Hm, abstinence hasn't really happened yet. I suppose I was reasonably good on Saturday, with just a big pile of takeaway Singapore noodles whilst watching the footy on telly with my housemate Spotti (he's a big Aussie rules fan, as indeed are most people in this city, male or female).

And Sunday was reasonably good as well, if you disregard the bratwurst for breakfast at the Vic Markets (well, I had to, it's traditional) and the humungous pile of yummy cheeses and speck (for you non-Austrians, that's smoked belly of pork, with the distinguishing feature that there's almost no meat, it's 90% fat, yes, that's right, raw (well, smoked) pig fat, mmmm!) on the first decent loaf of bread I've had since I've been back from Malaysia - all courtesy of the Vic Markets again.

Followed by stacks of delicious barbecued beef and sausages, courtesy of the Brazilian party I went to that afternoon with Fiona. Marcos, a Brazilian guy I met at the previous shindig, wanted to have a chat with me about Malaysia, because he is about to head off that way himself. And it would have been rude not to stay for food & beer & conversation with the others.

Monday was also a bit of a relapse: our regular after-badminton supper club meal was decidedly deep-fried, and not even that nice truth be told. I've had better - but then again, the standard is usually so high that perhaps I'm being harsh.

I have to stop writing about food! It's as if there was nothing else going on in my life! Hm. Erm, let's think about that. Well, right now there isn't too much else going on, because I'm no longer working, and no longer really looking for work, but not yet into my big travel season. I mean to see lots of places before I head back to Europe, but it's just a case of getting started. I'll sort myself out soon.

Okay, there's always alcohol to think about instead of solids. Tuesday night was a boozy one, for instance. I met up with my friend Rainnie, her girlfriend Claire, her friend Ed and his boyfriend Ras to watch Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. How good was that film! I really enjoyed it. We all headed over the road from the Nova cinema to Ti Amo for dinner, and that was lovely. Ras was an entertaining character. He's from Romania, and had a charming personality which was only underlined by his cute Eastern European accent. It was sort of like listening to Latka from the TV series Taxi.

Then, thinking my night was over, I headed home but quickly texted Fiona to see if she was still out & about. She was, so I walked into town to St Jeromes bar, which was having its Brazilian funk night. And who should the DJ be but Ortiz, the guy who so expertly grilled the meat at my first Brazilian barbecue a few weeks ago? It was a crazy night. One of the Brazilian girls Mirna was celebrating her last night in Oz, so the partying was frenzied. A couple of boys Fiona knows from St Kilda were also there. The four of us ended up leaving around 1.30 and coming back to our place, where we sat in Fiona's room and listened to cool tunes whilst drinking beers and playing cards. I went to bed at 4am. It was great!

Wednesday was necessarily quieter. I met up with David for lunch and we listened to classical music. It's nice knowing someone who is into classical music; I don't really listen to enough of it these days. Seeing as he's a radio presenter for a classical music programme, he's clearly the right person to enliven that side of my music tastes! It was a lazy afternoon; I wasn't in a hurry to leave because the weather was on and off. In the end we had dinner together as well at a nearby Italian place in Richmond. Then I headed over to Rainnie's for a nightcap with her & Claire, and stayed over there with Sammy the cat sleeping between my feet.

Thursday was a busy one again. I spent the morning some of the afternoon preparing photos for my website using James' PC (yes, that's right, there are many many photos almost available on my site; just give me a chance to write the html). Later in the afternoon I met Rainnie at her new place of work, an organic bakery owned by two Austrian brothers, and we went into the city together to do a spot of IT shopping.

The evening was full-on. I went to a whisky tasting organised by Johnnie Walker, which a bunch of people from Monday night badminton were going to. It was an eye-opener for me to discover that I actually quite like whisky and water. Perhaps in future whisky won't make me do so many stupid things (I'm casting my mind back to a time in Spain all those years ago where I thought I was invisible...). We headed for Chinese dinner afterwards, and then everyone went home.

But it was only 9.30pm! So I decided to tick off a few of the cool Melbourne bars I haven't yet been to. First I went to La La Land, which was a lovely relaxed living-room type bar with stacks of comfy chairs and funky but calm international tunes. Then I went to Three Degrees and just managed to squeeze in a beer before they closed for the night.

Then I caught up with Nea, who was out drinking with a bunch of backpackers from her hostel. It was a tacky backpacker pub with karaoke and cheap beer, so of course I necked a jug or two and then wowed the mostly comatose audience with my fabulous renditions of a variety of tunes. Nea & I also performed some memorable duets. But all good things (and thankfully all awful things too) must come to an end, so at 4am we left the pub and went home.

Friday was necessarily a quiet one! I did very little aside from reading my book and drinking tea. In the evening I went for a quick drink with Fiona in town to a place called Sahara. Then I headed over to Rainnie's to play with her new laptop that we had bought on Thursday during the day. James, who is knowledgeable in these things (I refrain from using the word geek because that sounds too negative, but he is), says she's bought a goodun. The three of us had Thai for dinner, which was remarkably tasty, from a place at the top end of Lygon called Thaila Thai.

I walked most of the way home that night, because it was such a balmy evening. My timing was perfect though, because just as I reached my front door it began to teem down with rain and a tremendous thunderstorm played itself out in the heavens. I sat on Kate's windowsill (I don't trust that knackered old balcony of ours) and watched the display for a while, including seeing soggy possums clamber from branch to branch of the gnarled old trees in the park opposite my house, then went to bed and enjoyed a deep sleep.