Taking the plunge and migrating to Australia.

Archive for the ‘emigrating’ Category

Doorstep!

It seems all too easy to overlook what’s under your nose / on your own doorstep, but we’re probably all guilty of it to some degree.

One such place that’s on my doorstep that I often overlook is Melbourne, Australia’s best city by far (Sydney is awesome too but Melbs just edges it).

Today however, I addressed my oversight and travelled to Melbourne to visit ARTVO, an art display that only gets its perspective when you’re in it.

I journeyed by train for just over an hour and then hit the streets for a casual ten minute walk to Melbourne’s Docklands precinct, with a few stops along the way for photos (Melbourne is choc full of the weird and wonderful waiting to be photographed).

The exhibition / gallery is tucked away in the corner of Dockland’s shopping centre and could easily be overlooked in favoury other, more dynamic, shop fronts.

As much as the bling of the other emporiums appealed to my inner jackdaw, I resisted, handed over my entry fee and entered a magical world of perspective.

ARTVO featured eleven zones, each one with it’s own theme. The paintings covered various parts of the walls, ceilings and floors, and each one had a hotspot to stand in in order to create the illusion of being in the art.

As you can see in the shot above the effect is quite convincing and a lot of fun.

Unfortunately ARTVO is an exhibition that is best enjoyed in at least a pair. Going on your own like I did doesn’t yield the best results (as can be seen in the shot above). Thankfully a member of staff was on hand to take some pictures of moi in the art. Lucky her!

ARTVO was a lot of fun and easily worth multiple visits, and a great advert for checking our doorsteps more regularly.

Bye for now good readers!

Blur (but not the pop group)!

Hello readers.

No sooner had I promised myself I’d blog more regularly, four months pass by without a single update. So lazy.

Anyway, on to this entry. In early November 2017 Bec and I headed off to the Yarra Valley to spend a weekend at a winery / spa resort to pamper ourselves and indulge in wine, desserts, cheese platters, room service and chocolate.

The Balgownie Resort wasn’t hard to get to and after a ninety minute drive we were checking in to our luxurious room.

The countryside surrounding us was stunning and thankfully not that busy. Crowds are so annoying. Being plonked in the middle of such amazing flora meant there wasn’t much to do off site, so we stayed on site and had massages, drank alcohol, had copious amounts of cheese platters, spent lots of time in the restauran; and when all of that got too much for us we abused the room service facility.

The one time we did manage to leave our resort we visited a chocolate shop to, once again, do some more eating. What puddings we were.

There were a myriad of other things to do through the resort, like an early morning hot air balloon ride over the Yarra Valley; but who wants to get up at some ungodly hour to burst into flames thousands of feet above the Earth? Not me. I’m quite happy on the ground scoffing cheese platters,

So it would seem the marrying of a spa resort and winery is a grand idea. All we Cassons need to do now is workout how many of these spa / winery hybrids there are in this amazing upside down land? I suppose Bec and I will have to find out.

Bye for now.

Some Summer Sun

G’day Readers.

Another eternity has passed since the last post. Trying to work out how the months can sail past as quickly as they do requires a brain far more capable than mine.

Anywho (not a typo) on to this post. In the middle of the Australian winter we Cassons had the opportunity to spend a week on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. A place that, on average, has around 3,000hrs of sunshine a year. It also has a thriving pineapple industry (apparently it takes two years for them to become ripe). They’re big too. Just look at the one in the photo below.

The place we called home went by the name of Mooloolaba and was about an hour above Brisbane by car, on a good day; but since the roads between the Gold Coast (where we flew into) and Sunshine Coast are crap, journey times are random at best.

However, the frustrations of the drive soon faded away once we soaked up the view from our apartment.

Unfortunately for Bec, some of her time on the Sunshine Coast was taken up with work; but the rest of the Casson family didn’t have such binds, so off we went and explored this great part of Australia.

