January 2006 Melbourne

It wasn't so much as starting off well from the word go as I sat
in Sydney airport waiting to board the plane to Melbourne a few
weeks ago. Not knowing much about the city except for what
I've heard from other people, which included good and bad.

I arrived at the airport terminal and located transportation to
the city, not knowing where I would end up. Already it wasn't
going my way as the last transfer bus had already left and I
had to wait for one from another company which didn't bring
you to your doorstep after 6pm on a weekend. So I had to grab
a taxi, which was the most convenient thing to do from the
Southern Cross station.

The hostel turned out to be a couple of months old and was
spanking new, with excellent facilities although a bit of wear
and tear has now set in as people seem to be careless and
thoughtless about other peoples, in particular the
establishments stuff. It is indeed very clean, but as I have
had many of the same discussion with people who were
there, would it still be like this in a years time.

I got onto the recruitment agents straight away and didn't
waste any time at all to arrange an interview on the very next
day. Since I have already been off work for a total of nearly
6 weeks since Darwin, I feld that my mind was beginning to
get lazy.

Having sorted out my employment and income arrangement
for the next few months there was nothing to worry about and
spent the next few days exploring and wondering around the
city. In contrast to the thoughts I had when I first arrived in
Sydney which was 'what am I doing here?' and 'whether it was
going to be a repeat of Sydney?' I was determined that I was
going to do more.

My first thoughts as I strolled around Melbourne was that is
was much better laid out and was most definitely more
spacious and less claustrophobic. And with the tram system,
it meant that you could most definitely get to almost anywhere,
on the surface as opposed to under ground.

I've been around:-

1. Fitzroy, Brunswick St and Smith St.
2. Bay St - Tasmania Ferry Pier.
3. St Kilda.
4. Prahran.
5. South Melbourne Market.
6. Exhibition Centre.
7. Dockland - Volvo Ocean Race + Rick Stein
8. Botanic Garden - WW memorial.
9. Chloe the painting in Y&J Hotel.
10. NGV.
11. Stanley Kubrick Exhibit.
12. Federation Square.
13. China Town Museum, New Year etc.
14. Australia Day Fireworks.
15. Albert Park - Pit Lane.
16. Shopping District.
17. Crown Casino.
18. Observation Tower.
19. Circle Line Free Tram.
20. Billy Connolly at the Art Centre.
21. Stony Point, Crib Point, Frankston.
22. Flinders Station.
23. Met Abraham - local whom I met in Darwin.

Some of which I did on my own and some I did with a
young german woman 'Katharina' who I've recently met.
Funny thing was that she has been in the hostel about the
same as I have and having seen her around a few times I
never spoke to her. Not until Craig her 'bestfriend' in the
place indirectly introduced us.

Apparently she dislike Craig (english geezer) and tries to avoid
him like the plague. But he tries it on each time he sees her. I
said that perhaps he was just being nice, and friendly etc.

So it was friday night following a loosing streak to Marie
the Danish girl in a poll competition, I sat myself down next to
Craig and exchanged about 2 words of pleasantry. The came
along Tim the Canadian, shortly followed by his amazingly
hot girlfriend Haley. It was funny, everyone else were watching
the Australian Open, including Craig, so myself Tim and Haley
kicked off a long conversation through the night. They were
exceptionally good company and we had a pretty good laugh.

Then along came the gorgeous 'Katharina'. Tim and Haley
happened to be her room mate. So this was how we met.
Funny how we just started to hang out together. Apparently
she is a tight arse boring german, so she describes herself.
Suits me fine as we seem to hit it off quite well, I like her and
enjoy being in her company.

On Saturday night we went wondering into China town to see
the dragon dance and the celebration of the chinese new year.
Tim was on a mission to sing a song in a karaoke bar, but we
ended up going into the seediest joints in town. We had a quick
drink in a dingey and crappy pub on the corner of china town.
Something reminiscent of a crappy old dark and run down
traditional english pub, playing 80s and 90s music on the tele.

The celebration was pretty good, and lively with thousands of
people about, so it was quite crowded. Tim shot himself in the
foot somewhat by expressing his dislike for germans, despite
the presence of one. I didn't think he meant it seriously but
being young and stupid what do you expect.

Spider succumbs to the Ants

Every ant has a job to do...

Room with a View

Arrival at Darwin...26th August 2005

My room where I stayed at the Frogshollow Backpackers...

Creatures of Oz

Stay...good doggie...The Dog...

The Crocodile...

The Green Ants...

The Parrot...

The Guanna...

The Tree Frog...

