Post a Comment On: Under Construction

Yesterday I got paid. Generally when I get paid my life gets interesting and I stop being so whingey. So first of all I bought my Big Day Out tickets. I havent been since 1996 so I know I will feel old, but I looked at the lineup and found at least 6 acts I wanted to see - for $100 thats pretty good! People on the forums were screaming about it being mainstream, which means things are alive and well as people were screaming about it being mainstream in 1996 too and I'm sure the only time it wasn't was the first two or three and I have thoroughly missed that so I guess I'll just have to go for the music ;)

Anyway then I gave $50 to the Sri Lankan lady, Nilouki at work for the Tsunami relief effort. Her friends have set up a charity (they have a website I will link it when I go to work) that is right on the ground in Sri Lanka, and none of the donations will go in admin or marketing fees so I thought that sounded good. Nilouki, my other workmate Elissa, and I donated, and Nilouki told us it converted to a lot of money in Sri Lankan rupees and that it is going toward rebuilding a house for one of the victims. It really put things into perspective for me into how much rebuilding so much will cost and I will continue to donate. I feel shit because I haven't given enough but I will next pay.

Meanwhile, Amber from Leeds had a deck of cards with Melbourne bars on them that she wanted to check out. She said she had been here 10 months and still hardly knew the place so I agreed to go with her, although neither of us were really drinking, she had an upset stomach and I was fearful of an impending UTI (which I forced away with 3 litres of water) so the first place we went after work was Gin Palace, I'd been there once (quite drunk), and at first I was a bit intimidated by the nice decor, but Amber told me to look around at the people in there and they were dressed quite normally so I stopped being an idiot. We ate Jindabi (sp?) brie with quince paste and thick biscuits and I was impressed! 7.5/10 I liked it but want to check it out another time before I give it an 8. Next up was Phoenix, a nice anonymous kind of place with unobtrusive lighting and furniture and nice bar staff. We ate lamb kafta which was good and I had an Asahi. 6.5/10, anonymous but a little *too* anonymous - will be revised upward if I go with a big group of people, get raucous, and they don't chuck us out. Next up was Cherry Bar, Cherry Bar automatically gets 8/10 because they refuse entry if you're in any way dressed up. Also I had malibu and coke and the tattooed, pierced, and incredibly friendly barman didn't charge for the coke because he'd already opened it for Amber. The music playing was very angry, loud, and thrashy and I liked it. Cheap drinks too and lacking in poseurs (although most of these places were given that it was aroun 6-7, between after work drinks and late night partyers). Next we braved Honkytonks, and its terrible reputation for only letting people in if they're dressed like skanks - the place was empty and Amber even asked the bartender if it was always like this, who replied that it heats up after 9pm when there is a cover charge. The staff were all actually quite friendly and we watched the sun set from there - definitely one for after work drinks, 7/10 though, it's a bit small - we both had apple juice. After that we continued to a nice and hidden little place called Bambu which was lovely and laid out in very long rectangle and you have to sit next to people but that was fine, we were both so exhausted from work we didn't care. I had another malibu and coke and the couches were comfortable, Amber loved it so that was good too! 7.5/10, a little cramped. Finally we got to our last destination, Misty. I love Misty. The name conjures up images of pretentiousness but it's really not and it was in an alleyway filled with some of the best graffiti and stencil art I've seen in a while, Hosier lane. I can't say why I loved it, the layout was interesting, it was a bit dingy and they had an impressive selection of liquers - I had a nocello on ice, highly recommended if you can find it (I rarely can but it tastes like liquid nutella).

serp, Sasha and Michael came down then, it was Sasha's birthday and her friends had ditched her so she had a drink there and remembered that she'd been there for a birthday once before and she and serp investigated the toilets where years ago they had left promotional stickers for tranzfusion.net and found they were still there. We drove Amber home after they left, then returned to the city and got Sasha and Michael and took them to Room, they could have caught a cab but I felt bad that her friends suck. Sasha sent me an sms later in the night apologising for everything which was nice. After that serp and I discovered my local pizza place was open till 2am so we got a pizza on the delicious wholemeal base and ate it and I went to bed and slept like a log.

I am beginning to suspect that things are coming full circle. Joli might be able to explain this better, but everything feels like it is working out a little bit, and my heart feels like it has had a torrid, gut wrenching cry and that it has dried its eyes, had a sleep, and feels weary (and wary), but better. But we'll see. I am still so so so fearful of things going wrong again so I'll take it one day a time until I can (hopefully) become a little more confident in the time ahead.

Now I'm gonna eat!