I woke up early this morning. Thankfully without a hangover. I had watched a bit of Australian Netflix before bed, and found out that they have all the Monty Python movies which kept me up a bit longer then usual. Still, despite the overcast and rainy morning and the dark flat, I awoke bright and early at 7:30am my everyday wake up time. Good to know that even with this most extreme micro trip that the jet lag still doesn’t effect me. I could hear the rumble of Bren’s snores and knew he wasn’t quite up to stirring yet. Eventually at 9:30am he declared that it was time for a “wee and a shower” so I took that as it was time to start our day.
The morning awaiting us was just as dreary as it sounded like it would be. I grabbed the umbrella that Alana (Bren’s Flatmate) had left for me and Bren turned up the collar on his jacket against the rain. He found a breakfast place that it turns out he had passed many times and I had passed it a couple times since arriving as well - another cute looking cafe. Bren was sold when he saw that they had a bacon sandwich on the menu (which it turns out was seasonal and now it was a ham sandwich instead). We got there and of course it was packed. Neither of us had ever seen the place open much less with a ton of people in it. We grabbed a couple coffees and stood around near the take out counter until a table was ready. The wait wasn’t too bad and Bren took it as an opportunity to learn more about nootropics which they served as drink add-ons.
Finally we were seated and ordered ham and gruyere toasted sandwiches. Next to us was a young couple and their friend and baby. Bren started making funny faces at the baby and I soon followed suit. It was an adorable child but made me think of how badly my parents want me to have a kid. I shared that fun fact with Bren and he gave me the brilliant idea of telling them that if they want me to have a kid so bad then they have to commit to paying for the kid’s schooling (something I’ll definitely have to keep in mind when the subject comes up again(Edit: It came up, Mom said to tell Bren that she'll happily pay for all the child's schooling and tutoring up through a masters if it meant having a grandkid)). Our sandwiches arrived and they were delicious of course. I have yet to find a bad meal in Melbourne. We ate and told stories and laughed a lot before heading out for a wander.
The first stop was a cute bookstore. I pawed through some of the books and took a look at all the little trinkets that they had for sale. There was even packs of playing cards that were supposed to help you learn different languages - one of them was for learning Aussie Slang and I nearly picked it up. Despite this being the 4th place that I’ve spent the most time of my life in (NYC, Binghamton, Texas, and then Melbourne) I still struggle tremendously with a lot of the language barrier even though we all speak English technically. I ended up passing on the cards because they were twenty bucks and I could think of a lot better things to spend twenty bucks on - besides I always have my own personal translator on hand to help out in a pinch.
Our second stop was the Cruelty Free Shop and then Meatshop next door. The Cruelty Free shop was a little bizarre. I had never seen so many kinds of chia seeds (who knew there was even a difference between brands) and I spotted a vegan sausage roll which advertised itself as “0% of the sausage, 100% of the sausage taste” which just sounds like a terrible idea. We weren’t in there for much longer thankfully. The Meatshop on the other hand was something Bren had talked up quite a bit since my arrival so I was excited to go in and check it out. It was a combination butcher shop and little grocery, and reminded me a lot of my favourite supermarket back home - “Iavarone Bros.” I thought we were just there to peruse the meats and sausages but Bren seemed to have the idea of picking up some salami, pate, and some kind of beef thing as well as cheese and what the butcher called “the best bread in all of Melbourne” - I told her that I would be the judge of that.
The third stop was a wine store where again I thought we were just browsing until Bren asked for help finding a red wine to go with the meats and cheese we just bought. The woman pointed us to a Shiraz in our budget and we picked that up too. By now Bren’s arms were full of parcels but we were still on the wander. We passed so many boutique fashion and furniture stores and wondered how they stay open when there is no one ever in there, that is until we passed one and I stopped Bren so he could also witness that there was in fact someone actually trying on clothes in one of the boutiques!
