365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 169 : Off To Meet the In-Laws!

A big, gigantic, enormous, huge, date that ate Paris type of day!


I am off to Melbourne to meet my gorgeous guy's family, who by all accounts are warm, sweet and welcoming - well with a guy as lovely as mine coming from their midst, that's exactly what I'd expect - and while I am not sick to my stomach nervous, I am feeling the effect of flocks of butterflies flying in formation around my stomach. I am sure, like usual, I will be just fine once I meet them, but the lead up is nerves central!

I had the day off thankfully, which gave me a chance to pack ahead of rushing home from work (I still packed in a last minute frenzy though naturally!), watch some episodes of Stargate Universe, and chill (as much as the ADHD butterflies would allow anyway) before my gorgeous guy arrived and we set off for the airport nice and early to make sure we didn't get caught up in any Friday night traffic snarls. As it turned out, we could have walked there and still made it in plenty of time! Unbeknownst to us, the Virgin computers had crashed earlier than day creating big delays and so instead of flying out at 6.15, we spent a delightful hour plus, cooling our heels (wine, beer, chips and pink donuts help assuage the pain!The cafe at gate 40 must have adored the extra patronage) at gate 40 before being herded back to gate 35, in what was an hilariously Flying High gate swapping exercise.

Waiting at the aiport - we drank, we kicked back..... but didn't fly

But the Virgin Blue Keystone Cops hilarity had not fully run its course, and the aerobridge was broken so everyone was forced across the tarmac in scenes reminiscent of every flight I have ever taken in or our of the Gold Coast. But did the fun end there? It did not! Just into the flight, Steve & I got thirsty and Steve opened one of the funky slim water bottles I had bought at the airport newsagency/bookshop. What I hadn't read was that it was lightly sparkling water, and it fizzed out of the bottle with alarming, jean-drenching vengeance, much more aggressively sparkling than anything else! Thankfully being water no lasting damage was done, and we managed to land without anything more happening to us.


OK not true! Turns out the back door of the plane wasn't working now - thankfully the plane's engines worked just fine which when all is said and done is the one thing you want to kick along withouit interruption - so everyone went out the front door. Let's give thanks for picking seats at the front of the plane! We were met at the airport by Steve's brother, Darren who is a skateboarder, runs his own sign writing/graphics design business, and is very down to earth and friendly.

I found myself relaxing in his presence very quickly and talking to him was very easy. Melbourne's fabulous road network, and the disappation of my nerves, meant we were in the City before I knew it, and at our hotel, Causeway 353, which sits down a lane off Little Collins Street called Equitable Place, which pleased the left winger in me no end! Frankly I didn't see much evidence of human rights upholding on the cobblestones - there was an older lady in a red coat smoking in a doorway who was possibly a hooker but doubtful she was lobbying for more rights for refugees - but the hotel staff were very friendly, the room modern and clean, not that we wasted much time at 10.30 at night before we had headed back out to see what food was on offer. Men cannot live on airport food alone.... or ever really....

After a wander across some of Melbourne's wonderfully wide boulevards, and along the mall - where a drunk early 20s girl called us sexy before realising we were gay and proclaiming the fact, very humourously to any and all passers by - where Steve did a fabulous job of filling me in on Melbourne's history and architecture, and his own trips to the City as a boy when he'd buy coins, watch a movie with his schoolfriend, and eat a piece of pavlova at the Coles cafeteria. For a school boy, that was the big time! It was lovely exploring it all with him, getting a sense of what his home town means to him, and then finally finding a great unfussy place called Sambal Kampung where we ate some delicious Nasi Lemak, dumplings and vegetables and rice in egg gravy. We decided to start taking photos of the food to show our friend Fahmi who's idea of holiday snaps is endless food shots! He loves Melbourne and was so envious of us being there. I can't blame him as even this small walk around the City centre left me mightily impressed.

The lane the hotel sits in

We walked home via Flinders Street Station and Federation Square which is funky, with some very oddly angled archiecture going on. I loved it, more so when I saw the sign for ABBAWorld which I knew was starting the next day, but had figured I couldn't tickets for because everyone would have booked it out. It was wonderful spending this time with my guy in a place that had helped formed the lovely man he is, and being away in a hotel room on our first trip away where we weren't staying with family or friends.


So far, so fabulously great!