The week in review...
I'm at home today. Should be at work but I'm battling with a sore, dry throat: a debilitating condition in the inward bound customer service profession. The perfect opportunity to update on all the weeks activities.
Should I put a cut here? Yeah I probably should, this is gonna be a long one...
Saturday: The Phantom Diner Guest
I was invited out on this big dinner thing with Sez and Mel and a whole group of their friends at the Retreat in Brunswick. Nice place. Good food. C-grade pseudo celebrities drink there... Anyway, it didn't pan out exactly as planned. Background info: Sez and Mel are housemates. Sez booked this whole dinner thingy. Ok, you're up to speed. Sez calls me at about 11:30 on Saturday morning and tells me she probably wont be going as, not only is she really tired and run down from work, but also a week earlier she had her phone "stolen" (i use quotation marks there because i have never known anyone who has their phone stolen as often as she does - i'm beginning to suspect that she keeps loosing it after she has had a few...) So without all her phone numbers she hasn't been on top of the whole organisation thing. She calls me back around about 4:30 to confirm that she definitely wont be there. All good. Mel is still going. So I go anyway. The whole point of all this is that I get there and pretty much the first thing that Mel asks me is "Have you seen or heard from Sarah?" Sez had booked seating for over 20 people, bailed on the evening, not invited anyone, and failed to tell her housemate. Anyway the 7 of us who were there had a nice beer fueled evening... At one point we were given a mushroom from the beergarden by some random hippy-chick. I think the fairies gave it to her...
Sunday: Return of the Kozi
Sunday was one of those slow start days that turn into a veritable avalanche. Y'know, get up late, do some laundry and some general pottering around, go to one supermarket to procure a collection of boxes for the impending big move and to another supermarket to actually buy groceries. Then I get a call from the much loved Kozy and Ali who are in town for a couple of days to get away for a bit and (surprise, surprise) do some shopping. They ask me to meet them at the Builders Arms, no wait, change that to the Rob Roy, so off I head (whilst listening to a mighty fine album by The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster... Do yourself a favour...) The Rob Roy was undergoing renovations to the front bar and only the dark noisy band room out the back was open, which didn't suit our purposes, so we headed to the Perseverance down the road (where Sera and Scottie are playing this week in there last pre-baby gig!) where it was much easier to sit and chat and catch up on all the Sydney gossip (and $5 pints of Heineken dont go astray either!) Always such a joy to see the dynamic duo of Ali & Koze. Much drinking and chatting ensued about as many and varied topics as the proliferation of headline news stories featuring celebrities, bizarre Melbourne advertising campaigns and chicks with nice bums. When we realised that we were the only clientele left in this particular establishment, we headed off down Brunswick street to find a venue with a bit more of a vibe, aiming toward the Royal Derby (with Ali all the while suggesting "what about that place, or that place...") The Derby was however a good choice. Big comfy lounge chairs, a Galaga machine (a four in one machine actually) and more bizarre Melbourne advertising. More chatting, more drinking and after filling Ali's head with the possibilities of more shopping destinations the two jumped in a cab and headed back to the city. I walked home to discover that the late night movie was se7en, so sleep i did not do...
Monday: Lygon Street Strikes Back
Monday hit like a brick. Only my carefully rehearsed Monday combination of caffeine, guarana and vitamin C got me through the morning. To my relief work was relatively painless (as painless as a Monday workday can be anyway). In the afternoon I received a text message from Ali instructing me to meet up with them at The Lounge when i had finished work. When I arrived there was a jug of beer waiting on the table for me and another few followed as i was shown the spoils of there retail expedition. I think Koze said that he finished up with no less than six vinyl figurines (simply called "toys" by most people). Ali was pretty impressed by the Lounge's concept of "Pay The Time" where by your meal costs whatever the time is when you order it, i.e. if you order your meal at 5 o'clock it costs $5, order at 6:30 it costs $6.50, etc. whereas Koze was more interested in reviving his idea for a coffee table book full of photos of the toilets in Melbourne bars. From there we headed to Lygon St in my now-home suburb of Carlton. We met up with Miss Coco and set down for a meal at one of the many Italian restaurants the strip has to offer. After a trip upstairs to the toilets Ali declared that the upstairs area looked like it had been trapped in time some thirty to forty years ago, the menus however claimed that they had been "newly refurbished". Regardless, a bottle of wine, a big feed and much more chin wagging later we left Cafe Trivoli and headed next door to the Carlton Yacht Club. Quick geography lesson: there is no body of water in Carlton. No yachts, no boats of any kind. It's called irony. Good cocktails, imported beers, leather bound drink menus and dim lighting. Nice. Then it was time for all too soon farewells and we parted ways. I went home and fell asleep watchin El Mariachi.
Tuesday: Attack of the Procrastination
If you are still reading this you win a free set of steak knives. Miss Coco headed home to Adelaide on Tuesday morning to catch up with her family who are having a bit of a tough time of it all at the moment, so basically Tuesday, Wednesday and most of Thursday night I was to have the house to myself. The perfect opportunity to spend the evenings packing up the majority of the contents of my bedroom to be moved to the studio this Saturday. But do you think i did? As usual i lead myself to distraction, doing anything at all other than what i really should have been doing. And I didn't even have to resort to watching tv or movies to fill the void, in fact this weeks dvd selection went back to the video store unwatched (i will re-hire Crumb again soon though coz I do want to see it!)
