My Liver Hates Me, I Quash Its Protests

My blog has been all boring text for ages, so here's a pretty picture of Southbank at night to celebrate the fact that I returned home to Melbourne for the weekend. Yes? Yes.

As you may have come to expect from me, I did go out drinking at least two of the nights that I was in town, and it was damn good. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Saturday: I arrived in Melbourne on the train, (1.5 hours) which finally replaced the bus (4.2 hours) and is now all fast and shiny. I had a little squeee as we went past Festi Hall, as it is the future site of the Muse concert in January. I jumped on a tram (which I got excited about) and headed back to Brunswick Road. It was so perfectly the same that I bounced all the way there, and when I arrived, I was immediately hugged by everyone. Well, James and Erika and Kate, who were home. I gave them their I heart NY t-shirts, and we amused ourselves by 'accidently' putting Erika's onto Sean's bed for him to come home to. When he later put it on, he refused to show anyone, and put on an ugly jacket to hide it. Mwahaha.

So, Shane and Age (Shage! Yay!) came over! It was so bloody fantastic to see them! I was jumping around like mad at this stage. Literally bouncing. By god, was it good to be home. And the funny thing is, there are still magnets on the fridge from when I left, random postcards from me and odd items like the big purple pasta strainer thing that are just home.

We went and grabbed pizza for dinner when Sean turned up and the boys went to fetch vodka and tequila. See? We lined our stomachs, good us. We had pizza on the loungroom floor in true Brunny Road style, and knocked back a few Tequila 'Bus Crashes'. Oh, that just made me think of Veronica Mars. Anyway, Shane has thesis duties and Age had work to do, so they left fairly early. So very good to see them, though.

We then decided that heading into the city would be a bad idea with the races on (impossible to get a cab home in the rush) so we jumped into a cab to Brunswick Street. We went to some random bar near Barry's and had a drink, and froze. Oh yes, and Alex was with us, but he left to go to someone's party. We then tried Caz Reitops's (where we had Eck and my 21st) but there was a private party, so we gave in to cover charges and hit Barry's. (The link makes it look worse than it is.) I was lagging at this point, so we had some Red Bull. I perked up in about a second. That'll teach me for not drinking coffee. It was filled with pissed 30-year-olds (not that that's a bad thing, Rian, before you say anything) who were still in Fascinators and Heels and bopping around with their ocker blokes. I think Q&A night is better, actually. But, anyway, we had a great time drinking and dancing and having fun. Eventually we headed home around 3 and crashed.

Sunday: I woke up fairly late and ended up having a movie day with James. We stole the Fantastic Four from Kate's Amazing DVD Library and had a cup of tea. Then I thought I might test out VM2 on their DVD player, and whaddya know, it worked. So James got thrown into S2 and I happily watched everything unfold with rapid commentary. ('He's her ex-boyfriend, but now he's seeing that blonde chick whose father... yeah, anyway, he's creamy goodness inside but covered in bullshit chocolate... or something... damn, I wish I could message the UK at this hour...') We ended up watching a good eight or ten episodes. Bloody good effort. James is now hooked. I promised him S1 even though the whole thing has been well and truly spoiled.

Fish and chips for dinner and dagging around with Erika and Alex followed, and then I once more crashed in Leigh's bed, but not before finishing off Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. Damn, he's good. Oh, I had a whole lot of writing inspiration bubbling around in my head while I was in Melbourne. It felt good.

Monday, Monday: Oho, that was a big one. What did we do during the day? I can't remember... Oh yes, I was supposedly organising myself, but I just ended up wandering the city and buying comic books in Minotaur (they have that Orson Scott Card Iron Man series... me wanty). I really didn't need the latest Wolverine, but I couldn't resist Front Line 7. Ah, so good. Love it. I ran into Aggie from work in HMV and I hung out with her for a bit before making my way to James's lab. I know he's a scientist, but I never see him in there, so it was sort of weird. Lots of things that could potentially go boom. I wore safety glasses and looked like teh hotness.

James and I swung by Darrel Lea and picked up Eck and then we walked to Auto... where the crowd went wild. That was my rock star moment. So many people lit up with excitement and gave me huge hugs and bounced like mad. Ah, it was great. Josh said 'Welcome home!' and you know, Auto is like another home. I seem to collect them, actually. But it's people, not places, and by bob, was it good to see Auto people. Stan went nuts and I got the best hugs ever from Iggy. Ah, Auto.

We ate so much pizza and drank so much cheap beer. Hey, $2 pots of Kirin is a sweet, sweet deal. Leigh rocked up and had a few and then left early with Eck to go and do homework, leaving James and I to our own sordid devices. We moved onto the bar to free the table and had a whole lot of free drinks. Eventually we moved to the staff table and continued to drink and meet cool new people until the restaurant was well and truly closed and Josh shooed us out of there. James and I went home via a dodgy backpacker's and we sat on the letterbox talking crap for about an hour and a half. Then I crashed on James and Sean's couch. A bloody cold night, too. Brrr.

Tuesday: Sick as a dog. I slept late accidently and hauled myself into the city at about 1 to meet Cherry with Leigh. That was great! So fantastic seeing her again! Pity we couldn't stay long, but I had to meet Shane. I did detour for some Teriyaki Chicken Sushi Handrolls (thank bob) which I've been craving for the last six months. I met Shane and Jade and we organised ourselves for the show.

The radio was great, actually, even though I was dying of nerves at being back on after so long. No mistakes, and we seem to work well as a team. I also met the newsreader (Lisa?) who was cool. So, looking forward to next week! (4-6 Tuesdays, for those of you playing at home.) Following radio, Shane and I caught the train and I had dinner with the boys. They make awesome stir-fry, oh yes. I then went and worked on the application for the publishing job. Bed soon followed.

Wednesday: Got up hellishly early and had a cuppa with the boys before they all left for various workplaces and labs and left me to my own devices. I showered and cleaned up and had some toast... well, that's boring... Anyway, I met Erika in the city and had lunch and then caught the train home.

And now I'm back in the country again, and I realise that I really need a job. To Seek, to apply for things! Mush!