Tarmac to Robbie Vol 3 (long, but the final part :-)

Monday morning passed us all (Edna, Hubby and I) by in a rapid movement of the eye. After the excesses of the previous evening and early hours of the morning, by the time we got out of the hotel it was lunchtime.

So we made our way out to Richmond and a place called Pearl on the recommendation of a friend of Edna’s. We were armed with a business card and nothing else except the comment of ‘it’s rather nice.’ So we walk through the door, dressed in jeans and t-shirts and the man at the desk says ‘How may I help you?’
‘Are you here for the restaurant?’
I have been told I looked at him blankly, but I was thinking - No, we’re here for the monkeys on bicycles -
He asked again, but this time hubby jumped in with the sensible answer to his questions ‘Yes, lunch, bar menu outside, fine. Thank you.’ Before steering me out to the table and away from the full-on three course extravaganza that was happening inside. While we waited to order we watched a very tall man in a grey suit park his black Mercedes in a No-parking zone and walk in. Our waiter informed us that he was the head of Village Cinemas and always gets a parking ticket with his lunch. The extremely lovely light lunch of Steak sandwiches and noodles (see picture) was delivered but our happy waiter, wine was drunk, but when wind started to impair our enjoyment we moved into the bar area for dessert and more wine to match. Orange Blossom ice cream and an obscene almond milk jelly was consumed by Edna, Turkish Delight with Rose ice cream saw its way slowly into my tummy and hubby had dumplings with three chocolates. It was all divine until we got the bill, but then we should have known we weren’t going to be having a $15 dollar lunch when we saw the Mother-of-Pearl walls.

A quick trip to Prahran saw Edna and Hubby relaxing in a pub drinking cider, while I nipped to the local Antique book store. They had a copy of an out of print book I have been eyeing for a while and now they don’t. It’s mine! ;-) A walk along Chapel Street revealed many treasures including this gem of a Greengrocers shop called Rocky's/

Back across town a couple of hours later, we had finally found somewhere to eat near the Telstra Dome. Trixy was there, Bob and Mick, so a table of six in the corner. Very nice food but it was all over too soon. We were off the concert. We left T,B and M to finish their food while we made out way to our seats high in the clouds and million miles from the stage. To be fair to the ‘special Inner Sanctum seats’ we had a really good view of the overall show.

Robbie Williams was fantastic! He looked wired, or maybe it was just knackered as this was his last tour of a world tour that has been going since the start of the year. I know he’s released another album in the time and had some time off, but he must be exhausted, poor baby. He danced, sweated, strutted, and sat his way through two hours of pure entertainment. He sang ‘Me and my Shadow’ with Jonny Wilkes and Kids with his back up singers. He put on his special Addidas white hoodie when he encored with Rudebox.

About halfway through the evening (about 10.15, he came on a 9pm) he was talking about the concert he did in Brisbane and how he’d been told off for smoking in the Non-Smoking venue. He said ‘I know this is a non-smoking venue too but let’s face it sometime I just fancy a fag’ then took a really long drag from his cigarette. He went on o say ‘This is for all the impressionable kiddies out there, I am NOT a role model!’ That’s Shane Warne’s job.’ The audience cheered and then chanted Warney for about thirty seconds.
He broke the record for a performance at the Telstra Dome with 66,500 people. The previous record is about 57,000.

GO ROBBIE!

The following morning we were a little worse for wear, but didn’t care too much. The concert had been fantastic and any dramas from the previous night were not quite forgotten but certainly not being dwelled upon except by the drama creator. Eggs Benedict (salmon and spinach) set us up for ta day of doing the rest of the things we wanted to do while in Melbourne. A trip to the Philatelic Centre, a picture of Purple Trees (jacaranda) a Christmas pressie purchase and a trip to Crown Casino. Edna lost $10 at Roulette, then I won $20 at Roulette, then I cashed in my chips (‘cause I couldn’t find a $5 Blackjack table) and gave hubby and Edna $2 each for the pokies. He won $18 and Edna won $12. So all in all we came out, up. A great end to an overall great long weekend.