We visited waterfalls:

Walked amongst dinosaurs:

Enjoyed the watery delights of an aquarium:

Visited coastal towns renowned for their natural chic and beauty:

Mixed with the locals:

And walked in rainforests:

We also made sure we dined out as much as possible to experience the renowned local cuisine:

Suffice to say, it was a tough few days on the Sunshine Coast but we Cassons were more than capable of meeting the challenge head on.

So until that challenge surfaces, be well one and all.

Good, But Not Perth-fect

Howdi readers.

Here is my somewhat belated post that covers what we Cassons got up to when our good friend Mel came to visit us for the month of August.

Mel is always keen to explore this wonderful land so we are rarely left with nothing to do. Case in point, Mel’s first week with us was reserved for exploring Perth and it’s surrounding areas. A marvellous choice since I hadn’t been to Western Australia and had wanted to visit Perth for quite some time.

Perth is a about four-and-a-half-hours from Melbourne by an amazing invention called an aeroplane. Mel and I flew on one of these crazy contraptions that was owned by one Richard Branson.  The flight was quite pleasant and even had people on it that served you food and drink. What fun!

Upon touching down In Perth Mel and I rushed to get our luggage and then rushed a bit more to get our hire car. Then we rushed out of the airport in our hire car and followed the spoken directions of the lady in my phone. Some Harry Potter magic going on there.

Unfortunately the magic of the said Harry Potter didn’t extend to the hotel Mel and I had chosen to stay in. It was a crap hole and didn’t even appeal to cockroaches. If you’ve ever seen the room of the first victim in the disturbing but totally watchable movie Seven you’ll have an idea of what our rooms were like. After a short chat, Mel and I went to reception, told them what we thought of their room (politely), informed them that we wouldn’t be staying with them, instructed the receptionists we would be getting a full refund and then promptly exited the hotel of death. After a little online searching we managed to secure a couple of rooms in a hotel and began to plan our time in Perth.

Perth by Day

Perth by Night

So Tuesday landed in our laps and Mel and I decided to go and investigate some sand dunes about one-and-a-half-hours north of Perth by car. With a little help from the lady in my phone we arrived at our destination in good time. Although sand dunes don’t sound like a must see attraction these ones were renowned for being big, tall and out-of-this-world like in their looks. Also, they were significant enough to sandboard down (nope, didn’t do it). Upon first glance the size of the dunes wasn’t evident because their undulations and structure were obscured by everything being the same colour (just like the walls in a photography studio where the floor, walls and ceiling are all the same colour). However, once you got closer the magnificence of the dunes became quite apparent; and boy were they fun to explore. Mel and I ran, sank, stumbled, cartwheeled and laughed as were traversed a terrain that resembled the surface of an alien planet. It truly was spectacular and never got boring. Who would have thought that sand would be so much fun?

Sand Ahoy! Pirate Ahoy! Um! Sand.

After going mad in the sand Mel and I headed back to Perth, with an unexpected pit-stop at a national park that promised food, drink, pretty birds, kangaroos and koalas. We’re not sure why we stopped here but we’re glad we did. Australia is full of little wonders like this park and if you’re not a local it’s important to seize the opportunity to explore these hidden treasures since the chance might not come around again. So explore we did.

The birds in Oz are gorgeous! The sky or a river? Mel in her kangaroo onesie.

Once we had cleared the park it was back to Perth for some food. Well more Freemantle than Perth since Freemantle is a foody’s paradise. Chic restaurants, gourmet food and some stunning interiors make Freemantle the place to go for food and drink. Suffice to say Mel and I enjoyed exploring this suburb of Perth.

Wednesday rang in quite early and wasn’t really welcomed until I had eaten a hearty breakfast and drank a gallon of coffee. Only then was I okay with being up early to catch a couple of boats to our destination for the day: Rottnest Island. By the way, the boat trips were cool. The first one was a gentle ride down a river to the main port, whilst the second was a speedboat across a choppy sea to the island. This was awesome and very bumpy. Quite a few of the passengers didn’t share the grin I had on my face as we crashed, smashed and forced our way through the rolling sea.

