Le tour de Dance.
Alright, so here's the recap.
The tour went really well! Great shows, kicked arse in ticket sales, everyone was happy wit' my skillz. Yaaaay for that. :)
Chronology!
The daytime leg of Brisbane to Sydney is pretty good, lots of sitting in a minibus. We stop at the legendary Big Banana place thing landmark. I gots me a choc coated frozen banana, and it was good. The big banana itself is remarkably lame, and not really that big. A coffee was purchased, but it was like no ordinary coffee; it was a Banana Coffee. This amounts to a regular passe shitty coffee, with some banana flavoring added. Upon discussion after we had sampled the beverage, it was suggested there may also be elements of arse, day old balls, and minor infection in this 'banana extract'.
I take over driving as night falls, and all is going well until we're detoured off the main highway by some police dude with their fancy pointy light things and signs. It ends up being a HELLACIOUS 45min detour through really narrow streets, mountains, no street lights, tight turns, bad roads, and the clincher; UNMARKED WOODEN BRIDGES. It was surreal, and upon reflection it would make an excellent slasher B grade flick... A troupe of burlesque dances on tour end up lost in the woods outside a tiny country town at night. No foolin'!
So we hit Sydney eventually, find our place and snooze, after several drinks. Everyone else has an instore to appear at on show morning, so I sleep in. Have a quick dash thru some parts of Sydney, then head back in time to load in at the venue. The show goes really, really well, everyone looked great and got a great response. And golly heck, man was the card girl a.t.t.r.a.c.t.i.v.e! Show over, we pack up and head out to Kings Cross for party-ing.
I've never been to Sydney before, let alone Kings Cross, so this was all new to me. But in my brief observation I learned much. Sydney, as a whole, seems to be gaga for cocaine. Prostitutes seem to just love the place too, and in massive numbers. And this was on a Thursday night! I encountered a fun puzzle too. A friend of Lolas' somehow got her purse strap fantastically intertwined with the special one-off designer dress she was wearing. I managed to help untangle the situation, but it could have easily rivaled Rubics' Cube for its level of complexity.
Early, early start next morning. Hello sleep deprivation! This time we hit the road to Melbourne. I try to snooze or nap most of the day in transit. Take over driving again after dusk, and many hours later we're in Melbourne. We soon discover than Melbourne is some sort of bizarro world where streets can have the same number more than once. They also have trams and hook turns, yet surprisingly nice drivers. We soon see the twisted logic of how Melbournites number their streets, and arrive at our place of sleeping. Once unpacked we head out for a drink or three at a lovely bar. It's worth mentioning that as we were driving in, everyone was saying how Melbourne people seem to be more attractive, and indeed it did appear so.
Day of show, not an early start but my body wakes me anyway. Sleep deprivation 1, Andrew 0. We head to the venue, setup and load in. Again a great show, great reception and I believe they sold the place out? Good way to finish a tour. Load out, and navigate our way to drop off some folks, then eventually home. Out we head to the same lovely bar, and several more drinks. We move on to some other place in the centre of Melbourne as some dude trys to impress our little posse with his really bad death metal band recording. We enter a taxi, and are simultaneously amazed and nauseated as one of the locals we met, who'd implored us to come to said hip joint in the city, starts accusing the cabbie of being an illegal immigrant, and generally being uneasy with the ethnicity of cab drivers. Wow. Seriously. So we get inside this place, and it's crowded and shitty as one might expect. Drinks are had, then we leave and head home.
We got the Sunday off, and a good thing too as UFC 76 is on @ 12pm! Sleep deprivation wakes me up early again. I get a taxi into the city, and try for an hour and a half to find a place showing it. To no avail. I wander around, morose at not being able to see my desired MMA programme. I see some pretty cool shirts, none in my size tho. Curses! Melbourne does seem a pretty rad place, it seems to be what the Valley here in Brisbane aspires to. And rightfully so, might I add.
Sunday night = thai food at a local place, and it was pretty impressive. Most impressive was this menu item -->
.
EARLY monday morning for the drive back to Bris. I assist in navigation out of Melbz, then when we're on the highway I try to sleep the hell out of, err, myself? Anyhoo, I take over round night again and we head into Dubbo for our overnighter. After the hostels we were in, the 2 1/2 star luxury of the motel had us starstruck! We gets some pizza, we gets some beer, and we gets some sleep.
EARLY tuesday morning and I wake up feeling pretty fucking fantastic! My first propper, decent sleep in about 5 days! We head out of Dubbo, and make for the boarder. I'm actually feeling semi normal for the first time in days at this point, thanks to totally kicking arse at sleeping. On one of the rest breaks, we spy a sign that alludes to our location...
Not much happens in this shire...
So we truck on and I take the wheel as we head back toward Brisvegas, but not before I spy something else in a truckstop mens' room on a rest break -->
.
The product name itself is funny enough, sure, but the fact someone has gone to the trouble to scratch out the 'p' and 'ion' really makes this something special.
(All in all this was one of the best things I've ever done, it was exactly what I needed. It was also personally pretty difficult, but I got through it. Everyone who I needed to be fantastic and easy to work with was exactly that, and some were even spectacular and incredible.)
