Need to compete

I’m enjoying my new need to compete

I’m enjoying 

I was ready for my first day proper in Melbourne exploring the sights. I opted to walk into the city from Dale’s as it would give me a chance to get to know the area. I find walking the best option (provided everything is relatively close) as you get to see things you might not otherwise see. Plus I then feel less guilty enjoying a nice G&T at the end of the day as I have “exercised”. My route took me through the Botanical Gardens, which were looking great with plenty of flowers coming into bloom. I was still finding it odd to be walking round in shorts in the sun admiring flowers in the middle of December. From the Gardens I made my way across to the Shrine of Remembrance as I had been told that, aside from it being a really interesting monument to visit, there were great views of downtown Melbourne from the top of it. I headed in and was immediately approached by an old guy in smart dress with a row of medals pinned to his jacket. I thought I was about to get told off for something but he asked where I was from, gave me some information about the Shrine and told me that there was a ceremony in the Sanctuary at 11:30am. The Shrine had been designed so that at 11am on 11 November the suns rays would hit the word “love” in the inscription (“Greater love hath no man”) on the floor of the Sanctuary. During the rest of the year it is recreated daily using a beam of light. I went to have a look but there was a large Japanese tour group already there so I left them too it.

Shrine of Remembrance

I was ready for some lunch so found a little café and grabbed a sandwich. A couple of people had told me that Melbourne was the place to get good coffee and food but that the really good places tended to be tucked away out of sight, often without much in the way of external signage alerting you to their existence. The coffee shop I found wasn’t too bad and I got a decent flat white to go with my sandwich. After lunch I headed along towards downtown Melbourne wandering round the CBD for a while. My walk eventually brought me back to Flinders Street station. The clock at Flinders Street had been a meeting place for people for decades and I looked up to see the clock. I was surprised at how late it was. I had been in touch with my host Dale (“Dale”) and my friend Dale (“Other Dale”) during the day to arrange plans for the evening. Other Dale had suggested drinks in town before heading to DT’s Pub, a gay bar in Richmond, for a pub quiz. Dale said he might join us for one but would probably give the quiz a miss. I had enough time to jump on a tram I had deliberately not brought a watch on my travels. If I needed to be anywhere at a specific time I had my phone and could use that but I didn’t want a watch there as a constant reminder of the time. It was very liberating not feeling like I was ruled by what time of day it was.

Flinders Street Station clocks

I headed to meet Other Dale at The Carlton on Bourke Street. On the way over I had a message from Dale saying that he was finished at work and was on his way to meet us but would just stay for one drink. I met Dale outside and we headed in. Other Dale was already there, out on the balcony with some of his friends. We found them and I gave Other Dale a massive hug. For some reason he always uses my full name when he talks to me. It used to annoy me a little but when he said “Hoi Chris Tune” I felt a pang of familiarity, which was much needed. I realised that the last time I had seen a friend had been when I had waved goodbye to Sal at the airport in LA over a month before. Other Dale and I have always had an interesting friendship. We are quite similar in a lot of respects (but we would never admit that) and are both very competitive and like (ok, have) to be right. When Other Dale had done the Brighton marathon he had asked me what my personal best marathon time was, using that as his goal. He had beaten me by about ten minutes. The following week I had done my 5th London marathon and before I set off I had written “Beat Dale” on my hand. Every time I had felt like I was flagging I had looked at my hand and it spurred me on. I beat Dale’s time by about ten minutes, shaving 20 minutes off my personal best. We had been similarly competitive in a 10km race later that year, finishing a matter of seconds apart (I finished just ahead of Dale).

I did the introductions (Dale, this is Other Dale. Other Dale, this is Dale). Dale and I were then introduced to the others in the group. Other Dale and I headed to the bar where he ordered a schooner of Blonde. It sounded more like the title to a bad porn film than a drink. He told me it was a decent lager and low in carbs too. Perfect. I ordered one for me and one for Dale. A schooner turns out to be a glass that holds three quarters of a pint. Drinks in hand we headed back out on to the balcony. I chatted to Damian for a while explaining my travels and where I had been. Damian was from Northern Ireland but had lived in London for a while before moving over to Oz. I asked Damian what it was like to live and work in Oz as I was weighing up whether it was somewhere I could live and work for a few years. Damian seemed very happy with his move Down Under and it gave me plenty to ponder.

My new need to compete

It was time to head over to the quiz so we piled into a couple of taxis. Dale, having already broken his one drink limit, joined us. Once at DT’s we ordered a pitcher of Blonde as everyone was drinking lager and we found ourselves a table. We got a big table as a number of other people had said that they might join us for the quiz. By the time the first round of the quiz had started our team had gotten embarrassingly large. I think our team had more people on it than the rest of the teams in the pub put together. We needed to split into two teams to make it fair on everyone else. It was a little like being back at school for games where the captains would take turns to pick people they wanted on their team. I had been pretty much last in those selections but I felt confident that for a quiz I would be near the top, several years spent watching Fifteen to One when I got home from school every day helping me build up a vast amount of pretty useless general knowledge. I got to be on Other Dale’s team and I knew he was pretty good at quizzes. We got the quizmaster to agree that both new teams could have the points from the first round as their score and the split was completed before the start of the second round.

In true pub quiz style there was at least one person who would get very excited at knowing the answer to a question and shout it out rather loud so that everyone else in the pub could hear. I don’t think the pub quiz phenomenon is as big in the States so Dale looked a little bemused but seemed happy drinking lager and shouting out “Texas” as an answer to every single geography question (and a number of non-geography questions too). Our team pulled ahead, the rivalry between us and the other team formed from our table intensifying as the evening progressed. In the end our team was triumphant, our prize being a pitcher of lager. By that point in the evening we really didn’t need it. I was feeling a little tipsy as I had not eaten dinner save for a couple of slices of pizza that we had ordered and had delivered to the pub. We drank the pitcher anyway. I think we had another after that while watching a couple of people compete for some awful prizes in a contest the pub called “The Price is Shite”. All in all it was a fantastic first day proper in Melbourne but I knew that I might be feeling a little worse for wear in the morning.

“I’m enjoying my new need to compete” 
Lyrics from Why We Like Spelling from the musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee