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Hello Again Everyone
Well its time to say farewell to Melbourne, as this will be the last journey entry I will be making before we hit the road in our van down the Great Ocean Road, before steadily making our way up to Sydney. It will be hard leaving Melbourne as I have had some really good memories, and some fantastic ones too. Making many new acquaintances and doing things I would never even dream of doing back home, I can honestly say despite the downs, Melbourne has been a fantastic start to my adventure.
Without dwelling too much on how much I will miss this area of Australia, I will inform you a bit more on what I have been upto since my visit to the zoo, and my glorious night in St Kilda with Lady Sovereign. Last week was quite and adventurous one with the purchase of our van that will hopefully be taking us all the way up the East Coast. We decided on a 1986 Toyota van with 380,000 Kilometres on the clock. Being quite spacey and having a gorgeous brown interior we agreed that this was the van for us. After a little bit of haggling, we managed to knock the seller (Ed a backpacker) down to $2800 with him agreeing to get the vehicle a road worthy certificate before we bought it from him. Quite pleased by this we waited for its road worthy to be done and were delighted when he said he would drive it down to us. As he pulled up we all eagerly got inside and drove off with half an hour to give it a test spin. Taking it to a nearby store called K-Mart we did some light food shopping, and I bought a toy car to entertain me for a few hours. A real bargain at $2 (79p) for a 1972 hot wheels low rider taxi. After finishing out shopping we drove back to the hostel and parked outside. As we all got out we noticed that smoke was pouring from the passenger seat, after being on such a high we resided back to the kitchen sulking. The next day we decided to give it another trial run and drove around. With it continuing to smoke and us forking out a lot of money on water to keep the radiator full, we decided to take it to a mechanic. Leaving in it his hands we returned an hour later and were told that the head gasket had gone, and someone had done a botched job to try and cover it up. We decided to let him send the van away to be fixed, and gave the previous owner a call about the fact he had mis-sold the van to us. After Jon had a discussion he agreed to pay half of the cost of the repair, which we estimate is going to be around $1200. So this has held up our trip by around 4 days. However we do have a picture of our mechanic Lou, who has done a good job, and was chuffed we wanted a picture of him.
On a lighter note that same week, we decided to indulge ourselves in a Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) tour, where we were guided around long time cricket and AFL Graham, who did tours as a volunteer. It was very interesting but there was lots of talk about people none of us have heard of, we were really there mainly for the view of the 100,000 plus all seated stadium, and to take lots of pictures. Which you can see in this journal entries photo album. Two days after our daytime tour of the southern hemispheres biggest ground, we returned on the Friday evening for the first Aussie Rule Football game of the season. With a few guys from the hostel eager to join us we were quite excited to see our first game, and hopefully an atleast half full stadium. Although the two teams playing weren’t considered very big in AFL terms, I was happy to become a new St Kilda fan as I had in the previous week fell in love with Lady Sovereign on St Kilda beach. After a good night and an exciting walk to the ground with all the eager locals who were seeing there first game in about 4 months we purchased our tickets for a bargain price of $19.20. Finding some good seats where there was enough for us all to sit together we sat near the top of the stadium, just behind the goal posts, but unfortunately amongst mainly Melbourne FC fans, St Kilda’s opposition. Again we took lots of pictures of the event, which in my opinion was quite Americanised as each team ran through giant banners. Struggling to work out the rules and the scoring system after half the game we really started to get into it. By the end of the night I was hooked on the game and can now say I am an avid St Kilda fan. Despite being the massive underdogs in the game St Kilda absolutely dominated Melbourne FC, which I am sure you are all massively interested in. Again see the photo album for some of the photos of that night.
Since I have been here I have done my fair share of washing, and even done a bit for the other guys aswell while I have been there. I have become a little domesticated machine, with a very good laundrette close by, I haven't been afraid to dabble in the art of washing! One day though when we were all doing our washing, we met quite a character whom we didn’t realise worked there until he started lecturing us on the best way to wash our clothes. This guy really was quite a character and considering this man could probably annoy the likes of Keith Chegwin with ease, I think I did pretty well to tolerate him. Being the young upstanding well raised polite boy I am, I laughed at his bad jokes about the English, I listened to his horrifically boring stories about where they make beer. Though in all fairness I felt obliged as Gary and I didn’t get off to a great start. He was un-amused by my shouting across the laundrette to Jon “1 scoop, 2 scoop, 3 scoop... AND ONE FOR THE POT EH JON?” His face turned to thunder and he said, “I seriously advise you not to put in too much powder, it doesn’t do the machines or your clothes any good”. As I didn’t know he worked there at this point I decided to ignore him. After starting the washer my hands became all sticky with the detergent I had just overly used in the washer, due to Gary’s disgust. But if you thought that annoyed him, how do you think he reacted when I went over to the Laundrette fish bowl (which sits neatly inside an old styled television set) and began to discretely wash my hands to get rid of the sticky detergent. I almost had a heart attack when I heard a voice bellow in a loud and scary Australia accent.. “DON’T WASH YOUR HANDS IN THE F**KIN’ FISH TANK!!!!!!” I span around and tried to claim my innocence by explaining I just splashed a little water onto my hands. “Still don’t do it, you will kill the poor little sod. Do you know how many fish we have had to replace because kids have poured liquid in there? He’s the last one of about 6 we had, so don’t do that”.
