Aussie Day

So lots of chatter online about the fact that I never put up any posts on this thing- really I have no stories, it turns out you all just thought I was a dynamo, I'm not really very exciting.

Last Friday, the day of days then, Australia day. Could this be my favorite public holiday? It's close, I would put it in a tie with Ekka Wednesday, The first day of the Gabba test, and Cup day- now I know, those last two aren't public holidays, but I've never worked on either so how would I know?

Lets quickly revisit some of the classic Oz days of yore:

The original and the best at the bat cave- two years in a row I think we had parties out their, griffo and her jello shot vodka's, alcholic watermelon, and the home brew kegs- hang on - Oh I'm back APF got a package from home yesterday, some super expensive mega weather conditions two man tent, he has now set it up in his bedroom- so I had to take some photos of him so he can show peeps back home that he has the tent- anyways were was I? oh, of course

Australia day at the Bat Cave- the thing I left out? the presence of the Challen sisters- who will ever forget the quality of the B A Tron rum fuelled rage attacks I managed at a couple of those parties, sigh.

Moving on, the Lockerbie Aust days- am I confusing things or were their two? I don't know but I can certainly remember the one were Kloss dogg kicked Ty square in the nuts and Ty cried- those were good times my friends.

There weren't two, I've just remembered where the one that I had forgotten was- old Humpty had one one year at the Valley Run house in Capalaba- Ashes split his head wide open and Steph was yelling "get an ambulance" we all had a good laugh.

Then Park Ave- arguably the best- why? cause no fuck showed up, just humpty, J dogg and B a Tron hanging out at Park Ave boozing, why was this good you ask? cause before the count down started or the cricket got under way Humpty and I were very bored watching Discovery when what should come on but a documentary about folk heros in other cultures- first there was El Santo- the mexican wrestling god who would later be reborn as DJ El Santo, and then Kapitan Kloss- the polish secret agent who always got all the women- it seemed appropriate - a legendary nickname was born. That afternoon is also memorable for the massive storm that hit the RE, 'no that's going the other way' said a sage like B A Tron, the made dash in said storm to the Gatta, the Governator (hooray for the new Mrs Bob- by the way kloss I brought them a congratulations your engaged bottle of champers- you owe me 5 pounds if you want in), and finally it stands as one of only two times I can every remember being actually invited around to the Kinross st palace- I've been there more times yes, but invited not so many times.

What's next- oh of course Hawthorne Rd- the purple house shirts, the blow up pool, the forty degree heat that almost killed the bird (was shithead its name?) and am I wrong but was that Humpty and Simba Kahn 1? (Humpty seems to feature a lot in Aussie day memories)

Last year, what a day, J dogg and I playing the immortal listen to the count down on the net to find out the first song an hour early joke, the worlds greatest game of street cricket ever, and of course Mick- thats two years in a row a poor showing from the Ayatollah (or so I've heard from this year)

So what would 2007 bring? I sense you leaning forward on your chairs.

Well, it started badly on Thursday when I went to the Australia shop to by my specially ordered cartoon of the News and bottle of Bundy- only I was heading home from my house sit in fulham so had my big backpack on, and no real way of getting the cartoon home- it was difficult.

Anyways, so we sat up waiting for the countdown for what seemed an age- so long that I decided to start drinking a little early, just so I could stay awake, you know... by the time it started I was fairly drunk- I called J in Chenomix, feeling a little home sick, reminisicing how it had been exactly a year ago when we had been at Lambert... he rang off pretty quickly.

Anyways, I stayed up talking to monkeys back home till about 2, the countdown was
safely on its way so I could sleep.

at 5:30 I got back up, and felt really really sick, why you might ask, well on inspection it turned out a little over half my carton and just under half my bottle of rum had disapeared, this only just being the start of Australia day I was naturally a little surprised (in my defense the stubbies were only 330 ml).

Anyways, back to the story.

