Today I didn’t do a whole lot… I started off by going to the Mornington tip to dump the bootload of crap I had from pop’s place. That went fine, aside from not being able to dispose of the photographic chemicals I had – fixer, developer, whatever – which as it turns out cannot be disposed of at any public location – I figured they weren’t landfill suitable, but I’d hoped the tip would have a section for such dangerous chemicals; alas, no – and the nearest private disposers the gate man could think of are in Dandenong. Great. So, the box of chemicals ended up back at nana & pop’s, for the time being at least. :/
After that I went to mum’s; watched the Macworld keynote, did some work, all the usual. I had been hoping originally to take pop’s boat down to the bay today, but Chris had to go to uni and then back home for some other event(s), so I figure I’ll wait until he’s next down so he can also be there when it first hits the water again. Plus it wouldn’t hurt to have an extra able body or two there, to help set it up, sail it, etc. Pop showed Chris & I the basics of it all yesterday – the rigging, which is pretty trivial, and basic sailing theory, which is also fairly trivial and intuitive. Anyway, Chris mentioned next Tuesday as a potential target for his return to the peninsula, so we’ll see how it goes. In the meantime, I’ll probably continue helping pop clean out the garage, and fixing up problems with the catamaran and it’s trailer. Pop was working on the latter today. The former really needs to be re-fibreglassed, or at least re-varnished, but we’ll see… it doesn’t seem to leak, nonetheless, so it’s not strictly necessary. Still, while standing on the pontoons, when it’s on dry land, you can feel the flex and movement throughout the boat, which is a little unnerving.
Anyway, from mum’s I headed to Bobo’s at about 3pm, via nana & pop’s to pick up bathers and drop off the aforementioned chemicals. From Bobo’s we went to Sket’s work – Ozanam in Mornington, whom make wooden boxes (and possibly other things; I didn’t get the full factory tour for some reason ;) ) – to grab her, and then on down to Mt. Martha beach. Sket & Bobo messaged a few people, such as Ben Goodreich or somesuch, as well as Sean of course, and curly Rachel, and so forth. In the end Sean and Rachel turned up, the latter quite late and with the intention of going down to watch a friend play at a “pub” in Dromana. I’d had a pretty reasonable swim with Sket, Bobo and later Sean, although we’d really only been at the beach for all of two hours, if that, by the time we left. Still, it was enough to get a little crispy – despite using sunscreen – and to enjoy the day before the ocean breeze started to develop.
Sket & Sean were feeling a bit sloth, which was of course quite expected given the heat and the lovely beach, but Bobo wanted to go off with Rachel. In the end I flipped a coin to decide whom to follow, as a last ditch attempt to avoid making an actual rational decision. :D Heads went with staying but lost, so it was off with Bobo & Rachel down to Longboards Surf Cafe in Dromana, which isn’t nearly as much a pub as it as a cafe, although it did have a bar.
I haven’t been to Dromana in ages. I have no idea how long… long enough to not realise there’s a whole bloody town there – seems bigger than Mornington, in terms of number of shops and general whatnot. Must have popped up overnight. ;)
It was surprisingly nice. I knew from last week that Mt. Martha dies completely by 5pm, which is a joke at this time of year where it’s still beautifully sunny and hot at 8:30pm, and I figured Dromana would be the same. Not at all – there were many cafes, pubs and whatnot open well into the evening and night, including where we were.
The friend in question is Amanda, whom I haven’t met before and don’t think I’ve even seen or heard of. But then Bobo has so many friends, that doesn’t surprise me. She was there with Sam – possibly her brother, although I never asked – and some older guy whom I think might be the owner of the cafe. That was it, when we got there, which was quite a while after Amanda was supposed to be playing. :/ Anyway, we immediately ordered some food – well, I did, anyway – and sat down. I’d bought a Big M at the service station on the way down, which was really really nice, but had the particularly strong effect – when combined with a comfy chair and the warm sun – of making me extremely sleepy. I probably could have curled up and gone to sleep… would have been nice. :D I resisted, though, and as the sun fell and it cooled, I woke up a bit again.
More people arrived eventually, all in a big group… I don’t think I’ve met half of them, but there was among numerous others Rachel’s sister Catherine (eat me on the spelling), Darren (whom looked familiar), some girl who looked slightly like crazy Cath but seemed nice – called, I think, Kim – and Sarah Dingwell. I remembered her if only because she was wearing the same shirt as the last time I saw her, at Chantels – a pixelated molar (tooth) with eyes and a falling tear, which for some reason reminds me of Space Invaders-style games; the little pixelated aliens. Anyway, now I’ve at least met her properly, although only as much as I was introduced and explained that my old house was not nearly as good as hers – to which she had the common decency to laugh politely, which is always nice to see. :)
I’m quite amenable to her, which isn’t really saying much special, but what is odd is that I’ve heard very good things about her. I mean, you might say “oh yes, I’ve heard good things about you”, but that’s usually just meaning you haven’t heard anything bad about them… in Sarah’s case it’s actual positive things. I was thinking about this for a while in the car back tonight, but now I’ve forgotten it all. Ah well. :)
When Amanda started singing, I was quite surprised – I hadn’t really presumed she would be bad, but I hadn’t assumed she’d be good either. As it turns out, she is really rather good. There was some trouble with the speaker setup, though – it was originally fine, then the guitar amp was unplugged which let us hear her strong voice much better, but then sadly the guitar amp was plugged back in and cranked, which drowned out half her singing. :(
She seemed to get progressively more and more upset, though, as the evening wore on, and didn’t seem in any mood to be concerned with the acoustic problems. :/
Anyway, the whole evening was really quite good. I spent most of it talking with Bobo & Rachel for some reason; I expected them to mingle amongst everyone seamlessly. Also, Anton’s sister Jenya (or somesuch; I can never remember) turned up not long before we left. I was quite surprised – she’s thin, blonde and quite attractive in a very Aussie way… I guess the thinness she shares with Anton, but otherwise I couldn’t see any real resemblance at all. I mentioned that I’d heard of her before, but never met her, having lived with Anton for a year. I also mentioned Damien in some manner, which didn’t seem to particularly impress her – Bobo commented later that she seemed to get quite upset by that, but I didn’t notice. Anyway, once she sat down she opened a Corona and lit up a smoke, which immediately popped that balloon like a cement truck filled with high explosive (thanks Mythbusters :D ). I’m told [later] she’s a tradey, so I guess that makes sense, but that’s still no excuse to drink Corona. :P
From there I dropped Rachel back to her car in Mt. Martha, then Bobo back to her place, and finally returned to dad’s, where I now sit. I’m surprised at myself for committing to writing all this tonight, rather than just putting it off ’till later as I usually would at this late hour – especially given I was in theory going to have an early night so that I could get down the beach again early tomorrow – but I’ve been learning over and over again (I guess that means failing to learn?) that writing about things weeks later is a real PITA. So, here it is. Now, I’m going to bed. :)
