No Climbing, No Gas?

Weekend of the 26-27th September 1998

No climbing this weekend I am sad to say. It was the Grand Final weekend in Melbourne so its just a big excuse for a party.

An old friend is in Melbourne at the moment so I showed him around the sights.

On Friday night we went to the Casino to laugh at all the stupid gamblers and to see the big flaming torches. After waiting for over an hour for them to go off we realized that they run on gas and there is none of that in Melbourne at the moment! Well that was a waste of time.

On Saturday I went MTBing in the Dandanongs again. The weather was super brillaint. About 20' and perfect skies. The whole mountain was covered in amazing flowers (its finally spring down here!!). I did lots of crazy downhills and found so many good paths. Its a pity that I was by myself so I couldn't get lifts back to the top. It was usually an adrenaline packed 15min ride down and a hour slog back up again. The area I was riding in is def. the best MTB riding I have ever done. The dirt is quite muddy so has good traction (no loose gravel) and there are many options, single track, 4WD tracks, dirt bike tracks, Fire roads. Its all wickedly downhill so is very fun.

On Sat. night I went to a rave with my old friend. Its was called Pure Flow 4 (or something like that) and was held in a huge warehouse. The building by day is the National Flower Centre so has really good air conditioning so is a perfect dancing arena. It had two big areas, one for standard techno and one for drum and bass. It also had a big chill out room withs lots of pillows, mattresses and assorted food and drinks. It was a most enjoyable night/day (we got home at 8am). Lots of very funky raver dudes in very wild outfits. I think the dance scene is taken very seriusly down here.

After a few hours sleep I went to the Fringe Festival on Brunswick St in Fiztroy. It was super massive (maybe 100,00? people packed into a super long street with about 10 seperate stages. The highlights of the day were, live drag queen singing talent quest, huge parade (ala Mardis Gras), huge outdoor techno area and lots and lots of wacky people. A very eye opening event.

I then went home and went to sleep. As you have read I achieved no climbing what so ever. But tonight I am off to the Mill for a boulder. I am currently cooking dinner at home with my Trangia camp stove. At least we have electric hot water, most people at work don't. They have worked out a roster to use the one shower at work! We won't have gas for at least a week they reckon. Oh well :-)