Dallin's Blog!

Burning - Mel weighs to a T!

So, I have Mostly not answered too many people's questions about the Melbourne trip, instead stating that I would write a decent blog entry about it. So, here it is. Hopefully it is good, and answers all your questions. But, I can't go into too much detail on some things - never know who might be reading!

So, we left Friday morning, September 22. We met at Steph's just after 6:30 sometime, packed the van and were off. I (and I think everyone) was amazed that we had all packed so light that our bags didn't go above the top of the rear seats. If it weren't for all the tall people sitting in the middle, the driver would have had a clear view out the back window. That driver being Steph almost all of the time, and Natalie the rest of the time. I think the rest of s would have gladly driven, butit was their car, they were running the show.

We weren't in any rush to get there - we had no definite plans for Friday night (well, not as far as I knew, at least) so we didn't speed at all, and took our time when we stopped, and we stopped regularly. Bordertown for breakfast, somewhere else for petrol, and Ballarat for lunch. The have the coolest McDonald's in Ballarat. Well, almost the coolest. I enjoyed it.

We had a bit of trouble finding our way to the appartments we were staying at. The McCappin girls had made Most of the arrangments for everything, so I didn't even know what they were called, and being completely unfamiliar with Melbourne, I had no idea where anything was anyway. Rachel realised where were were though, and I found us on the map just after that, and it was clear sailing from then on.

Except for parking. We had booked secure parking with the accomodation, but there were only 3 convenient secure parks, and 2 or three completely inconvenient ones. That was for our building, which had probably 12 appartments, maybe 16. It's a good thing the McCappins have my least favourite driveway in the world, so they are used to backing up and driving in tight spaces. Steph and Nat did a great job with it.

Man, I've written all that, and we only just got to Melbourne....

We went to Hard Rock cafe Friday night with Kelly, Alex (her fiancee), his brother and his best friend. That was pretty cool, but it started the trend of spending too much on food for the entire trip. But, I guess that's what happens when you eat out in Melbourne. After that we went to the crown complex, which was a pretty impressive building. Some people ate desert. The rest of us just wandered around looking at stuff for ages. We got home late, and stayed up late. Another trend for the whole trip.

We slept in Saturday morning. Another trend for the trip.

The girls wanted to go shopping, so we walked to Chapel street and all had lunch together there, and then did some grocery shopping for things we (or some of us) would (or might possibly) need for the coming 4 days. Then the girls continued with their shopping, and the guys went back to the appartment and watched the football. Well, I slept through half of it.

That night was the engagement party, which was the real reason we had gone over. It was cool to see Kelly and Alex and a bunch of their Melbourne friends. Well, kinda - I didn't care too much for Melbourne people at this point. The 'famous' guys were there, but I was too lazy to introduce myself. I don't think I really did it all trip. How lame am I?

The party finished at 10:00. Most people left about then. The YSA (that being us) hung around and helped clean up, and then hung around some more, until midnightish. We were apparantly really close to a Krisy Kremes shop thing there, and it was suggested that we go get some. But, I said we were going home. I don't know what anyone else was thinking, but no one argued, so we did. Unfortunately, we stayed up late chatting again, so it didn't really win me any extra sleep!

We were fortunate to get to church on time. Many of us didn't realise how far away it was. We went to Wantira ward, by the temple. We walked in at 1:15ish, during the Sacrament hymn. The first speaker was a High Councillor, and talked about Sacrament meeting, and how was should pay attention, and be on time and stuff. Oops, us evil Adelaideans....

The YSA class teacher was away, and their rep was too lazy to teach us, so we sat and talked all through Sunday School. I had a few thoughts prepared, and would have taught something, but we never even had an opening prayer, and I wasn't really in much of a position to take control. Fortunately we did have an EQ lesson, but only just - it was spontaneously prepared sometime after the start of church, coz the teacher had to go home or something. But it was good.

After church the guys walked and the girls drove across the road to Stewart (and Taryn) Brown's place. The girls made dinner, which was nice, and then we walked back to the chapel for a fireside, which was really good. Had a good chat with some people there too - I'm looking forward to catching up again with a bunch of Melbournians at convention.

We headed back to the Brown's, and stayed way too late again. That's actually not what I minded so much this time - it was just kinda frustrating coz it was decided about 3 times that were were leaving before we actually did. But, I get to read 'Why Kids Lie' which was at least somewhat interesting. I had no idea the trip was goign to be so educational!

Monday had the potential to be the biggest disaster, but it turned out pretty good. The Malbourne guys were going to the Show, so we almost ended up doing that, but we were delayed going to lunch, and they didn't want to pay for the SHow for just a little while (they were donating blood later), so we all ended up going bowling instead. It was a really cool place, a Strike Bowling Bar - a very modern, relaxed bowling and hang out venue. The lanes seemed really short...But it was good, I bowled ok, got 130ish both games.

Monday night we went to the Brown's again, and the guys cooked this time. Sam and Matt directed, and Most everyone else was doing what they were told. Except me, I was off making brownies on my own. But it was a successful night I think. We stayed late again, but it was ok, coz we all enjoyed it!

Tuesday morning we had to take Rachel to her Aunt's, coz she was staying for another week. I did a wonderful job navigating there (as well as to several of our other targets), but missed a couple of turn offs we should have taken when going back to the freeway. But it all worked out, and by 1:00 or so we were finally on the road home again.

Anyway, we got home ages ago now, so probably no one cares about this any more, but I'm going to post it coz I said I would.

Dallin!

posted by Dallin @ 5:48 PM