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The Agfest trip that wasn't |
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Sunday, 06 May 2007 |
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I've been working on a cunning plan for a few weeks now. When I bought Emma and Brad a new Playstation 3 I told them I wouldn't be able to take them to Melbourne this year to watch the footy. Well you should have seen the look on their faces. They didn't make me feel guilty, or pressure me in any way. They understood the reasons and just moved on. This really impressed me so I set about organising a secret trip. I bought tickets for the St Kilda V's Carlton match at the Telstra Dome last Friday night, but this meant I had to take them out of school. I was going to tell them they had a dentists appointment, but it was going to be a bit hard explaining why they had to pack clothes, but then Emma handed me a beauty on a plate. She asked if we could go to Agfest. I pretended to be on the phone booking accommodation at Grindelwald and it was all set. It was really funny seeing them pack spare clothes and shoes for the mud! What made it really good was that they didn't even realise I wasn't heading for Launceston. I kept them talking in the car as we turned off towards the bridge and headed past Rosny and onto the highway heading for the East Coast. It wasn't until I turned into the Airport that they finally noticed!
We stayed at Rydges on Exhibition Street. I wanted somewhere with an outdoor rooftop pool and the Grand Chancellor where we stayed last year was booked out. I checked on the phone that Rydges had a pool, but when we got there it was empty. Spewing! The suite was amazing though. Really huge with two TV's, a huge bathroom and the biggest shower I've ever seen. It even had a phone in the toilet. Well not actually in it. There was an issue with the booking. Apparently I stuffed up and didn't select the right package deal. I thought it was wrong when the confirmation was email'd to me so I rang and they said "No, no, that's all OK". We only found out when they wouldn't let us have a hot breakfast without paying. I put on my convincing act and in a flash we were upgraded to a package that cost $50 a night extra for free! Go me!
The Saints beat the Blues. I was a bit sad, the guys were very happy, but it was a great game and nothing beats actually being there. The atmosphere at an AFL game is awesome and every Australian should do it at least once in their lifetime. On the way to the footy we walked down to the Yarra to ride on the highest ferris wheel in the Southern Hemisphere. It has an amazing light show bolted to it so it looked fantastic in the dark. It goes quite quick as well so it was a bit unnerving at first, but the night view of Melbourne from 50m up was great.
We did other stuff. Saturday morning we did a chocolate tour. This was loads of fun and my head was spinning from way too much chocolate and coffee by the end of it. There was a group of twenty two female nurses and office staff from a local hospital along for the tour with us. I was one of only two guys until soon after the start when the other guy took exception at the tour guide mentioning that chocolate can help women relieve stress at certain times of the month and that men are the ones who are really stressed anyway. He bundled up his poor girlfriend and stormed off. Strange man! That left single old me with all these women and would you believe that not one of them were good looking?
We satisfied Emma's shopping craving in the afternoon with about four hours and lots of dollars spent at the new Direct factory Outlet (DFO) in the new building where the Spenser Street Station used to be. We all ended up with new stuff for winter.
That night we had tea at the Hard Rock Cafe. We had been to one of those before on the Gold Coast and it was a bit boring because there was no atmosphere and food was a bit average. This one was nothing like that. It was huge inside, covered in cool guitars and stuff owned by or signed by really famous people, and it was packed full of people. The music was great and the atmosphere was awesome. The food was good as well. The guy that looked after us was weird (He wouldn't let us order garlic bread, but we got our way in the end), but loads of fun. There was an electric guitar owned by one of the members of Kiss and signed by all of the band members in our booth. It was just sitting there bolted to the wall. Brad had to stand on the seat, but he managed to touch it!
I'm hoping to be able to mention a good news story (good for me at least) that relates to Google soon, but I can't say anything yet in case it doesn't happen. All will be revealed soon.
I have to go now and get some stuff ready for tomorrow nights Kingston High Parents and Friends meeting. The guy who had been chairing the meetings (Tony) had too much on his plate and asked me if I'd do it. I've now offered to be President until we can hold proper elections next year. I'm a bit busy myself as I'm still the School Association Treasurer as well. At least we have some good news to discuss for a change. The Premier announced last week that he will be honouring his commitment to build a new High School at the sports centre. Hopefully the upcoming State Budget will have some more detail.
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