Work work work, rain rain rain, trudge trudge trudge. This week has been a little on the monotonous side. Thankfully I had a splendid twenty-four hours starting on Thursday evening, when I popped out to a nearby pub to have a beer - well, it was the start of the weekend for me - and ended up hanging out shooting pool and the breeze with a bunch of local guys, two of whom are ethnically Spanish (in fact their families emigrated to Australia on the very same flight, but they had never met until a few years ago - how weird is that?) and so I got to chat in Spanish for a while. It was great!

The rest of the weekend was good fun too. I met up with heaps of people on Friday - first a company lunch to say goodbye to the office manager Jane, who is leaving for another job nearer home so she can spend more time with her son; then coffee in Melbourne's oldest Italian restaurant with my mate David; then coffee on Lygon with my Finnish mate Nea (I met her through Jodie; they were living in the same room in their hostel); then a few beers and a boogie - it's what Friday nights are all about.

Saturday turned out to be lots of fun too. The day was more chore-oriented, but the evening became riotous. I blame the bottle of Wild Turkey that made its way surreptitiously into the room. I didn't think a little game of Scattergories with the girls in my house (Kara, Kate & Fiona) and Matai (Kara's bloke) would have such an intoxicating effect on me, but somehow I ended up chundering at - where else? - the Exford Hotel, scene of many of my blackout binges. Oh my God, I sound like such an alcoholic! Trust me, I don't drink like that all the time, honest.

Sunday was understandably low-key.

And then I embarked on a full week of work. I was a bit nervous, seeing as the last five-day stint left me ill in bed for a week, but I've survived. The thought of my impending three week trip to Borneo has helped to sustain me. I'm off today, so I'm quickly rushing out this blog before I go; there's no way I'll remember any of this stuff after I've been diving with manta rays and swinging through trees with orang utans!

I met up with Rainnie & Claire for dinner and drinks on Thursday night. We had Italian and then went to Double Happiness, a favourite haunt of Claire's. It's a classic Melbourne bar: small, dark, hidden away down an alleyway, and decked out in a unique style. The theme of this bar is Chinese Socialist Realism - there are statues of Chairman Mao and posters exhorting the workers to achieve greatness with slabs of concrete and shit. Nice bar staff and great drinks - the Amaro they served us was just the right digestif for the piles of pasta we had eaten.

Friday night was also wonderful. Claire works in a posh vegetarian restaurant called Shakahari, just off Lygon. Rainnie had never been to see her working, and I had never been full stop. We dragged along Kate from my house and James from Rainnie's house, and had a no-holds-barred hum-dinger of a veggie meal. The food was spectacular!! And our service was pretty damn good - well, it helps to know the waitress, I guess! Fabulous wine, wonderful conversation. Good times. We finished off with a drink in the Carlton Yacht Club, a boating-themed cool Melbourne bar on Lygon just near my house. Ah, I'm already looking forward to coming back to Melbourne, bronzed and full of sunshine vitamins!