South Yarra is hard on the wallet

This weekend began with Friday night drinks on Chapel street. Richard, his girlfriend Denise (or Dee), and Don and I returned to Bridie O'Reilley's irish pub. There we were entertained to find out that Don's brother is the Deputy Assistant somethingorother to the Premier for Tasmania as well as manager of the family farm. Small place, that Tasmania.

Saturday I was on a mission to get my bangs (fringe) trimmed and find the grocery store. Luckily, the recommended stylist was on the same tram line as the store, so I headed out early ahead of the game. They couldn't fit me in until 2 (imagine!) so off to grocery shop and make myself lunch and back again. When I returned, the guy seemed surprised to see me, but they plopped me into a seat and I had literally the quickest trim of my life. I am pretty sure that I will have to fix it at home once I look close enough in the mirror. For the mean time, I can see, which is a good start. And, it was free. He was too busy to be bothered, so I guess I got what I paid for, eh?

Back on the tram and I decided to walk down Chapel Street again and actually look into the shops this time. Whoops. I found the giant bookstore, where I bought a paper. I found some sneakers that I really needed (really!) and they were even on sale. I also found some CDs that I'd been looking to buy, and they can definitely be squeezed in the luggage, so I think I'm OK. Then I continued down to the Prahran Market and picked up some wine for dinner, made my way further south to the train station and was safely home in time for a cat nap.

Later that night, I ventured further south to meet Suzy, Richard and Dee at thier place for dinner and Rugby. Dinner was great, some chickeny thing that was really good- surprising since Dee is a vegetarian, and the wine went off well. I tried to understand rugby, but by the time the game started, we were on the third bottle of wine, and the game really looked a lot like a mix of Aussie rules and American football. Makes sense, I guess, considering each of those other games were an offshoot. I am still a little bit hazy on the difference between rugby union and rugby league. Richard promised that we would have a fully sober conversation about it later.

Today I was awakened by my neighbor's early morning bathroom sounds (thin walls at the new place) and so I started my day early. I headed downtown to the Arts Center Market to find a purse I'd had my eye on. When I got there though, the purse people weren't there! Discouraged but not giving up,(they also had a spot in the St. Kilda market on Sundays, so I could go there later)I headed back across the river to Fed Square to check out the Ready Made Market that is an annual market in conjunction with the Melbourne Design Festival that is going on these two weeks. The purse people were there, along with lots of other great vendors, but I limited myself to the purse purchase. (It's art! There's always room in the suitcase for art!)

Feeling quite content, I headed up to the Queen Vic market, since I have yet to buy anything for the numerous Denver folks who are taking care of my place. (I can't tell you what I got, because it's a surprise.) Now that I practically had paper cuts from handing out the money so fast, I decided to make my way back home and then see if Sally wanted to do lunch. Sally is another golderite, who just happens to live a couple of streets away from the new place.

As I make my way out of the train, contemplating where I would suggest we go, I realize... no purse. I've just left my purse and it's very quickly heading to Sandringham. I have no idea where Sandringham is. Luckily, the new home station is a large one, so I head up to the customer service rep and tell him. He makes a call and says that once the train gets to the end of the line (ie. Sandringham) they will look for my purse. AACK! I have to sit and wait for at least 20 minutes before learning the fate of oh, my ipod, my camera, my wallet with my ID and credit cards... I decide that sitting on a train is much better than sitting in one place, so I hopped the next south bound train and I was in chase.

An eternity later, I arrived in Sandringham, where some very nice train people handed me my purse and a lighthearted lecture and sent me on my way. I decided that this was definitely more than enough adventure for one day and so I made my way home, made some soup, watched an episode of Monk, and took a nap. Tonight, more of the same.