The WR(ite) Blog

Well, it wasn’t exactly a weekend (more like three days that ended on Saturday) and technically I’m not a spinster, but my three days in Melbourne has completely blown me away!

It was only to be expected, I suppose: not only was I planning to meet up with authorly friend Suzannah Rowntree to explore gothic and art deco wonders, but I had also bought tickets to attend my first concert–Day6’s YOUTH tour stop in Melbourne. Naturally, there was also Shopping to be done.

Day One: I arrived a bit past noon and carted my little carry-on around the streets of Melbourne for about three hours in

search of cool streets, good food smells, and, ultimately, pancakes. Pancakes found, I squirrelled away a roll of kimbap for later and started to walk to my hotel now that I could check in.

In hindsight, now that I know I could have hired a locker for a while, I would have hired one for my bag and wandered sans bag, since by the time I stopped wandering around, I was further away from my hotel than I would have been had I simply walked from Southern Cross Station and straight there. After stowing said bags at the Pan Pacific–and convincing myself that an 8th floor room didn’t mean I was going to die in a hotel collapse–I visited the DFOs that were literally 30 metres from the front reception. I mean, I knew they were close, but I didn’t know how close! I had a list of things I needed to buy, and I only bought one thing that wasn’t on the list, so that was a good day.

Day Two (the morning): This is where the fun really started!

I met up with Suzannah at Pie Face at about 9.30. Due to the circumstance of there being two Pie Face shops at Southern Cross Station, obviously we each waited in a different one, and had to message to find one another. Once together, we each discovered that our walking pace was perfectly suited to the other and agreed to be Victorian Spinsters on a walking tour for the day.

In pursuit of this goal, we went first to the ANZ bank…which doesn’t sound very Victorian Spinsterly until you find out that the bank was built in 1887 (exactly one hundred years before I was born) and is a wonder of golden gothic architecture that lends itself to the kind of gaping that causes people to accuse you of being the country cousin. Among the amazing features were old, handwritten bank notes, gold leaf fleur de lis, wall etchings, and multiple coats of arms, along with painstakingly worked pillar toppers and six granite pillars that had to be brought in by 30 horses each.

Having moved on from the bank, we went to see some lovely art deco features in a few different places; however, since my phone nearly died shortly thereafter, I wasn’t able to take as many pictures as I would have liked to take. We also visited a truly gorgeous church that was well aware of its own gorgeousness (they were charging $5 just to permit people to take photos with their own equipment), and darted down a few side streets in search of mosaic tiles and bao buns.

Both bao buns and mosaics were gorgeous, and we took a break to eat and top

me up on sunscreen, since I was already slightly burnt–and really, what better evidence can there be for my status as a Victorian Spinster than my ability to sunburn at a moment’s notice?

We rounded out our day at a second hand bookshop, where I managed to find some Don Marquis books (!!) and trotted back off to my hotel in delight at having found such treasures.

(I would also like to mention that I met one of Suzannah’s brothers, who works in the kind of place I thought only existed in TV land–the start up company that has the exercise balls for seats, a hanging chair, random bed, and writing on the glass walls. It’s the sort of place where people ride bikes around, you know? Delightful!)

Day Two (the evening–or, Day6): I love Day6’s music, but I was a bit nervous about going to the concert. For a start, I’m the kind of person who attracts weirdos in the street, so I was slightly concerned about being out on the city streets at 10.30; and since I have some balance issues, dark places with lots of people and loud music are usually a bad idea for me unless I have someone to cling to.

I mitigated the first fear by dressing in ripped jeans and a leather jacket to try and look too mean to harass, and decided to just do my best for the second.

I was amply rewarded for my efforts by the amazing performance I was able to enjoy. The music was breathtakingly loud–and I do mean that it literally made me gasp–but since it was Day6, it was good music, and I enjoyed myself thoroughly. I was originally sad that I couldn’t get VIP tickets because I wanted a great seat; however, on the night, I could see very well, and it felt very close. I left the concert sad that I couldn’t get VIP tickets for another reason–I would have liked to have joined the Hightouch event to have expressed directly to the boys how much I enjoyed their music. I won’t forget this night out for a very long time, and when Day6 next comes to Australia, I’ll be buying a ticket, pronto.

After seeing a performance that I’ve really enjoyed, it takes a

while to come down from the high of being part of it–and Day6 really knew how to make me feel a part of the show, despite the fact that I was probably the oldest person there who wasn’t a parent.

From Jae’s casual joking to Young K’s amazing command of English and delightful stage presence, to the adorable and really very successful attempts SungJin, WonPil and DoWoon made in English, Day6 was an amazing stage presence. They didn’t seem arrogant, but they did seem comfortable, which was lovely to see. I really liked the fact that they thanked the parents for bringing some of the kids out.

In short, I loved the music (already did, of course, but to hear it live…!). While Jae may be the most easily recognisable of the band, for me it was Young K who stole the show with his cheeky grin, adorable dad-dancing, and general habit of making fun of the members who were trying their best to speak English. I already admired his songwriting talents, but now he’s my firm favourite of the band.

Day Three: Coming home…

Usually when I travel, I suffer from bad home-sickness. This trip there was very little of that; I was happy in my own company (and in Suzannah’s–thanks, Suzannah!), and I felt that I could have taken a lot longer wandering around

Melbourne to see what there was to see. Who knows? Maybe Pet and her three psychos will visit Melbourne at some stage…

At any rate, I’m back home and working hard to have the WR(ite) Newsletter out early next week with a surprise sale on one of my books and another chapter of LADY OF WEEDS.