Ongoing Birthday Celebrations

I met Freyja and Simon on Tuesday evening for a birthday dinner.

They live in East Brunswick. Their house is between Nicholson Street and Lygon Street. So I took the tram to their place.

It was a very nostalgic tram trip.  I haven't had any reason to head out that way on the tram in the last couple of years, but when I lived in North Carlton I went on the Nicholson Street tram quite frequently.  I nearly got off at Pigdon Street to walk up to my old house.  There wasn't time for tripping down memory lane, though. I was due at Freyja and Simon's place so I stayed on the tram.

Not much has changed - apart from the shops and businesses. The butcher is still there but the language school where I learnt Italian has gone. The video store is now a bike shop. The Little Bookshop, which used to be in Rathdowne Street, has moved to Nicholson Street (I knew it wasn't in Rathdowne Street anymore but assumed it had closed down. It was good to see it in its new home.)

I remembered to get off the tram at Freyja and Simon's stop, walked up their road and then (with them!) on to Lygon Street. We had dinner in Kumo Izakaya. It's a lovely building and does interesting food; mostly Japanese but with some fusion food. The advantage of its tapas-style menu is that the omnivore, the vegetarian and the vegan could all have delicious food, and share most of it, although I had to eat my fried chicken plate all by myself. Oh, the hardship :-D  It was a good evening.

I took the tram down Lygon Street into town, then caught another tram out to East Melbourne.  It was around 10:00 when I got into the city - and it was absolutely heaving.  I realise that I was out on a school night, but I wasn't really partying.  Just eating. The crowds in the city centre appeared to be mostly partying. They were, at least, thoroughly enjoying themselves.

I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised to find a booze bus on Heidelberg Road when I was making my way to work yesterday morning. I was, a bit, even though I had observed the crowds in the city on Tuesday night.  Fortunately I hadn't had much to drink at the Izakaya. The police didn't seem to be catching many drink/drug drivers, but it was only 08:15!  I guess most of the party-goers were still in bed.