AHBL2 - Melbourne
I won't remember everything in great detail, because there was simply too much of it this time. But I'll try.
Breakfast
We got up at 3:45am and checked out a little after 4:30. Made it to the train station at about 5am and caught the first train to the airport. At some point we realised that Rob had tweeted the night before about needing to bring his band down here for a tour, and we planned to hold him to that. The train came early, and we were on our way.
Met bindaroonie at the airport, but she was seated up front with the classy people while we were down back :P We didn't even see her again once we were on the plane, but Binda - was that you whose suitcase fell out of the overhead locker?? Cos we saw that!
Gave entropy_maximum (Jess) a call as we waited forever for our luggage. As soon as it came we grabbed and ran for the taxi rank. Headed straight to Jess's hotel to drop off our luggage and pick her and spacemonkey_699 (Carina) up. Then we headed straight for the breakfast function and left them in the taxi.
When we got there I recognised a Hub lady from Perth and asked her where we had to go (she was talking to Jim at the time, just standing in the lobby of the hotel). She said to wait on some couches with some other fans. When we got over there a Hub girl came over and was asking for names, and a girl on the floor said 'Amy' and she asked 'Aimi Messenger?' and I piped up 'that's me!' After everyone got sorted, she left and Jim came over to chat for what seemed like ages before Sam (Ferris) came down as well. About then we headed into the room where the table was, and we immediately noticed it was significantly smaller than the one in Sydney - less than half the size, in fact. There turned out to be only 12 people there!
We went in to get food first, and Misha/Rob/Julie showed up while we did. I headed back to the room first and realised that Jim had put his Dr Pepper that someone had given him down at the chair next to mine. SCORE! I was hoping to sit next to him for... an important reason. When we finally all got seated we had Jim next to me (on the end of the table) and Sam two people down from Ruby. We got into small talk with Jim for a while before it started getting awkwardly quiet, so I asked him if he'd like to call my mum for mother's day. He asked what her name was and I told him, and off he went. His side of the conversation went something like...
"Hello. Happy Mother's Day Vicki. ... My name is Jim Beaver. ... *grins* *laugh* Well of course I'm your favourite character! So what are you doing for mother's day, seeing as your daughter is over here having fun? Oh," *turns to me* "she says you're going to make it up to her when you get back." I told him I thought I already was, and I don't remember much else. Dangit. When he gave the phone back I told her where her present was and she asked "how did you get him to do that?!" and I said well, he's sitting next to me eating breakfast... which got a laugh from him.
Side note; Jim had two poached eggs. He'd never had poached eggs before. He said it just looked like a normal egg that had exploded. After he'd had one I asked what they were like and he said it was pretty much like a normal egg but with all the flavour drained out of it. Yuck.
I'm not sure where (maybe before the phone call) but Jim asked if we'd been in Sydney because he recognised us. I said yeah, I was the one whose uncle was George Lazenby. He asked if I was serious about that, and I said yeah - he was my granny's brother in law, married in, kinda thing. And we talked about him for a bit (as if Jim was trying to make up for it) he said it was a bit like getting an unknown to play Indiana Jones, he was thrust into it. I said I hadn't even seen the movie until last year sometime, and the only other movie I'd seen him in was an Italian one on SBS one night.
Somewhere here it went awkwardly quiet again (Misha was up the other end, so obviously that's where all the action was) so I asked if he'd mind talking to a friend who couldn't come. This is when he got talking to triptnx (who I think we woke up?). He basically berated her for not being there and said "so where are you, Perth? That's not that far. If you start driving, how long before you can be here?" (probably not those exact words, but along those lines). At some point he called her 'idjit'. Maybe when she first answered. "How are ya, idjit?" While he was on the phone the Perth Hub lady came over and asked for that to be the last phone call, which I didn't care because I only wanted to make the two. But then when he got off the phone it was time to play actor's musical chairs (woohoo!). And guess who we got? ROB. Sweeet. But as it turned out, there were two spare chairs on the other side of the table from where Ru and I were, and Misha planted himself there. And somehow instead of being two chairs down like Sam had, Julie sat right next to Ruby. So the two of us were basically boxed in by the three of them. Oh yes, it was AWESOME.
Now lets see what I can remember... When Rob sat down Jim had left his plate there and vice versa. So Jim looks up and asks "Hey Rob, you done?" "Yeah sure man... you?" and Ruby randomly starts piling the plates up out of the way for them. Rob asked if we'd flown in last night and we said that morning. Then in no particular order because I can't really remember...
