The Melbourne Trip - Part 1

Well Kay asked for a blow-by-blow account so here it is :) :)  Please remove small children and those faint of heart from the room before reading further.

THURSDAY

Checked my mailbox and had received some Easter goodies from mum (via Karen @ Stitching Post) in the mail. Had a long and tiring day at work and then headed out to catch the bus to the airport.  Stuffed up a bit (standing at the wrong bus stop) and had many heart palpatations as I'd never done this before, didn't know the route etc but all went well.

Got everything done well in time but the plane itself was delayed. My plane didn't leave Sydney until after Stephen's had arrived in Melbourne !!!!  Oh well he and Random had some food and caught up while waiting for me.

I arrived an hour late, we traded some quips and some hugs, headed out, dropped Random off, I met his housemates.  One whom was dressed when I walked in but 10 mins later was walking around in his boxer shorts with a block of chocolate in his hands.  If I wasn't so tired and if I didn't have my arms and attention full of Random's four cats, I might have been more impressed :)

Stephen and I headed out.  Instead of a hotel, Stephen had arranged and paid for a sweet little serviced apartment. The room was absolutely lovely !!! 

I kicked off my shoes and laid down on the bed and closed my eyes.  I was soooo tired.  I heard Stephen moving around, putting things away rummaging around and then he presented me with a lovely cup of tea.  Her had brought his favourite tea with him and remembered how I liked it. 

We snuggled up in bed and chatted and talked until around 3am in the morning ....

GOOD FRIDAY

My body clock woke me up at 4:30am. I tried ignoring it but it didn't work. I eventually got up, sat in a pool of sun near the window and stitched for hours.

I got Stephen out of bed at 10am (8am according to his body clock - did I mention he was living across the other side of the country??) and we walked around the corner to Lygon Street and brunch.  Lygon Street is my favourite place in all of Melbourne.

From thence out to the Con where I had promised to deliver Stephen by midday.  We arrived at 11:59 and 23 seconds in front of Random :)  Met some more of Stephen's friends and they all tootled off to run/play games and I sat down with Stephen's laptop to write some more of my work presentation.

I felt really strange - here I am at a conventionfull of nerds and geeks and people who are like me and I'm writing up a work presentation instead of running around having fun !!!

Something's wrong with the world - I'm alll grown up !!!!

Oh welll that came to a crashing halt an hour later when the laptop battery died (guess who had forgotten to bring the power cord).  Oh well - I wandered out to the organisers and volutneered to give them a hand.  Ended up down in the canteen (you'll always find her in the kitchen at parties .....)

Rand into an ex-SCA old friend of mine.  Well actually he was a friend of both mine and my husbands and I hadn't seen him since I left the SCA.  Turns out *he* left the SCA around the same time for similar reasons !!!  So we had a good catch up and what each had been doing, and he and his girlfried and now married and they have a lovely little two year old daughter .....)

And then a funny thing happened that afternoon.  Taffy was a kitchener in the SCA like me, and we had shared many kitchens in the 1990s.  As the afternoon wore on and the canteen became more busy as games finished or took a break, we fell back into the old routines and the old comraderie and the old patter even.  The woman running the canteen Angie was amazed.  She is usually run off her feet and has five or six people she has to direct and herd like cats by that time of the afternoon.  Taffy and I were doing the kitchen dance alone and well and thoroughly enjoying ourselves.It was a great afternoon.  By the time Random and Stephen came looking for me I almost danced out of the kitchen !!!!

A bit later we were preparing to go and Stephen headed off for a little minute leaving me alone in the main hall.  I was immediately beset by GMs needing another player in their freeforms and vying with each other to have me play in their games.  I replied that although I would like to I'm afraid I cannot because I currently hold a man in thrall.

Enthralled??  My lady that is a very strong word !!! In what way do you hold a man enthralled ???

Easy I replied, I have his laptop!

Hearty laughter all way around until Stephen came back in, offered me his hand and we started to leave.  As the laughter abruptly ceased we looked around to see the same group standing their with their mouths hanging on the floor.  Stepehn murmured that I (Mel) certainly knew how to keep men gobsmacked and what salacious tale had I been telling this time ???

Int he car I told him and he roared with laughter - apparently he's known around the con circuit for always being on his own and never letting his laptop out of his sight ..... oh well.

Went around the corner to another fantastic restaurant - and had an early dinner and then a long walk around the area, admiring stuff in shop windows and chatting and talking. 

Went back to the apartment and chatted and talked more and then Stephen put the television on to catch the news and I pulled out my cross stitch and did some more ..... talk about a domestic scene !!!  It was so right and yet soooo domestic that my skin began to crawl .... Stepehn looked at me and laughed his arse off - too domestic for you my dear ???  He then made a few suggestions and we will pull the cutrtains for a few hours.

I woke up around 11pm to see Stephen walking back into the room.  He had been around to Lygon St and bought me a pint of New Zealand Ice Creamery Chocolate Ecstasy.  He thought I'd like some, so he went and bought me some.  And again we sat up and talked long into the wee small hours of the morning ......

Soooo sweeeet !!!! This is what Claire and Paula were telling me about when discussing the "small things that count" :)