It was around this time that it dawned on me, he could be the owner of the vicinity, but infact he was just a little helper guy, that helped people with their washing even if they didn’t need him to stick his ore in! That was probably the funniest moment to the other guys, to see this big aging man shout at me about washing my soap powder covered hands in his fish tank. But to me, the funniest moment was the expression on this guys face when he asked Jon “Can I see a towel in with your normal clothes there?” To which Jon replied “Yeah mate, why?” This guys face and reaction was sheer comedy, when he leaned over onto the table, looked down and just shook his head as if he had just been told a close relative has just been killed in a car wreck. “Do you know how much dirt I have seen come off of a towel? It ruins your clothes, I would really re-consider doing that in the future trust me”. I walked away smirking, and slightly panicked at what his reaction would be if he were to find out that I put my trainers in one of his machines with the rest of my whites. I managed to get a quick photo of Jon, myself and Gary at about 2am when we saw him still working in there washing tea towels. Stroke of luck, he smelt incredible, take a look at how clean his shirt is!
In replacement for a good picture of Gary the Laundrette guy, I have a few pictures of other people I have grown really fond of since I have been in Melbourne. They include Rich the Kiwi, Irish Sean, German Student Sophie and Sally the Nurse. You can also see in the photo album pictures of the previously mentioned Big D, Manny, and Sharpie. Manny and Big D are the main 2 guys though, and will be very chuffed if they keep in contact when we part ways. A little bit about the others though.
Rich - A well mannered guy from New Zealand, with a degree in Law and allergic to all wheat and barley products, he has been the butt of a lot of jokes, but I think he is a very nice genuine guy who would be friendly to anyone. He has become a bit of a Joe Jefferies to me I think, but he can take the stick given to him, and not get violent over it like some people would.
Irish Sean - Only knowing him for a few nights I got chatty to him, as he seems to have the same dislike for most (not all) Americans that I and most other English people share. In fact you would do extremely well to find something that Sean did like, as I think part of his charm is the fact that you could say he hates almost everything. He hates most people he meets, he hates most things he sees, yet he has spent a year living in New York, and he plans of living in Melbourne for another 6 months as part of his year in Australia. But you can’t help yourself at liking this guy, must be his Irish charm or something. The only thing I have heard him say he likes, is George Kamikawa the busker and blues performer I will be talking about later. On one of our last nights some girl took his hat, and he got so angry he actually pulled her hair back and swore at her. Finding it hard to watch I walked off shaking my head in disbelief. He eventually got it back, and on the walk home he was so worked up he actually said “I could fight Mike Tyson the way I feel, I’m from Donnygouhl”.
Sally the Nurse - Sally is a nice young lady who is trying to get citizenship out here as she is a fully fledged nurse. She seemed to tag along with us most nights, which was a bit unexpected as she was always the only girl. But I look out for her whenever I see her around the hostel, and we always have a nice chat. Like her a lot more now I have gotten to know her a bit.
Sophie the German Student - Sophie was one of two German girls that was staying in our room when we arrived. She moved out about 2 weeks ago after finally finding a more permanent place of accommodation. She has been studying here for about 2 months, and I think all the lads were quite taken in by how friendly and chatty she was. A little bewildered by my German phrases she got on well with us all and even came out for our leaving do to the Karaoke bar. Will miss us I am sure, but think she will be able to get over having to share a room with 7 other guys.
I will try and not make this as long as the last journal entry, but I just wanted to mention the great Japanese busker we saw on the streets of Melbourne a few times, and then find out he plays in a little dingy bar called the Rainbow Hotel, where all the guys from the hostel ventured one night to see him. A great talent with his ability to play blues guitar, harmonica and foot drum whilst singing in between, he was a great showman. Not fully remembering how to spell his name, you should really google him and check him out, his name again was George Kamikawa. You can see a photo of us with George, and also a little video snippet of him singing my personal favourite ‘Shake your Money Maker’.