We eventually made our way back home after picking up some meatballs so that Bren can actually make himself some lunches for the week instead of buying lunch everyday. There we ran into one of his coworkers and they chatted for a bit about what they were up to. Now we were really full of packages so it was time to head back. Once here we ran into Bren’s flatmate Jobin who had actually ran away from me the other day, but today he was all chipper and full of personality. We talked about the weather and Sweden where he’s from and about his plans for the day (going to work). It was so nice to meet another friendly person, especially one who isn’t a native to Australia. We shared a kinship over the difficulty of the accent sometimes before he headed out to work for the evening.
While Jobin and I were chatting away, Bren was busy preparing all the food we picked up on our walk about town. By the time Jobin was headed off to work I switched seats to my side of the table again and Bren turned around from the kitchen counter and placed a beautifully laid out cutting board of the bread, salami, cheese, pate, and beef remoulade thing we bought. I wasn’t hungry yet but Bren started munching away. I’m not sure why but we didn’t bother to open the wine. Bren asked if I wanted a “cuppa” and a couple minutes later two cups of tea arrived on the table. He went back to making his lunch and the ironing, cleaned up the kitchen. I caught up on some work and just hung out. Bren said it was the most productive Sunday thanks to me.
Before I knew it the sun had set and Bren put a bottle of cider in front of me before going back to his iPad and asking, “how does mini golf sound?” Sounded good to me so he booked us some time on the mini course. We took an uber and I found myself back in the city center of Melbourne, having such flashbacks to January. We walked in and it was such sensory overload. There were lights and props and music. Themed holes that wound their way through the facility and around a bar. The clerk put us on the upstairs course and it was so much fun, and a tight competition between Bren and I. When we finished the course we went to the bar to get a couple beers and order a pizza while calculating the scores. Bren won by a couple points and we had a couple laughs before finally getting and eating a spicy bbq chicken pizza. We headed back downstairs to play another round which ended up being an even crazier course. They had a hole dedicated just to Trump that had so many good details and references baked in. Bren won that round too despite my best efforts. Done with golf we hopped in an uber back to his flat then dragged his PlayStation and monitor to the living room so we could watch a movie. He put on a “kiwi film” which was a comedy vampire movie from New Zealand. It was actually really funny. I could feel my stomach rumbling near the end of the movie and opened uber eats on my phone to see what was around. Then I remembered that uber thinks Bren lives on the street next door to him and I thought being hungry is easier then chasing around a delivery driver in the cold. So I closed my phone and we moved on to watching Archer for the millionth time, when I look over and see Bren had opened uber eats on his phone too - I said to him I’m actually really hungry and he said me too! I went back to watching the show and a few minutes later he says, “ok food is on the way Lady.”
Bren had mentioned this food to me the other day. He called it a dim sim and said that it was like a dumpling but not at all. A fried pouch of meat and cabbage that is a popular snack. I love all foods that are encased in a pouch of dough or on a stick so I told him that he would have to help me find one before my trip was up. It was hard staying awake, despite the nap time we took this afternoon. Finally Bren said the food was here and left to track down the delivery driver. He came back up the stairs with a bag of food and then took out two plates and utensils. He got us a couple of cheeseburgers and fries to share. Then he puts this little fried thing on my plate. I looked at it inquisitively and he said, “that’s the dim sim!” I was so excited to try it and so amazed that he remembered and found a place that delivered it. We went back to the leather armchairs in the living room with our food and when Bren got up to get us some water and ketchup I took a bite of the dim sim. Oh my goodness. I’ve never had anything so mysteriously delicious. It was like a mini empanada tube filled with meat and cabbage mixture. I told Bren how good I thought it was and thanked him for remembering and getting it for me. Seriously I hope that it makes it back to the states cause it was amazing.
Bren asked when my flight was and said that I should try and go a day later so we can hang out on his day off. I told him I’d see what I could do considering a replacement ticket was super expensive but I wasn’t sure how it worked with a reward ticket. I considered what my options were as we finished our food and then cleaned up before bed.
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