20th MAR 08 – 24th MAR 08 (Easter Long Weekend)

Thursday 20th March

The Vasco Era at the Esplanade

So the crew are once again together for some good times. This time to see the Vasco Era at the Esplanade Hotel in St.Kilda. A free gig! Little did we know of the twists and turns the night ahead would take.

We began our journey by traveling up the highway, driven by the lovely and highly talented Sarah. With Sarah in charge of the car, it was no surprise that we stopped in at KFC on the highway. Glenn and I had previously filled up on some really good (burritos?), so didn’t buy anything. Glenn, however, was intent on stealing as much shit of Tom’s as humanly possible. Tom went to the toilet and came back and half his Pepsi was gone.

We continued down the highway, after a wrong turn and some heavy braking (poor little loaded car!). I fed Sarah’s popcorn chicken and chips to her as we continued on our way.

When we arrived at Sarah’s house and sat down for a while, Sarah asked if I had seen the Mega Kinder Surprises in the supermarkets (or something to that effect). I quickly went on a rant about how I was thinking of buying one and how they were ridiculously expensive so I decided not to. She then revealed, from out of the fridge, that she had bought me one. Oops. Sorry baybee.

Our next adventure was down to the bottle shop down near the corner – at the end of Glen Iris Rd. The bottle shop was fabled to have a highly unusual man there, the shop owner! So we walked down to the bottle shop in anticipation and in enjoyment of some of Gyroscopes new tracks on my mobile phone. Glenn belted out endless “Hey Hey”‘s to the tune of “All In On One” on the walk down. So, the moment had arrived after a daring cross of the road by Sarah – we had arrived at the bottle shop. It was old, dusty and more like a bottle warehouse. The owner was there. We selected our beverages: Canadian Club (Glenn and Tom), SKYY Lemon Lime and Bitters (Sarah) and Jim Beam (Reece). I was in the mood for some rough liquor and, as I later discovered, really rough as it was inside Christmas Edition cans (on the upside they were 17% larger as a Christmas Bonus!). So like many of the liquor there, it had surely been a-brewin’ for a while. I can only speculate on the character of the shop owner, as he didn’t show much of it. Although a little unusual, he was polite and wished us a good night, so he’s alright in my books. We carried the drinks home and got cracking on the pre-drinks celebration.

The main topic of discussion was the news that I was going to be having a D-Party for my birthday. Glenn wants to come as a Drunk Drummer Dinosaur (or something more extreme). Sarah looked through the French-English dictionary on the table through the ‘D’ pages and found many, many good possibilities. Such as a ‘decimal point’.
Still polishing of many, many drinks, we walked down to the tram stop where or adventure was to begin. With many people judging us from their cars, we drank through the streets and listened to Tom whine on the phone. “Oh… come on, come out. Ohh, you’re a loser…” She wasn’t coming out. The cans were ditched and we waited for a tram, patiently. In Glenn’s case, impatiently. He was really busting to go.  He ran across to some posh drive way – it was sensor lit. He ran back across the road in a bright driveway. “No!” we yelled. Finally, when we directed him to a dark driveway – relief followed. Of course, we yelled and put the pressure on anytime some car lights drove by.

The tram arrived and the tram trip was spent talking about the Corrs, for some reason. Things that happen when you drink. One walk later we arrived at the Esplanade. It was packed. It was not a bad place to hang out though. We got drinks and watched some people play pool, played some pool with some pom on the crookedest table with the worst lean in existence, watched the first support band to the Vasco Era, saw Michael Fitzpatrick (The Vasco Era Drummer) get grabbed really hard on the ass by a lady, gave relationship advice to a gypsy, signed up for a newsletter, commentated pool a la “That Mitchell and Webb Look”, and got more drinks. Second support was shite, then we awaited Vasco in the mosh pit. It was filled with a group of drunken idiots how moshed ridiculously during bridges, or when there was no music at all. Idiots. So we went to the back of the pub. Sarah and I went outside and just relaxed and talked for a while after a few challenging songs in the mosh pit. It was about 2am when they were halfway through their set, so I was that tired that I didn’t care that I wasn’t watching them. Neither did Sarah.
We did however go back in a watch the end of their set. It was a cracking set.
Later, we ended up at McDonald’s, guided by Sarah once again. McDonald’s shut their doors, but still serve from a drive-thru style window – thus people were lined up around the corner waiting to get some food.
Tom saw it as an opportunity to climb up high, on a pillar,  and shout “McCorporation Meal” propaganda. Being a student of Environmental Science, it seemed to come quite naturally.Tom’s perfect woman, one that couldn’t sing for dog biscuits, was there. They could have been happy together, but he didn’t want to know her. Sarah got her cheeseburger and we were looking for a taxi home.
but…
There was no need!  Tom, in a flash, had already flagged down a taxi. The taxi stopped in a deadly triangle of tram tracks and other taxis. It was incredible and daring. We all fled quickly to the taxi and jumped in, and sped off. We got stopped by another taxi in front further down the road, a driver in his seat not letting go of a passenger through the passenger side window. He mustn’t have paid enough, or at all. After some drunken encouragement, we convinced him to go around him in the crowded street, and the front of the taxi cleared by centimeters. I talked to the driver about ‘Gladiators’ coming back on TV, but I don’t think he understood. Indian.
We arrived home, unloaded our pockets of shrapnel for Mr. Taxi Man and went inside. We all crashed…