Darwin

Some pictures taken while I was in Darwin between August and December.

Sydney

Some pictures I've taken while I was in Sydney between May and August.

Dining out in Darwin

Been out to Dragon Court for dinner last night with a colleague and his misses and their 4 year old daughter who wanted to play with fire the other day. How crazy is that coming from a 4 year old. The spoilt brat who cries to get her way with everything, so irritating, just have to fight fire with fire, nah...nah...naaaah... Anyway the food in the restaurant was exceptionally good for a chinese restaurant, although lacking in much of the classic dishes, it did have a small but satisfying selection to choose from. If you're expecting for variety, then you're be sadly disappointed. Which brings the concept of going there as a local, you'd soon run of of dishes to choose from if you were to go there every week, and even if you went there every other week and tried something different. The price wasn't exactly cheap for what you get, but to compare it to a burger and chips meal for a similar price, then it most definitely beats the Hogs-Breath Cafe by miles and miles. It's reasonably good to go with a few friends and order a few dishes to share between you, as it is the chinese way. Non of these, I'll have the dish to myself attitude. And for the girls, you'll have to share me too (i.e. aka dish I wish). It is however situated within the casino complex which is a bit of a walk out of town, say 15 minutes at 35 degrees celsius. Another chinese restaurant in town is 'The Noodle House' more down market and a little bit cheaper. I recommend for those of you who decide to go dining on your own as I have done, do go and order a chow mein, ho fun, or special friend rice. The portions are rich and plentiful. Very good value for money. If you don't like chinese you've always got, the buffe restaurant in the casino, all you can eat for $24 bucks. Pretty good deal, they've still got chinese food, indian, and selection of dry crusty carvery that's dried up all day. Don't let the description put you off, you can scrape off the dried skin of gravy and scoop the still saucy stuff underneath, hmm tasty. The plus side is the abundance of pudding and variety of help yourself icecream available. Absolutely fantastic, they even have Black Forrest Gateaux, yummy. One very convenient feature they have is the option of cutting your own large piece of cake from the vertical glass fridge, or the mouth size ready cut easy to apply pieces. Isn't that great or what. The only problem with the whole place was the decor was much the same of a typical British motorway roadside service station. You've also got 'Hog's Breath Cafe'. But this place is only worth it if you check out the 2 for 1 deal on the back of receipts from Woolworths. Because the food is not particularly that great and it is also pricey for what you get if you don't have a voucher. I recommend the burger with the works. That is a beef burger, with pineapple and bacon and salad and fries. Never had the steak there so I wouldn't know. The other meals there are well dodgy, so choose carefully. You've always got the cheap and nasty fast food take aways at the Casuarina food court at the shopping centre. There's so much MSG in the food, you can feel it oozing out your ears once you've eaten it. But what's the alternative, KFC, McD, Subway etc. There is also the 'Cornucopia' down by Fannie Bay (vag bay), only had the best Fillet Steak there ever, medium rare, about 2 inches thick and half a pound in weight, extremely juicy and tasty, I recommend it. If you are looking for alternativel cheap and nasty fast food, then you have McD's pretty much on every street corner. Dominoes pizza's are in every suburb and if you go at lunch time, they might even have a half price $6.95 lunch time special, limited time offer only??? The new Godfather with a bit of everything on it is the one I recommend. If you want a proper pizza, you should goto 'Seadogs' down in the Cullen Bay harbour. Which is a mediteranean restaurant, and serves up your typical pastas dishes etc. But Cullen Bay has a huge variety of restaurants there. It is much more off the beaten track and the prices are somewhat a little bit more, so you won't find many back packers heading down that way, mostly middle class locals. The only other restaurant I've been to in Cullen Bay is the 'Bahn Thai'. Very pricey for the minute portions you get, but it was exceptionally tasty, so it's well worth a visit. Speaking of eating, I am a fussy bastard when it comes to food. A part of working in my parents restaurant growing up as a child, which I was most fortunate to have the lessons in chinese cooking over all those years of pot scrubbing and rice cooking at minimum wage of just over $3.5 per hour. Recently I've been cooking like as bastard, like I've never cooked before. And it was all because I said to Shiffy (Solicitor from Melbourne staying at Frogg's) one day I've only cooked 3-4 times since I've been up here. And I fell ill the next few days after I said that. And after a week and a half on a semi liquid diet, I was invited to Peter Lowe's for dinner (funny close resemblance to Peter Lau and with the same initials as PWJL except for the W). He had left over 'Lemon Chicken' for dinner, and I boasted that I shall show him how it was done properly. So I ended up cooking everyday since the day I mutted those words. It was not all bad. I had surprised even myself on some of the dishes which I have conjured up, some of which I had not even tried to cook before. So typically it was 2 to 3 dishes per night and every other night there was a soup as well. I must get some of the recipes from my mother when I get home...no photos as yet, but there might be some later...