We said something about definitely bringing the band down. He asked where the other main cities were (which made it click that hey, he was actually serious) and we told him where Brisbane and Adelaide were - we'd told him about Perth the day before. And somehow through this we got onto how easy it is to pick up hitchikers and murder them. We talked about the movie Wolf Creek (which he hadn't seen) and he asked if it was gory. I asked if he'd seen Hostel - which he had - and said it was kind of like that. "Oh that's gory!" And then we talked about how lame the Saw movies were getting because they were up to about #7? He mentioned the new Friday the 13th coming out and I said "Jared's movie?" "Oh wait, no. Uh..." Ruby says "Nightmare on Elm Street?" "Yeah that one!" "Katie Cassidy's movie?" So we basically talked horror movies for a while.
I mentioned Ivan Milat and Peter Falconio, and how the Milat thing was just out of Sydney. His eyes generally got wider and wider at this point. We basically explained how - because Australia is so open and there's not much in the way of civilisation between towns - it's just easier to kidnap and dump bodies without people finding them, so a lot of people go missing. And he's like "all the time?! Just for no reason?" and I explained how it probably doesn't happen more than in America, it's just easier to get away with here.
We got onto driving around Australia and how the kangaroos and emus just jump out in front of your car. He didn't know what an emu was. This was the point where Misha chimed in, because he didn't know either. I basically tried to explain that they were like an ostrich but in stead of black and white, they were brown (I think I told Misha they were like a "bush with legs" which confused him even more). Ruby said they were a bird on stilts. But then Julie came in to say something like "guys... they have emu farms near where we live." Rob/Misha: "REALLY?" And so then we had Julie trying to explain what emus were as well. Apparently she said something like they have a small face that looks like a really old man. Cue Misha's face getting more and more "...huh?"
Somewhere here Misha started throwing paper balls at Sam (who was at the other table end) and she started throwing it back, someone yelled "FOOD FIGHT!" and Sam warned that her teabag was coming next, and then yep... it did. And it splattered right in front of Julie. Misha grabbed it and threw it back, and when Sam threw it it landed in front of Rob and he's like "ew! Stop it!" And after Misha threw it back Sam pointed out that it looked like a condom (Misha chimes in with 'a used condom') and then corrected herself with how it looked like a kangaroo ball sack. So we were like "oh you finally saw a kangaroo?" and Misha says "I did not see this kangaroo that you speak of. But I ate one."
So he tells us how he ate kangaroo and crocodile on the same plate, and he and Rob get into a discussion on the random meats they've eaten. Deer, venison (yeah they talked about it separately), buffalo - which I asked if it was like beef, and Rob said it was but Misha said no. Somewhere Julie reminded them she was vegetarian and Misha insisted that he only ate the leg of the kangaroo which can easily grow back. He said the kangaroo steak they gave him had been very rare though, so still bleeding in the middle. Which grossed him out.
Somewhere Misha started saying how Sydney was good but Melbourne was nicer. I said Perth was better because there was no smog. They (Misha/Rob/Julie) got talking about smog where they live. Misha was down in a valley or something, so he got heaps of it. Rob was in the hills so I said he could look down on them and go "ha ha ha" to which he said 'yeah I can look down and go ha ha ha' which was awesome, hehe. Then Julie said she was further out and got barely any of it, to which Misha was like 'I don't know, that sounded kind of prissy and stuck up about it...'
I don't really remember any more, but we're late for the hotel breakfast now (I've been typing for like an hour) and that was just the breakfast! Ah, crap. More later then :)
+edit: REMEMBERING STUFF. DAMNIT.
We got talking to Rob about Aussie music. He was asking about Jet, and I said they had something new out. Then he asked about The Vines, and talked about how the lead singer went on a total bender before being diagnosed with aspergers. Then someone (probably me) mentioned ACDC. We got onto a huge tangent telling Rob about how Angus did the 15 minute guitar solo and how I thought he'd break his back he was playing so hard. And how he stripped down to his ACDC boxers and half the crowd were like "woo!" and the other half like "...ew". We got talking about Bret Michaels and I asked if he knew anything, and he said he'd literally been walking through the airport in LA and seen on a magazine or paper that Bret was going to be fine.
Rob also asked us why all Australia's capital cities were on the coast, and we explained how the middle is all desert. Except for Alice Springs. And then we spent ages trying to explain Uluru to him. I told him it'd be in a book someone had given him at the Saturday breakfast that was about main Aussie landmarks.
