This week was spring carnival week and on Tuesday it was the
biggest race meet of the Australian calendar, the Melbourne Cup, which meant a
public holiday just for Victoria – yes a day off work!!! It was weird having a
public holiday on the Tuesday though and really threw me, and I’m sure many
others, off the working week. Monday was very quiet in work because of this
holiday and I had a fairly easy day, especially with lunch time beers with Cian
and Brad – the weather was pretty good after all! In the evening it was date
night number 2 with Darcy although it was my treat this time. It was
recommended we go to Chin Chins, what we were told was an amazing Thai
restaurant. We got there early to put our names down because as we were warned
there was a two hour wait for a table (this place must be bloody good) which
gave us time to do the other part of the date which Darcy didn’t know about,
Chill On Ice Bar. As expected, Darc was a bit like a little excited kid for
this, especially once we were all kitted up in our gloves and big coats.
Although fairly small, it was pretty cool in there and so so cold! We both had
a cocktail out of an ice glass which tasted really good and had some of the professional
pictures taken (annoyingly they banned you from using your own camera – boring I
know!).
We had an allocated time of around 30 minutes in the ice bar but around
this time we both started to freeze a little and decided it was time to warm
back up again in the nice Melbourne evening. We headed back to Chin Chin’s and
went downstairs in Go Go Bar for a drink and within 15 minutes our table was
ready. The food was absolutely amazing and 1 million percent worth the nearly 2
hour wait and bill that come at the end of it (not the cheapest of places), and
you could say they had 2 very satisfied customers who will definitely be
returning. Overall it was a really lovely evening, which was followed by a good
day on the Tuesday – Melbourne Cup day. The weather was once again beautiful and
starting to look like summer’s approaching, so we decided to head down to St
Kilda to have brunch on the beach front before chilling on the beach. After a
good time of tanning (or burning in Darc’s fair skinned case) we got ice cream
and headed to the Elephant and Wheelbarrow pub to put on a quick bet and watch
the Melbourne Cup race – race of all races. Much to Darcy’s disgust I won which
I was very glad about, because even though it wasn’t enough to make me a
millionaire it meant I broke even and gained 7 bucks – winner! In the evening I
met up with Barry for dinner, a family friend from the UK, and it was a lovely
evening and really nice to see a friendly face from home.
The rest of the
working week was fairly quiet, especially with the day off in the middle of the
week. James had now finished his testing so that was no longer keeping me busy
and generally in terms of testing it had died down (uni was now finished and as
most of the students are participants for the research, they seemed to have a
bit of a hold on testing). I did manage to get involved in a couple of other
studies however, analysing blood using a radiometer – a machine I hadn’t used
before and seemed to analyse and report back on all the possible components and
values of blood, and observing the study of one of the girls upstairs who was
looking at brain activity when doing dual tasks of walking and turning left and
right in response to a signal. She also said there was a possibility to be a
participant too which would be good! The week finished as every other, with a
Friday seminar followed by a drink in the bar, although I only stayed for one
drink this week as I was heading to Darcy’s to hang out with Tilka and Jack for
the evening.
In the week I entered Melbourne’s 14km city2sea run so I
decided on Saturday morning to get up and do a nice 10km run. Considering this
was the longest distance I had run in a while, I actually ran pretty well and
quickly and it was an enjoyable run. In the afternoon I decided to do a bit of
a window shopping down Collins street and then at Southwarf DFO (factory
outlet). I spotted some absolutely gorgeous and killer heels but after an
expensive Monday for date night, I knew I shouldn’t be buying anything so left
empty handed and still thinking about the shoes! Darc picked me up on his way
home from work and cooked me dinner in the evening. It was a very shit evening
though if I’m honest, receiving bad news from back home which made miss home a
lot and feel quite homesick. It was a good thing Darc came over though because
he was an absolute star and even tried cheering me up buying my favourite lindt
chocolates (little did he know) and a bottle of wine! It was safe to say I had little
sleep last night and was very tired, missing home and still feeling like shit
this morning. So ….. I went back to DFO and brought the shoes (they did have
30% off and were really nice and I only have one pair of heels I actually wear)
and a lot of other stuff too (so much for not spending any money) and then
spent the afternoon and evening curled on the sofa watching Bridget Jones.
