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Melbourne Trip with Glen, Kate, Val and Streetie
Day one and two

Introduction
The Dizzybeat.com Melbourne tour had been an idea since early 2001, combining a celebration of finishing High School for Val, Streetie and I and Kate taking a well deserved break from they year of Uni and slaving away at some American spare ribs "restaurant". December was the planned time, and as the month drew closer two things were discovered. Firstly, that Cohan would no longer be joining us on the trip - softcock. Secondly, that Sydney bands Riot City and S*K*A*M would be playing in Melbourne while we were there. Good stuff. Off to Melbourne it was then, eight nights of drinking lay ahead and with responsibilities forgotten, we were all pretty chippers.

Day One - Tuesday 4th Dec
Definitely a day filled with anticipation, however with an early wake up time of 5:30 am and a twelve hour train trip ahead of us it took a while to build. Firstly, a train trip from Wollongong to Sydney had to be experienced before we could even get on the train going in the right direction. An hour and a half later and I'd done all the traveling I wanted to, and we were only in Sydney.

The train was boarded and we were away. Boredom didn't take long to set in and as Kate was sitting next to me, I decided time was best spent annoying her. This led to regular calls of "Glen you annoying prick". There's not much to do on such a long trip as many would know and so the nine days ahead of us were discussed in detail. I announced my view on saving money, "I'm only gonna eat enough to keep the drink in". As music was a main reason we were traveling to Melbourne, we weren't at all pleased by two teenage girls playing the new form of R&B and other selected pop songs. When Barbie Girl came on I was at the end of my string "Geez some people's taste is in their arse," was yelled to ensure a long train trip was no longer made worse.

Finally the train arrived at Spencer St Station, and we got in a cab to go to our digs, The Carlton Hotel. Our initial impression of the Carlton was a dive, but for the money we were paying it wasn't surprising and it was right in the middle of the city. Our booking had been stuffed, which meant we were on different floors. Checking out the facilities, it was discovered most of the other residents were over 50 and liked a drink (with breakfast). We weren't there ten minutes when some bloke approaches me trying to flog me some deodorant. It had obviously fallen off the back of a truck, but the question remains, why did he pinch it in the first place?

Val wanted to go to acoustic Tuesday at the Art House and so off we headed. Quite a hike across the main part of Melbourne, but well worth it as Val started chatting to the barman, Adam. You should have stayed here was his summation. Note: we had tried, but no pre-booking was allowed. The idea to stay there still was decided to be tried and so a trek back to our pub occurred, and although we lost our deposit and first night, we knew it was worth it. From the doss house that was the Carlton to the Arthouse, which had a good atmosphere, we were all pretty pleased with the change, well done Val.

Any insecurities of being away from the family were forgotten as Kate was quickly dubbed Mum. So we bedded down that night, tired, but happy we'd changed places and looking forward to the days ahead.

Quotes of the day
"Thankyou and Good Morning" - bloke on the train

"I'm only gonna eat enough to keep the drink in" - Glen

"I'm in love with my feet" - Kate before we went to bed that night.

Val: "Stop picking your nose" Kate: "I'm itching it"

Val: "Kate, I can smell the scum beneath your toes" Kate: "I can see you rubbing your dick"

Day Two - Wed 5th DEC
Day two of the dizzybeat.com Melbourne tour pretty much belonged to Streetie. It was his 18th and there's no doubt he would be getting drunk, and with us letting day one be rather drink free, all of us would be. The day started rising at an average time, and record stores were the plan for the day. We walked towards the city and came upon Au-Go Go Records.

Au-Go-Go
Quite a lot of vinyl, but plenty of it is dance and stuff that doesn't deserve to be on this site. I went to the reggae section and the compilations they had from some decent labels were forty bucks. I didn't come to Melbourne to pay exorbitant prices for cds or records when I could get them back in Sydney or off the net for probably less. Anyway we left there, empty handed, but the other three had seen things to come back for.

Val took over navigation from here as the next stop was Missing Link and he'd been there before. He was visibly excited about finally returning, and his enthusiasm in the last week had worn off on me, so I was expecting big things.

Missing Link
I was disappointed. If I thought the prices were high at Au-Go-Go, they were nothing compared to Missing Link. I'm talking not getting much change from forty bucks when buying one import. I don't usually pay more than twenty dollars for a CD, so this was a complete joke. And they had a sign up saying the the current exchange rate was the reason for such high prices on imports. To some extent, but to me it was a case of the kids are willing to pay and we are willing to take it, so why not. If you liked emo and pop-punk they had a great range of cds and hoodies for huge prices, but as I think that's a load of drivel, I became bored. The ska section seemed as though it was last added to when ska was popular in '98 and yet they were asking prices with an inflation rate I don't expect for another ten years. I bought a couple of second hand CDs, while the other three spent up big, Kate and Val vowing they had to come back.

In celebration of Streetie's 18th, it was decided drinking at the back outside section of the arthouse would be the undertaken activity, none of us really bothered to go to the final show at The Punters Club. So it was about 3:30 when we went to the bar to stock up on grog.

Kate: "Do you sell cases of beer?"
Adam the barman: "Do you mean boxes?"

Bloody hell, first we have to put up with pots instead of schooners, and now they are calling cases, boxes. Yet another reason to feel superior as a New South Welshman. So we have a case of old, Kate has a bottle of vodka and the drinking began. It didn't take long for the good times to start, Kate going like a bull at a gate and in no time had half a bottle of voddie to her name. Withe Kate insisting we listen to her new cds, the time was shortly dubbed "emo arvo". It wasn't long before the three of us had finished our case and I went down to get another. No OLD left, the bloke from H-Block 101 who doubled as the barman recommended Carlton Draught, and after having a pot, a second case of beer was bought. We were then joined by a nice New Zealand couple, Ollie and Kelly who got into the grog with us. Kate was really pissed and by about 10 pm was forced to retire to our room, with only drops left in the vodka bottle. Streetie was also very drunk and joined her, a disappointing effort on the night of his 18th. Kate's then proceeded to spew out our window before passing out. So it was Val, Ollie, Kelly and I left drinking, taking photos and having a good chat about anything from New Zealand to Sublime. Kelly and Ollie then retired, but Val and I soldiered on and finished at about 2:30 am, that's four hours after the birthday boy. A great night in all, it was a definite highlight of the dizzybeat.com tour and stood us in good stead for the rest of the trip.

Glen Smyth
(there are no pics cos I lost all 150 we took. yes i was pissed off)

days three to nine coming soon.