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Once on the island Mel and I sort of hurriedly looked for some form of coach / bus terminal that our bus tour was departing from. We figured it was the best way to see what the island had to offer, and it was. It took us everywhere of importance and gave us quite a lot of info about the island (the name of the island was given to it by a Dutch explorer who thought the island was over run with rats, so he called it a rats’ nest which in Dutch is rottnest). The island is most famous for being home to the happiest creature on Earth: the Quokka. Once mistaken for a rat and getting the island it’s misinformed name, Rottnest Island is the only place you will find these amazing creatures (oh, and Mel found a type of bird that dive bombs you, steals cake from your hand, draws blood and makes any onlookers giggle with amusement). Quokkas also lend themselves to dad jokes and Mel and I had a great time making some up, for example: What do Quokkas eat and drink from? Quokkary. What is a Quokkas favourite month of the year? Quokktober. What creature does a Quokka fear the most? A quokkadile. See. Funny stuff. Mel and I had a ball coming up with Quokka jokes, which probably made us the happiest people on the island.

Hello, I'm so happy! Quokka! A nice place to have a beer, so we did.

After the reverse boat trips back to Perth it was time to, once again, head to Freemantle to indulge in some more eating and drinking.

Thursday was our last whole day in Perth so we decided to stay local and check out WA’s capital city, and that’s where our trip becomes a little meh! What we checked out was okay (the Botanic Gardens, some of the suburbs and their marinas, the War Memorial) but Mel and I have seen better. Even Mel, an infrequent visitor to these shores, said she had been to better places in Australia. For us, Perth was saved by what was on offer outside of the city; by attractions it had on its doorstep. So although not a total let down Perth wasn’t as Perth-fect as Mel and I thought it would be.

Fun in a local park. The War Memorial. Awesome sculpture in the Botanic Gardens.

Friday saw us reverse engineer our trip and head back to Geelong, via Melbourne airport.

The rest of Mel’s time was a combination of exploring other parts of Australia (the Gold Coast and Uluru) and chilling with us (drinking wine, eating cheese and bingeing on awesome TV shows). We all had a great time and look forward to seeing Mel in 2018 for Christmas in Geelong and New Year in Sydney (not Perth).

Goodbye for now lovey readers.

(Pssst! I will check this article’s grammar and spelling another time).

I Danbo-Lieve It!

An unusual title for an update? Yep, you got that right. However, as you trawl through the images accompanying this update you’ll work out what’s unusual about some of them: The addition of a unique figurine from Japan known as a Danbo. Having a penchant for figurines I couldn’t refuse buying myself a couple of these. They also lend themselves to some cool photography.

The title of this entry also relates to something Bec and I haven’t done for a while, and that’s go away on our own for a few days. So with Lucy in Italy we decided to escape to the country, in particular an area of Victoria called The Grampians. Known for its wineries, walking trails, fantastic scenery and views and countryside The Grampians also has some excellent accommodation.

Our excellent accommodation was a deluxe eco-lodge on the estate of the Avoca Winery. This lodge was one of three nestled on a ridge overlooking the winery’s vineyards. The lodges utilised the latest energy saving techniques but didn’t scrimp on comfort and modern day trappings. One thing the lodge did exceptionally well was deliver eye popping views of the Pyrenees Ranges through its vast arrangement of windows.

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The Saturday of the Easter weekend was mostly spent in and around a place called Halls Gap, a small town with a big coating of popularity because of its closeness to some of the regions most amazing views and natural wonders.
From the pictures below you’ll get an understanding of how beautiful the area is but you won’t be able to appreciate how high up we were. From Halls Gap The Grampians looked quite timid and unassuming but once we began to ascend them by car we realised you can’t take this part of the Australian countryside for granted (like so much of this wonderful country). The drive was worth it and we were treated to some stunning panoramas of the surrounding landscape. This part of Victoria didn’t disappoint.