Friday 21st March

Shaula’s Easter BBQ

Woke up late, which always seems to take a large chunk out of the day!
Jess came up, and everyone spent most of the afternoon waiting for Beck to arrive. It wasn’t so bad though, soaking up the sun while it was still around, was quite good indeed.
Once the crew was together we ventured down to Shaula’s place in Fairfield for a Good Friday BBQ!

After the BBQ, we decided to get into the Easter spirit by checking out the abandoned church next door. This thing is run down – no floors, only the beams under the floor were remaining (with the nails sticking up). However a few relics were to be discovered inside. A couch, a piano and a ‘Fire Exit’ sign.

• soccer match
• shaulas couches & jackass
• nice to meat you

Saturday 22nd March

Game On Exhibition & Ross Noble!

As was becoming a habit at the ‘School of Wok’ house, we had bacon and eggs in the morning. A very tasty habit. We then ventured into the big city to visit the ‘Game On’ exhibition. Sarah and I waited for Tait to come into the city, and while we waited watched the comedy stylings of the English Gents in Federation Square. To explain it simply, it was two well built English gentlemen, one of which made rude remarks while the other tried to control him. In between that they lifted each other up in impressive ways – like the circus. One such way was lifting the other guy in the air starting from lying on the ground. Once ‘Mario: Queen of the Circus’ came on, Sarah and I got thoroughly confused and left to look around Southbank across the road. Just before we walked into Southbank, we walked past Stephen K Amos! He was quite busy looking, talking to his assistant who was juggling a clip board and other items while trying furiously to write down whatever it was that Stephen was saying. Once in Southbank we only managed to look at (/be interested in) Aero Design, and found a red PVC teddy who I love. I had almost forgotten about him by the time I came around to writing this blog, but he stays in my heart – if not almost escaping from my mind.
We met up with Tait, and as Sarah excitingly expressed her excitement of walking past Stephen K Amos, we were on our way over to ‘Game On’.
Inside, it was a geek wonderland. Tait and I had many a good time playing SOMETHING on the NES. I saw many wonders of the console world, and played in the Atari arcade. I could spend a day there honestly, but Sarah decided it was time to go. I don’t blame her, it’s sort of the same scenario as a guy in a women’s shoe shop – there’s just no appeal or interest whatsoever on the guy’s half, yet she’s going out of her mind with excitement. Also the fact that it was more Nintendo oriented and she didn’t think there was enough Sonic the Hedgehog, god bless her.
The daily train ticket was starting to pay off when we returned home again, had dinner half at home and half in the car while rushing to back to Glen Iris Station to catch a train that was 10mins late anyway. We were returning into the city to see Ross Noble as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
Sarah and I met up with Tom and Glenn and proceeded to Melbourne Town Hall walking through crowds with the likes of Tommy Dean and Charlie Pickering, and waiting in an unusual spaghetti queue. Once inside, we found our seats were considerably well placed in Row J – close to the front. Prime position in fact.
I laughed so hard my hands went fuzzy and numb. A truly talented comedian, who I’m sure 2/3 of his show each night is completely made up on the spot. Obviously – its Ross Noble!!
Our date with Tom and Glenn was short lived, as they were returning to Geelong straight after the show. Sarah and I got some Lord of The Fries and sat at Flinders St station waiting for our train. It came eventually and we rode the train home once again. A fun, fun busy day!

Sunday 23rd March

• More Bacon
• Sleeping
• ‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’
• Drinking at night – houses
• Carbonara by Sarah
• Randomness

Monday 24th March

Coming Home

• Ticket fiasco
• Train home
• Ajax!
• Family
  

VOX Mar 25, 2008