Last weekend, we had a sort of leaving do for ourselves and a couple of other guys who were leaving The Nunnery within the next week. After some of the hostel heavily boozed it up all night before we left to go to the Karaoke bar, I decided to tame myself for the following night (Reel Big Fish gig). Having been drinking lemonade for the entire night, I didn’t really feel at ease to let myself rip some killer tunes on the Karaoke mic. Due to this I had to use such excises like, “Awww I would, but they don’t seem to have any Lady Sovereign songs for me to do” or “I am gutted, the one night I really need them, I forgot my glasses, nevermind”. So I managed to dodge that bullet pretty well. Although there were so good acts that night, including Bearded Tom who did a great rendition of the Bee Gees which got all the girls flocking. Also our very own Luke and Ollie got up to do their version of the Jimmy Eats World song ‘The Middle’. I decided to call it a night at 1am as I wasn’t drunk like everyone else, and I walked to new girls back to the hostel as they hadn’t the foggiest where they were going. So I unfortunately missed Jon doing his infamous Karaoke classic ‘Hero’. Some pictures of Luke and Ollie can be seen on the photo album that goes with this journal entry.
Okay, well its quite far down, but this is the main part of my journal entry, and again it is about Lady Sovereign. I am putting forth and offer to anyone in Bristol on the 14th of April. An offer of £50 to go to her gig at the Anson Rooms, get there early as to get to the front of the stage, and take lots of pictures and video shots of her. These will not be for the journal, just for my personal collection. I would appreciate anyone willing to do it, and as I say, you get 50 QUID out of it, can’t be bad can it? So anyone who wishes to earn themselves a nice piece of change, for a genuinely good night out, please email me on [email protected] or text me on my mobie +610420848688l. Get in touch asap as the gig is very soon. Thanks... (THIS OFFER HAS NOW EXPIRED)
Okay well back to the journal, tonight will be our last night, and we have quite a big group of people coming out for a farewell meal for all of the Bristol Boys. It will be sad to say goodbye to all the people we have met, but the likes of Manny and Big D we are hoping to meet at some point in Sydney, if not I am sure we would all go out for a killer night in England sometime. We have built up quite a following, and I will be sure to post some photos from our last night here for everyone at a later date. I am sure a lot of people be sad to see the Bristol Boys leave, and others a bit more pleased as we have kind of taken over the hostel, and are a force to be reckoned with. So I believe that the rest of Australia should certainly look out, as we are taking on recruits, and have space in our van for two more people. With our van fully stocked with new camping equipment and full to the brim with petrol, we are sure to get some great video footage and pictures on the trip.
Our Last Night In Melbourne
For our last night in Melbourne before we hit the road in our now fixed van, we were undecided as to what to do, a lot of people were interested in doing something with us, whether it be a meal or just a few drinks in a bar somewhere. Eventually we decided just to go for a phew drinks, and sadly not as many people came out as what we thought, but we still had some of the main guys there. We started drinking in a tiny bar, where someone from the Nunnery had just started working, we had a few in there before going to a place called Bimbo’s a bit further down the street. Where there was more alcohol consumption (even from me) and plenty of dancing (not by me). I decided to hold back on the dancing and watch Irish Sean and Canadian Trish argue. He decided to scream at her, she is American as can be, which is apparently not a good thing to say to Canadians. She began to yell back, “yeah thats like me saying your Scottish, your Scottish, go put on your kilt Scottish boy”. Let me assure you Irish Sean is not the kind of guy you want to wind up when he is drinking, but the argument continued and I walked off. Later in the night some girl nicked his hat and he went ballistic and eventually pulled her hair until she gave it back, very childish, but its an amusing story to tell. All the way home he kept saying he could fight Mike Tyson the way he felt, I just kept agreeing saying I bet you could. Eventually we got nearer to our street at the end of the night, now about 2am and we see our Laundrette man Gary still in there. We called him out and asked him for a picture, and pulled some Chinese man over to take it. You know how those little fellas love to take pictures, and he was more than willing.
The next morning we got up, all had a vigorous shower, as it may be our last for a few days before we hit the road. Cleaned our rooms, stripped our beds, and made sure we were all packed. As we were putting all our stuff into the van a few people came out to say goodbye, and just before we all got in, a few more people came out to give us all hugs and wish us luck. We drove down the road beeping our horn at the Nunnery and everyone else on the street and said farewell to Melbourne. Some pictures of our last night can be seen on the new photo album.
Thats all folks, will give you another journal entry when I have a bit more to say when we are in Sydney, but don’t forget to check out my other journal entry for the Reel Big Fish gig we went to go see, and the pictures of me and the guys backstage (AGAIN). I am getting good at that. Thanks everyone, enjoy.
Cristoph of Oz
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