Melbourne airport, otherwise known as Tullamarine airport, is cozy. Compared to its relative, the Sydney International, Melbourne’s cozy and comfortable.

Its less crowded, shorter queues, less stressful and I find, more friendly. Well, even the immigration, emigration and custom officers have a sense of humour. And that, is something which has been severely eroded around the world because of heightened security. The first face a visitor has to see need not be a grumpy one, but in Melbourne, it has always been a smile, a few short questions and one is off.

What I have found lacking, are shops and seats. It would be nice to have a larger variety of shops, and more comfortable seats, both inside and outside the departure lounges. But one can’t have everything, especially if Melbourne is to maintain its coziness.

Free wireless internet would be nice too, allowing me to surf to my heart’s content while waiting for a flight.

Foodwise, I can not complain. I mean, it will be unfair to compare it to, say, Singapore airport with its large variety of cafes and restaurants. But for its capacity, it is doing well. McDonalds is always filled to capacity and I usually have difficulty finding seats at the other cafes. Maybe a larger food court will be nice too, with more comfy seats.

The domestic sections has been greatly improved, well, at least the Qantas side. Its all white, shiny and very clean.

I have yet to experience any delays at Melbourne airport. Maybe I have been lucky, but I like to think its just a nice airport.

I think this is the first time we’ve had two hot ‘work’ days in a row and the difference to me was quite stark. Friday vs Monday has always provided a wardrobe contrast but this week was rather extreme.

Today had more normal work wear but with jackets left behind or stockings not worn. I, personally, forsook the tie. But Friday saw casual Friday plumb the depths. Apparently a singlet, skirt and thongs are now appropriate work wear. When did this happen? Am I out of touch? Most of the girls dressed this way looked great, so what the hell am I complaining about? It certainly added to the atmosphere for the Friday night staffies.

I know it

Being located squarely on the radical left I felt compelled to volunteer the

One of my favourite weekend “activities” is Sunday Yum Cha with a regular group of friends. We usually hit the 11am session at either the Shark Fin Inn or King Bo in Little Bourke Street, or occasionally treat ourselves to the sublime all-you-can-eat at the Red Emperor in South Bank.

There’s a core group of 6, but we have been known to expand to more than 20 people over two tables. Today it was 7 of us at the 1pm sitting at King Bo and as usual we stuffed ourselves silly. We were put into a side room and at first we were worried because if you’re not in the centre of the action the carts often don’t come past you. But today there was no need to fear. Virtually everything we could ask for came our way and we may have overdone it even more than usual.

Thus our post-Yum Cha ritual of walking off the food by touring the city’s book stores, and of course JB HI for CDs and DVDs. By the time all those bases are covered, you can almost be ready for the next meal. Almost.

It’s 2am in the morning…
Hangover approaching…
It’s fucking crazy out there…
Video-cam-reality’s taken us hostage…
People-are-killing-each-other…
And yet it still feels okay…

Kinda…

>> Borsch, Vodka, Tears >>

Life seen through the debris of a vodka glass…
Through the green faerie haze…
Through the wormwood narcosis…

Melbourne’s best kept secret…
Well…
Maybe…
Not so secret…

105-grains-soaked-in-the-husky-tones-of-edith-piaf…
Candlelight…
Strangers…
Conversations…
Berlin…
Blue Angel…

Post-9/11-Partisan-World…
Digitized…
Sanitized…
damn…
Does it matter as the absinthe burns…
Takes your breath away…

>> Sublime >>

RESPITE FROM TODAY…
AND MAYBE TOMORROW...

Today,I saw something unusual at lunch. To feed my junk food habit, I visited the McDonald’s by Victoria market. There, I observed a man dipping his fries into his chocolate sundae before eating it! Unusual or what!?! Anyway, I thought I’ll give that a try.

Armed with my meal and sundae, I started testing this potentially lethal combination. Believe it or not, its actually not bad! The coldness of the sundae, mixed with hot fries, reminds me of fried ice cream in reverse. If fried ice cream is an explosive mixture, this combination of fries and sundae implodes in my mouth. Try it!

As an aside, I love Vic market. With summer coming, its going to be really nice sitting in sun. People in the northern atmosphere are going to be really jealous. Or they already are.

With the holiday season and summer both getting revved up, I have become chained to the deep fryers and larder at work. I am not too happy about that and I have the burns to prove it, but I also appreciate the paychecks. So I am torn; torn between my love of life (or the want to just have one) and the need to pay for crap. The plan was to just work, save up money and go on a trip for new years. Yay. This plan is now under attack by the Devil, or cheap CDs. I won

I was walking down Swanston street trying to figure out what to eat. Have you ever wondered how many sushi places there are on this street?
There is Chinatown on Little Burke, but no, I’m rather tired of that. So I continued walking. I walked passed RMIT, my feet unconsciously leading me to Papa Gino in Lygon.

Hmmm pizza. Just what I needed.