Jazz Bus

One of the things that makes me smile is one of the bus drivers on the route to the train station. He greets everyone with a great big smile and a "Hey man, how you goin'?" which is always good. The best bit, though, is his constant playing of Jazz music, which I've never associated with a bus driver-type person! The speakers on the buses are unsuprisingly poor, so it sounds like a really old radio in the 50s or something.

Visited a suburb called St. Kilda on Wednesday(12th). Aparently it's the red light district of Melbourne, but I saw nothing to suggest that, though the whole place reminds me of Brighton except with 50ft palm trees. After another awesome Sushi lunch (and the discovery that some Wasabi is stronger than others) with Coke, I took a walk out onto the pier.

On account of the impending Melbourne F1 racing, Red Bull had hired a whole section of the pier for their promo, so I couldn't get the Icecream I really wanted, which was a shame. Beyond this, there was a rock harbour wall which curved round to create a sheltered small beach with a wooden walkway. One thing I noticed here was a group of around 5 old men standing around in speedos with pot bellies and extremely brown, wrinkly skin. It seemed like some sort of club to which only a certain demographic could join. I sat down on the walkway and listened to their banter, a few of which were too funny not to write down:

"There's only shark fins in there"/"Shark fins?"/"Yes, fins of a shark"
"I hear something"/"Whats that?"/"Bullsh*t coming out of your mouth"
"Look at his hide, its getting thicker with all these lies"
"Go, sing your song"
"If that girl comes with you again, we have to talk"

Strange old people. One of them, I noticed, had a popped out belly button that I thought only pregnant women get, which had stretched about an inch out in front of him.

Did a bit of sitting on the beach and reading, but got scared of sunburn after a while (Its really difficult to sunscreen up your back, for some reason!), quite rightly, when I realised I'd forgot to do my forearms; they're still red, a few days later. Fool! Poked some big (15cm) jellyfish with a shell, too.

It was 40 degrees a couple of days ago! Its difficult to just be outside in that sort of heat, the wind, despite it being light, felt like someone had a hairdryer on your face and body. I'm still confused how anyone could physically cool down without aircon or cooled water when blood temperature's 37 degrees or something. I think I just made sure I was inside as much as possible...

Met up with Tom Anderson yesterday, which was good. Another hot day (forest fires near Adelaide, their 11th consecutive day above 35 degrees) at 38, he found it alright as a temperature! At least it wasn't humid, that would be aweful. Might be meeting up with him between Sydney and Brisbane, and do some off the beaten track things, as he has car access.

It would be good to go into the outback - I want to do a few bushwalks, though maybe later in the year when these unseasonally big heats subside and Oz enters their "Winter".

Ok: plans for the next week: Monday/Tues doing a tour of the Great Ocean Road and surrounding area. Getting dropped off in Torquay late Tues, where I'll stay for 3 nights and surf some good incoming surf and maybe check out the Rip Curl Pro surfing championships at the same beach. Should be good! friday night, I'm getting a bus to Canberra, 10 hours away, Where I'm staying for 3 nights til Tues 25th! Then off to Sydney! I'm thinking of getting work pretty soon after getting to Sydney, but who knows... Not me, thats for sure.