loop

Sometimes you feel your life turning into a loop. Get up, work, TV, bed, punctuated by the odd shag, argument or night on the turps. In the spirit of breaking the loop, Lize and I decided to go to the zoo.

We haven't been for years, since maybe the early nineties. So taking a punt on what looked like potentially bad weather we drove to Melbourne early last Tuesday. And had a bloody awesome day.

Melbourne zoo is on the whole a pretty modern zoo, with environments rather than enclosures and none of the sad looking critters that I associate with zoos from my childhood. We saw some very perky Meercats, some noisy aggressive otters and a cougar who is the dead spit of Steve French off Trailer Park Boys. Checking out the gorillas I had the strange experience of being double taked by an adolescent male. I think it might be time for a shave and a haircut when the primates start looking at me like a long lost brother. The same gorilla was a pretty wound up dude, smacking the glass when a little girl walked up and then jumpimg back with a WTF gesture. Cool as.

The elephants were awesome. We arrived just as they were being excercised. Four elephants were walking from one paddock to another with their keepers trunk to tail (which looked way cute) and climbing up and over hillocks and logs and such to keep in shape. The keepers seemed to give Thai commands to elephants which was interesting.

The butterfly house was excellent if steamy, the frogs reeked to high heaven and had a great moment with Lize alone in the platypus exhibit (no not that sort of moment) where we watched two platypuses play like crazy things in perfect silence in almost total darkness. These little guys are so shy it was great to see them goofing around without kids banging on the glass freaking them out.

Speaking of kids we were lucky there wasn't too many school groups to give us the shits. One thing I did point out to Lize was the amount of yummy mummys around. A single dude with a tolerance for kiddies could do well with some chivalrous pram assistance I reckon. Any way after seeing the male lion totally lose it at one of the younger ones we headed home. My feet and legs were sore as hell but it was great for me to do that much excerise and Lize seemed to come home pretty happy too.

Bringing Gothy Back

Went and saw the Cure sunday night. 3 hours of 4 middle aged blokes playing like absolute champions. Fat Bob was in fine fettle, Porl & Simon were more rock than they had a right to be and the new drummer was pretty good. Stacks of old stuff and non single material, i reckon the played at least 6 songs off kiss me and prolly 5 off head on the door. Walked out feeling chipper which is odd given their reputation for gloom. The combination of pop and misery makes you feel tops though.

teefus

I have shit teeth. Really shit. Like Shane McGowan's or Keith Richard's. Lots of cortisone, booze, smokes and a pathological fear of dentists doesn't help. So now I've got buggerall left. It's embarrassing, painful and I kind of hate myself but at the moment there's not much I can do. It will cost a few grand to get myself sorted out and that's not an option at the moment. So here I am a toothless tiger. Without the tiger.

Unfortunately with dental neglect comes a world of pain. The last two weeks have seen me eating codeine like a bastard and drinking to blackout a couple of times. Tonight I'm gonna stay of the pain killers and try and get a bit of sense back into myself.

pissed and pissed off

Fair enough I've had half a dozen shots or so of sambucca. And its been a long week. But Jesus Christ I've had a gutful.

Worked all bloody night to have the pub looking tip top. Candles, little bowls of lollies on the tables, a very decent act from Melbourne playing after Trivia (free entry mind, these guys are a $12 ticket on all the other shows on the tour), $4.50 pints in happy hour and you'd think a few would turn up. Did they fuck.

40 or so happy souls filtered in for a night that honestly deserved at least 150. I've had enough. The general public can go fuck themselves. I know I should roll wth the punches and I generally do but there comes a point where I think I'm past running a fucking charity. Fuck this I'm going to do more shots.

schnoe

It snowed in Ballarat this morning. When I rolled out of bed at 9 this morning (with a full bladder and a sore head) big fat feathery flakes were whirling around the back yard. I dragged Lize out of bed and we stood out in the freezing cold air digging the awesomeness of snow.It happens so rarely its kind of thrilling. It settled for an hour or so then sadly the rain started pissing down and ruined the effect. But for a little while we had our own winter wonderland.

Christmas in July

One of our barstaff Roisin is out here from Galway living with her lad Jamie 'the Frog' O'Neill. They're a lovely couple. I've known Froggy since the Bridge Mall Inn days when he drummed for psych rockers the Silmarils, who've since mutated into the Red Cents. Anyhoo, Ro has slotted in really well to the bar. She's a real gun behind the jump and great fun to booze with after work.She's become great mates with Nick, Jules and Lize so when the cold weather made her homesick and put her in mind of Christmas the idea of a Christmas in July was jumped at. Ro and Froggy are pretty skint (the bar's her only job and Froggys doing his PHD) but they managed to put on one of the most heartwarming and plain fun nights I've had in ages.

I cooked a big fuck off ham for the night - basted in orange juice and glazed with seed mustard it went down a treat and was visually arresting. Liam snagged a massive turkey (4.5k boned!!) and there were other meats, masses of roast vegetables, gravy and Ro's steaming cauldron of mulled wine, plus a few bottles, beers and hot whiskies. Massive. Oh yeah and Jules made mud cake for afters. There was a dozen of us there ranging from 19 - 36 and it was kind of sweet to see a bunch of what are essentially Gen X/Y misfits acting like family in our own way. No sleaziness or fights. Singing beatles tunes on Froggies old guitar and the girls dancing around the lounge room to Stevie Wonder. Warmed the cockles it did. And made me feel happier than I have in a while.

smoke free, wet and other stuff

Well it's the first week of smoke free bars in sunny Victoria. There hasn't been as much upheaval as we thought thus far but it is early days I guess. Data from Ireland suggests it's the country "real" pubs that get hit hardest so we shall see. Reading the Snug blog this arvo the writer suggested a number of around 500 rural pub closures over there since the bans kicked in 3 years ago. Speaking selfishly hopefully our little band venue/late night watering hole doesn't get hit too hard.

Went to Murphy's on monday to test the vibe - it does seem weird to be leaving the bar when you want a fag. I reckon I was a bit on edge and drank less as a consequence. Also checked out gambling palace Zagames where Cossie observed the outdoor smoking area was preferable for the lack of slot machine noise and the lack of bug eyed gimps (his words) staring at you after they've flushed a weeks wages down the slots.

I've had a bugger of a toothache for the last three days and have been wandering about in a codeine daze. The rain seems very soothing thru the fug and hell there seems to be plenty of it.Lakes Entrance where Lize and I used to holiday in our pre pub days has had a mini New Orleans style flood and the rains showing no signs of abating here.