BurbleChaz

The airfreight was scheduled to turn up this afternoon (that's not true - it was scheduled to turn up last Monday). To make sure that there were no more unexpected hitches, The Apple Faithful decided to stage an afternoon vigil at the apartment. Even though I was skipping lunch (largely out of fear of The Scales, which were in the airfreight), I went back to the apartment with the Mac Worshipper at lunchtime. We planned to buy an 802.11g USB adapter, since her laserlike beam of hatred towards all things Windowslike has caused the wifi on her work laptop to fry.

Walking into the apartment, the grey, overcast clouds parted, and a ray of purest joy descended on the True Believer. The Mac was already there. In it's custom-built packing crate. Nailed in. Firmly. Moments later, we presented the excellent reception staff with their oddest request of the day. "Hello. We need a USB WiFi adapter, and a hammer." Odder still, the reception manager was able to advise us on both problems.

Half an hour later, armed with a brand new claw hammer (and a wireless thingy), we had the Mac up, running and network connected. The G5 shaped hole in Certain Person's lives has been filled. She's hacking on it as I burble.

Surprisingly, there were other things in the consignment, including my old bushwhacker hat. Since I dropped 57 bucks on the new one, it's been cold, cloudy and overcast. My hope is that the irony of the old one turning up will satisfy the weather gods, and we'll have a decent weekend.

We had two options for property viewing this evening. Either an apartment in Port Melbourne, or a house in Elwood. Because we already know what Port Melbourne is like, decided to look at the house. In the end, we didn't go in. We caught the tram from the CBD to Elwood. It took us a good 40 minutes. The house is about a 10 minute walk from the tram stop, and another 10 minutes from the beach. We arrived about 30 minutes before the viewing, so we had a good stroll around Elwood. It's a charming, pretty suburban area. Lots of one and two storey buildings, lots of character. It would be a good place to live with children. I'm sure many people do. On the downside, it would mean two hour's travel a day, and there are no decent pubs, bars or restaurants. The house was a detached (by three feet) sprawling bungalow, of the style that is common here. It looked huge. We didn't waste anybody's time by looking closer. The area Simply Isn't Us. We saw another property we had been considering from the tram. Again, it's just too far out. The good news is that we now have a clearly defined area that we'd like to live in. Tomorrow, we're going to look at something in Docklands. At the weekend, we've got a few more open viewings planned. In other news, flat hunting in the evenings is playing hell with my gym schedule. I think The Scales must have been damaged in the journey. It's the only explanation.

We hopped off the tram just by Flinder's Street Station, and strolled back along the South Bank. A meal out is the smallest celebration for being reunited with The Hardware Of Choice. We had a happy potter inspecting menus before selecting an Italian-style place. The food was superb, the service was fun, fast and friendly, and the wine was (of course) excellent. She selected a Pumpkin Ravioli to go with the delightful Pinot Noir, and I had a Penne Calabrese (salami, peppers and chilli) with my very good Shiraz Cab Sav. The restaurant is right by the Yarra. We had a lovely view of the river, and the water sculptures. Every 75 metres or so, there is a rectangular block of textured steel, standing about 15 metres high. Water flows down the faces of these, creating a whole visual, aural, climate experience (can I have an Arts Council Grant now?). We could see about four of these sculptures from where we sat. Imagine our surprise when they started belching gouts of flame. I kid you not. In the evenings, they periodically stage a choreographed fire show from the tops of these structures. This culminates in vast fireballs, 5 metres across, rolling up tens of metres into the sky. It's a fantastic way to waste energy and taxpayer money

That's one of the lovely things about Melbourne. You can see it in the art, architecture, and infrastructure. If there's a safe, sensible, cheap way of doing a thing, the Melburnian attitude is 'Eff that mate, let's do it big, scary and spectacular. Vast belching flames in a public thoroughfare? No Worries. She'll be right!'. It is truly life-enhancing to be a part of this place.

In other news, the BurbleBlogger relies on your ineterest in this drivel to stay motivated. All I need is to see your browser requests in the logs. It keeps me burbling. That or the beer. Anyway, Click Early! Click Often!