If Mel was a shop this would be it...
I had only ever been to Melbourne twice before, neither of those visits were particularly exciting, so I was thrilled when Demon Nature arranged a weekend away to Melbourne.
The adventure began bright and early friday morning When Nancy and Naomi picked me up from my house at 6am. We piled into the car and set off in the f(l)og on the long drive to Melbourne. Despite only making 2 pit stops (one at maccas at Yass i think it was, and another at a rest stop to have a late lunch) it took us 12 hours to reach Melbourne thanks to a seemingly never ending stream of road works (We could WALK faster than this!)
Once we finally reached our apartment we met up with Nance and Nomi's friends Charlene and Janelle and their friend Alicia, then made our way to Misty's Diner for Dinner. We met up with Rache on the train and some more of nance and Nomi's friends were waiting for us att he diner (Chris, Nat, and their sister whose name escapes me at the moment, and Mel). I was a little bit concerned about dinner, I do not do well with meeting new people. I tend to be very quiet and find it very hard to think of anything to say. Fortunately everyone was very friendly so by the end of the night while i still felt a little out of place, I certainly didnt feel too awkward. Mistys itself was great. The decor was all 1950's ( I love a themed diner) and the food was all american diner food - LOADS of deep fried stuff lol! Sadly I wasn't feeling very hungry, so I just had some deep fried mushrooms (an entree) - they were delicious - and a Reeses Pieces think shake which was nothing short of amazing. I had intended to try some pumpkin pie for dessert but I was too full and I didnt want to eat just for the sake of it.
After dinner we sat around chatting, eventually leaving and getting back to the apartment by 12am. I had expected to fall straight to sleep, especially after having such a big day, but I was too wired so I lay in bed for ages before finally drifting off.
The following morning I woke up at 7:30am - uncharacteristically early for me - so I pottered about, showering and getting ready for the day while everyone slept soundly. Eventually everyone woke up and we got ourselves ready for the day ahead. At 10am we headed to a nearby cafe for what we hoped would be a lovely breakkie, sadly it was anything but! the service was non-existant, it took forever for us to receive our food (45 mins to toast a croissant....) and Nomi got something made with dairy, when she cant eat dairy! I had to pull out my "take no shit cranky customer" voice to make sure she was refunded the difference between what she originally paid for, and what she ended up eating.
By midday we went our separate ways, Charlene and Janelle did some sight seeing, Nance went to lunch with some old Melbourne friends, and Nomi and I headed to Brunswick street for some window shopping. Looking back on it this was the first time I have spent one-on-one time with Nomi and I'm really glad they we had such a good time; no awkward silences etc... It makes me really happy that I can truly call Nance and Nomi MY friends, not just Del's friends who i am friends with too. Anyway, back to the shopping, we hopped a tram to brunswick st and instantly found what is possibly the best shop in the world ever - Devil Kitty. This shop is full of pin-up, retro and alternative clothing, shoes and accessories. Not only was I in heaven (if only i'd had money to spend!) but Nomi fell in love with the shop too... "If Mel was a shop this would be it, and I would want to live in her!" We found plenty of other shops too and easily wasted a few hours window shopping and eating churros at san churros (yuuuum!)
By 4pm we decided to head back to meet Nance so we could get ready for our night out att he LuWow. After a little while spent primping and preening ourselves and taking many photos, we headed back out, just the 3 of us. The original plan was to go to the veggie bar first for dinner and then to the LuWow for our 6:30pm booking, but time got away from us so we headed straight to the LuWow.
From the first moment of stepping inside LuWow it was like being on a tropical island - bamboo everywhere, totem poles, tiki torches, stone idols - it was brilliant! we were shown to our reserved booth and were thrilled to discover the they served food until 8pm. We bought a pupu platter to share - it was the perfect amount of food and such delicious little morsels - rice paper rolls, satay sticks, spring rolls and other meat things that i dont know the name of, but loved how they tasted!
