ROAD TRIP - South of the Border, Pt. IIIb

I'm In Love With a Strict Machine... And Magic Tricks

Nothing sets the tone for a Girls' Nite Out like said Girls getting ready together. Not only is the knowledge of the Sexy and How to Look It! exponentially increased, it's bloody good fun. It's like dress-ups, but with a chance of pulling. Ah, lisptick, crass hand gestures and GummiBears - good for the soul.

I feel pretty, oh so pretty! And cSophie looks amazingly, completely beautiful in this picture. Mel has pretty friends - yay!

Nothing makes you feel girlier than a cocktail in a cool glass with a smick garnish - drink with relish and bangles jangling!

Sofie - more delicious than the drink she's holding

Fellas, fellas, listen up: pick up lines are usually thinner than supermodels. Pick up magic tricks are even more retarded. You know who you are; don't do it again.

Trams are magic - they can take you from the pub to Hungry Jack's. AWESOME!

Madame Brussels (Bourke St, up the far end - pack your walking shoes) is charmingly, beautifully strange. Described as having borrowed its decor from Carroll's Alice In Wonderland, the turfed indoor areas, boater'ed and Henly-jacket'ed waiters and smashing cityscapes make it an irridescent drinking locale. The cocktails jugs and stunning stemware add to the slightly removed-from-normal ambience - truly, we'd fallen thru the looking glass.

Sofie makes friends easily. Her usual charm is magnified when said friends are Ukrainian and so communication occurs in a gorgeous Cyrillic/Slavic/English melange. When I start to understand the Russian exchanges, it's time to knock the cocktails on the head.

And then, back to reality. Having finished beeing trendy, finger-on-the-pulse, style-setters-who-drink-cocktails, we ended up at The Barrow (? I question the accuracy of my narrative recount). Live music! Dancing! WE'RE SUCH GOOD DANCERS!

The state of us! And we thought we were gorgeous

Canberra men must be rubbish. In Melbourne, we made many many friends, enjoyed many many drinks, and cheered like absolute loons when Sofie scored herself a hot date. WAY TO GO, BABES!

Now we play 'Strict Machine', and watch the magic happen...

Let me re-iterate the hotness - our new friends were so keen to continue being friendly that we were pursued (in a charming, holiday romance way) back to St Kilda. No names, no court martials, but someone who wasn't Sofie-with-an-'f' or myself even got her mack on. I was not surprised - my friends are very beautiful - just gratified that Melbourne fellas seem far more able to recognise these truths, and are quite ridey to boot.

So, so refreshed

A big THANK YOU! to the gentleman I met in St Kilda at the end of my evening. Having refreshed myself to the point of being dangerous in traffic, Cam (?) helped cSophie to get me home safely. He is a true gentleman - chivalrous, generous, and strong enough to carry me home.

Mille merci!