. Unfortunately try was the main word. First I had to stop by the bike shop to adjust my brakes. Then as I'm cycling along I am tapped firmly on the shoulder. "Pull over please." The old deaf routine wouldn't work this time so I obliged.

Three of the buggers stood around me astride their bikes. "You know why we've stopped you." I honestly had no idea what was going on, so I continued smiling like a nob head at each of the officers.

"You know it's a legal offence to cycle without a helmet." 

I didn't in fact know that so proceeded (with my finest posh english accent) to plead not only ignorance but bumbling gratitude for letting me know also.

Then they told me it was a $250 fine "FUCK THAT!" I shouted, with more passion than you should use when addressing three police officers.

After denying having my wallet, thus no ID, they made me walk to the closest 7/11 store to buy a helmet. Then they let me off with a warning. I'm just glad none of them realised how strange it was I hadn't my wallet but I was still able to go to a corner shop with a strange leather holding money device and buy a helmet!

By the time I got to st kilda beach all my friends had gone. So after an hour or so of reading my text book I headed back to the city to get ready to meet Lauen.

My luck with transport did not improve! I got on the wrong tram, so I ended up at the end of the line miles away from where I needed to be. I accidentally got on the 96 not the 86 all the way to the end of the line and started coming back when I called Lauen to say I was lost. She made me get off the tram and told me to walk to stops backwards. I walked back away from the city two stops (about ten minuets) and called again. She meant two stops back towards the city.... So off I went again!

Eventually I found her and after that whole tram fiasco we ended up in little Italy. So we stopped and had some Italian ice cream. It was soooo good! And really funny eating ice cream in a bar atmosphere at 10pm. To give you a mental image, imagine an old mans pub with a few younger tattooed rough looking Italian guys. Now replace the pints of beer and stout with ice cream cones.

Friday i Worked In the day time then just chilled with friends awaiting the big weekend coming in the form of Australia Day!

Saturday night I met up with Phillip and we went to Brunswick, a very cool area. Here we met David and Georgie I met first in Sorrento then barcalona for drinks. We went to a couple of really cool bars. Including one that had a great view of the city skyline. 

When everyone decided to go home Phillip and I got the tram back to town and attempted to find some other guys from the hostel. We walked and walked and walked. We asked one guy where 'the lions club' was. He told us opposite hungry jacks, with a big smile on his face. Hungry jacks was opposite the library. We did end up finding them, after an hour walking, just in time to go home!

Meeting Steph

Steph, my good friend from Norwich arrived in Melbourne today so I cycled my new bike down to st kilda to meet her.

We had a walk along the beach and a good old chat about how she is doing in England and I let her into a couple of my stories.

We then went back up to Melbourne CBD for the walking tour. The tour was great, the guide was a fantastic public speaker and we had a lot of fun seeing and learning about the city. I found that Melbourne has more to offer than almost any city I have been to. So much diversity, you can walk down a narrow alley covered in Rich and vibrant street art and come straight out into an Italian style grand arcade or a cobblestoned cafe district.

We finished off the day by watching the Nadal match back at federation square on the deck chairs.

The Bicycle Blues

I decided today to get the tram out to East Brunswick, to a initiative called Ceres. Ceres is an organic sustainable living organisation. On site they have a bike shop. Not your normal bike shop. People donate bikes of any standard, usually broken. When the customer (ie me) arrives you pick a bike you want and one of the repair men or women will tell you what is wrong with it and explain how you can fix it yourself. So you do all the repair work and they check up on you as you go to make sure you do a good job. I really enjoyed the hustling atmosphere and learning a fair amount how bikes work too.

As soon as I arrived I spotted a big red racing bike I liked. As I walked towards it, however, another guy picke It up and walked off with it! So I found another, I was 90% this was the one for me. A nice navy hybrid, perfect. Just to be sure I took another bike on a short test ride. 20 seconds later I got back and my new favourite had been sold! Grrrrr!

Eventually I found a good green and navy mottled city bike that I liked. This time I was like gollum with his ring and was not letting go of it for Love nor money!

Whilst I was running repairs I got chatting to Shaila, an Australian girl who had had her front wheel stolen. Then as I was paying I met Laoen, a French girl with Vietnamese herratige. Not bad, I bought a bike for $40 and was given two girls phone numbers. I should get oil on my hands more often!

I was very tempted to stop at the world Lego convention on the way back to town, but the que was too long for me unfortunately.

That evening Laoen and I decided to meet up and went to a little cafe in one of the trendy suburbs where a blues band were playing. It was really excellent. I had a fantastic time and even got up for a little dance to the upbeat jazz/bluesy music!

Tennis

Yesterday I met up with a Dutch girl called Sylvia who I made friends with when visiting Jen and Rich for dinner a couple of days ago. We decided to go down to federation square and watch the Australian open tennis tournament, which was being hosted in Melbourne.