Once the food was out of the way we got into serious business - cocktails! My first round was a Red Tide, Nance had a LeiLuwow and Nomi had a Zombie. Not only were the cocktails delicious, they were fun! Nancy's cocktail came with 2 lei's, Nomi's had a rubber zombie finger puppet floating in the top, and mine had a little ceramic turtle at the bottom. Well this started all kinds of shenanigans, playing with out little mascots and excited to see if our next drinks would come with new little treasures. Oh, and to top it all off the drinks came garnished with cherries - so of course i had to try to tie the stem in a knot with my tongue (which I did... thank you very much!)
The second round saw me get a gruesome grog which had an eyeball floating in it, Nomi had the Shrunken Head which had a little red monster in it and Nance had a Lava flow and I think she got a hula dancer stirrer in it. Third round was a bikini bottom for me (possibly one of the nices drinks i've ever had) with a hula dancer, an easter island ice tea for nance which had a long tentacle in it, and a kato monkey for Nomi, I can't remember ifit had anything in it...
The night was great, with each cocktail we got a little sillier, but we didnt get off our faces, just tipsy enough. MANY photos were taken and lots of laughs were had. Eventaully we decided to leave (at around 11pm) and made a pit-stop at maccas for a late night snack before heading back to the apartment.
Sunday was our day to make the drive home, but we certainly werent going to leave as early as we did on friday! We had a late breakfast at Pancakes with Rache and Angela which was lovely. It was the first time i had tried eatign pancakes with savoury food (fried eggs) and it was delicious.Afterwards we did a bit of shopping at rubi shoes and a discount book shop then we hit the road.
Luckily there werent any road works on the way back so it only took 9 1/2 hours for the trip. Aside from a truck driver acting a damn fool and giving us a bit of a scare, the drive home was uneventful, the highlight being when we all took turns throwing an empty can of mother on the ground while having our photo taken - our little homage to Lonley Island's "Threw it on the ground" the low point of the drive home was after I had finished my driving stint, when I was sitting in the back I started thinking about all the things that have been making me unhappy lately and just couldnt stop thinking of them over and over and over.
All in all it was a great trip, the only thing that could have made it better is if Del had been able to come along too, but in saying that I had a brilliant time with Nancy and Nomi! yay for Demon Nature!
The adventure began bright and early friday morning When Nancy and Naomi picked me up from my house at 6am. We piled into the car and set off in the f(l)og on the long drive to Melbourne. Despite only making 2 pit stops (one at maccas at Yass i think it was, and another at a rest stop to have a late lunch) it took us 12 hours to reach Melbourne thanks to a seemingly never ending stream of road works (We could WALK faster than this!)
Once we finally reached our apartment we met up with Nance and Nomi's friends Charlene and Janelle and their friend Alicia, then made our way to Misty's Diner for Dinner. We met up with Rache on the train and some more of nance and Nomi's friends were waiting for us att he diner (Chris, Nat, and their sister whose name escapes me at the moment, and Mel). I was a little bit concerned about dinner, I do not do well with meeting new people. I tend to be very quiet and find it very hard to think of anything to say. Fortunately everyone was very friendly so by the end of the night while i still felt a little out of place, I certainly didnt feel too awkward. Mistys itself was great. The decor was all 1950's ( I love a themed diner) and the food was all american diner food - LOADS of deep fried stuff lol! Sadly I wasn't feeling very hungry, so I just had some deep fried mushrooms (an entree) - they were delicious - and a Reeses Pieces think shake which was nothing short of amazing. I had intended to try some pumpkin pie for dessert but I was too full and I didnt want to eat just for the sake of it.
After dinner we sat around chatting, eventually leaving and getting back to the apartment by 12am. I had expected to fall straight to sleep, especially after having such a big day, but I was too wired so I lay in bed for ages before finally drifting off.
The following morning I woke up at 7:30am - uncharacteristically early for me - so I pottered about, showering and getting ready for the day while everyone slept soundly. Eventually everyone woke up and we got ourselves ready for the day ahead. At 10am we headed to a nearby cafe for what we hoped would be a lovely breakkie, sadly it was anything but! the service was non-existant, it took forever for us to receive our food (45 mins to toast a croissant....) and Nomi got something made with dairy, when she cant eat dairy! I had to pull out my "take no shit cranky customer" voice to make sure she was refunded the difference between what she originally paid for, and what she ended up eating.
