Landed
Trip Start
Feb 26, 2004
1
31
84
Trip End
Nov 16, 2006
Adelaide,
Australia
Sunday, April 10, 2005
Ways to make rucksack lighter: (1) Buy smaller shoes.
About 9 months since I left here and I'm back in Adelaide, having seen the 3 Ben Folds gigs in Sydney, Melbourne and the last one of his tour right here in his wife's home city. All three of them were brilliant (except for one bad point which I'll get on to in a minute).
I went to the Sydney concert with Mike, Maxi and Mick on my last night in Sydney. We went out afterwards and I got pretty hammered, nearly missing my flight the next morning.
In Melbourne I stayed with the Danes, Marcus and Karl, who were kind enough to pick me up from the airport in their $200 van
1 - Ben Folds
. They found their apartment through my old landlord so they actually live next door to where I had lived while I was in Melbourne, in a mirror image of my old place.I got to do a bit more sightseeing in Melbourne, and managed to catch up with a few old friends. Jo accompanied me to the Ben Folds concert, and I went out for Eliza's birthday the day before she flew off to Thailand. As far as I can see, Jo and Eliza are two of the most perfect girls in the world. They are just phenomenal. The only faults I can find is that they are both sickeningly faithful to their boyfriends.
Leaving Melbourne saw me saying goodbye again to all of these guys, who I would now consider good friends. This time, unfortunately, I can't imagine when I will see any of them again. It was sad to have so many indefinite goodbyes.
I caught a cheap Greyhound bus to Adelaide. I hadn't been on a Greyhound bus since America, and I'd forgotten how much I love them. People consoled me when I told them I had a 10 hour bus ride ahead of me, but 10 hours seemed nothing compared to some of the trips I'd done on this holiday, and the Greyhounds are pure luxury compared to buses in Asia
2 - Ben Folds on his piano
.I had to venture to the Adelaide gig by myself, like a total loser. But being by myself allowed me to get there really early and get up front, rather than having to wait around for people like Mick Power:
S - "Where are you?"
M - "I'm just waiting for the bus."
S - "You know the gig starts at 8."
M - "I'll be there"
S - "It's 8:05."
M - "You know what I mean."
It was during this concert, right at the front, while Ben played 'Underground', that I felt older than I have ever felt in my life. It was pretty depressing as I looked round and realised that all these teeny-boppers, screeching with enough energy to clap the whole way through a song, and taking photos with their camera phones, were considerably younger than me. I was the oldest person I could see. I never thought I would be so disappointed to be surrounded by 18 year old girls.
It was awful. When did this happen? When did my generation get relegated to the back? As Ben kicked in to the last song, 'One Angry Dwarf', and everyone started moshing, I got kicked in the head by a crowd-surfer and it knocked some sense in to me...it was time to grow up a bit. I don't mean grow up to the point of going to dinner parties with Pearce and Sinead, but at least make a start.
Anyway, it felt great to be a groupie for a while and Ben Folds put on some fantastic shows, with some true moments of inspiration, including improv versions of Elvis, Jimi Hendrix, Dr. Dre, and a full on fight with his piano.
I'm feeling a bit flu-y, so have been taking it easy in Adelaide (It's so weird to be back here without the other two Thrill Seekers). Basically just biding my time for the next step:
Tomorrow I leave Adelaide on a 10 day 4WD trip up to Alice Springs with 9 other crazy cats. Pretty much the last of my money is going on this trip so it better be decent. At least I feel like I'm doing something again, and I'll get to see Uluru (Ayers Rock).
So for the next 10 days I'll be unreachable. Possibly by the time I get to Alice Springs I will have grown up and truly become a man, but I'm not making any promises in case there's some 18 year old tail on the trip.
