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What a great week it was, and an excellent idea of Shawnie's for us to take a break and drink... Oh i mean SHOP our way around Melbourne!
I thought it was time now to put up a few pics and tell about some of the funnier things that happened. Every day was full of fun, food and *clinky drinkies*, but the absolute highlight was meeting the wonderful loo-loo and catching up with ruggerz, Doug and hawksfan again.
A very big thank you to moonbuggy and TrevorT for running their bots while TriviaQueen took a little holiday too !! I suspect that she went afk to play poker, the tart! I hope she won !!
To download one of our videos, simply right click and select save link as... then point the save path to your desktop or your My Videos folder
southbank vid.avi - This video was taken along the lovely river walk along the Yarra near the casino - size 11,335k
The Crown Towers were our two nights of pure indulgence. No wonder they charge like wounded bulls and get their 5 star rating. You cannot fault the service, the customer support, the cleanliness, the luxuriousness and the unadulterated opulence!
The main foyer is all red leather and sparkling chandeliers. A grand curved staircase that would be completely in place in some Hollywood movie.
Chinese New Year was the theme for the active display during our visit. Every hour they would have all the displays become active and being chinese new year of course there was a huge dragon with smoke billowing from his nostrils, simulated firewords display with lanterns in the ceiling moving and flashing. I think we have a vid for a short section of this and will upload it when we get the vid links working properly
This ugly mother was *huge*!!!!!
Ok so I went a little overboard on the photos. I think we took nearly 200 plus a few vids.
But you really know you have gone too far when you get a tap on the shoulder, and a polite word "Sorry Ladies, no photos of the main gaming floor allowed"
Quickly tuck the camera away in my bag and apologise as we smile and scoot off before they make us delete it.
But talk about quick!! The flash had just gone off and they were there at our sides. Kinda cute the short one tho, don't ya think Shazz? I wonder if I had asked to take his pic, would he have let me?
In the outlet mall right in the city, I couldn't help getting a photo of these ruby slippers for AnD-1, to go with that quote of his:
[Cecilia] I've got a song for you to download... [AnD-1] kewl .. [Cecilia] you're gonna think I'm nuts .. [Cecilia] the song title is "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"....by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole .. [Cecilia] it's soooooooooooooooooooooo cool :) ... [AnD-1] lolll .. [Cecilia] lol .. trust me...it's way cool ... * AnD-1 puts on his ruby slippers and skips off to find it
There were some pretty good deals there if you are into clothes shopping. Oh, if anyone happens to go there and finds a ladies top made by Barkins Basics I will take 20 more please ! They were going 3 for $15 and they are sooo comfy!
The Queen Victoria Markets are amazing too. Everything under the sun and high quality foods. Don't miss the fabulous delicatessen if you go there! Thanks for the tip there loo-loo.
Thursday was the night to meet loo-loo for dinner. We were in our room at the Crown Towers waiting to go down and meet her. The arrangement was that she would come into the general vicinity of the casino and hotel, and call us. Shawnie's phone rang and it was our mate loo-loo. She began to describe where she was, and we started looking out the window from 20 floors up. She mentioned flags and we thought, yes she is probably right below us. So Shawnie noticed two white sculptures on the pathway along the river, and thought this would be a good landmark for loo-loo to find. Shawnie asked me what I thought they looked like to describe them to loo-loo. I said, white donuts! So of course, Shawnie promptly tells loo-loo to look for the big white cock rings! It worked a treat. We could see the lovely loo-loo sitting on the base of one waving up at us and talking on her phone.
Dinner with loo-loo was an extravaganza that included a dessert buffet with way too many things on it to choose from, including a chocolate fountain, cockrings made out of white chocolate, and mousse dick heads to go with them
Folks, loo-loo doesn't just TALK about having a sweet tooth, she polished off a plate full I can tell you, all covered in chocolate sauce from the fountain, too. All of us, in fact, did ourselves proud with all that chocolate and we never spilled any.
Upon hearing about this boomer thought somehow wet chocolate t-shirts should have been on the agenda, which would have been interesting because the chocolate hardens after you pour it on !