By midday we went our separate ways, Charlene and Janelle did some sight seeing, Nance went to lunch with some old Melbourne friends, and Nomi and I headed to Brunswick street for some window shopping. Looking back on it this was the first time I have spent one-on-one time with Nomi and I'm really glad they we had such a good time; no awkward silences etc... It makes me really happy that I can truly call Nance and Nomi MY friends, not just Del's friends who i am friends with too. Anyway, back to the shopping, we hopped a tram to brunswick st and instantly found what is possibly the best shop in the world ever - Devil Kitty. This shop is full of pin-up, retro and alternative clothing, shoes and accessories. Not only was I in heaven (if only i'd had money to spend!) but Nomi fell in love with the shop too... "If Mel was a shop this would be it, and I would want to live in her!" We found plenty of other shops too and easily wasted a few hours window shopping and eating churros at san churros (yuuuum!)
By 4pm we decided to head back to meet Nance so we could get ready for our night out att he LuWow. After a little while spent primping and preening ourselves and taking many photos, we headed back out, just the 3 of us. The original plan was to go to the veggie bar first for dinner and then to the LuWow for our 6:30pm booking, but time got away from us so we headed straight to the LuWow.
From the first moment of stepping inside LuWow it was like being on a tropical island - bamboo everywhere, totem poles, tiki torches, stone idols - it was brilliant! we were shown to our reserved booth and were thrilled to discover the they served food until 8pm. We bought a pupu platter to share - it was the perfect amount of food and such delicious little morsels - rice paper rolls, satay sticks, spring rolls and other meat things that i dont know the name of, but loved how they tasted!
Once the food was out of the way we got into serious business - cocktails! My first round was a Red Tide, Nance had a LeiLuwow and Nomi had a Zombie. Not only were the cocktails delicious, they were fun! Nancy's cocktail came with 2 lei's, Nomi's had a rubber zombie finger puppet floating in the top, and mine had a little ceramic turtle at the bottom. Well this started all kinds of shenanigans, playing with out little mascots and excited to see if our next drinks would come with new little treasures. Oh, and to top it all off the drinks came garnished with cherries - so of course i had to try to tie the stem in a knot with my tongue (which I did... thank you very much!)
The second round saw me get a gruesome grog which had an eyeball floating in it, Nomi had the Shrunken Head which had a little red monster in it and Nance had a Lava flow and I think she got a hula dancer stirrer in it. Third round was a bikini bottom for me (possibly one of the nices drinks i've ever had) with a hula dancer, an easter island ice tea for nance which had a long tentacle in it, and a kato monkey for Nomi, I can't remember ifit had anything in it...
The night was great, with each cocktail we got a little sillier, but we didnt get off our faces, just tipsy enough. MANY photos were taken and lots of laughs were had. Eventaully we decided to leave (at around 11pm) and made a pit-stop at maccas for a late night snack before heading back to the apartment.
Sunday was our day to make the drive home, but we certainly werent going to leave as early as we did on friday! We had a late breakfast at Pancakes with Rache and Angela which was lovely. It was the first time i had tried eatign pancakes with savoury food (fried eggs) and it was delicious.Afterwards we did a bit of shopping at rubi shoes and a discount book shop then we hit the road.
Luckily there werent any road works on the way back so it only took 9 1/2 hours for the trip. Aside from a truck driver acting a damn fool and giving us a bit of a scare, the drive home was uneventful, the highlight being when we all took turns throwing an empty can of mother on the ground while having our photo taken - our little homage to Lonley Island's "Threw it on the ground" the low point of the drive home was after I had finished my driving stint, when I was sitting in the back I started thinking about all the things that have been making me unhappy lately and just couldnt stop thinking of them over and over and over.
All in all it was a great trip, the only thing that could have made it better is if Del had been able to come along too, but in saying that I had a brilliant time with Nancy and Nomi! yay for Demon Nature!