I have found a place to live

Friends,
Another week has passed in the land down under. The most exciting thing to happen to me was I have found a place to live!!! Michael and I move in to our new apartment on Wednesday October 8th.

The formal address is 7/109 Westbury St, St Kilda East, Victoria 3183.

7 is the apartment number, 109 is the street number, St Kilda East is the suburb and 3183 is the postal code. It’s located about 10 minutes by train to my office and the central business district. It is close to the beach. I spent most of Saturday wandering around the area just to get familiar with the shops and people. There are 4 $1 style stores, several pharmacies (Chemists), a Safeway and a Coles for groceries, several fresh butchers, fresh seafood shops, plenty of restaurants and bars for entertainment. Of course I found the liquor store too. One of the shops I found is this one pictured. Chickbits! they sell only chicken. Whole, raw, cooked or in bits what ever you want. Top quality stuff too! I assume. The sign made me laugh and I saw a big pile in parts of a chicken I haven't seen in a long time. So I was a little scared to go in the shop just yet.

Most districts here have a vibrant sidewalk seating area. Great for people watching and enjoying the fresh air. It’s about a 10 minute walk down to Luna Park and the beach. Luna Park is a small amusement park with an old wooden roller coaster and other kiddie style rides. It’s located right on the beach and in the more affluent district of St Kilda. I had dinner last night, in this area, with a new friend, Tony Wilson. We met on a gay apartment sharing website. It didn’t work that we should live together but he’s a nice guy and we’ve become friends. There was lots of stuff going on all around us. People, trains, cars, and a deafening sound of lorikeets in the palm trees. Not to mention the men strutting thier stuff. I'm sure there were girls too. But I didn't notice them.....People are very fashion and health conscious. So you can imagine everyone looks oh so pretty.

On another note I bought a bed this weekend. I found a wholesale furniture shop and found a nice mission style double bed with a pillow top mattress for a mere $620 AU ($515 US). I’ll be picking it up on the 8th when we have a rental van to move our stuff. Currently I’ve been sleeping on a futon in the shared place I have now. By the kindness of my new room mates, but it’s not very comfortable and I’m looking forward to something to call my own again.

Band practice went well they have a concert coming up on November 1st. There are 10 pieces the group is playing. I have hopes of learning 3. A piano Concerto by Stratochofsky. (or something like that) A piece I’ve heard many times called Typewriter, but I can’t place it. I think it’s from a musical? Then another piece called Misty that is very slow only 70 beats a minute. Some of the other selections are Peter and the Wolf, a swing song form the 1940’s called American Patrol, A Ray Charles piece and some others I can’t recall at the moment. Many of these other musical scores have several speed changes and intricate timing. So I’ll be happy if I can play the 3 easier ones I mentioned and pipe up for a few notes here and there. The MRB (Melbourne Rainbow Band) is planning a road trip to a town about 2.5 hours north of here to participate in a rural gay group event day in a few weeks. It’s a bus trip full of queens with a few wine shops on the way back. So it sounds like a fun day.

I have started back at the gym. 3 nights a week with weights and 30 minutes of cardio on a seated bike (so not to hurt my back too much). Then a long 8km walk on one weekend day is helping. I've lost the 4+ lbs (2 kilos) I gained since my back went out in March. On one of my walks I watch this tourist helicopter take off from it's perch on the Yarra river. It was neat to see it right in the middle of town. Leaving from a grassy area and going straight up with trains, buildings and people all around.

As part of my errands on the weekends, I noticed something several weeks ago I've been wanting to share with you. When you go into a store that has shopping carts they are all chained together. Which at first I just thought was a way to transport a group of them easily and some employee forgot to remove the chain. but when I tried to take a cart I couldn't disconnect the chain. Luckily some Australia noticed the dumb American was having trouble and filled me in on the proper way to dislodge a single cart from this long line of chained carts. You have to put a $1 coin into the slot and then you are able to removed the red keyed chained on the other side. You do get your dollar back when you return the cart to the line and place the key back in. It pushes your dollar back out and you take it and go home. Now it makes me wonder if I was homeless and really wanted a shopping cart to store my life's belongings in, a $1 is a deal! For some reason you don't see homeless people pushing around shopping carts.

I have started to plan a couple little excursions to national parks. Something I’ve wanted to do since arriving, but let’s face it finding a place to live was more important. So the first weekend in November! ( I know, November already! Yeah it’ll be warm here) is Melbourne Cup weekend. It’s a 4 day weekend for a big horse race where the locals dress up in their Sunday best and get drunk at the track. I plan to leave the city and take a loop trip in south western Victoria going to the famed PORTLAND Victoria at the end of the Great Ocean Drive and then heading north to the Grampians Nation Park. This is only a 3 hour drive from the city. So in 4 days I should have plenty of time to see the country side. I’ll pack my camping gear and my sax and hit the road. I have another more exciting trip planned for the 2 week Christmas break, it requires a 4x4 and a ferry trip, but you’ll have to read future blogs to see what that’s all about.

Until next time friends.....

PS: Happy 40th!!!! Birthday on the 23rd for Melissa Adams and Happy 15th Birthday for my niece Erica on the 22rd.