The first outstanding event that I can't remember writing about was going to the horse races... two Saturdays ago. Wow, I've been putting this off a lot longer than I thought. It was a big day at the races and the weather was nice, so I took off from Unilodge and caught the short 10-15 minute train it took to get to the racecourse. I was there from about 12:30 to 4:30 or so, and saw most of the days races in between wandering around the grounds and taking pictures. The main attraction was the Lexus Newmarket Handicap, a big G1 race with a million dollar purse. Black Caviar, a sprinting filly who was undefeated for her first 9 starts, was going for her tenth victory. Before the race you could collect any number of free black caviar souvenirs. I scavenged up two little flags, a hat, and some pins, all made with the orange/pink and black silk colors. She ended up winning the race seemingly effortlessly, it was pretty impressive. I even scored a coveted fence-side position to take some sick pictures of her in the winners circle-thing. They handed out free prints of her crossing the wire a couple hours after the race. My other favorite part of the afternoon was the free 'how to use one of those confusing betting machine' lessons I got from a nice gentleman that even spotted me 5 dollars to bet--too bad my horse lost by a nose.
That night I made another mad dash across the city to catch a train out to Woodend. I have an uncanny ability to hop on the train a minute before it's about to leave. I always mean to plan ahead and give myself enough time to warrant a casual pace, but things always come up and I end up being one of those annoying people weaving through the standing people on escalators. But, back to the story, Michael had invited me to a get together at Jay's house that night, and he was even nice enough to pick me up and drop me off from the train station. Elisa had plans for the day and wasn't able to come by until late, but I had a great time hanging out with Michael and everyone else there. The next afternoon Michael dropped me back at the train station to head back to the city.
Last Sunday night was loads of fun. I'd bought tickets a few weeks ago for a dubstep boat cruise with some of the people in unilodge. It turned out to be a bigger group than I thought, about 16 people, that all loaded into taxis to find our boat in the docklands. We got to spend the next 4 hours cruising back and forth through the industrial dock lands, under massive bridges, and out in some open water across from the city skyline, all with beautifully blasting dubstep. The cruise in itself was great, going through the docklands with all of the massive shipping freighters with giant railroad cars being unloaded off of them all throughout the evening was really neat to see. It was a long night of lots of dancing, general deafening from the dubstep, and good times with a lot of unilodge people. We took the free party bus back into the city, rocking back and forth to the music and dancing all the way, to the afterparty at Miss Libs, a bar not far from unilodge. We spent a little while hanging out there and then went home to retire.
The next fun outing was Tuesday night, back to Miss Libs, actually. Some of the guys from unilodge are in a band that was performing there. It was pretty crazy, seeing most of the outside courtyard/music performance half of the bar completely filled with unilodgers. There were other people there, but it was hard to find them amongst the sea. I think someone said they counted at least 36 known occupants of unilodge. The music was good, the guys are amazing good guitar players, and the singing wasn't too bad.
Wednesday was a good day. My australian wildlife class lab was at the Melbourne zoo. We had to walk there, which took about 20 minutes, and then spent the next three hours wandering around in it. The work we are given to do while we are there is really rather simple and not necessary to do while actually on the trip. We get a couple page worksheet with questions that are more google-able than actually findable at the zoo. Otherwise, we had to fill 3-4 pages with sketches and notes, on basically anything that interested us. Unfortunately, the assignment was focused on the reptiles, lizards, frogs, and oddly seals, so I didn't get to explore the whole zoo, just those areas. At least it was free entry, and now I've got that half done for when I go back.
I walked back with an american who started talking to me after recognizing my Penn State bag, and a nice Australian guy who was telling us about his length travels he takes for competitive fencing. I got back around 5:30, and was welcomed to the site of unilodge setting up for their little party they were putting on. It was themed liked a 5 year olds birthday party, there were balloons, little carnival games, and even a clown doing magic tricks. The best part, though, was the free food. They were grilling sausage/hot dog things, that you would eat on a slice of plain bread with fried onions and your choice of condiments. I think I had 3, maybe 4, a couple bags of popcorn, a bag of cotton candy, and however many cokes it took to wash it all down. Oh, and I won a pack of unilodge jelly beans playing one of the semi-unbeatable games. On the whole, it was rather successful, though gluttony is a bit painful.