Breakfast
We got up at 3:45am and checked out a little after 4:30. Made it to the train station at about 5am and caught the first train to the airport. At some point we realised that Rob had tweeted the night before about needing to bring his band down here for a tour, and we planned to hold him to that. The train came early, and we were on our way.
Met bindaroonie at the airport, but she was seated up front with the classy people while we were down back :P We didn't even see her again once we were on the plane, but Binda - was that you whose suitcase fell out of the overhead locker?? Cos we saw that!
Gave entropy_maximum (Jess) a call as we waited forever for our luggage. As soon as it came we grabbed and ran for the taxi rank. Headed straight to Jess's hotel to drop off our luggage and pick her and spacemonkey_699 (Carina) up. Then we headed straight for the breakfast function and left them in the taxi.
When we got there I recognised a Hub lady from Perth and asked her where we had to go (she was talking to Jim at the time, just standing in the lobby of the hotel). She said to wait on some couches with some other fans. When we got over there a Hub girl came over and was asking for names, and a girl on the floor said 'Amy' and she asked 'Aimi Messenger?' and I piped up 'that's me!' After everyone got sorted, she left and Jim came over to chat for what seemed like ages before Sam (Ferris) came down as well. About then we headed into the room where the table was, and we immediately noticed it was significantly smaller than the one in Sydney - less than half the size, in fact. There turned out to be only 12 people there!
We went in to get food first, and Misha/Rob/Julie showed up while we did. I headed back to the room first and realised that Jim had put his Dr Pepper that someone had given him down at the chair next to mine. SCORE! I was hoping to sit next to him for... an important reason. When we finally all got seated we had Jim next to me (on the end of the table) and Sam two people down from Ruby. We got into small talk with Jim for a while before it started getting awkwardly quiet, so I asked him if he'd like to call my mum for mother's day. He asked what her name was and I told him, and off he went. His side of the conversation went something like...
"Hello. Happy Mother's Day Vicki. ... My name is Jim Beaver. ... *grins* *laugh* Well of course I'm your favourite character! So what are you doing for mother's day, seeing as your daughter is over here having fun? Oh," *turns to me* "she says you're going to make it up to her when you get back." I told him I thought I already was, and I don't remember much else. Dangit. When he gave the phone back I told her where her present was and she asked "how did you get him to do that?!" and I said well, he's sitting next to me eating breakfast... which got a laugh from him.
Side note; Jim had two poached eggs. He'd never had poached eggs before. He said it just looked like a normal egg that had exploded. After he'd had one I asked what they were like and he said it was pretty much like a normal egg but with all the flavour drained out of it. Yuck.
I'm not sure where (maybe before the phone call) but Jim asked if we'd been in Sydney because he recognised us. I said yeah, I was the one whose uncle was George Lazenby. He asked if I was serious about that, and I said yeah - he was my granny's brother in law, married in, kinda thing. And we talked about him for a bit (as if Jim was trying to make up for it) he said it was a bit like getting an unknown to play Indiana Jones, he was thrust into it. I said I hadn't even seen the movie until last year sometime, and the only other movie I'd seen him in was an Italian one on SBS one night.
Somewhere here it went awkwardly quiet again (Misha was up the other end, so obviously that's where all the action was) so I asked if he'd mind talking to a friend who couldn't come. This is when he got talking to triptnx (who I think we woke up?). He basically berated her for not being there and said "so where are you, Perth? That's not that far. If you start driving, how long before you can be here?" (probably not those exact words, but along those lines). At some point he called her 'idjit'. Maybe when she first answered. "How are ya, idjit?" While he was on the phone the Perth Hub lady came over and asked for that to be the last phone call, which I didn't care because I only wanted to make the two. But then when he got off the phone it was time to play actor's musical chairs (woohoo!). And guess who we got? ROB. Sweeet. But as it turned out, there were two spare chairs on the other side of the table from where Ru and I were, and Misha planted himself there. And somehow instead of being two chairs down like Sam had, Julie sat right next to Ruby. So the two of us were basically boxed in by the three of them. Oh yes, it was AWESOME.
Now lets see what I can remember... When Rob sat down Jim had left his plate there and vice versa. So Jim looks up and asks "Hey Rob, you done?" "Yeah sure man... you?" and Ruby randomly starts piling the plates up out of the way for them. Rob asked if we'd flown in last night and we said that morning. Then in no particular order because I can't really remember...