Somehow the voters got it all wrong and Clown Prince only came in at 23- I was heart broken, it was not long after I woke up and my hangover was very bad. Then the top 10 came along, 7 (I think) gnarls barkley- my god I thought I even voted for this crap, then 6 was it the artic monkey's I can't remember but it was crap and I voted for it, the same for numbers 4 and 5- I was starting to get worried that my voting for this crap was what caused the hoods to be so far down, but then I remembered I voted for two hoods songs- there was still a chance, when, Damm number 3 the hard road- who would have thought fucking eskimo joe and whoever the fuck was number one?? oh well at least the hoods were number 3.

So I spent a slow morning recovering until about 10:30 when I had to leave to go for lunch with Uncle Peter and Auntie Eilean (i feel really bad about the spelling in this post but there is a reason- fucking microsoft have revoked my copy of word for some reason adn the internet isn't working so I am writing this in notepad- not the worlds greatest word processor) where was I?

oh of course, my trip to lunch- I was going early cause I knew I would need a couple of eye openers if I was to continue living- Mr Monkey was right you do get worse hang overs here then at home, must have something to do with not drinking as much water here as you do at home- did you know that the water in London has been throw a human at least 9 times? something to think about.

All this typing has made me thirsty, need water... haha I couldn't resist.

So anyways, I hit the Castle Greyskull (possibly the best nickname for a pub I will ever hear) for a couple of eye openers, and then lunch with Julie and Australian relatives- an enjoyable affair, made bad only by my realisation that when it ended I would have to go to Action Town (its real name) which is about as far down the tube as you can go. Old St is in Zone 1 (admittedly a crap area, a little bit the valley 15 years ago (when it was scary)), Fulham was zone 2, a lot like the nest, a little out of town, a little run down, but in such a ritzy area that any complaints would sound like two mothers boys who had never known a hard day in their lives

- did I tell you I saw Valinto Rossi riding around on his moped (really you say, cause I heard he was in Malaysia riding his real motor bike, well I say, it may not have been him...)

We keep getting side tracked and its not good. I got on the tube to Action Town which must be at least Zone 5 if Fulham is Zone 2, we're talking Cleveland, we're talking Edithvale- END OF THE LINE- type stuff, long enough at least so that by the end my couple of beers buzz was wearing off I needed desperately to get to the house of RDP and Mrs Bobby. When I got there I was sick enough, and it was cold enough that we decided to forgo the walkie and just get drunk before heading to the Red Back a little later in the night.

And oh my goodness let me tell you, the Red Back. If there are a couple of places that are central to the Australian experience (I'm talking Flemington on Cup day, the G on Boxing Day, Gallipoli, Kokoda- those sorts of things) then there are three things that are central to the Australian in London experience- The Shepard's Bush Walkie, The Church, and finally the Red Back- what a great pub.

One long room divided up into a bar section and dance floor, lots of aussies, lots of bad music that you just have to sing a long too- its the full package, we are talking the Victory but turned up a few watts on the energy front. It was a pretty massive night, we started innocently enough on the Snakey B's but eventually I think we were drinking Fosters Stubbies at two each ago. A dance floor hasn't had its foundations tested by such tearing up since Fridays a long long time ago, but the old firm of B A Tron and RDP still have it. We danced this way, then that, and then the other way again.

basically we are talking a good night had by all. It ended at about 2 for yours truly, I noticed that it was fucking late, and the line for the coat check was huge, so I grabbed a couple of beers and went and got in line, after a while I realized I had lost RDP and started looking around for him, but I couldn't leave the line- he was gone (Robby if your wondering I did get home fine...)

anyways, the rest of the night is a little scketchy, there was some Blond Yank in the coat check line, we were hugging at one point but that's the extent of my memories of her- I don't know her name, but lets just call her Annie 3, and then I was on the bus (one of many) that I had to take to get back to Old St and the safty of the Pickle. I ended up home sometime around 3:30 I think- but who the fuck really knows.

All in all it was a pretty good Aussie Day- fairly sure it was better then what I could have gotten at the Lodge or on South Straddie at least.

B