Another Step Towards Alcoholism

I’ve been eating spaghetti all week – breakfast, lunch and dinner. Well, not really breakfast, I usually have a cup of Milo (malt drink) for breakfast. I do miss my rice cooker, but surprisingly, I haven’t been craving rice all that much. I left work early today to go evidence my work visa. Basically, I needed to get a work visa sticker put into my passport. I received my approval letter via email and printed it out. Then I took the train back into the city to pick up my passport and walked over to the immigration office. The wait wasn’t too bad, about 15 minutes or so. It took about 3 minutes to get my visa sticker put in my passport. I decided to work from the nearby office the rest of the afternoon. Of course, I couldn’t do much since I do not have VPN set up on my laptop.  That was pretty extra ordinary, if you asked me.

Pac Mondrian

Kevin met me around 7 in the city and we took the tram to Glitch bar in N. Fitzroy. Neil found himself a venue to perform his one man show – Pac Mondrian. This bar is quite a ways from the city, maybe half an hour tram ride. Besides the bar, there wasn’t much else around that I could see. I did stopped by a shop to snack on fish ‘n chips. Mary Beth arrived 2 rum and cokes later around 930pm. Neil got into his costume and started the show at 10pm. It was a combination of a piece of art with Pac man. He had music and video in the background while he recited a piece he had written about sex, drugs, and video games. In between, he would dance to the techno music. One of the few lines I remembered from the show was, “Come play with my stick, I’ll be your slut…” It was an interesting performance that lasted about 12 minutes. It’s hard to describe so I won’t try anymore. I watched most of it through a camera since I was taping part of his show for his viewing pleasure. Besides my colleagues, there were about 5 other people that were in the audience.

After the show, we went back to drop Neil’s costume at the apartment and checked out the places below:

Robot – A bar with Japanese décor, a cartoonish pop culture landscape of minimalist red couches, low lights, toys and old maps. There’s Asahi beer on tap plus Sapporo and Kirin beer and 10 types of sake all served hot or cold in traditional tokkuri flasks. Thai and Filipino beer was also stocked.

[Unfortunately, they were out of Asahi beer. I tried a milky sake and didn’t like it as much as the clear ones. We chatted with a couple of Sheila’s sitting next to us and they said that they like Canadian men much better than Aussie men. Kevin and Neil were pleased to hear that. It’s just too bad for them that their boyfriends were sitting at the bar.]

Phoenix – Fully equipped with conversation pit, dance floor, front bar and two upstairs rooms, Phoenix feels faintly 1970’s though the furniture is new and comfortable and the attitude modern. Drinks are affordable, service is excellent and the terrific bar food (including fries served in glazed vases) goes all night.

[This place probably had the cheapest beer so far, $4 for a pint. Which, by the way, is much smaller than an American pint.]

Ding Dong – Rock ‘n Roll bar, from the beer taps shaped like guitar necks to the eclectic roster of live gigs and classic disc on high rotation. Big comfy booths line the walls, a big table takes prime position in the center of the room, but there’s still plenty of space to rock on.

[We got here about an hour before it closed, so there weren’t too many people left. It was a big place with plenty of places to sit and huge dance floor. The people in there were grungy and what Kevin called “Emu.” I think that is equivalent to an American Emo.]

Melbourne Supper Club – Whether your idea of a great night is watching the sun set or seeing it rise, there’s no nicer place to do it. This oh-so-civilized aerie is a venue we keep returning to – for the book-length wine list, the great cigars, terrific cocktails and excellent supper menu, whether you’re in the mood for rice-paper rolls or sausage rolls.

[This place was difficult to find since it didn’t have a name nor an address on the outside. We were walking up and down the street until we finally saw a couple going up a few steps and opening a door. They did have delicious party pizza – which looked like mini meat pies filled with meat and gravy.]

Neil kept ordering Jameson (whisky) so we hung out at the supper club for a while. Finally got home at 5 am and went to bed.