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The Sunday was spent a bit closer to the lodge with a little tour of a couple of the local wineries for lunch and dessert (and wine) before finishing up at the winery we were staying at for a cheese platter and more wine. A wonderful way to experience the art of the grape.

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So now all we have is the journey home but, like our stay in The Grampians, it’ll be easy to enjoy and come with a few surprises. Kangaroos hopping across the road in front of you?

Anyone?


Come visit Oz and you’ll believe it.

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We’ve Bean Two!

Hello readers.
This entry is a little late since it focusses on our last few days in Cairns back in October, and it’s now December. So here goes.
Our last full day in Queensland was dedicated to . . . . . . . . . . coffee! We had decided to go and visit a coffee museum some 50km inland from Cairns. So once again we traversed the winding and mountainous roads from the coast and headed to the hinterland.
Coffeeworks was our destination. A museum dedicated to the art of coffee. It also specialised in chocolate so there was interest for all. After paying a reasonable entry fee we were in and sampling all that was on offer. Never before had I been to a place that celebrated the cocoa and coffee bean together. It was bliss and, surprisingly, didn’t wear thin. The novelty didn’t get tiring (and why would it?), and got very interesting when the beans were combined. Chocolate coated coffee beans were superb, as was coffee infused with chocolate. The mad scientists in this place would make great friends but unfortunately I didn’t come across any. They were probably kept underground and were the byproduct of human and coffee plant DNA trials.
Once we had had our fill of caffeine and cocoa based products we visited the gift shop. This was a kooky little experience due to the myriad of quirky objects they had for sale (there seemed to be quite a few items to buy that had me in them), and if you were on a caffeine / cocoa based high there would be plenty to thrash your credit card with. Luckily we didn’t succumb to this temptation and left the establishment with a respectable amount of purchases.
On the way back to Cairns we stopped at a coffee plantation for lunch, and an ice-cream shop for dessert.
All-in-all it was a jolly fine day.

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JHC – That is Some Rock

Hello one and all.

It’s currently 21oC by the side of our hotel’s pool (the pool water though is so cold the staff are actually re-enacting the final moments of the Titanic in it). Suffice to say I shall remain in the sunshine on my lounger.

We have been at the Ayres Rock resort for three days now and enjoying a slower pace of life. From our room we can see the big rock and it is quite something. However, we haven’t visited it yet. We are saving that for the next few days. We have, however, visited a lesser known one that goes by the name of Mount Connor; and although not so well known it is just as impressive.

To get to Mount Connor we had to book a tour since it is on private property (a cattle ranch some 1100 square kilometres in size) and meant there would be a lot of off-road driving, so a specialist vehicle was required to traverse the tracks to Mount Connor.

The tour didn’t start until 1PM so we had a lazy start to the day. At just after the designated time we were on our way to Curtin Springs, the place the ranch owners whose land Mount Connor sits on first settled some sixty years ago, when there was nothing there. Not even a house for them to live in. Curtin Springs is now a major refuelling point, stopover, camp site, restaurant and home, still, to the family that settled there all those years ago.

The stop at Curtin Springs was a short one (and in my view that’s the best sort of stop) and our off-road outback experience to Mount Connor begun. For the next six hours we did not see a conventional road, instead we travelled along bumpy, pot-holed, sandy, stone covered orange tracks that are synonymous with Australia; and if you had any defects in your skeleton they would have surely been shaken out of you. It was bu-u-u-u-mpy!

The ride was worth it though as we saw a bit of Australia that no-one else was touring. A massive piece of stunning outback countryside all to ourselves. Beautiful.

Along the way to the Mount Connor we walked on a salt lake, checked out some cattle pens, drove all the way around Mount Connor, saw eagles, kangaroos and dingoes; and drank some sparkling wine whilst watching the sun set on the impressive Mount Connor. It was a truly phenomenal day out.