We said something about definitely bringing the band down. He asked where the other main cities were (which made it click that hey, he was actually serious) and we told him where Brisbane and Adelaide were - we'd told him about Perth the day before. And somehow through this we got onto how easy it is to pick up hitchikers and murder them. We talked about the movie Wolf Creek (which he hadn't seen) and he asked if it was gory. I asked if he'd seen Hostel - which he had - and said it was kind of like that. "Oh that's gory!" And then we talked about how lame the Saw movies were getting because they were up to about #7? He mentioned the new Friday the 13th coming out and I said "Jared's movie?" "Oh wait, no. Uh..." Ruby says "Nightmare on Elm Street?" "Yeah that one!" "Katie Cassidy's movie?" So we basically talked horror movies for a while.
I mentioned Ivan Milat and Peter Falconio, and how the Milat thing was just out of Sydney. His eyes generally got wider and wider at this point. We basically explained how - because Australia is so open and there's not much in the way of civilisation between towns - it's just easier to kidnap and dump bodies without people finding them, so a lot of people go missing. And he's like "all the time?! Just for no reason?" and I explained how it probably doesn't happen more than in America, it's just easier to get away with here.
We got onto driving around Australia and how the kangaroos and emus just jump out in front of your car. He didn't know what an emu was. This was the point where Misha chimed in, because he didn't know either. I basically tried to explain that they were like an ostrich but in stead of black and white, they were brown (I think I told Misha they were like a "bush with legs" which confused him even more). Ruby said they were a bird on stilts. But then Julie came in to say something like "guys... they have emu farms near where we live." Rob/Misha: "REALLY?" And so then we had Julie trying to explain what emus were as well. Apparently she said something like they have a small face that looks like a really old man. Cue Misha's face getting more and more "...huh?"
Somewhere here Misha started throwing paper balls at Sam (who was at the other table end) and she started throwing it back, someone yelled "FOOD FIGHT!" and Sam warned that her teabag was coming next, and then yep... it did. And it splattered right in front of Julie. Misha grabbed it and threw it back, and when Sam threw it it landed in front of Rob and he's like "ew! Stop it!" And after Misha threw it back Sam pointed out that it looked like a condom (Misha chimes in with 'a used condom') and then corrected herself with how it looked like a kangaroo ball sack. So we were like "oh you finally saw a kangaroo?" and Misha says "I did not see this kangaroo that you speak of. But I ate one."
So he tells us how he ate kangaroo and crocodile on the same plate, and he and Rob get into a discussion on the random meats they've eaten. Deer, venison (yeah they talked about it separately), buffalo - which I asked if it was like beef, and Rob said it was but Misha said no. Somewhere Julie reminded them she was vegetarian and Misha insisted that he only ate the leg of the kangaroo which can easily grow back. He said the kangaroo steak they gave him had been very rare though, so still bleeding in the middle. Which grossed him out.
Somewhere Misha started saying how Sydney was good but Melbourne was nicer. I said Perth was better because there was no smog. They (Misha/Rob/Julie) got talking about smog where they live. Misha was down in a valley or something, so he got heaps of it. Rob was in the hills so I said he could look down on them and go "ha ha ha" to which he said 'yeah I can look down and go ha ha ha' which was awesome, hehe. Then Julie said she was further out and got barely any of it, to which Misha was like 'I don't know, that sounded kind of prissy and stuck up about it...'
I don't really remember any more, but we're late for the hotel breakfast now (I've been typing for like an hour) and that was just the breakfast! Ah, crap. More later then :)
+edit: REMEMBERING STUFF. DAMNIT.
We got talking to Rob about Aussie music. He was asking about Jet, and I said they had something new out. Then he asked about The Vines, and talked about how the lead singer went on a total bender before being diagnosed with aspergers. Then someone (probably me) mentioned ACDC. We got onto a huge tangent telling Rob about how Angus did the 15 minute guitar solo and how I thought he'd break his back he was playing so hard. And how he stripped down to his ACDC boxers and half the crowd were like "woo!" and the other half like "...ew". We got talking about Bret Michaels and I asked if he knew anything, and he said he'd literally been walking through the airport in LA and seen on a magazine or paper that Bret was going to be fine.
Rob also asked us why all Australia's capital cities were on the coast, and we explained how the middle is all desert. Except for Alice Springs. And then we spent ages trying to explain Uluru to him. I told him it'd be in a book someone had given him at the Saturday breakfast that was about main Aussie landmarks.