2022-08-24

Took Jack to Melbourne on Friday to see AJR, his favourite band. Their shows are great—big, operatic productions—and they are only touring on the east coast. We flew out in the morning, arriving after 4pm (the flight was delayed), and we took an Uber to our airbnb apartment in St. Kilda. After settling in we ate gumbo, pulled pork po-boys and curly fries for dinner at Dog’s Bar across the street, then walked to Palais Theatre for the show.

The queue for merch was massive, but we joined it and missed most of the warmup act as a result. But Jack managed to get a t-shirt and a few other mementos. The show itself was astounding, we both had a ball, and Jack was excited that the sound of the crowd singing will be used on the next album.

Slept in the following day, then headed out to buy a Myki from a 7/11 and caught a tram into the city. Great ramen lunch at Shujinko Flinders before walking over to the NGV in the beautiful sunshine to spend a few hours mooching around the Picasso exhibition. Then chilled out for a while at Hopscotch, drinking beer and playing the Switch Lite, while waiting for Aladar. Great time reminiscing when he arrived, and he then took us to eat dumplings at ShanDong MaMa, which was amazing. Tram back to St. Kilda.

Woke up late with a headache, so installed the Macca’s app and ordered coffee and brekky so I could throw back a few nurofen. Jack made cup noodles and added some fries to the mix. Slowly packed up and showered, and ordered an Uber to the airport for our 2:55pm flight. Got through security to find out it had been cancelled, headed back out to the service desk and luckily got on a 5:30 flight, so Jack wouldn’t miss school. Then had a few hours to kill, so Jack did some homework (as he had done in Perth while waiting for our delayed flight out) while sitting in a burger joint for a late lunch / early dinner. Flight back home was comfy, great to see D. at the airport pickup. Great weekend away!