Our day did not end at sunset though. Once the life giving orange star had gone down we made our way back for a delicious three course meal at Curtin Springs (the dessert was Bread Pudding of all things, a favourite English dish of mine). Once this had been scoffed it was time to head back to our hotel, but not before our fabulous tour guide found a flat stretch of straight road for us to lay down on and do some stargazing. Yep! That’s right. We laid down on a busy(ish) highway to look up into the night sky. It was beautiful. No light pollution to spoil the view, and a great way to end a memorable day in the center(ish) of Australia.

So what else have we got planned?

Well, we’ll let you know over the coming days so keep checking back for updates.

Laters!

Us Cassons.

(more…)

Christ! Another Christmas in Australia.

Hello blog readers and Merry Christmas to you all.

Our apologies for the slow release of updates to our blog but life has been rather hectic of late. Bec’s job is still going at 200mph and I’m spending most of the week at the academy and only come home for weekends. Still, it isn’t for too much longer.

However, one thing Bec, Lucy and I have got is time off for Christmas. The only issue is how to spend it, especially Christmas Day. This year we decided to take advantage of the thirty degree heat and have a picnic in a quiet spot not far from a place called Airey’s Inlet just off the Great Ocean Road.

So off we went and by mid-morning we were setting up the picnic in some very quiet woodlands / bush and enjoying the serenity of a very peaceful brunch. With only the odd fly and magpie to add to the numbers the food disappeared relatively easily and without fuss.

After packing up and a quick toilet stop (some women seem to have bladders the size of a thimble) we made our way home via the Great Ocean Road in order to round off our Christmas brunch / lunch with a walk on the beach. An Australian custom we’re starting to get accustomed to. Blue sky, blue ocean and soft brown sand: not bad ingredients for Christmas Day.

So Merry Christmas everyone, we Cassons hope it’s as enjoyable as ours.

Stuff (That)

Hello again readers.

Although not having posted that long ago, it is time to post again to keep you abreast of some stuff we Cassons got up to during the school holidays.

Stuff: Lucy and myself decided to head off to Melbourne and visit the ACMI in Federation Square which was showing a selection of costumes from films through the ages. This was a great opportunity to get up-close-and-personal with material I’d only ever seen on the big and small screen, a very exciting prospect for a movie buff like myself.

Unfortunately, everywhere was busy because it was the school holidays but this was a small price to pay for such a great experience. Lucy and I decided to let the train take the strain and travelled effortlessly by rail to Melbourne, although our restraint was tested when we had to endure the parenting skills of a lady that would have problems raising garden weeds let alone two children. Still, it helped the slower part of the train journey pass a little quicker.

Our walk from the train station to Federation Square was a delight and took us, for the best part, along the river bank of the Yarra which, Melbourne being a cultural city, was festooned with public art. Upon arrival at Fed Square we were treated to an exhibition of sculptures depicting chunky, rotund characters in various poses. This captivated our imagination for a few minutes before we beat a path to the ACMI. Unfortunately, as great as the display of movie costumes was, we weren’t allowed to take any pictures. Lucy and I were very annoyed at this and couldn’t understand why this was. So we could not take pics of Tom Hanks WWII outfit from Saving Private Ryan, or Christopher Reeve’s original Superman costume, or Keanu Reeves’ guise from The Matrix, or Uma Thurman’s yellow outfit from the Kill Bill movies, or a set of wizard duds worn by Daniel Radcliffe in one of the Harry Potter movies, or Robert Deniro’s Frankenstein costume from the film of the same name. Plus many more.  Aaaaaaaaarrrrgggghhh! How infuriating. As a result of this photographic embargo it didn’t take Lucy and I very long to make our way around this marvellous array of movie memorabilia. Let’s hope our next destination wasn’t as Dickensian when it came to photography.

