/karen/

Nine: Wednesday 20/07/2005

Sunday, 24 July, 2005

I go to breakfast by myself and then delete all my spam and half-heartedly check my email. Kathleen and I walk to Borders and find it doesn't open until 10. Obviously it operates on Uni student time. I sit on a bench and start knitting another Katia Himalaya hat. Kathleen browses the discount bookstore opposite.

When it opens, we go exploring. I buy Mr. Punch, The Last Temptation and a birthday present for Haoran. All these are going towards the hive mind that is the Un brothers (and whoever else can be trusted with such rarities for the purpose of artistic advancement). I get a very nice curly-haired Borders shop assistant who asked me if I went to see Neil and I said I did and had he and he said regretfully no. Unfortunately the Borders 15% voucher is quite obscure and doesn't mention that we can only get 15% off one item. Kathleen, though disappointed, does not bring out her big lawyer guns though she tells me she is tempted to do so in Brisbane with her other one.

We catch the tram into town and find the art bookshop, Metropolis, that Kathleen was recommended. I get distracted by the fact they sell CDs and start SMS-ing Ben to find out if he's been there before. He hasn't and sends me messages like,

can u c if they have pat metheny letter from home?

and

oh! c if they have neutral milk hotel in the aeroplane over the sea

(Where he finds these people I do not know.)

They don't have Pat but they do have Neutral Milk Hotel In the Aeroplane Over the Sea but only on vinyl and, even though the sound quality is better, Ben doesn't want it on vinyl.

Kathleen and I continue to walk around the city. I buy new shoelaces from Colorado because mine are falling apart so bad I don't want to risk my shoes falling off my feet. The shop assistant kindly lets me change them over in his store. We wander into T2 and smell the chai (I also fell in love with the smell of gyokoru asahi but it was ridiculously expensive). I buy a new lip balm from The Body Shop because mine has finally run out and the Body Shop sells the cheapest good lip balms I can find.

We also found Of Science and Swords, a small sci-fi/fantasy bookshop I discovered when I bought my copy of Cryptonomicon off Jon on eBay. The package came with a With Compliments slip and I told him I would come visit when in Melbourne. Since then, he's kept sending me catalogues. His books are usually several dollars cheaper than the normal retail price and I don't know how he does it but he does. While I was there, I bought Stardust (not the graphic novel) and The Dream Hunters for $30 (the first Sandman graphic novel I ever read, courtesy of Haoran) which more or less completes my Sandman collection.

I found a stack of very reasonably-priced blank journals at Angus and Robertson stationery and could not resist buying a few. They do not measure up to the beautiful journal that Kathleen made me (which I have forgotten to take a picture of) but nonetheless a journal is a journal and when you're a student, you take what you can find without forking out $30 for one.

We eat lunch on Bourke St (Kathleen gets a phone call from Deb), then go back into the Strand Arcade to poke around in the Christmas shop (on top of the Babushka shop) and buy beautiful butterfly hairclips at Paint and Powder and candy at Suga (surprise lollipop for Ben). Melbourne is a virtual rabbit warren of arcades and nooks everywhere—even though Kathleen and I were sick of walking and carrying stuff around, we can't help walking into another doorway, another little arcade.

We go into The Chocolate Box (I buy chocolate rocks for Ros) and Lincraft and I ponder whether or not to buy this book and don't. Kathleen gets a new wallet at Cherry Lea (beautiful clothes and accessories but no cloche hats). We discover Haighs Chocolatiers and I am amused to find that there are tours for chocoholics (I think of my sister-in-law).

We also discover Basement Discs which, amazingly, Ben has not yet unearthed. I am back to SMS-ing him again and end up buying You Am I, Tori Amos and Humble Pie (whom he's never heard of) on sale.

Still tired of walking and carrying but there's an oriental tea house and across the street, there's Minotaur and, amazingly, they are carrying the only paperback copy of Sunshine that I have seen in Australia (though perhaps they are more widespread that I think). I tell Kathleen she must buy it and she obeys. I discover the comics section of the shop and splurge on Murder Mysteries (look, the art's by P. Craig Russell who also did “Death” in Endless Nights; if you were me, you wouldn't have resisted either!) and a birthday present for Guan. They have The Dream Hunters for $28 (*sigh!*).

I ask about anime soundtracks for Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Trigun and Cowboy Bebop (which, incidentally, was playing in Koko Black the first night we were there) but they don't have them. The lady very nicely writes down the names of all these other anime stores for me but I have run out of steam and this time we really do get on a tram and go back to University College to knit and read the American Gods weblog. In the meanwhile, I get SMSs from Ben informing me there is a street named “Saint Mangos” and that he is visiting the CD stores that I messaged him about earlier.

I get an SMS from Liwen who says

Neil gaiman is @ ki okuniya right now! I can see the b ck of his hair

I ask her in capital letters “ARE YOU GOING?” (come to think of it, why didn't Guan go?). She messages back,

No i was buying a book & saw him or his hair

That's friends for you. She's not into his work at all but she knows that I'm slightly obsessed.

Anita comes to pick us up for dinner and we go to Gurkhas for Nepalese for dinner because I can't get the memory of Anita's cooking out of my head. I eat goat for the first time and it is quite tasty. I point out the statue of some idol in the restaurant and Anita gets a bit uncomfortable, wondering why she hadn't noticed it before. I don't have a problem with eating in restaurants with idols but others do. (What do you think?)

Anita suggests gelato for dessert and we walk down Lygon St, past all the hawkers trying to get us into their restaurants (promising to take good care of us! Lygon St is like Leichhardt in Sydney; total Little Italy) only to find the gelato place is shut. Anita then suggests Southbank. Ben is tired so we drop him off and invite Kathleen along instead. We park and walk past the Victorian Arts Centre along the banks of the Yarra river. The trees are all lit up with blue.

There is a group of three guys sitting on a park bench, busking with small amps and bongos. I think of Ben and take some photos of them. The waterfront reminds me of Darling Harbour/Cockle Bay (complete with an aquarium across the water). Anita takes us into Crown Casino/hotel which has a fountain and a foyer that constantly plays music with coloured lights and leaping balls and jets of water. It is very cool—especially when chandelier-type things come down from the ceiling.

We go and have dessert at Cafe Greco. The interior is full so we have to sit outside but the heaters keep us warm. Between the three of us we split a slice of baked cheesecake and a slice of hazelnut meringue. It is delicious. At some point during the evening, the great obelisks which line the Yarra start spouting flame. Some of it is so large and intense, we can feel the heat on our faces.

It's getting late and Anita still has prac tomorrow. We walk back along the Yarra. The trees are covered in fairy lights.

Flinders Station is also lit up nice and pretty.

Anita comes up to see our accommodation and I show her the journal Kathleen made me. I say goodbye to her—I don't think I shall see her again until she comes to Sydney in September.

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