00Snitch in Melbourne : Day 4, Last Day (nc,tldr)

[00Snitch]

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day four

Joel leaves for work at 8:30am, nothing unusual about this – EXCEPT IT’S SATURDAY! He says he has a couple of hours to put in, then suggests we go on a good old fashioned man date. 28 Weeks Later has just been released and we are both big fans of the original, so lunch and movies it is.

I’m out and about, doing the wander, Joel gives me a call around 11:30am, finished work. We’ve got some time to kill, so we go get some pancakes for brunch. Blue-berry pancakes with butter-scotch butter. I ponder why butter-scotch isn’t made from scotch or isn’t even scotch flavoured. The pancakes were fine without being great. They weren’t really pancakes, rather more like a flat muffin. I’m pretty sure they were baked instead of fried, but still good.

We’ve still got some time to kill, being a sucker for punishment, I suggest a Street Fighter rematch. Joel eagerly accepts. We sit on a slightly newer version of the game and the timings are a little different, while Joel is adjusting, I take the first match. I then lose the next 9 to keep my 1-10 for-against ratio solidly intact.

Not long after, we are at the movie candy bar. I order a frozen coke the size of a wheelie bin, it was only 50c extra than the one the size of a beer keg. Fortunately, Joel has been working out and he can lift it.

We take a seat and I get a call, its only the previews, so I head out, take the call, come back in, sit down. There is a trailer on for some “feel good romantic comedy of the year” with Katherine Heigel(sp?) and some fat slob. I make a comment to Joel about how hot Katherine Heigel is. Joel sort of recoils away from me, and I think he might be gay. It’s then I realise the person I am talking to is in fact not Joel and Joel is a row back almost rofling.

Quick non-spoiler review:
Absolutely loved the movie. I’m a sucker for horror/gore/zombie movies and this one did not fail to disappoint. It combined the jump out of your seat stuff from Texas Chainsaw Massacre with the gruesomeness of Hostel. It gives you that uncomfortable feeling you get from watching The Hills Have Eyes but adds in more violence and gore. Fantastic.

Spoiler review in white:
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I thought it was very lame how they dad gets infected then stalks the kids. HE IS AN EFFING ZOMBIE! THEY DON’T DO THAT!

I like the final scene where the infected are busting into Paris. Leaves you with a really cool “Oh my God! How will they ever stop this thing!?” feeling. You start to sympathise with the army commander who called in the “code red” to clean the place out and you start hating the “good guys” who saved the kids.

Can’t wait for the third one. I’m hoping that it is going to have an Australian influence as the virus sweeps through Europe.
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There are a few hours between the movie and my flight. There’s a game (AFL) on and I suggest we go find a pub, find a beer and watch the game. We stop in at the first pub-looking place we come across.

Looks can be deceiving in Melbourne and this pub-looking place is a bit more like a restaurant, there’s a bar but no TV so we head out. On the way out we spy a staircase and figure “what the hell”. First floor up we find a book shop. Somehow, the first book Joel spots on the shelf is titled something like “The Big Book of Breasts” and is (un-surprisingly) a photographic history of boobies.

Next floor up is some uber-trendoid little street-clothing shop and we quickly move on. Next floor is a night club that is closed. Next floor Joel asserts: “I’m taking the lift down”. Next floor looks like some kind of office. Then the stairs stop. We are just about ready to give up the adventure when Joel spots an external stair case. Not coming this far for nothing, we take the stairs to the roof.

It seems we weren’t the first to undertake this journey. On the roof, there is a bar, some fake grass with deck chairs, a projector and a movie screen. Apparently they have open air movies up here. I decide that a beer and a cigarette will be the most suitable way to celebrate our victory over the stairs. Bitburger seems like the best choice on tap. I pity the person that has to drag the kegs up the stairs.

Three beers later, some lady walks up the stairs carrying a broom handle length stick with an orange circle on the top. Nothing surprises me anymore, so I go back to my beer. A few minute later some guy walks up the stairs carrying a massive (massive is probably 5’ tall) orange letter “a”. Calling on my supreme powers of deduction, I decide the orange circle is the dot of an “i”. Before you say it, “i” is a much more common letter than “j” of course. Following them is a big orange letter “s”.

I turn to Joel and ask “What word has an “i”, “a” and “s” in it”?. “AIDS” he responds. That’s an acronym Joel. An arts student looking guy comes and sets a camera up on a tripod beside us. Joel asks “What are you shooting”? The response is, “I dunno, I’m following some crazy fukcing Italian guys around with big orange letters”. As if on queue, some crazy fukcing Italian guys come up the stairs carrying an “o” an an “l”, the stem of an “i” and yelling “isola”. That was going to be my guess after “AIDS”.

The story goes that they are from some art gallery in Italy where they took some famous picture on at a roof-top bar in Italy, with this “isola” sign. They have come to Melbourne to recreate the scene. Joel and I grab a beer and get in the picture. I like the idea that one day I might be hanging on a wall in an art gallery somewhere. Oh, apparently “isola” means “island”. We buy the crazy fukcing Italians a beer and take the lift to the ground floor.

I get the feeling that Joel is cheating on me, he keeps getting these phone calls from “Jo” and moves out of ear-shot to take them. When we get back to his place, I confront him.

Me: “Who’s “Jo” then?”

Joel: “What? Huh? No. No one.”

Me: “Oh sure! That’s what you said last time!”

Joel: “Wait! Let me explain!”

Me: “It’s too late for explanations! I feel so cheap”.

We share a long, lingering moment, dreaming of what may have been.

Handing back Joel’s keys is like the weight of the world off my shoulders. They are his only set and I have been paranoid about losing them or locking them in all week. As I leave, my spidey sense tells me I must hurry, so I forgo the chance to stop at KrispyKreme, which we don’t have in Brisbane, and I pick up the pace.

My spidey sense is right on the money. About 100m out from the bus, I spot the last passengers boarding and I hit the gas. It’s like the scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark as I dive through the closing bus doors, reaching back I grab my hat, then I’m safe.

I settle in on a seat for the start of the journey home. The familiar “da-da-da-doo-doo-da-da-da” sounds on my phone and I have a message. Its from Joel: “Fukc! I just locked my self out”. “Maybe you can sleep at Jo’s place tonight!” I reply.

[00Snitch]

Thanks to everyone who read these and liked them. I wouldn't have keept going without the encouragement. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

bravos, fritos, train, ab, tyler, eskimo. everyone i forgot. and all the aussies that popped out of the woodwork.

[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

[BigBadBabar]

snitch &gt; the world
keep on shippin sir

[00Snitch]

[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] u2 bbb

[fretelöo]

Go work for Lonely Planet! [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

[00Snitch]

[ QUOTE ]
Go work for Lonely Planet! [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

does anyone not agree that working for a travel show/mag would be the sweetest job eva?

[ESKiMO-SiCKNE5S]

another awesome tr....

[00Snitch]

ty again eskimo

[Jago]

[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

[tyler_cracker]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Go work for Lonely Planet! [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

does anyone not agree that working for a travel show/mag would be the sweetest job eva?

[/ QUOTE ]

your setnence structure is confusing, but i think the correct answer is no, i don't not agree.

i am fascinated by this Australian (Melbournian?) concept of multi-story buildings with different random things on each floor. are there signs on the buildings indicating what lurks inside, or do you just have to know (or guess, or go exploring)? i have never heard of anything like this in any of my travels.