This is going to have to be such a quick run through what I've been doing recently. I'm almost three weeks behind myself now. That just won't do!

So I went to a hair fashion catwalk show with Kara in my house. Why? Because her boyfriend Matai was one of the models! It was odd to be in such a fashionable spot - the show was held in a bar in the Crown Casino complex - and to be surrounded by such fashionable types - who, ironically, man & woman, all had the same haircut: the tragic mullett that is so in vogue here at the moment. I don't think I'll be rushing back to a fashion show.

I met up with David for coffee in the Parliament Gardens park one lunchtime, and managed to leave my wallet there! What a fool I am. I realised about an hour later - when I was trying to pay for another coffee in another café - and ran back again, hoping against hope that they had found it and kept it. And they had. Phew! But they had also had the sense to ring my bank, who had had the non-sense to cancel my bank card even though my wallet was safe. Ah well. It was only a minor inconvenience. On my way home from there I came across the little galleries that line the beginning of Smith Street, and had a browse around there. Some great pictures and photographs.

I have been eating lots and lots and LOTS of nachos recently. Nea introduced me to the nachos at the Lounge on Swanston Street. Seven bucks for a pile of nachos that would feed an army - and that's the small serve! And they are smothered in so much salsa and guacamole and sour cream. Yum! So I've had them with her a few times recently.

Rainnie's niece Taylor was down for a week from Coffs Harbour, and one of the evenings I was fortunate enough to get to babysit her (Rainnie couldn't get out of work that night). So I headed over to the supermarket and made friends with Taylor while Rainnie & Claire were still there. Then we headed to Rainnie's and then Rainnie left Taylor with me and her housemate James. We had such a laugh! We messed about in the living room, we played on James' X-Box, we cooked dinner together, and we generally had a proper giggle.

The most amusing moment though was when Taylor's mum rang, and Taylor said to her "No, Tia Rainnie's not here. I'm with James and, er, [to me] what's your name again?" I prompted Taylor to mention that James at least lives in the same house and wasn't a complete stranger, and I'm hoping her mum wasn't too concerned that her only daughter was spending the evening with two men she'd never met. Oh, what fun!

I had a doozy of a bar crawl one Thursday night with Nea! We managed to tick off eight bars, with our first beer at five in the afternoon and our last at four in the morning. Good going, methinks! I even got to tick off not one but two more bars from the Pack of Bar Cards list: Cookie (on Swanston), which seems dead until you walk through the big wooden doors and stumble across a gazillion people all enjoying themselves; and Phoenix (on Flinders), which is a multi-level paean to all that is funky and chic about Melbourne tucked-away bars. During the evening we spoke with German tourists, a guy from Yorkshire who's been living here for donkey's, a recently arrived Russian working as a bouncer, and a bunch of Nea's workmates from Transport bar. Good times.

The weekend's weather was fabulous, so I decided to head down to the Mornington Peninsula again. This time I went and stayed with my mate James who lives in Seaford (not to be confused with James in Rainnie's house). We spent the weekend touring around, walking along pristine beaches (the water was far too cold to consider a dip), catching up with friends, and eating as much as possible.

We had delicious breakfasts out in delightful pavement cafés in gorgeous little seaside towns, we had lunch here and there and everywhere, we had barbies in the evening with lots of beer & wine & amusement. It felt like a proper summer holiday, to be honest! And the evenings are surprisingly entertaining in Funky Franga, as the somewhat dilapidated outer suburb of Frankston is known to its biggest fans. Even driving to the all-night bottle shop is a giggle, in the right frame of mind.

I had a pretty intensive week of work, to keep the money rolling in. I had two consecutive shifts at Spencer Street station, the rebuilding of which has progressed noticeably since last I worked there. I thought it was going to finish me off having to leave at 10pm and go back at 6.30am, but actually it was okay. And at least it allowed me to plough through a nice big chunk of War & Peace - yes, I'm still reading it! Then I had two days of data entry at BUPA Australia, over in Hawthorn. Lovely people, shite work. But the lunch options in Hawthorn were great.

Actually, I recently had a break from Tolstoy to read Anchee Min's 'Red Azalea'. What a phenomenal book! Everyone should read it. Aside from being a first-hand account of the harshness of Mao Zedong's regime in China, it is a wonderfully sensual book written in a compellingly simple style. Add to this that it is autobiographical, and you have one seriously good book.

Right, that's enough of that for now. I'll just do one more update and then I'll be up to date with myself - I'm writing these words in an internet café in Brisbane, Queensland. More about that soon, my dear readers.