Federation square is a lovley big sand stone bricked square in the centre of town which can hold 10,000 people. They have erected a huge tv and loads of deck chairs for people to watch the tennis on. So we got ourselves a spot and settled down to watch a few games. It was really enjoyable and a great atmosphere to be in. The cherry on the cake, however, was that Kia (the main sponsors of the tournament were handing out free tickets to the next days tournament! So I lept on one of the Kia ladies and bagged us five free tickets for the Australian open! 

The next day I was up early and popped down to the bar where I found my friend Brandon I met a few days ago. He was well up for going to the open and I gave my last ticket -Sylvia took two- to the first person to put their hand up when I announced I had a spare in the middle of the bar. The lucky winner was Louis!

So Brandon and I made our way down to the Olympic park, where the open was taking place. We planned our day around seeing the Williams sisters take on the world 13 seeds on show court two. This entailed sitting in the near 40 degree heat watching the games before hand to make sure we got a decent spot under a little bit of fabric mesh to give us some shade. On the plus side we saw, or rather heard, some fantastic grunting and whining in the women's singles!

Three hours later out strolled the Williams sisters to a round of... Bewildered silence... They had magically transformed into two slender Hispanic women who got absolutely annihilated. 

It turns out the sisters pulled out of the competition as Serena was playing earlier that morning. I was absolutely gutted as we had missed a really good Aussie men's doubles match which sounded like a great atmosphere. After the disappointment and were met by Louis and her boyfriend we all headed into the Margret court arena for two really great games of tennis.

After eight hours of solid tennis and two shock rainfalls halting play Brandon and I headed on home. Today was one of the best sporting spectacles I have been to for the sport alone and I am really looking forward to going to Wimbledon when I get home. I also hope Makoto doesn't mind picking up a racket so we can have a few games down hove park.

Great day

Brewery tour

Today after a morning off affine around I met up with Jen and Rich again. We decided to walk out of town to the Mountain Goat Brewery. Which Rich assured us was not too far a walk.

So we walked, and walked, and walked. After I had aged many decades we finally reached the end of our quest. Ten minuets late, but bang on time for the start of the tour. The brewery was really cool with a minimalist but homey feel about the small production line and the bar area. 

We learnt about the history of the brewery and about how beer is made. Which highlighted to me several things Toby and I were doing wrong and why ours always came out ridiculously strong or dreadful to taste!

After the tour we had a few bottles of beer, which we later found out we were not meant to drink on site, and a laugh. It was really good to catch up with Rich and Jen again. I hope I meet them again in New Zealand.

On the way back to town we decided we should take the tram back as we may have missed the following Christmas if we walked back. Unfortunately Australia has this stupid system where you cannot buy tickets on trams and busses but have to have a pre pay card. We had only one of these between the three of us, and that was empty! We then decided to be rebles and hop on a tram anyway.

Then things got exciting again. As we were at a stop I noticed a car was being a little cheeky and was sitting on the tram lines trying to turn right in front of us. Surley the tram driver saw him?

Nope.

We ploughed straight into the side of the car, respect to the tram as it felt like a little bump in the road. The car however had been caved in at the side and stripped of its wingmirror. It turned out that I was the only person who had seen the whole situation unfold. However, I had to decline being a witness or issuing a statement and all got off quickly at the next stop as obviously we were traveling illegally.

Sunny, sunny Melbourne

After a very nice ice cream coffee Amy and I said our goodbyes after a fantastic trip. And I jumped on the rail replacement bus -that's right they have them here too-.

I had a really good trip down. The old boy next to me was a gold and opal miner up in the mountains and was famous for discovering an opal fossil of a huge sea dinosaur. He was a really interesting guy and we had a lot to talk about.

After we arrived in Melbourne Ken, the gold miner, showed me to my hostel. Unfortunately they had no room so in the baking heat I trekked half way across the city to another hostel who could take me. When I arrived, they offered me a job!

I start on Sunday as a travel agent!

I unpacked my stuff and came back down and who do I see sitting in the bar but Joe Katz. My friend I sat next to in biology and business studies at college. We had a bit of a catch up and enjoyed a bowl of cuppa soup and pasta when Jen and Rich, my friends from China arrived. 

We had a good catch up and I monologged about pandas a little to much.

I bummed around most of the next day until it was time to do a bit of work training. I then went for a walk and met up with Rich and Jen again. We took a stroll along the river bank then had some beers back at their hostel. 

We made some waves playing the cerial box game in the corridor. Rich was a very worthy competitior and we both were able to pick up a pen from the floor. Although Jen is very very young and supple and looks no older than 19* she was unable to pick up the beer box in the first round. Maybe it was her big Morton's toe throwing her off balance.

We had a great time and a lot of laughs. I definitely picked the wrong hostel as theirs is around 80% populated by very very pretty women!

*I know you are reading this Jen, sorry for calling you late twenties in an older post!