So, I’m not even sure this will work, because I’m writing from my phone. Interestingly enough, I received a phone call from Three yesterday, it appears Timmy’s Mobile Broadband account with Three has gone significantly over it’s bandwidth limit. It’s pretty ironic that they called me and not Timmy, almost as if they know that in the 12 months that Timmy’s been with them, he’s never once gone over his limit, but in the 3 weeks that I’m here, I manage to do it. The real reason they called me, however, is because my mobile account is with Three and it’s bundled with Timmy’s Mobile Broadband account.
So that’s my first story: I’ve gone over our monthly broadband limit, and now Timmy and I are Internet-less until our next billing cycle, October 9th. How will I survive? Thank RIM for technology, huh?
I’m on a tram now headed to Footscray train station where I’ll hope on a train to Flinders, then switch onto another train at Flinders which will take me towards St. Kilda East, at which point I’ll jump on a tram to take me closer to Goldie’s home, where I’m going for dinner tonight. At this point, it looks as though I may be late. As great as MetLink (Melbourne’s public transportation) is, trams are pretty unpredictable as they fall victim to traffic the same way cars and buses do.
I’m on my way to Goldie’s for dinner. Goldie is Rhona’s cousin from Montreal. Rhona is my across-the-street neighbor. Goldie’s having her family over, kids, nieces, nephews, the works. Should be fun!
Yesterday was a fun day. I met Mitch late morning/early afternoon to hang out, go for lunch (we had a romantic sit-down meal at a nice enough Thai restaurant – was pretty good) and play on the computer. I geek’d him up a bit with some handy Mac tips and helped him install Snow Leopard.
Then we walked to Brunswick, a really nice area, and the sun finally came out. The past week has been brutal. Tomorrow the weather for the AFL Grand Final is looking just as crappy – cold, dark, and wet.
While walking past the Little Creatures Dining Hall (Jon, remember that email you sent about the Little Creatures brewery? I found it!) I received an interesting phone call from TD – the man behind GoGoBeans – who was in Melbourne! He was just in for a couple meetings then continuing on to Sydney. I felt like I was on The Amazing Race – I had to get from point A to point B in less than an hour, but it was easily an 80-90 minute journey. Alas, I did it. I succeeded. I met TD and his business associates, John and Rob, at an Irish pub on Little Collins downtown, threw back a quick beer over some Web 2.0 discussion, and made plans to go visit them in Sydney in the coming weeks when they’re back from Indonesia.
Got back home around 7:45pm to an excellent meal courtesy of chef Timmy. While we were eating there was a knock at the door – Timmy and Courtsy were expecting someone I hadn’t met before. I/we thought it would be fun to play a trick on this stranger (stranger to me, at least)…
I went to answer the door:
“Hi”
“Hi”
“Can I help you?”
“Uh, yeah, are Timmy and Courtsy here?”
“Who?”
“Oh, sorry, I must be at the wrong door”
(He starts walking to the next unit over)
“Oh, were you looking for a couple guys and one of them lived here with his girlfriend?”
“Yes”
“Oh, they moved about two weeks ago”
“Oh, wow. I’m sorry. Have a good night”
Then I think he heard the familiar laughter from upstairs. I explained who I was, and he laughed and was quite humbled by how badly he had been played. Good times.
This morning I woke up early to get ready for my 2-tram ride to the Royal Melbourne Show, where I was meeting Mitch and Samara and Claire (another pediatrician, Samara’s friend) at 11am. I woke up way too early and got to the show by 9:55am. Woops. I walked around a bit and discovered the Bicycle Superstore, a chain around Australia. Pretty cool store, with lots of good brands, low- to high-end. I’ll be frequenting that fine establishment, I’m sure.
The Royal Melbourne Show is HUGE and really interesting. In one day, I saw, smelled, patted (or is it petted?), and learned about: cows and bulls, horses, goats, sheep, llamas, alpacas, emus, chickens, ducks, rabbits, dogs, cats, and some weird people.
As I type this novel, I realize that this BlackBerry app I’m using might not even work! It’s both, frustrating and exciting all at the same time.
We saw a dog show with ugly poodles (sorry, poodle lovers) and adorable St. Bernards (sorry, people who hated the movie Beethoven), we saw an alpaca show, a cow show, and even a woodsman show like those Stihl axe man shows on TSN. It was all very cool.
Wow, this whole blog-writing thing sure does help pass the time…
The worst part of the Show was that it was overcast and drizzling all day and it wasn’t warm at all. I wasn’t too comfortable and whatever little remnance of a cold I was getting rid of up until this morning has now turned back into a full-fledged cold. Oh well, a small price to pay to spend a day with animals who poo into shovels being carried by lucky little kids.
Now I’m officially worried I’m going to be late to Goldie’s. You are all my witnesses: I left on time as per metlinkmelbourne.com.au’s directions.
Tonight, following dinner, I’m meeting up with Mitch and we’ll head back to the Brunswick area for one of Timmy’s friend’s birthdays.
So that’s about all for now. Hope my North American friends and family are all having a nice sleep.
Until next time!