The last thing I say about Melbourne, I promise.

Okay, I think I have almost loved Melbourne enough on this thing...and I have recent life developments which I want to talk about.

LIKE MY HAIR! It's about 2cms long now! Exciting!
...and other things that are far more exciting than that, I promise.

Yana and I went to Melbourne Zoo the Thursday we were there (26-04). The animals were in fine form and their keepers were well informed and engaging. It is obvious that their breeding programs the zoo were working and were well publicised throughout the zoo, allowing visitors to look behind the scenes and view many enclosures of young animals. Perth Zoo has amazing breeding programs in place too but the public awareness of this fact is less than adequate. It was great to know that the $20 I paid for entry was going to be invested in both public awareness and conservation. Not to mention  recycled water and paper was used throughout the entire place. Gosh darn, these kids have thought of everything.

The monkeys were adorable and their enclosures were absolutely amazing. Below is a (fairly poor quality) picture of baby and its parents. Cuteness overload. 

Butterfly house! I miss the Perth one so much...

I'd post the rather homoerotic photo of two lions but I'm scared it'd get flagged or some shit. I also can't be fucked finding my camera. I'm guessing that particular breeding program isn't going too well...

So yeah guys. The next time you're in Melbourne this place deserves a god damn visit.

That night I went out with a friend to see Mojo Juju at The Toff. She features in Kim Boekbinder's music video for "Stalker". That is literally all I knew about her. She was unlike any other performer I had seen. Awesome.

The Toff also stood up to its admirable reputation, complete with adjoining rooftop bar and restaurant  below. I was pretty much in heaven.

We then traipsed on over to Cherry Bar where it was Soul Night. Such fun!

The next night was most people's last in Melbourne so we all met up at The Corner Hotel to see An Horse. I've been wanting to see the place ever since Megan Washington broke the standing record for the number of sellout shows there (five!).  

[I just have to pause this blog to eeek at Amanda Palmer RTing me. Twitter is going crazy on me. I need a life...]

ANYWAY. The Corner is a beautiful venue complete with excellent sound and red curtains that open and close in between sets. An Horse completely rocked it and they were lovely when I stumbled over my words when I met them after. Crush totally developing.

I really need to end this Melbourne love-fest at some point so I will leave you with these dew things...

1) Lawrence Greenwood is a total babe. He sang old Whitley songs and his new songs and read poetry. All the good things.

2)When walking down Brunswick street to get to Lawrence Greenwood on my final night I was caught in a moment. It was growing dark and raining ever so softly. I had never felt more at home in a place. My eye's welled up with tears as I silently said goodbye to the beautiful city. A city I hope to soon call my home. 

That is all. I will stop myself there or I may never stop. 

Melbourne: The Prelude

So, it has yet again been confirmed that I am atrocious at keeping any form of record of my life. Maybe it stems from years of me neglecting and despising the journal I had to write for ballet. I do have an excuse this time though!

Melbourne was far to busy to sit down for long enough to write even a page about what was happening. I met wonderful people, saw some old friends, went to amazing gigs every night and just generally spent time falling deeply in love with the city itself.

But first, I will tell you the reason why I went in the first place. Kim Boekbinder is a musician currently based in Melbourne where she is starting to create her second solo record. She is an unsigned artist and is currently running a site called MISSION CONTROL where fans can subscribe by donating a as little as $10 a month. There's a blog where she's releasing new music every couple of days along with her thoughts and news of her progress. There's also a forum where you can meet other subscribers who are obviously of similar musical tastes.

This is the MISSION CONTROL site: http://www.theimpossiblegirl.com/

Kim's a wonderful person and a spectacularly interesting artist so go check her out. You will not regret, I can assure you.

The forum is where I met another girl from Perth who had already planned to go over to Melbourne to see Kim's last residency show. I was considering it but after that was just thought "oh, why the hell not!" and so I booked tickets that week! I decided that I would just stay with friends rather than book a hotel for myself so I could see a bit more of Melbourne, stay for a few more days and not be completely broke once I got home.

To start with I was just going to stay for a Kim's gig and then leave pretty much straight away. I realised however that if I did go over to see Kim I'd miss Lawrence Greenwood (aka Whitley) and An Horse. Dilemma! I ended up booking a flight getting in Wednesday morning and leaving on the Sunday afternoon. I've never been on a holiday by myself like this so I was nervous but overwhelmingly excited.

More to come if you'd like to listen. I promise the story will get a little more exciting.

LOVE x