I'm in Melbourne with Adam for another few hours - we fly out tonight at 9:00PM. I've been here since last Thursday night when Maggie and I flew in. She left on Sunday night, and Adam flew in from Sydney.

On the flight over I took my laptop out of the bag and found that the LCD panel no longer worked. What a bummer! I noticed that when the laptop was going through the X-ray machine at the airport that it stayed in there for a long time. The operators swapped shifts when meant that my ThinkPad was getting bombarded while they signed in and out. I don't know that it's related, but it made me mad. Tursday night I rang IBM support while Maggie had a shower. The dude was helpful but basically said I was stuffed. It was a 5-business day wait to get a quote to me, which I then had to pay $130 for and had to approve by FAX within 6 hours. It would then be 14 business days before the laptop was returned to me. "Umm... I am only here until Wednesday, which isn't even enough time for a quote" I said. He told me that for $190 an hour I could have an onsite technician, but there was no guarantees. Brick wall.

Friday morning we woke up fairly late and I made a few calls about the laptop. I found a place about 2kms from the hotel that could look at it straight away, so I left Maggie getting ready and took off. I went to the Melbourne Notebook Service Centre and the tech there was helpful. In the end he thinks it was the powersupply to the LCD as he swapped the panels out and it didn't solve the problem. Also, you can see a very faint image on the screen, so it's not broken, it's almost like it's not powered. His diagnosis matched what I expected, but again parts are going to be delayed so it will have to wait util we get back into Perth.

I raced back to meet Maggie and Rob for lunch. It was great to see Rob again; we were becoming close mates just as he left for Melbourne, having always been friends (since he was born!)

Maggie and I went into Melbourne city and did some shopping. I checked out Minotaur and Outré. I bought some GI Joe graphic novels from Minotaur, and a stencil art book by Banksy for Ben. He's been a wicked mate lately, and it's his birthday soon so it's a perfect excuse to shell out some dosh on cool people.

I picked up the laptop in the afternoon in the rain and caught a cab with Mags back to our hotel.

We got ready for dinner and went to Lygon street, which is the food district in Melbourne. Dinner was OK, but things were just not 'right.' We'd made plans to go out that night and hadn't heard about what was happening from my friend that was organizing it. In the end, after travelling around and following all the clues things didn't work out, and at 1:00AM I went back to Maggie in the hotel room and we had an early night. We were kinda down 'cos things hadn't worked out, but it was our own fault for setting expectations. My friend was appologetic but it wasn't his fault at all. These things happen...

Saturday was a different story, and we got breakfast and hit Chapel street. I bought some shoes, a pair of jeans and a muscle shirt (now I just need the muscles). Maggie shopped until her feet hurt and we got a late lunch at around 3:30.

We then came back into Melbourne and met Kristy (Rob's sister) for a coffee and a chat. Again, it was cool to catch up with her - I miss her and enjoy hearing what she is up to. Her magazine is going well, apart from some political problems within the management camp, but that's business (unless you work for TFG :)

Mags and I said our goodbyes and went to see Wedding Crashers which started about 40 minutes after we got to the cinema. I read a 2600 mag and Mags burnt some more cash on things she meant to get the day before. The movie was really funny, and it was nice to be sitting and relaxing for a few hours. Go check it out. Good idea with some funny actors and interactions.

That night we went to the casio for 10 minutes and then onto the Spearmint Rhino. Mags and I had a ball, which is all I'll say. ladies, and gentlemen, check it out when in Melbourne. Classy and quality.

Sunday morning we went to Chapel street again and got some breakfast. Maggie and I shopped some more, infact this is when I bought the shoes, not Friday... We came home and had a rest (it was a late night at the 'Rhino) before getting a taxi out to the airport and putting Maggie on a plane back to Perth.

Her flight was fine, which was a relief. She doesn't like flying, but doing it on her own would have instilled some confidence in her which is great. Confidence rules.

I shot over to the Virgin terminal (Mags wasn't on Virgin, she flew QANTAS) and collected Adam. Ben came and got us in his WRX STI and it was a quick trip back to our hotel room.

... and that was the first half of Melbourne. Stay chooned for more.

Disclaimer: No spelling or grammer checkin'. i'm pumping this out as fast as I can. Deal with it.