Friday night after work. I stayed back for a few beverages and was having a pretty good chinwag with the guys. One of the guys who was knocking back some i used to work with at Salesforce four years ago. So we started a'talkin bout the old days and a name came up the i haven't heard in a long time, Clifford Barnes. Now seen that its been 4 years since i left i think enough time has gone by to open up the wider world the myth that is Cliffy. Now Cliff had only three loves in his life..his muscles...his car and his fascinastion for Asian women. Cliffy was a happy go luck sort of guy who from memory would only talk about his body..his car or his fascination for Asian women.
Cliffy earlier this yearNow being a St. Albans boy (i'm not taking the pisstake` of out St. Albanites) Cliff's intelligence was channeled into the three areas above at an expense to other areas. For example..one day after getting back his prized VL Commodore with added extras he decided to show it off to the rest of the gang so we all logged off the phones and went outside the front of work. Cliff revs the engine and manages to fishy the back end out of the VL and basically missing everyone on the kerb by half a metre. People were diving everywhere to avoid Cliffy who by the time most of us looked around was already half way up the street turbo roaring away. Cliffy also misunderstood the concept of "single use only" condoms while on holiday in Thailand a few years ago. He thought single use meant you use it one one chick as many times as you want. So when the condom broke after the third time and came running out of the hotel bathroom pants around his ankles after picking up a Thai hooker earlier that night, the sheer fright on his face masked the fact he had no idea what "single use only" really meant. Well that's enough about Cliffy. Nice bloke though, a genuine laugh.
Later that night i was out to a local club called "The Cubby House" which used to be "The Baby Grand" which used to be the local over 28's venue. It still is but i was told that the band there on friday nights plays the best 80's music ever. Now as you all know, i love 80's music and in the two months i have been home the mentionings of "you should go to Cubby" have been numerous so i decided to find out for myself. i ventured down with Adam (who i used to work with at Safeway), Michael and his new squeeze Beth. So as usual i introduced myself to Beth in a subtle way by carrying 4 Pure Blonde Beers and 2 Cougar Bourbon and Colas in a little bucket and being sidetracked by Michaels DVD rental of Sylvester Stallones "Over the Top" playing on his TV.
We ventured down to "da Cubby" to be met by a wall of over 28's sprinkled with a few under 28's whose appreciation for classics such as "Hungry like the Wolf" or "Don't you want me Baby" would be rewarded during the night. Quite honestly it was the greatest live set of 80's music since Sab and i ventured to Rod Laver Arena a few years ago to see Kim Wilde, Mondo Rock, 1927, Human League and Belinda Carlisle play live. I was going off and just stoked at the classics the band was belting out after each other. I was working beautifully on the dance floor (well i was just trying not to get my drink knocked over or spiked so i was doing a sort of stationary Tony Barber at the start of Sale of the Century dance) and we all had a great night. Before i knew it it was 2am and time to go home. I think i'm back there tonight and i'm taking Sab there next week. She'll love it.
Saturday was pretty mundane. i was going to wash the car but everytime i went past the car wash it was busy. I decided to go to JB Hi-Fi and do some browsing and came across a Steve McQueen movie for $12 so i bought it and watched it. Saturday night was my cousin Leah\'s engagment party which was held on the other side of town. For those of you who dont live in Melbourne that means travelling from one end point of the Milky Way to the other. It was a lovely night and i caught up with some of the extended family who i hadn't seen since i got back. My little second cousins Robbie and Mikhala have grown up sooo much as have my first cousins Stephanie and Courtney. I\'m very very lucky to have such a fantastic family and we all get along so well. Later in the night i got a msg from Sab from the U2 concert but all i could hear was noise still i was curious about U2 from that moment.
My Melbourne Print i picked up at a City Market
Sunday morning i was in bed when dad came into my room saying "C'mon get out of bed it's a beautiful day out there!" i felt like saying something along the lines of "F*ck Off" and quickly thought back to similar yet rare days in Hong Kong where if i wanted to get out of bed at 1 in the afternoon i would. Ahh the joys of being at home. I was meeting Sab in the city for lunch and a stroll around town for another chance to bitch about being in Melbourne but it really was a pleasant day. We had lunch on the river and the city was looking fantastic. The Arts Centre has a Sunday market and i purchased a lovely print of Melbourne to go with the other things i've picked up around the world. I needed something to remind me of how nice Melbourne is and this print was just the ticket. Later on we ventured down to the Exhibition Centre to see the "Melbourne 50 Years On" exhibition. It was celebrating 50 years since the Melbourne Olympics and what i thought would be a chance to really see how our city has changed was just a flimsy excuse for companies to flog their goods under the banner of "we are part of Melbourne." What i thought would be filled with photos, clothes and a real sence of nostalgia was in fact a chance for Jayco caravans to advertise their newest creation. We were very dissapointed.Sab told me that the U2 concert was mind-blowing and she had to go past the Telstra Dome to say hi to the people she went to the concert with. She went with two guys who she met through our friend Kate on a music website called lastfm. It's a long story but she promised she would see them so i thought "fine i need the walk." As we got to the Dome i was curious to see if there were tickets left. I had heard both shows were sold out but you never know and i have always wanted to see U2 and i thought "this is my best chance" so i said to Sab "do you wanna go to U2 tonight?" After a little time we decieded to go and boy was it worth it. It was the greatest live experience i have ever seen. The band was just awesome and the light show was mind-blowing. Sure i didn't know all their songs but i didn't care as man..they were just sooo good. Bono weaved his way through songs, statements and monolouges and even though we were 200 meters away, the concert had the intimacy of a pub gig..well with 60,000 people at the pub. Telstra Dome was shaking and the crowd was deafning i'm gettnig chills as i'm writing this. it certainly was one of the best snap decisions in my life ever.
Bono just being Bono
Monday morning i was feeling well below my best. I had picked up a cold as it was an open air gig at the Dome and i didn't take a top and my voice was very rusty from belting out 'Vertigo" "Angel of Harlem" and various other U2 hits. In fact Monday to Wednesday was the same; still recovering from the weekend. i was infomed Wednesday that my James Bond pack that i had won off the radio had arrived. So on morning break i powered walked two streets down Kings Way to 3AW and picked up my movies. They weren't in any special box but i do have an old sort of cool 20 disc DVD holder which are now my new home of James Bond films. Wednesday night and last night i watched the first movie "Dr. No" and the difference is amazing. It looks like a movie that was filmed today but set over 40 years ago. On the DVD they talked abuot how the process take 100 hours to scan one hour of film. Multiply that by 20 films that run on average just over two hours and it really was a massive restoration effort.So that's been my week. Work has been pretty busy and i've had some ripper curly wurly situations come up and had no idea what to do. Lucky for me everyone is very helpful here and paitient with all my questions. On wednesday i found out that someone else i used to work with at Salesforce's (hi Katie by the way!) ex colleague started here last week. It's a very small world.
Last night i had the strangest dream. Sab and I were in a cab in Taipei (yeah i know) and we were driving past Taipei 101. I looked out the window and there was a small fire coming from the observation deck. I thought "holy shiite! we were there two months ago" as we drove away the fire got bigger and bigger, more parts of the building started to burn as we saw people falling to their deaths sept-11 esque. We stopped about 20 kms away where we got a view of the full building and the whole tower was on fire, i've never seen a fire like it in my life. 500 meters of vertical fire and sirens and screaming going off everywhere.