Our next port of call was Melbourne’s National Gallery just across the river from Federation Square. As the name suggests, this is a free-to-enter art gallery that also runs specialist displays that require an entry fee. We decided to save the latter (Monet’s garden) for another day and just do the free sections of the gallery. Strangely, given the delicate nature of some of the items on display, we were allowed to take photographs, of which we indulged quite copiously. Lucy and I gladly made our way around the three floors of exhibits that ranged from ancient Chinese artefacts to modern, specially-designed trainers / sneakers / footwear snapping shots of the unusual and unique. It was a brilliant experience and all the more memorable because we could digitally record whatever elements we liked.

Upon exiting the gallery we made our way back towards the train station, via an outlet of Nandos, to begin our journey home (minus a live display of poor parenting).

Beauty by the River Careful Madam, Kids About Cheeky Curves

Truly Captivating Which do you Prefer? OMG! I'm in Ikea!

More Stuff: A couple of days after our trip to Melbourne the Casson family (plus one of Lucy’s friends) decided to saunter off to Warrnambool to visit a whale sanctuary at Logans Beach. This destination is renowned for being a popular calving ground for Southern Right whales, with groups of them hanging around for three or four days at a time within yards of the shoreline. Logans Beach also has a purpose built viewing platform that offers unprecedented panoramas of the ocean, the coastline and any whales that happen to be nearby.

The drive to Warrnambool seemed longer in distance than journey time. By road it is some one-hundred-and-eighty kilometres from  Geelong, however it only took a little over two hours to get there; and not a dual-carriageway or motorway / highway to be seen. A lot of the time though driving in Australia is just that, driving. Very rarely do you meet great volumes of traffic outside of built up areas so all you’re left to contend with is just plain ol’ speed limit steering and a bit of slowing down when you pass through a town. Absolutely blissful.

A little after eleven in the morning we arrived at Logan’s Beach. As we made our way across the car park a wave of excitement flooded over me as the thought of seeing some whales started to become a reality. Make no mistake, seeing these monstrously sized creatures just a few metres from the beach is incredible. In many parts of the world tourists pay big sums of money to go out on charter boats to catch a glimpse of these magnificent creatures, and here we are in a part of the world that we can do this from land; and for nothing. Every year we make sure we go whale watching at least once. I doggedly scan the local media sources for sightings in order to coordinate a whale watching trip. Sometimes it requires a lengthy journey and sometimes it may only be fifteen minutes down the road. The whole Victorian coastline is a whale playground, and not just the Southern Right variety either. Humpbacks, Orcas / Killer whales and Blue whales migrate along the state’s shoreline over the course of the year. Australia’s oceans are truly mesmerising. Suffice to say the wave of anticipation and excitement that came over me wasn’t wasted. Greeting my optimism were five Southern Right whales (three adults and two calves) bobbing around in the water, sometimes as little as thirty metres from the shore. We watched them from the viewing platform and even walked parallel to them on the beach as they swam effortlessly up and down the coastline. Time easily slips by when engaged in an enthralling experience like whale watching and before we knew it nearly two hours had been added on to our timepieces and the moment had come where we had to go and do some hunting of a different kind: a good restaurant.

It didn’t take us long to find an eatery. It’s food was good and it’s ocean views were calming under the bright, sunny blue sky. Unfortunately this eatery also heralded in an end to our day in Warrnambool. Time, once again, had advanced significantly and heralded in our journey home, but it was glad hearts we left after having spent a few hours in the company of one of the planet’s most amazing creatures. So if you plan to visit us in Oz, late autumn and winter, although inclement, do have their rewards.

No, really, it is winter Thar she blows Yep, they get pretty close to the shoreline

Mother and calf having a play More playtime A sense of scale

Dirty Stuff: coming soon(ish).

