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Published: September 16th 2010
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It's been just over 7 months since I set foot onto Melbourne soil. It's been a long time, for a place to be my home base. I've seen the seasons change from a hot and dry summer, to a mild autumn, a wet winter and now unpredictable spring. It seemed so long ago that my flight from Sydney touched down in 33 degree heat in Melbourne. Alot has changed since my first few days of being a tourist. My Melbourne life has given me a gift of constant change. I have had two jobs, I have had 7 postal codes, my circle of friends have changed and evolved and so have my travel plans and ambitions. After my return from my vacation to the Gold Coast, I found myself with three weeks to enjoy my last days of Melbourne.
At first, the boredom of not having a job to occupy my days was getting the best of me. The weather rained, everyday. But with each passing day I found myself slipping back into casual mode. Coffee, a good book, some morning guitar playing. The afternoon could consists of visits to the South Melbourne market, checking out used book stores or
enjoying my favourite burger (Urban Burger, Oporto or Nandos), bowl of pho, ice cream or some other treat. I spent time in SouthBank as this was the first area of Melbourne that I explored and lived. Most afternoons I would have coffee outside looking over across the Yarra River on onto the CBD of Melbourne. Afternoon naps followed by some social drinks with the gang here at the house or out on the town.
So the game plan was to have as much fun as possible in my final days. Between the Brighton gang of Phil, Mike, Eva. Justin, Hannah, Zara, Timmy, Morgan, Karis and Nikki, there was always somebody up for an adventure or even an exciting night in. Beers in St Kilda, trivia nights in Brighton, family meal night or even trips to the local Woolworth grocery store all provided good times.
Tommy McNulty is one of the funniest and grandest characters that I have met on this trip. So I made the time (it took a few night of plans falling through before we actually met up for drinks) for me and Tommy to catch up. We had a few drinks but Tommy had gotten
a call to fill in at a local pub for a one hour set. We set to the little pub and watched a few acts before Tommy played. Now Tommy is not the character to plan to far ahead and neglected to even have a bit of a set list to play. I sent him up to play with the suggestion of playing one of my favourite of Tommy's originals. After completing that Tommy would just shout down at me from the stage and I would shout the title of the next song for Tommy to play. It may be a backwards way, but it worked and was enjoyed by the small Wednesday crowd.
The Tim Burton Exhibition has been in town for awhile now, and I have been talking of going now for a while. In my final week I finally recruited a friend, Zara, and went to see this exhibition that I've heard plenty about. I've seen only a few of Tim Burton's work and went out of curiosity. The walls lined with work from his youth, props, characters, costumes and all sorts. Edward Scissorhands hands, Jack's faces, characters from Alice in Wonderland and Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory were some of the neat props on display. Let's get this straight, I am not a movie nerd and I likely didn't appreciate the exhibition as much as I should have but I had plenty of fun. We found an activity room at the back of the exhibition. Inside was a couple families with young children scribbling on paper with crayons. The parents faces with that fake smile that says “Great job kid. Yeah right!”. At the back was a wall lined with a couple hundred pieces of art (made by the public with crayons). In no time Zara and I were set up with a table, a stack of empty paper that could be turned into anything, and a few handful of crayons. I had no idea what to draw. I was feeling intimidated by Zara's quick work and level of quality. I did manage to create two horrible pieces of work. One for pure comic value and the second a genuine attempt for the wall. We signed our works and posted them on the wall of fame (or wall of shame for some of us). Anyway we had plenty of fun at this place.
My
time was passing fast. I was reflectively living my days as they happened. Sunday night we had a family meal at the flat with the rest of the Brighton gang. We did our usual routine of laughing, eating , drinking and just talking non sense. At 4am my cab arrived out front. I said another good bye to my best friend Phil. Nikki was kind enough to carry a couple bags to the cab for me. That was my final good bye. In no time I was in Southern Cross boarding the SkyBus en route to the airport. The hodge podge of fellings reappearing, the excitement for the future and the sad feelings that accompanies another round of good byes.
Melbourne, a great city that I enjoyed so many great times in. I hope everybody that I shared these special times with will look back with as large of a grin as I wear when I reminisce. It was a fun filled time shared with many good people. Some of us have vague plans for a reunion as I am back to Australia in November. Anyway good times were had, friends were made, memories were created and legends were
born. Peace out Melbourne.
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