Viva la Vida

Friday morning started with a crash. As I leaped out of bed to make my way downstairs, I had my suspicions as to what caused the thunderous alarm.  Unfortunately, my instincts were correct as I walked downstairs to find Pete & Mardi standing in the lounge room amid dust staring up in bewilderment at the ceiling with collapsed plaster everywhere.  

It was a healthy chunk of damage about 2’ in width and 6’ in length.  At least no one was hurt.  I applaud the homeowners for maintaining their cool as I would have been sideways for the weekend.  However, Pete & Mardi viewed this as an opportunity to begin the renovations to the room, which were in the plans albeit not as an immediate expense.  

We all chipped in with clean up as Pete & Mardi returned home from their business day that was also filled with stressful moments.  I made my way over to the bottle shop to pick up some cider and ales to reward our efforts.  As I was placing the bottles in the fridge, one fell and smashed all over the kitchen floor.  Retard.

I was then in the backyard hosing off the mop, broom and various other household items to remove dust and eau du biere, Buster eluded my eye and escaped to run amok on the streets.  F*@#! If you are or have ever been a dog owner, you know this is considered a fun sport to the animal as you frantically chase them around the neighbourhood.  Tactics like unresponsiveness to commands and stopping to let you get close before turning the after burners on are commonplace.  I could sense that my gaffes were not sitting well and I was expecting nothing less than an eviction notice. 

Alas Buster made her way over to the park, which has enclosed entrance gates and we managed to finally corner her to attach the leash.  You could tell she enjoyed the moment. Once again Pete & Mardi remained understanding, which was a relief.  Yet, I still felt like an idiot.  

After all the fun we noticed we were left with just under an hour to get ready for dinner plans we had made with Emily downtown.  It was time to get the evening underway with style so a little toot of tic tacs took care of relieving some stress.  

We had originally intended to go to Cookie, a Thai restaurant that was a Melbourne institution as well as highly recommended by friends abroad. Regrettably, they were full for the evening so plans were made for a better Melbournian experience at MoVida, a Spanish tapas restaurant.

Dinner was amazing!  We noshed on several dishes, each better than the next.  The highlight reel of deliciousness included items like Carillera de Buey (Beef Cheek), Costilla con Sobrasada (Pork Cutlet), Cecina (Wagyu Carpaccio) and Bistec Tartar de Wagyu (Wagyu Steak Tartar). Wow!  A lovely bottle of Perez Cruz Reserve Carmenere wine topped the experience, not to mention the sparkling wine we had as an aperitif.

As we were now in the moment of enjoying the evening of each other’s company, satiated by our meal and libations; our daily worries seem to be long distance memories.  It was time to get our groove on and another round of tic tac bumps aided our cause.  

As we made our way through the laneways of the CBD, Pete continued to amaze and educate me on the history and culture of Melbourne.  The street art was fascinating.  We made our way over to ACDC lane and up to 24 Moons bar/club.  There was a decent band playing a mix of R&B/Soul/Funk music, but they were somewhat inconsistent with rhythmic flow.  We had a couple of rounds of drinks, strutted our stuff on the dance floor for a little bit before opting to hop along to another destination.

Unfortunately the skies had opened up, which limited our options without hailing a cab.  We found another place, but it was a little sparse than we had hoped so we stayed for one drink only.  Instead of battling the elements we were in agreement to hit a bottle shop and make our way back to Pete & Mardi’s for a little house party.  As it goes, the evening was filled with hilarious conversation, ample drinks and a little more party favours.  Lo and behold it was 5a! Another out for the count Saturday was in my future.