If Memory Serves me Well

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WP_20130504_003Greetings readers.
As I pen this update I find myself in Melbourne enjoying a coffee and cheese and tomato toasty. Victoria’s capital city is a wondrous place full of little surprises. If it was a vegetable it would be an onion due to its many layers. Everytime I come up here I discover something new to investigate. Today though, I’m not in Melbourne for pleasure. Nah. I’m here for a skin fold test (just like it says on the tin) which is part of the application process for the Victorian Police force that I’m currently making my way through. Due to the inaccuracies of the BMI test putting me 0.5 over the maximum allowed for the police force I had to have the skin fold test to show that my score of 28 was due to muscle, and not fat. Thankfully the results confirmed this (as if there was ever any doubt) and I can now send off my medical booklet for the police medical officer to assess (everything else in the book went well too).
Strangely though, it was only a week ago I found myself in Melbourne for pleasurable reasons. I was here to watch my first ever rugby match (a boring sport if ever there was one). Now, being a soccer / football fan I’ve never been that intrigued by a load of rhino-sized men running at each other with a ball in their hands. It all seems very unnecessary to me, but not one to shy away from new experiences I decided to go and watch a Melbourne Storm game with a couple of friends. However, it was a new experience of a different kind that stuck in my mind long after the rugby match. What was it? Read on to find out.
Since the rugby match didn’t start until 5PM(ish) my day out didn’t start until 2PM(ish). This came in the form of a train ride to Melbourne (a bloody slow one too) followed by a short walk to a pub to begin our drinking campaign (I stuck to pale ales and didn’t get drunk, phew!). So, all good so far and nothing ultra-memorable to write about.
All that was about to change though since, after a short taxi ride, we arrived at a pub that, from the outside, looked a little bit, um, working-man like. After squeezing our way through the small, but packed, corridors the bar beckoned us over which we gladly did. I was first to the bar because it was my round but just as I got there my attention was dramatically drawn to a barmaid that was wearing nothing more than a skimpy pair of knickers. Nothing else was covered. For what must have seemed ages the barmaid awaiting my order stood patiently as I computed what was in front of me. I had never been in an establishment where nudity was promoted. All the barmaids I’ve ever been served by have always been fully clothed. Awkward. I managed to order some drinks and joined my friends for a chat. I tried not to stare at the semi-naked barmaid but it was difficult. Not from a lusty, bawdy, pervy point of view (although there were plenty of men like that in this pub, which was actually quite scary) but because I felt embarrassed for the barmaid. I wondered why she needed to have a job like this, or if she actually liked it. So many questions.
My quizzical trance was splintered by one of my friends asking me to put some money into a kitchen-like measuring jug that was already replete with cash of all denominations. I kindly obliged and THEN asked why. ‘For the stripper,’ came the reply. Bloody hell! What was this place my mates had brought me to? Obvious now. Yep. A strip pub / club. Sure enough, loud music began to blare out followed by some seedy cheering, and through the crowd of blokes came a lady in just her undies ready to earn her jug of money. Gulp!
For what seemed an eternity she writhed, twisted, slid, dragged, jiggled and bopped her way through her routine (which I made sure I wasn’t part of). Again, the real letchy members of the audience maneuvered themselves to get their money’s worth and, for the first time in my life, I was in the company of some unseemly adult behavior. Creepy behavior. The stuff you see in movies or read about. Again I was brimming with questions. I was more interested in interviewing the, by now, naked entertainer than watching her. It was uncomfortable viewing but she looked as if she was enjoying herself. Thankfully I got a tap on the shoulder to say we were leaving in order to make our way to the rugby match (something that had totally escaped my mind). Which I was glad to do. As we made our way out of the pub I noticed the eponymous jug being passed around again and just behind it was another entertainer. Entertainment? Nah!
The rest of the day was taken up by a rugby match, drinking, eating and travelling, but none of it sticks in my mind as much as the pub with the alternative entertainment; and I was right about rugby: just a load of rhinos charging around with a ball in their hands trying to run through human brick walls. Very tedious and devoid of skill. Why it’s popular is beyond me and I’m glad soccer / football is still the world’s game.
So, just like all cities, Melbourne IS full of surprises no matter what surprise you may be after. For me, I know my surprises lie else where. The first one of which is the display of Hollywood outfits at Melbourne’s moving arts exhibition. It’ll be nice to see something that focuses on clothes that are worn.
Bye for now blogsters.