Buns2025: Day 1.2 Melbourne (again)

Soundtrack: “Flame Trees”, Cold Chisel

Well shit. I wrote the Day 1.1 entry from the Virgin Lounge at Melbourne airport, while waiting for my flight back to Perth. Possible the less said the better about the food there: very ordinary machine coffee, a chicken wrap that looked to be 50-50 chicken to salad, but the chicken rapidly tapered out leaving salad, and a “Moroccan tagine” that was neither. MYO sandwich fillings were cheese and/or tomato.

I was heading home to say a final goodbye to my unsung travel support, Billie the staffy-cross, who we’d always try to pack sneakily to avoid her inevitable disappointment when we went travelling without her; who’d miss us when we were gone, and who would greet out return with a tail waggle so strong it shook her butt and measured on the Richter scale. Sadly over the last year she’d been starting to show signs that she wasn’t the crazy young dog anymore, and for all out optimism, her time with us was running out. My hope was that she’d make it through this trip, and xmas, but sadly took a turn for the worse the weekend I left. She rallied briefly, but by Monday morning we knew the time had come.

So nursing a mild hangover (while the 3 vodka drinks hadn’t had much of an intoxication effect, i guess on top of a day of travel and airconditioning the dehydration side worked) I booked the best airfare home I could find (somewhat expensive but at least it’d get me back to Perth before 5pm and didn’t involve bouncing through multiple cities), while L was liaising with vets. While I cried a bit sorting the travel, once it was done and I had nothing to distract myself the tears came and there was soon a pile of tear-stained cheap hotel tissues next to the laptop.

Having booked a return ticket, I packed my suitcase so if i didn’t make it back, I could get someone to pick it up — I hadn’t really unpacked, just in case there was bad news from home. I let the hotel know I’d be returning, then headed in the direction of a cafe that might have coffee and some food. As it was after 11am, the place was already busy, and not really wanting to be around a crowd I caught the skybus to the airport, hence the lounge blogging which meant I paused every time I typed “terminal”, and I also cried at a random USian in the lounge who was having a conversation nearby and wanted to apologise if he was too loud.

Got to Perth, and in spite of G’s GPS fail, got home in time to spend an hour or so with the best damn dog in the world, talking to her, resting her head on my leg, before holding her while she said her final goodbye.

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Given everything was already booked, the time off work, the flights, the accommodation, tickets, tours etc, there really wasn’t any other choice but to keep going on this tour. It’s also my way of honouring Billie, who had no attention span so lived every moment as if it was the only moment. At least that’s the intention right now, I guess we’ll see how that goes. I did pick up an extra block of travel tissues back in Perth.

Today was pretty similar to Sunday, early morning flight (of course all the kirminals were working when I was just travelling with hand luggage), followed by bus into Melbourne. I grabbed a HSP for lunch from one of the three, and it was good, possibly a little smaller than some of the others, but with fresh chips. Melbourne might be a city of food, but it has a weak spot between about 2-5pm, after the lunch rush, where cafes stop serving food and start closing, while the evening venues haven’t opened. I’m guessing there are exceptions, and die-hard locals have secret knowledge of hidden places that serve food that requires cutlery at 3.30pm in the CBD, but for me it was a wasteland. That was all I wanted, some cooked food that I didn’t have to eat with my hands, i.e. neither burger nor sushi, and this was not to be found, so at least I could use a fork from my hotel kitchenette for the HSP.

I caught up with old pals M and P for dinner at a pub near their house, they also brought along their greyhound A, so I tried not to cry while I gave her some attention. No buns today, dinner was the spicy fettucini with meatballs, definitely tasty and what I needed (the place also does a good parmi that I’ve had previously, a vital requirement or a pub). As we were not too far away from the MCG, the pub was full of AC/DC fans who stopped in for food and drinks before the concert tonight, once they left the back area was just us. Lots of black t-shirts, though strangely only one case of double-denim. Finished off with A deigning to share her couch with me so I could have a couple of nice whiskies, then it was time to head back to the hotel. An evening of good food, good conversation, and only a few tears.

Tomorrow there will definitely be buns, as I’m heading to a drag show featuring the amazing Marina Summers and Minty Fresh. I might even get to eat some too, as while I’m planning breakfast for my usual cafe, lunch and dinner are anyone’s guess. The plan also includes catching a gaming exhibition at ACMI, and some art and culture at the NGV.

Shout outs to ex-colleagues M and K: M who wanted me to hurry up and start blogging this trip; and K who was hassling me for not giving her a shout-out in Monday’s post.