Toast

Last night I was the toastmaster for the new Docklands Toastmasters club, which has had all of four meetings so far.

They meet in a really bizarre building in a really bizarre part of the world. I was waiting outside for the guy with the key to arrive, admiring the buildings. It don't look like Melbourne at all down there... Ugly apartment buildings, and an ugly little building called the "Hub", which someone described accurately as looking like a sales office at Caroline Springs.

Hop on a tram down there one day, it's really surreal!

Anyway, the meeting went great, I'm ever so good at standing up and speaking.

Afterwards, I was talking to the organizer, Darren, about one of the guests at the meeting. A chap whose name now escapes me (stupid brain). Anyway, turns out this guy is a refugee from Somalia, and used to be a lieutenant in the Somalia army! That guy must have some stories to tell. He speaks Italian, English, French and whatever language they speak in Somalia (Looks it up on Wikiepedia. What do you know, it's called Somali). The guy has a post graduate qualifications in Database administration etc. from Deakin... And Darren met him as part of a mentoring program for the long term unemployed. Seemed a little unfair - the guy is better educated than me...

I don't really have the time to join the docklands toasties club properly, especially since evildoom_bunny would kill me for having even even less spare time :-)

The Market Du Camberwell

Sunday, evildoom_bunny and stillbeing dragged me over to the Camberwell Market, for the first time in literally years. In fact, my last visit could have been in the previous century...

evildoom_bunny and stillbeing wanted to visit a Goth clothing stall which is there sometimes. I was planning to sleep in, after my long weekend (see other posts!) but found myself awake so I went along.

And I'm glad I did, that place is a trip. I only ended up buying a Bonsai starter kit and some good Papua New Guinean organic coffee. But I was sorely tempted by any number of other bits and pieces. An old Russian badge of some sort. A Jo Jo Zep record on vinyl - only because a friend of mine calls me Jo Jo Zep. An ancient fan zine from 1981 about Devo.

But the thing I had to be actively prevented from buy was an Commodore Amiga 500 which was still in its original box. Plus a monitor and a whole pile of games etc. It took both ok_i_give_in (on the phone) and evildoom_bunny to talk me out of going to an ATM and getting out the $60 the guy wanted for it. Both made the good argument that I already have a whole stack of computers, and my flat is literally running out of space... *sigh* Ok, and there's the whole nerdiness thing.

The bonsai I got was some kind of tiny fig, which I'm told should be OK inside. The guy running the stall had an interesting collection of stuff - his merchandise seemed to fall into three major categories: Fishing, fridge magnets and Bonsais!

Also bumped into Uber-nerd Dallas running his own stall. He was trying to flog some ADSL modems, a typewriter, etc. I should see if he has a livejournal...

evildoom_bunny, stillbeing and I were prompted into thinking of getting a stall, just to get rid of all our old junk. I've got some clapped-out CD-ROMs I could flog for $5 each...

Sunday was one of those days which couldn't make up it's mind - I had on a hat, a coat... And sunglasses and sunscreen. Stupid weather. I hate weather. Managed to get sunburnt.

And finally, a great old Camberwell Market story for you all.

Back in the day I lived in that part of the world, and used to make it to the market quite routinely. Back in about 1988, I was there with my mom, and I came across a stall with some odd pieces of military stuff.

One of the things the guy had was a proper combat helmet, complete with camouflage, netting etc. Turns out that at least this particular model actually came in two parts - an inner helmet, and an outer one, which must have provided extra shielding from all those fan pieces of fast-moving metal.

The guy who was running the stall came over and said "Check this out". He pulled the inner helmet from the outer one, and held it up to me. He said "sniff this". So I did...

Rain. Mud. Dampness. More rain. It smelt like a swamp in there.

The guy leaned over to me and said:

"That's what Vietnam smelt like..."

Something tells me he was a bitter veteran!!!!

Man, I wanted that helmet really really badly after that, but my mom wouldn't give me the $25 he wanted for it. Darn.

BBQ

Sunday Arvo evildoom_bunny, stillbeing and I went out to a Barbecue at pigtrotters place in the far, far eastern suburbs.

The three of us ended up parked in the shade under a tree in pigtrotters back garden, while the rest of her friends sat in the sun or shot basketball. Not entirely sure what they made of the three of us, quasi-Goths hiding out of the sun. I was easily the oldest person there! Damn the passage of time!

evildoom_bunny had managed to bang her head on something at the Camberwell market, and was feeling a bit seedy. Didn't prevent her from finding a golf putter, and then using it to hit various dog toys around the back garden. Including a squeaky hamburger.

If this wasn't enough to freak out pigtrotters's friends, evildoom_bunny then performed her loudest and best impressions of a gibbon and and a terrier. I can only imagine the questions that must have been asked after we pushed off later, having eaten steaks and all sorts of other burnt meat :-)