The next day we had another fine meal with the ever delightful hawksfan at a Japanese restaurant at Southgate. loo-loo joined us and we all shared probably a few too many cognacs (they were just sooo tasty!) and sent hawksfan back to work with an inner glow I should think. I know we were walking around Melbourne half cut after that, but what are holidays for?
ruggerz and douggerz took us out to a great pub for dinner, then to a drag show at The Opium Den in Collingwood. Upon entry I was looking at a basket of goodies by the door, thinking they were lollies, but I couldn't figure out which kind. This apparently amused ruggerz who grabbed us each a souvenier packet on the way out later. They were condoms.
The drag show was excellent, Kaye Sera had flamboyant costumes, and is one of the few Drag Queens who sings in her own voice. She is very funny and entertaining and has better legs than me.
The Drag Queens weren't the only entertainment at The Opium Den. A pretty, young and very wasted Asian man was working the crowd for a quickie. He attempted to pick up Doug and got nowhere, so he moved on to the next table. Of course the ever shit stirring Doug and ruggerz had to slyly throw little paper wads at him! He knew something had hit him, but he was that wasted that he couldn't figure it out. Very hard to keep a semi straight face. Well Ming, as they dubbed him, finally found a man, who we dubbed Ralph Lauren as he was older and had a sweater tied around his shoulders. They disappeared out the front door but were back in 10 minutes. LOLLLLL. Hope they took some of those freebie condoms.
Speaking of shit stirring, ruggerz entered me in a door prize draw, and they picked my name! It was during the singer Andrea Rieniets act, and she called me up to the stage to get my prize. Then she read out the entry slip ruggerz had written, noting that my email address read SeattleSexPot@yahoo.com. I looked at ruggerz who was absolutely pissing himself laughing. Hey we got a 10 year old Andrea Rieniets CD and free bottle of champagne out of it. :)
Web Site: Kaye SeraWeb Site: Opium Den
Web Site: Andrea Rieniets
One of the other performers was named Lulu, and trust me, Lulu makes a fugly woman, but appropriately sang a derogatory and hilarious song about a bank. She was decked out in a blonde wig, and the shortest mini dress ever. Shawnie bought her cd, and when Lulu bent over to pick it up, she asked us "What we were laughing at? They aren't THAT big are they?"
After all that entertainment it was back to ruggerz and douggerz for a drink and a dip in the spa in their lovely tranquil garden. Thanks you guys for such a great night!
Sunday we decided to continue Shazz's education and introduction to Melbourne with a visit to St Kilda.
I ask you, how can you say you have been to melb and not go to St Kilda on a sunday!!!!
Luna Park is still an icon and the screams from the scenic railway and big dipper could be heard as we got out of the car.
My family were so good giving up their weekend to show us around, drive us here and there and share the delights of that place.
We crossed the road from Luna Park and walked along the Esplanade.
It is just mile after mile of stalls (ok so it seems that long).
The weather was perfect, the crowd wasnt too huge so it was a pleasant stroll.
Everything you could possibly want you will find at the Esplande Markets, we even found a great present for hawksfan
If not for the fact we had to get stuff back to Perth I think i could have done a serious injury carrying everything I wanted to buy
From the Esplande, looking down over the Lower Esplanade/Jacka Blvde out over St Kilda Beach.
Such a beautiful place.
And of course, the famous (infamous??) Melbourne Trams. They are a great form of quick transport not just in the city but out to some of the suburbs as well.
Even if we did have one free trip cos we had no idea how to buy a ticket, what area a zone covered etc. Thankfully on our next trip we worked it out cos there were ticket inspectors as we got off the tram in Collins Street.
OMG!!! I can still not get over all the food and cafes everywhere you look over there!!
And fancy calling your cafe Greasy Joe's Cafe!!!
This was a normal burger, nothing supersized or anything, and soooooooooo tasty!!!
Ummm .. is that a glass of bourbon and coke I spy next to that plate? Must have been Shons lunch.