The tour went really well! Great shows, kicked arse in ticket sales, everyone was happy wit' my skillz. Yaaaay for that. :)
Chronology!
The daytime leg of Brisbane to Sydney is pretty good, lots of sitting in a minibus. We stop at the legendary Big Banana place thing landmark. I gots me a choc coated frozen banana, and it was good. The big banana itself is remarkably lame, and not really that big. A coffee was purchased, but it was like no ordinary coffee; it was a Banana Coffee. This amounts to a regular passe shitty coffee, with some banana flavoring added. Upon discussion after we had sampled the beverage, it was suggested there may also be elements of arse, day old balls, and minor infection in this 'banana extract'.
I take over driving as night falls, and all is going well until we're detoured off the main highway by some police dude with their fancy pointy light things and signs. It ends up being a HELLACIOUS 45min detour through really narrow streets, mountains, no street lights, tight turns, bad roads, and the clincher; UNMARKED WOODEN BRIDGES. It was surreal, and upon reflection it would make an excellent slasher B grade flick... A troupe of burlesque dances on tour end up lost in the woods outside a tiny country town at night. No foolin'!
So we hit Sydney eventually, find our place and snooze, after several drinks. Everyone else has an instore to appear at on show morning, so I sleep in. Have a quick dash thru some parts of Sydney, then head back in time to load in at the venue. The show goes really, really well, everyone looked great and got a great response. And golly heck, man was the card girl a.t.t.r.a.c.t.i.v.e! Show over, we pack up and head out to Kings Cross for party-ing.
I've never been to Sydney before, let alone Kings Cross, so this was all new to me. But in my brief observation I learned much. Sydney, as a whole, seems to be gaga for cocaine. Prostitutes seem to just love the place too, and in massive numbers. And this was on a Thursday night! I encountered a fun puzzle too. A friend of Lolas' somehow got her purse strap fantastically intertwined with the special one-off designer dress she was wearing. I managed to help untangle the situation, but it could have easily rivaled Rubics' Cube for its level of complexity.
Early, early start next morning. Hello sleep deprivation! This time we hit the road to Melbourne. I try to snooze or nap most of the day in transit. Take over driving again after dusk, and many hours later we're in Melbourne. We soon discover than Melbourne is some sort of bizarro world where streets can have the same number more than once. They also have trams and hook turns, yet surprisingly nice drivers. We soon see the twisted logic of how Melbournites number their streets, and arrive at our place of sleeping. Once unpacked we head out for a drink or three at a lovely bar. It's worth mentioning that as we were driving in, everyone was saying how Melbourne people seem to be more attractive, and indeed it did appear so.
Day of show, not an early start but my body wakes me anyway. Sleep deprivation 1, Andrew 0. We head to the venue, setup and load in. Again a great show, great reception and I believe they sold the place out? Good way to finish a tour. Load out, and navigate our way to drop off some folks, then eventually home. Out we head to the same lovely bar, and several more drinks. We move on to some other place in the centre of Melbourne as some dude trys to impress our little posse with his really bad death metal band recording. We enter a taxi, and are simultaneously amazed and nauseated as one of the locals we met, who'd implored us to come to said hip joint in the city, starts accusing the cabbie of being an illegal immigrant, and generally being uneasy with the ethnicity of cab drivers. Wow. Seriously. So we get inside this place, and it's crowded and shitty as one might expect. Drinks are had, then we leave and head home.
We got the Sunday off, and a good thing too as UFC 76 is on @ 12pm! Sleep deprivation wakes me up early again. I get a taxi into the city, and try for an hour and a half to find a place showing it. To no avail. I wander around, morose at not being able to see my desired MMA programme. I see some pretty cool shirts, none in my size tho. Curses! Melbourne does seem a pretty rad place, it seems to be what the Valley here in Brisbane aspires to. And rightfully so, might I add.
Sunday night = thai food at a local place, and it was pretty impressive. Most impressive was this menu item -->
.
EARLY monday morning for the drive back to Bris. I assist in navigation out of Melbz, then when we're on the highway I try to sleep the hell out of, err, myself? Anyhoo, I take over round night again and we head into Dubbo for our overnighter. After the hostels we were in, the 2 1/2 star luxury of the motel had us starstruck! We gets some pizza, we gets some beer, and we gets some sleep.
EARLY tuesday morning and I wake up feeling pretty fucking fantastic! My first propper, decent sleep in about 5 days! We head out of Dubbo, and make for the boarder. I'm actually feeling semi normal for the first time in days at this point, thanks to totally kicking arse at sleeping. On one of the rest breaks, we spy a sign that alludes to our location...
Not much happens in this shire...
So we truck on and I take the wheel as we head back toward Brisvegas, but not before I spy something else in a truckstop mens' room on a rest break -->
.
The product name itself is funny enough, sure, but the fact someone has gone to the trouble to scratch out the 'p' and 'ion' really makes this something special.
(All in all this was one of the best things I've ever done, it was exactly what I needed. It was also personally pretty difficult, but I got through it. Everyone who I needed to be fantastic and easy to work with was exactly that, and some were even spectacular and incredible.)