Sunday Night at the Honeypot Club

Sunday night I went to the honeypot club again, yup :o) again, since the opening night on Wednesday night. Mel was at the door, who was pretty cool and we chatted a bit. She broke her leg or foot from Motor Cross about a month back, and someone stood on it at the weekend so she's going to be sitting behind the desk for most of the next few days. Mel is a hair dresser who works as a hostess at the club. And a very nice and friendly one too. The night was very quiet, with about 10 blokes (geezers) in the whole place, which was pretty cool, because as soon as I got inside, the bar maid approached me for a drink and I sat myself down at the front of the stage. Some of the girls were lounging around all over the place. Dakota was the first one to sit down next to us. She was nice and we chatted for a while. Jordon was on stage at the time, my favourite to say the least, but she is not the most sociable. It's either that or she gets enough offers to make a pretty good killing each night. Destiny the single mum sat by us after Dakota, and we spoke for a bit too. It was quite interesting to know, from Newcastle, NSW, she dances in a local club in Newcastle and in Sydney, and has a 2 year old child. Apparently she split up with her boyfriend about the same time as when she got pregnant. So she's been dancing for 7 years now, but to be honest she didn't make much effort on stage. But then again she did say there are no punters in tonight and they still have to perform. They got $100 per night from the house, and 50% of what they got from private lap dances. Which meant from 7pm until 2am, she earned less than $200 bucks for a nights work. Which still beats stacking shelves in a super market. There were a couple of drunks there, but they were harmless. It would have seemed that the girls knees have become pretty red and raw from all the bending and turning and spinning around on the stage. And Destiny pointed out how bruised her knees were, and they were very much black and blue. Honey (stage name) who was one of Destiny's (also stage name) buddies for many years now, sat down with a bag of ice over her legs as soon as she came off the stage. Some of the girls worked around the floor when they were off stage to try to pull a few guys for a private dance as it was the only way to earn more money. Some of the others just sat together in a group to amuse themselves. The dancing on stage became more of a tedious chore now for them since they had to go up 3 times a night to do the same ole routine. Miming to the music while stripping is not a particularly sexy thing to be doing. It just makes them look bored shitless. I wouldn't even call it that at this point as some of them come on the stage with so little on as it is. It was beginning to become a bit of a piss take, and amusing. It was pretty cool to hang out with the girls that night, although they didn't stick around for too long. And trying to get a conversation out of some of them was hard work. I guess flash the cash and they'll be more friendly, not entirely true. Jordon was hard work, she sat there looking like she was sulking, or piss bored all night. They had a few more experienced and more mature dancers from Sydney that weekend too, and it was quite funny to see those who put some dosh in their panties got more than they had bargained for when they jumped off the stage and prowled the floor. Shaking their tits in the guys face. In fairness he must have spent a good few hundred bucks. Speaking of that, so have I. The tall leggy blonde, Bridget wasn't working, which was a shame, she was really nice company. Only the Sydney Pro's took everything off that night. Destiny told me they weren't supposed to take everything off on stage and was told off about it by the management after the first night. Disappointing. Apparently on Saturday night they all went to Discovery a night club just down the road, after the club closed at 2am, what a damn shame. So what do strippers get up to when they're not stripping? Your guess is as good as mine, exactly as what everyone else does, go out get pissed have a laugh. They look after their bodies better though in fairness. That means no chips, no kebabs, no curries, no beer, the typical stapple diet of the average english rose. Sorry girls but it's true. One in five of British girls, and blokes, are obese says the latest survey. And you know what obesity is associated with? Ugly and stupid, hence the cliche, stupid fat and ugly. The Sydney girls were quite lame, as they tried to make it more arty with their choreographed routine. Yawn, just get on with it. It was still interesting all the same. I was going to ask Jordon for another dance as she was definitely one of the fittest girls there, but she was such a miserable cow that I didn't. Instead I asked Honey as soon as she came off the stage. Bad idea, it wasn't a very good lap dance, and she was more knackered exhausted and wasn't too energetic and just wriggled about on the floor instead. Afterwards I was told to piss off, great, she was so friendly, peck on the cheek. I ended up chatting to Mel who came upstairs to work behind the booking desk. Sound lass. I'd go back just to have a chat with her.