The one where I'm still in Melbourne

I'm in Melbourne.

Still.

I originally came for the tennis. It was scheduled to end on the 28th, so I pretty much arbitrarily decided to stay until the 30th.

By happy coincidence, Laura Veirs had a show here while I was here. Laura lived down the hall from me my last (and her first) year at Carleton. I went on to count coupons and then retire, while she is now a somewhat famous (and really good) singer and songwriter. I just missed meeting her parents in central New Zealand.

So when I first got here I went down to the venue (the Corner Hotel, in Richmond) to buy my ticket to her show. Turns out, the Violent Femmes were gonna be playing the same venue on Feb 1. Heck, I've gotta stay for that--I'm not a huge music guy, but I've liked the Femmes since Mikey Bails introduced me in about, well, a really long time ago.

And now, probably a combination of enjoying Melbourne and not having any specific plans and being a bit tired of always being on the go in search of my next stop, I've just kinda stuck around. I'm not being overly touristy. I just spend most days...living. I walk around downtown. Maybe head to the botanic garden to read. (For a while, I was reading at a rate of almost a book a day.) See a movie. Sit in a cafe. That sorta thing. I'm not sure where all the time's gone, but I don't think that's a bad thing.

There's no overarching theme to my visit, or story to tell, so I'll just list some factoids, in somewhat random order.

Food: The Victoria Market is right across the street from where I'm staying now, with sections for meat/fish, deli foods and baked goods, fruit and veggies. And it's open on Wednesday nights with food stalls, music, artisans and such. Last night, for example, there was a row with stands where I could eat Chinese, Dutch, Ethiopian, German, Greek, Indian, Indonesian, Irani, Italian, Japanese, Latin American, Malaysian, Mexican, Spanish, Turkish, Vietnamese... Or burgers, fish and chips, pizza,...

In heavy rotation for my normal days are
- sushi rolls, which you can buy every 100 yards or so for $2
- kabobs
- pho/ramen
- bread, cheese, hummus...

- Super Bowl: Watched in a bar on Lygon St with Scott from Melbourne (a 49ers fan), Manning from Melbourne (Bills), Ben from Chicago and Macalester (Bears), Lonnie from Vancouver (Canucks). It wasn't overly exciting, and now we're no longer the reigning champions.

- Melbourne is nice. There's lotsa art about, on the street and in parks along the river and such. There are lots of nice areas to wander about and streets full of cafes and the like. I've hung out in Richmond, Carlton, Fitzroy, Southbank, and the CBD, and been around several of the outlying areas at least once.

A lot of types of businesses are heavily concentrated, which I guess isn't that uncommon. There's a Chinatown and a Greektown, but also a block with all of the camera stores and a block with the car rental agencies and so on and so forth...

- I talked to my parents on my birthday, around 11pm my time. Dad asked how I secure my stuff in the hostels. I told him I didn't really need to. When I woke up the next morning, my camera was gone. So now I'm on to camera #3. I'd just loaded many of my Outback pictures, so all I'm missing are the less important Outback pictures and the first stretch of time in Melbourne, which unfortunately included the LV show and the tennis. Oh, and the camera. What I've taken on #3 have been loaded to the picture site.

- That day, I started talking to a guy in my hostel, a musician from Hobart, Tasmania. Brian Ritchie (of the VF) lives in Hobart now, so he invited Martin (the hostel guy) and a coupla other Hobart guys to play the Melbourne shows with the Horns of Dilemma, the revolving cast of "[s]upplemental musicians who appear on stage with VF." I got him (Marty, not Brian) to sign my journal. I was gonna call him when I got to Tasmania, but I don't think I'm going to Tasmania.

Other bands that I haven't seen while I've been here:
Music Versus Physics
The Walkmen
Beasts of Bourbon

- I have a new life goal: someday, the evening news somewhere will lead off with Exclusive Pictures! of me with someone.

- Starting tomorrow morning, I'm planning to rent a car and drive down the Great Ocean Road, the Australia equivalent of the Pacific Coast Highway. I'm a bit nervous about driving--I haven't driven on the left before, and there're some quirks about Melbourne driving. Note that I've planned to start this drive every day for the last week or so, but I think I'll actually do it tomorrow. I wasn't sleeping well for a while and was a bit sick, so I think I lost some time there. I can't name anything specific I've done in the last week or so, but I've felt pretty busy with I'm not sure what.

- This delay means that I probably won't be able to get to Tasmania. There are great swaths of Australia that I won't have seen during my trip, but I'm not going to second guess the choices I've made.

- When I get back from my road trip it'll be time to head to Sydney. I leave for Africa in less than a week. I mean, !

Okay, I'm off to eat a kabob. If you're interested and didn't notice, note that I also just loaded entries on tennis and driving. Soon, maybe, might come the ones on reading and words and such. And New Zealand...

Chao,
sg