sharplittleteeth

THE BEGINNING: POLLY

The evening began with morgan303's drinks at Polly. Charming companions, exotic cocktails, naked Pre-Raphaelite nymphs peering saucily down on us... is there a better way to start an evening?

I was particularly keen to sample Polly's selection of premium absinthes. I started with the Jade Edouard, a very smooth, gentle absinthe, a strong aniseed flavour of course, but with a soft herbal aftertaste.

Later I tried the Obsello, which had a rich mint smell and taste to it. Very pleasant. I preferred it the Edouard, actually.

(Polly prepare your absinthes at your table, bringing the absinthe fountain over to you. Then the poor waiter stands around awkwardly waiting for the drops of water to dissolve your sugar cube and keeping a watchful eye on the fountain, because apparently someone tried to sneak off with one. Not very gentlemanly behaviour.)

Next time I think I'll try the Blanche de Fougerolles and the Eichelberger Limitée.


THE MIDDLE: MR. McCLELLAND'S FINISHING SCHOOL

Suitably liquored up, we made our way to the Bella Union for Mr McClelland's Finishing School. Lots of indie pop, Motown. Jackson 5 and Dave Callan doing the Thriller dance on stage (much to the distress of one of the bouncers, who had to be asked nicely not to drag Dave off).

A lot of fun. Danced myself silly. It wasn't really my sort of music, and if indulged in too often the joy would start to wear thin. But there was fun. Lots of it, in fact.

It doesn't hurts to occasionally cut loose . *nods*


THE END: GETTING HOME

Ah. The Not Fun bit of the evening.

I had thought getting home from Trades Hall would be easy. Catch a taxi as they come back in along Lygon Street, zip down Victoria Street, done.

I hadn't counted on the rain.

There were no free taxis. None. I suspect the moment one became free it was pounced on by thirteen different desperate and rain-bedraggled revelers.

We tried waiting out the front of Trades Hall. Nothing. We tried going down to Swanston Street. Nothing. We trudged into the city centre. The heel of Jel's boot started to come off. Lots of very wet people, not a single free taxi in sight

By sheer coincidence, we reached the City Square just as the Nightrider buses were pulling in. We worked out that one of them went down Bridge Road and Church Street, and so we quickly decided it was better to walk home from Church Street than to wait like Vladimir and Estragon for a cab.

All in all, it took an hour and a half from us leaving the Bella Union to us walking in our front door.


CONSEQUENCES:

Very tired this morning. So I was bit slack this morning, and only made it to one hour of karate.

FRIDAY:
SLR at Ilk Bar. They started off loud. The owner told them to turn it down. That seemed to throw the band for a bit, but they perked up towards the end. First time I've heard them. Reminded me a bit of early NIN (although I'm sure they'd claim much cooler bands as influences).

Then Cabaret Nocture at La Di Da. There was open doorway between the goth section and the "mainstream" bar. It kind of felt like a Tim Burton film - normal town on one side of the wall, monster town on the other. Only instead of a waif-like Winona Ryder crossing over, we had drunk guys leering at the goth chicks.

Not awesome.

On the plus side, my new tie was a hit. Who doesn't love a cephalopod with gigantic brains?


SATURDAY
Up at 8:30 for two hours of karate. New belt means new syllabus, which means feeling confused all over again. But that's good. That's exciting. It means I'm learning things.

Lunch. Guitar. A quick grandpa nap.

Then we went to Ben McKenzie's Science Week show, "A Brief History of a Brief History of Time". Basically, it was a comedy talk about the Stephen Hawking book. Lots of fun. My review is here.


SUNDAY
Shopping in town. Played with phones at the new Telstra superstore. Bought a rashie shirt so that I don't get hideously sunburnt on our trip to Heron Island. As I came out of the change room, the attendant asked how well it fitted.

"Good," I said. "Although now I know how a penis feels when the condom rolls on."

I don't think he appreciated my joke.

Yummy Japanese dinner at Ito. Then Josh Earl's musical librarian stand-up comedy at the Writers Festival club.

Home now, watching the Communist Party Propoganda Olympics Closing Ceremony on TV.


How was your weekend?