October 11th: I went to Melbourne during PAX and didn't buy a ticket (oops)

Wow! Melbourne! What a week! Okay! Lots to say and do!

So uhh, to start, happy Thanksgiving since that's first and foremost on my mind. I hope everyone reading this ate lots of turkey and pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes :) I made myself a lovely pumpkin soup with potatoes and ham chunks to attempt to simulate the classic North American flavours and it did the job pretty well I think. I also managed to score a whole bottle of wine for $3.50 AUD which is absolutely fucking insane to me, I can't believe they can sell wine for that cheap. I also bought some bread rolls I shared with some new friends named Elliot and Eric as well as my friend Pato from the previous post. I offered my wine to share as well and managed to pawn it off on a bunch of British women also in the kitchen, thank you for taking my gift of wine British ladies.

Otherwise, my feet are very tired! I have done a LOT of walking this week trying to see everything Melbourne has to offer, and I am happy to report I have barely scratched at the city but have taken a look at a lot of what I wanted to, at least I think?

So on Wednesday, me and my new friend Pato whomst I saw the huge bats with went downtown to check out some of what the Melbourne "CBD" (Central Business District) had in store for us. We ended up at a really lovely art gallery in an area called "Federation Square" with some really phenomenal native Australian art and AMAZING landscape pieces, like these mfs from the late 19th and early 20th century knew how to capture the Australian landscape let me tell you. Here's one I found on their website called "Waterfall at Mount Macedon", but this is honestly tame compared to what else they have to offer at the gallery:

Anywho, that was also the day we saw that fucking PAX was happening in Melbourne! I did not know about this or I would have bought a ticket! God damn it! Not that I can even play the games they'd be showing off at the expo, but I'd still love to at least been in the epic Gaming Atmosphere that I haven't experienced before. I could have played a demo of Tekken 8 with all the sweaty disgusting Tekken players and lost horribly, FUCK!
Despite that though, there was an announcement at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) about some "Big Game Night Out" where there would be a huge night celebrating video games with some arcade game setups, some performances, and a "Live Sacrifice". Needless to say we were both intrigued and would be going the following night.

We ended our little trip with a quick exploration through the permanent exhibit stationed at ACMI, and while I don't have a lot to say about it, it's super duper cool that the Australian government puts so much stock into their motion image arts, a historically super disposable and disregarded medium. Thanks for being epic Australia.
The next day we checked out Queen Victoria Market, and wow they have some cheap ass produce, 50 cent avocados holy shit! They also had a ton of meats and cheeses but those were mostly "artisinal" so much too high out of our price range. I've since been back a couple times and even had some lady just give me a carrot for free because she didn't want to bother breaking down a $2 coin, thanks a lot nice lady :)

Then at night, me and Pato returned to the "Big Games Night Out" and played some games, watched a cool cosplay showcase (shoutout to the Pinhead cosplayer in the crowd, no idea why you didn't go up on stage), and then attended "The Ritual" event for the game "Cult of the Lamb" and it was actually super friggin cool??? Neither of us knew what to expect but it ended up being this really cool puppet show/dance rave hosted by the games' composer. We ended up dancing around in the rain, and, despite being cold and wet and hungry afterwards, it was super fun (I also got bonus garlic knots and an upgraded slice at the pizza place we went to afterwards because I bought a slice of pepperoni and they ran out??? Like okay normally I'd just assume they'd replace it and be like "oh sorry looks like ur shit outta luck", why tf Australians so nice?)

The dance event made us both wanna go clubbing so Friday we got some beers and then went to a place called Sub Club and fuckin JAMMED it to some "live hardware mixing" as described by the music producer living in our hostel. It honestly wasn't really my style of music, but it was still a really cool experience and I would love to go back to the venue when some more "Lachlan Friendly" music is being played.

And that pretty much wraps it up for the week??? I kinda wrote off Saturday and Sunday as rest/explore days since we got back so late from the club and I was still jetlagged as shit, although I do wanna say that if you want a cheap meal, one of the cheapest things you can get (at least in Melbourne) is rotisserie chicken and fries, like there's been 2 times now where I've bought chicken and fries for like $10 AUS and they've just come absolutely fuckin LOADED with chicken and stuff, it's awesome.

But finally dear readers, I would just like to say that 1st: I meant for this update to come out on the 9th. Oops! I got too busy/tired!
and 2nd: It's honestly been pretty lonely sometimes?? Aside from the couple people I kinda hit it off with, it's been really hard talking to people and making friends. I've been trying to be more myself and worry less about what people think about me which has been REALLY hard, and it's even harder when people just don't give you the time of day. I know that not everyone has to like you and that's fine, I just wish people would give me the time of day more, despite some really welcoming people at The Nunnery (that I've since left, look forward to a Nunnery Review soon) there's been a LOT of closed off people I've tried to start conversations with that have just blown me off. Also like, whenever I'm not hanging out with people or just have time to myself, I feel like a lingering sense of dread that I'm doing something wrong. But I know this is silly, I don't need to be social 100% of the time, I really think I'm just being neurotic haha.

Anyways that's gonna do it for this Epic Update, sorry for not updating sooner I've been very tired (walking LOTS) and busy (walking LOTS). I'll try to have an update up sooner that later next. Have a good day everyone, catch back up next time :)

Lachlan