The rest of the week was relatively uneventful, from what I can remember. This past Saturday afternoon I took a train out to Elisa's. I missed the Woodend stop, for some reason unknown to me, and ended up in the next town, Kyneton. I had to wait 20 minutes or so for Elisa to drive out to pick me up, but I spent some time exploring the deserted station and tracks. We went back to Elisa's, had a few minutes to chill, and then headed down the road to her friend's house for the evening. Her best friend from middle/high school, Myvy, and her family were making a big dinner.It was a pretty big bunch: us, Myvy, (different) Jess and Rachel (two friends from highschool), Myvy's parents and twin brothers, and an Austrian couple that had been traveling the country and were staying at their house. The food was amazing, I must say. For starters we had crackers and cheese and home made dips of some sort with champagne with strawberries in the glasses. So tasty. Then some ridiculously good lasagna with salads for dinner with some really sweet white wine, Moscato I think it was called. Then we all played scategories for a while and then had desert called "lemon delicious." It's some kind of cake/puddingy/lemon stuff with ice cream. After dinner we all sat around and talked for a while. Jess, the resident 'hippie' who is an Outdoor Education major, told us about trips hiking or kayaking or whatnot inbetween Rachel and I's long, drawn out conversations on horses--owns her own horse, and works at one of the farms nearbye. I feel like we need to hang out. Meanwhile, Myvy, going to school to be a physical therapist' was taking turns palpating Jess and Rachel's back to feel their spinal processes. It was a fun evening.
Sunday was nice. We woke up around 8:40 and were out of the house picking everyone up by 9. My plan for Jess and I to go riding had grown to include her boyfriend Aaron, Elisa, and Michael. We were given our horses, mounted up, and headed out. The riding was a bit mundane for a while. The first half, maybe three quarters of the ride was spent just sitting ontop of my trusty mare, Alabama (I would get the one named after a US state), while she boredly followed the rest of the horses along a beaten trail through some woods and hills. It was nice, relaxing, but generally annoying to not really be riding--though to be fair though I was rather impressed at how well trained, or how docile and complacent they were. Luckily, I caught a break when we were allowed to break into groups based on experience to speed things up a little. I went with one of the girls who worked there to canter around. It was rather simple, still, since 'Bama seemed to pick up whatever pace the horse infront of her was going, so I didn't even have to coax her into a trot or canter, she just took off. I had a blast, though, cantering about through trails around the property, ducking through bushes and trees. My mare wasn't the smoothest ride, but being sore was so worth it.
After riding we drove into town to go to the Daylesford market. It was alright, but the Gisborne market that I I went to a few weeks ago was generally a lot nicer, with most of the stands being artists or crafstmen selling their work, whereas Daylesford was mostly just a bunch of people selling random things and old stuff. Elisa, Michael, and I lapped Jess and Aaron a few times (they were much more thorough shoppers) until we caved and left to find lunch. It took a lot of searching to finally find somewhere we wanted to eat. Michael and I each got chicken parms, costing a whopping 19 dollars. I bitched about how expensive food was for most of the meal. Elisa left for a while to go pick up the other two, and Michael and I had a lovely chat--mostly about how expensive the food was. After lunch we headed home. We dropped Michael off and went and hung out at Aaron's house for a while. We watched some big bang and snacked on candy we bought at the market.
We went back to Elisa's around 5 and were both exaughsted. I took a shower and then we both went back and forth between napping and reading until dinner at 6:30 or so. I borrowed a book from Nancy's shelf, since she has a lovely collection of fantasty books, so I'd have something to keep me busy on the trains since I just finished my other book. Dinner was great, as always. There was some kind of meat, possibly lamb again, then green beans and broccoli and a whopping mound of mashed potatoes. I didn't really care about the rest of the food, though it was good, but I've been craving mashed potatoes all week for some reason. I was so happy. I spent some time hanging out with her family downstairs watching tv after dinner. Her mom made some really tasty desert, creme brule or something? I'm not sure, but it was lovely. I ate so well that weekend, especially compared to the past week where I ate mostly ramen and similar quality food. I caught the last train home for the night.
Monday was spent mostly in a state of severe soreness from riding the day before. I decided to take it easy and read most of the day. I did receive a call though, from one of the few places I'd applied to in my feeble job search. Tuesday morning I woke up super early and went on my grand adventure to find Chadstone. It takes about an hour to get there, which is really obnoxious. First, a tram ride to the train station, then a train, and then a bus to the mall where the company is located. It was a simple group interview that involved answering one or two questions and reading off a script, basically all the job requires being able to read, speak, work a computer, and be desperate enough to want to work there. I got a call back Tuesday afternoon and was signed up for training for today. The training was about as painful as the commute, and lasted from 11 to 3 today. We spent most of our time practicing reading out and coding in the answers to the endless surveys we have to do for market research. Yeah, I'm going to be one of those annoying phone interviewers. Some of the exciting 10-20 minute long surveys I got to read and reread at nausium today were about road safety, an energy company and electric rates, the housing market etc. The only way I made it through was knowing that I was getting paid $80 to sit there. So, despite the commute, and the job itself, the $20 an hour paycheck is far too tempting to pass up. I've never made that much money in my life, but around here, its only barely above minimum wage. I have my first shift tomorrow night, so I guess I'll found out how worth it is really is.
I accidentally finished the book I borrowed from Nancy yesterday, I thought 700 pages might last me a little longer than two days. Guess not, but now I don't have anything to read, so it's going to be a long commute tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to this weekend though, I've booked a day ride in the high country mountains, about 3 hours from here, on Sunday. I'm going to be in so much pain on Monday, but I can't wait. So that was my last two weeks or so. Stay tuned for more.
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