The Burton Club

The Burton Club: "The Burton Club - Thursday nights from 6pm-10pm

ACMI reveals a little of its darker side when Thursday nights come alive with a weird, wonderful and whimsical program that captures the spirit of Burton. Come along and see the exhibition with friends, then enjoy a drink or two plus some free live entertainment. Entry to the Burton Club is free. Entry fees apply for Tim Burton: The Exhibition."

Love this town!

Initiation

Today is a big day. The biggest, possibly, in a big week.

In this past week I have transferred the registration of our car to Victoria. That felt quite amazing, actually, a full fist-pumping in the air moment. Very cool.

More and more I'm feeling like I am really here.

In fact after that big step we have really completed our move to Melbourne. We have a flat, our driver's licenses are now Victorian, even our car is now registered here. The kids are in local schools, we have joined a Scout group and have, in fact, been accepted as leaders ourselves.

What else is there? Well this is Melbourne. The season is winter. Footy season. This is a football town, the football in question is AFL/VFL - known as Aussie Rules. In many ways this is our final hurdle. We are to be initiated into the ways of footy at the hallowed ground of the sport - 'the G.' The MCG or Melbourne Cricket Ground. Forgive for a moment the irony of a cricket ground being the spiritual home of Aussie rules.

What will happen? Who knows. The game is between the Richmond Tigers and the Sydney Swans. We are torn in our allegiances - being from Sydney the Swans are, in a sense, our team. Richmond's Tigers, on the other hand, carry our favourite sporting team mascot. Richmond are known, in recent history, for losing pretty much every game (except the last couple since we were told that!)

Whatever happens, we will have properly joined the spirit of Melbourne.

That's what I call a great school fete!

Skipping forward to now because waiting to write it all in order is insane. For me, anyway.

Tonight was Miss 9's school 'Twilight Market' which is a fete by any other name, but with more alcohol. Aside from the substantial amount of ink worn by the parents, the eclectic range of looks worn and general mood of acceptance here, the market was awash with the booze.

There's a stall for the (presumably parents) who home brew. They have a bicycle modified with a trailer as the front wheel that holds a keg (or two). These guys were selling home brewed pale ale and cider. Wow.

Beside that stall were the two buckets of drink - one sangria, the other a clear mix with mint and whatnot floating about. Probably deadly - the sangria we took home in a jug as a favour to that stall at the end of the night certainly was :-)

Beside them was the wine stall - you could buy by the glass, bottle or half-case.

Then there is the music - the students performed at the usual standard for primary school kids who have been learning the keyboards, ukelele or recorder for about six weeks (ouch), but they did it in a fun, and most importantly, fast way!

The senior band turned out to be a rock band with an exceptional voice in the lead. This girl's voice actually turned heads. Their rendition of "T.N.T." was so enjoyed (not least of all by the band themselves) that it was given an encore performance after the three song set.

Leaving with the newly anointed (full!) sangria jug was really the icing on the cake, which you could also buy in cupcake sized portions. A phenomenal adult band (the drummer was a school parent) topped off the evening with their bluegrass / swing fusion sound.

Loving Melbourne. Moar like this, plz.