Yeah, OK, so I went to Melbourne a couple of weeks ago, for about two weeks. It's been about a week since I got back and I've only just gotten around to posting photos. But better late than never ... There aren't that many of them, and there's very few of people. I feel really self-concious pulling out my camera to take photos of random things and random people. That's something I need to work on, I think ... But enjoy what I've got ...
The Focal-Mobile ... I arrived on a Saturday in the late-afternoon and Cooper picked me up from the airport. We drove around for a bit, got some dinner and ate in a really nice park. We headed back to his place a little while after that, to meet the parents and get settled in.The next day (Sunday) Cooper had planned to quickly take me into the City. We parked and the first place we went was MagNation (aka Magazine Heaven ... Two floors of magazines from all over the world) and then Missing Link Records. Missing Link is officially the best record store in the world, so I found it EASY to drop about $180 on DVDs and CDs in there. And that was only my first visit.
When Cooper was up in Sydney at New Years, I made him promise to take me to the Zoo while I was down there. So that was the next place on our trip. While we were driving there, some lady pulled up beside us to let us know that something was hanging from the underneath of the car. It was nice of her, but really random and hilarious. We then forgot about it, as you do. So the Zoo ... Cooper commandeered my camera for most of our visit. That photo down there is one of the rare times when he wasn't holding it ...
I liked the meerkats best. I was going to buy a meerkat doll ... Maybe next time!
Cooper really liked the giraffes! He was so psyched to see them. When I uploaded my photos onto the computer a few days ago, I noticed I had about 10-15 photos just of this one giraffe. *shrugs* My boyfriend is really strange. Scott's explanation is that giraffes are dorky, and Cooper is a dork, so the attraction was inevitable. Like attracts like I suppose ...
When we got back to the car (which had really disgusting, warm, melted apple and blackcurrant slurpees in it) Cooper remembered the lady stopping us at the lights so he had a look at what was under the car. It apparently wasn't anything important, because he pretty much just crawled under the car and ripped it off!
After the zoo, we picked up Cooper's friend, Goof (probably one of the funniest, friendliest and most awesome people I've met in a really long time!) and I tagged along as they went riding at some local spots.
Monday was spent riding as well. I met more of the FP crew (all really nice guys), watched Coop get salt at Flemington Banks as he tried for 2 hours to get a clip, ate/drank more slurpees, and rediscovered the awesomeness of Killer Pythons.
Tuesday I went into work with Cooper. He works at a BMX store about fifteen minutes from his house, and because he's the only one there he can pretty much do whatever he wants.
I had my first Blue Heaven milkshake that day. Way back many moons ago, I got a text message from Cooper one day telling me about how awesome this flavour of milkshake is. I had never even heard of it, and he was shocked and appalled. So it became a long-running joke that I would have to try one when I came down there (because I couldn't find the flavour here in Sydney, and believe me I looked because I didn't believe him that it was a real flavour!). It was delicious, and now I'm hooked! Hahahaha
This brand of strawberry milk is SERIOUSLY the best carton strawberry milk that I have ever had!
Nothing really exciting happened then until I went into the City on Thursday. I was meeting Jade, my editor at the Dwarf, for the first time so we decided to meet for coffee. It was a pretty miserable day, and I had to catch the train from Ringwood (where Cooper works). Cooper was so worried about me he walked me across the road to the station and waited with me until the train arrived.
Jade showed me this BANKSY (!!!) piece that is on the wall of the building where she works.
While I was waiting for my train back to Ringwood I went to Dangerfield on Flinders St. I bought this bag which is officially the best bag I have ever seen in my entire life!Thursday night Cooper and I went and got ice cream at this amazing ice cream store near Goof's house. Seriously, it was so delicious and so many flavours. Their milkshakes are AWESOME! They use so much flavouring and so much ice cream that they come out really thick and fluffy.
We then drove up to Skyhigh at Mt Dandenong. On the way, we stopped at Upwey so Cooper could take some photos for an article he's working on. It's a shame how miserable the weather was, otherwise Skyhigh would have been amazing. You look out from the lookout and can see the whole of Melbourne stretched out for you.Saturday afternoon started our weekend in the city.
We stayed at the Jasper Hotel, on Elizabeth St. As you can see, it's really nice and modern and clean. I was particularly impressed by the bathroom! Hahahaha
We had dinner on Saturday night at a little restaurant down this alley. There's restaurants the whole way down there. You walk through it and get attacked by eager waiters and waitresses trying to convince you to eat in their restaurant. It was fun looking out the window of the restaurant to the really interesting people that were walking past.
We got up on Sunday morning and had Maccas breakfast (mmmm ... hotcakes!). We went to the Queen Vic markets and spotted this awesome pancake place where we were planning to have breakfast the next morning. Then there was more riding, this time at all different street places around Melbourne. I got picked on so bad for playing on the swings at a playground right near where the guys were riding.
This is the whole FP crew chilling at the first spot: (L-R) Polly, Marnold, HT (short for High Tower, aka Rhys. He's really tall!), Goof, Jase, Flagz, Cooper.
At the second spot, Cooper wanted to get a clip in. I can't remember what he was doing, but Goof was filming and really wanted me to take a photo of him filming Coop because he didn't have anything like that. This photo is now on the front page of the FP website.
Obligatory stacking-it photo.
Marnold shredding ...
Sunday night was awesome ... Lissy met us in the City and we went for dinner on Lygon St where I had the BEST bowl of homemade gnocci in a long time. The gelato was REALLY good too.
We got up Monday morning. We REALLY didn't want to (neither of us had slept the night before because Cooper had a really bad toothache) but we had to be out of the hotel by 10am (stupid checkout ...). We checked out, and walked up to the pancake place we had spotted the previous day, and it was CLOSED! Oh well ...
One of the things I really wanted to do in Melbourne was go on a graffiti search. We spent the better part of the morning wandering around the city scoping out alleys and just checking out stores and stuff. Missing Link and MagNation got return visits!
On the way back to Kilsyth, Cooper took me into Richmond. We stopped in this side-street that had this AMAZING mural on one wall of it. It's unfinished at the moment, but it's basically a collage of images from Melbourne's history. Some of it is shown below ....
It IS really amazing that none of the mural has been touched by random taggers. In fact, there was A LOT of graffiti in Richmond and most of it was untouched. We wandered around the area around the station for about an hour scoping out some of the graff there.
This stencil is probably one of my favourite pieces.
Woke up Wednesday ... It was the day that I would be leaving Cooper's to go to Lissy's for two days, before heading back to Sydney. The REALLY shitty weather, really suited my mood. I didn't want to leave Kilsyth because I had loved it there so much. I didn't want to leave Melbourne at all, because I had been having so much fun! I decided to go into work with him that day as well so we could hang out one last time before he dropped me at Mel's that night.
I helped him do some merchandising in the store as well.
We had fun writing and drawing on the glass windows outside his store with liquid chalk markers!
That was pretty much my trip. The day and a bit I had at Mel's it was raining and pretty miserable. We ate junkfood and watched DVDs so that was really cool. But I do really love Melbourne, and I can't wait to go back ... Hopefully at the end of March! =]