We arrived at Tullamarine Terminal 3 around 12:30am Friday 15th Melbourne time, and were all a little bleary-eyed even though it was only 10:30pm Thursday Perth time.

But we were on a high – it was gonna be a weekend of eating, drinking, shopping and partying. After having some supper at Crown Casino, we headed off home around 2:30am back to Simon’s sister’s place. She was kind enough to let Simon, Tham and I sleep in the lounge.

For some reason, I didn’t get to sleep till 6am (too much excitement perhaps) before having to wake up at around 11am to get ready to head out for lunch at 12:30.

Lunch was at Shark Fin Inn near Chinatown for dimsum.

It was really good and inexpensive ~$15 per head.

After lunch we headed to DFO Spencer for some shopping. When I saw these shoes in one of the shops, I immediately thought of Kitty – she’d love these shoes.

Shopping was done around 5pm and we headed home to nap a little while before heading back out again for a night on the town.

Our first stop was Spice Market – a super opulent bar where it was deemed that my bright Ben Sherman jacket with the UK flag on it was too colourful for the place. Damn it!

Ironically, earlier in the day we had worried about Tham not being able to get in because he didn’t bring dress shoes and he had purposely bought a pair at DFO Spencer for the occasion. Turned out, it was me who had to worry about getting in.

I hung around outside and around the block for a while, so that the others can at least get inside and have a look around the place with Patrick, Simon’s friend who was our host for the evening.

After, we headed to Match on Little Lonsdale Street.

The place had an outside balcony area with nice views of the city, although it was very cold on the night.

After having a couple of beers, we headed for dinner at a place called “Shabu Shabu” located in a hole in the wall of a parking lot. That’s Melbourne for ya.

Dinner was kaiten shabu-shabu, or Japanese hotpot with the dishes flowing through on a conveyor belt. We paid $23.50 each for a buffet that lasts about an hour and a half. But we got there late, so we had only one hour.

And more alcohol was consumed. It was gonna be a happy night.

Dinner was done at around 11pm and we headed off next to Murmur, another hole in the wall kinda place.

More drinking was done, wee.

Just before midnight, we all had itchy feet and a friend in the group suggested a hip-hop place called The Croft Institute which was located somewhere in Chinatown. So off we went on a little trek once more.

The place was located behind dark alleyways …

and smelly Chinese restaurant dumps.

Woohoo, more drinks!

And yes, we did get shit-brain – literally and figuratively.

The rest of the night was a blur. When we left around 3am, I was in a daze.

But I remember leaving with a big smile. ‘Twas a very good first night in Melbourne.