HandelBlog | Chronicling the adventures of Sara and Jon

Now that Sara is down under with me, I figured I should take her out on a proper date! Imagine my surprise when I saw that the Palais Theatre in St Kilda was bringing none other than the Counting Crows to town on her third night here. Shockingly it wasn’t sold out, so I scooped up some tickets a few days before the show and started listening to all the Counting Crows albums I have so I could be ready. August and Everything After really brings back those Acalanes high school memories, while Recovering the Satellites came out during my UVA years.

After tailgating a bit at home, we got all dolled up and headed out to dinner. Sadly, I did not bring a (LEGAL) “to-go” beer with me for the short walk, as I was trying to keep it classy for once. After walking into the wrong restaurant first, we went to a small middle-eastern restaurant called 40 Thieves & Co – and it was quite good. We split a few plates and a bottle of Australian wine. Not only are we getting a solid discount on our spending with the *very* favorable USD/AUD exchange rate right now, it is always a nice surprise to get a restaurant bill and realize that’s the total – no adding sales tax and tip. Apparently people here only tip for super exceptional service – and then only about 10% or so. I believe minimum wage here is about $22/hour.

So we head over to the theatre and Sara is quite excited to see that Bobby Brown and Naughty by Nature will be there in late May. We are then alarmed to see a long line of people waiting to buy concert souvenirs. We bought some beers and proceeded to people watch until the concert started. We spotted a nice mullet (sorry no photo) and quite a bit of folks wearing Counting Crows t-shirts from previous Australia tours.

The concert was entertaining, though sadly they did not play Mr. Jones. The Australian crowd was pretty tame and remained seated the entire time.

Afterwards we headed out into the St Kilda night to see the “Blood Moon” – a total lunar eclipse that turned the moon red. Quite a sight. After treating my beautiful date to her favorite dessert of a McDonald’s ice cream cone, we headed home before we turned into pumpkins.

The shockingly long line for $45 t-shirts.

I made it! After two wonderfully smooth, painfully long flights, I walked out of customs to the sight of my lovely husband. Before that in what was a first for me and hopefully a last for anyone, my row of three on my flight to LA ended up just having me in the aisle and a big, but not giant man in the center seat. I assumed that the man would move into the window seat, giving us both more room. I even gently suggested that he move over, but he just chuckled and stayed put. Perhaps it was all worth it if the good karma I built up by not freaking out over such a weirdo move resulted in my wonderfully small middle seat companion on the much longer flight to Melbourne.

Jon has had me walking all over Melbourne and St. Kilda since I got here. I am not sure I could find my way around much by myself yet, but I’ll get there eventually. More observations to come once I feel less upside down! I’ll leave you with…

Giant red suitcases before — suitcases (before)

An ode to two giant suitcases

two suitcases, both red, both giant
carrying all my stuff
making me totally reliant
so they better be up to snuff

weighing in at 50 and 50.5 pounds, right at the limit
I sighed with relief
and did not wait another minute
for the scale to change its mind and give me grief

up up and away I flew on to LA
giving little thought to my worldly possessions
I flew on to Melbourne Australia to stay
my stuff safe and snug in two giant suitcases

one last moment to worry at baggage claim
as bag after bag went by
I started to think of who I should blame
if my two giant suitcases never arrived

I glanced down at my phone
trying to figure out wifi access
and when I glanced up again, my bags now shone
like the biggest reddest beacons of gladness