Right, so that's everything up to date... I get the feeling i should be doing something else though...
j
Should I put a cut here? Yeah I probably should, this is gonna be a long one...
Saturday: The Phantom Diner Guest
I was invited out on this big dinner thing with Sez and Mel and a whole group of their friends at the Retreat in Brunswick. Nice place. Good food. C-grade pseudo celebrities drink there... Anyway, it didn't pan out exactly as planned. Background info: Sez and Mel are housemates. Sez booked this whole dinner thingy. Ok, you're up to speed. Sez calls me at about 11:30 on Saturday morning and tells me she probably wont be going as, not only is she really tired and run down from work, but also a week earlier she had her phone "stolen" (i use quotation marks there because i have never known anyone who has their phone stolen as often as she does - i'm beginning to suspect that she keeps loosing it after she has had a few...) So without all her phone numbers she hasn't been on top of the whole organisation thing. She calls me back around about 4:30 to confirm that she definitely wont be there. All good. Mel is still going. So I go anyway. The whole point of all this is that I get there and pretty much the first thing that Mel asks me is "Have you seen or heard from Sarah?" Sez had booked seating for over 20 people, bailed on the evening, not invited anyone, and failed to tell her housemate. Anyway the 7 of us who were there had a nice beer fueled evening... At one point we were given a mushroom from the beergarden by some random hippy-chick. I think the fairies gave it to her...
Sunday: Return of the Kozi
Sunday was one of those slow start days that turn into a veritable avalanche. Y'know, get up late, do some laundry and some general pottering around, go to one supermarket to procure a collection of boxes for the impending big move and to another supermarket to actually buy groceries. Then I get a call from the much loved Kozy and Ali who are in town for a couple of days to get away for a bit and (surprise, surprise) do some shopping. They ask me to meet them at the Builders Arms, no wait, change that to the Rob Roy, so off I head (whilst listening to a mighty fine album by The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster... Do yourself a favour...) The Rob Roy was undergoing renovations to the front bar and only the dark noisy band room out the back was open, which didn't suit our purposes, so we headed to the Perseverance down the road (where Sera and Scottie are playing this week in there last pre-baby gig!) where it was much easier to sit and chat and catch up on all the Sydney gossip (and $5 pints of Heineken dont go astray either!) Always such a joy to see the dynamic duo of Ali & Koze. Much drinking and chatting ensued about as many and varied topics as the proliferation of headline news stories featuring celebrities, bizarre Melbourne advertising campaigns and chicks with nice bums. When we realised that we were the only clientele left in this particular establishment, we headed off down Brunswick street to find a venue with a bit more of a vibe, aiming toward the Royal Derby (with Ali all the while suggesting "what about that place, or that place...") The Derby was however a good choice. Big comfy lounge chairs, a Galaga machine (a four in one machine actually) and more bizarre Melbourne advertising. More chatting, more drinking and after filling Ali's head with the possibilities of more shopping destinations the two jumped in a cab and headed back to the city. I walked home to discover that the late night movie was se7en, so sleep i did not do...
Monday: Lygon Street Strikes Back
Monday hit like a brick. Only my carefully rehearsed Monday combination of caffeine, guarana and vitamin C got me through the morning. To my relief work was relatively painless (as painless as a Monday workday can be anyway). In the afternoon I received a text message from Ali instructing me to meet up with them at The Lounge when i had finished work. When I arrived there was a jug of beer waiting on the table for me and another few followed as i was shown the spoils of there retail expedition. I think Koze said that he finished up with no less than six vinyl figurines (simply called "toys" by most people). Ali was pretty impressed by the Lounge's concept of "Pay The Time" where by your meal costs whatever the time is when you order it, i.e. if you order your meal at 5 o'clock it costs $5, order at 6:30 it costs $6.50, etc. whereas Koze was more interested in reviving his idea for a coffee table book full of photos of the toilets in Melbourne bars. From there we headed to Lygon St in my now-home suburb of Carlton. We met up with Miss Coco and set down for a meal at one of the many Italian restaurants the strip has to offer. After a trip upstairs to the toilets Ali declared that the upstairs area looked like it had been trapped in time some thirty to forty years ago, the menus however claimed that they had been "newly refurbished". Regardless, a bottle of wine, a big feed and much more chin wagging later we left Cafe Trivoli and headed next door to the Carlton Yacht Club. Quick geography lesson: there is no body of water in Carlton. No yachts, no boats of any kind. It's called irony. Good cocktails, imported beers, leather bound drink menus and dim lighting. Nice. Then it was time for all too soon farewells and we parted ways. I went home and fell asleep watchin El Mariachi.
Tuesday: Attack of the Procrastination
If you are still reading this you win a free set of steak knives. Miss Coco headed home to Adelaide on Tuesday morning to catch up with her family who are having a bit of a tough time of it all at the moment, so basically Tuesday, Wednesday and most of Thursday night I was to have the house to myself. The perfect opportunity to spend the evenings packing up the majority of the contents of my bedroom to be moved to the studio this Saturday. But do you think i did? As usual i lead myself to distraction, doing anything at all other than what i really should have been doing. And I didn't even have to resort to watching tv or movies to fill the void, in fact this weeks dvd selection went back to the video store unwatched (i will re-hire Crumb again soon though coz I do want to see it!)
Right, so that's everything up to date... I get the feeling i should be doing something else though...
j