Well what an eventful day it unexpectedly turned out to be. Woke up early and dropped my bag off at my new hostel the YHA as I wanted to have a sporting tour day down at the Melbourne Olympic Park, which would sandwich lunch with Claire who I had gone to uni with, who I had only discovered on Monday via Facebook was now living in Melbourne so it would be rude not to say hi. My plan was to head to Melbourne Park first, venue of the Australian Open tennis, for a tour of the Rod Laver Arena. I got there in good time only to be told there was no tour due to a concert being held that night…b*****. On the flipside it was the Australian Open Wild Card Play-Off tournament and some matches were starting soon. Well this was a bonus, as I had never seen a professional tennis match before. I watched an hour of a women's match and there was some quality stuff. Now seems an appropriate time to mention the crippling heat, blazing sun and dry hot wind. I was drenched in sweat and cooking just sitting in the stand, so I couldn't imagine what it must have been like playing in court.

Next stop was across the bridge to the MCG for the tour and National Sports Museum. I booked myself on a tour for after lunch and so headed off into the bowls of the museum. Now I wasn't expecting much from it but boy wad I wrong. I only managed top see three-quarters of it in an hour and a half before I had to go for lunch. It was the perfect combination of being informative, interesting and yet entertaining. I particularly enjoyed the Olympic exhibition and the Shane Warne hologram video as he was the reason that I took up leg spin bowling when at school.

Had lunch with Claire back in the City and she invited me to go out with her friends later that evening s it was one of their birthdays and I was more than happy to accept. Raced back over the MCG for my tour of the huge ground which was great. Getting to see the Melbourne Cricket Club members facilities made an overseas membership package very appealing (hint hint for the next birthday haha). After finishing off the Museum, at which I could have spent the day there and not seen or read everything, I decided to walk back to hostel via the new Rectangular Stadium in the park for footy and rugby (which is incredible looking but could do with a more original name)…well what a shocking idea that turned out to be. The heat was draining and unbearable, some of the worse I have ever experienced.

I got showered and changed and set-off to Claire's apartment in the Dockland's part of town, which is like Canary Wharf but 100 times more relaxed and with far better weather. I absolutely loved the setting and feel of the place, I reckon I could quite happily live there in the future. Claire's friend George was there when I arrived and we sat and had a few beers on the balcony as the sun went down, perfect. Went to meet the others at Lounge Bar which was a nice smart-casual bar set on the wharf front directly below the apartment. Now this is where the evening started to go awry.

For only the second time on my travels this placed served pints, and they had Stella on draught for some reason, I wasn't present when the first round was bought and I hadn't eaten properly since lunch…you know the rest. I hadn't predicted a heavy night due to everyone else's work commitments but as it was a birthday the drinks were flowing readily, including the always lovely tequila slammers. I got on well with everyone and was having a great time. As I had not been out in the City yet a suitably sizzled Claire said she had to take me to Crowne casino, and George said he would come along too. Before we left George's boss, who lives with Claire, gave him $100 to look after until the next day for some reason. The relevance of this being that when we arrived at the casino Claire revealed, not untypically for a woman, that she was good at and only ever gambled with other people's money, usually her boyfriend's. So crazily her and George decided to gamble it all on roulette which if it came up would pay for our drinks all night. Well luckily Claire was good to her word shouting red at the last minute and we won! (Being naïve I took a photo of Claire and George with our winning chips and was instantly told to delete it!) So off to the bar again we went.

As we sat outside a little while later I was talking Braille and falling to sleep, and sure enough the bouncers came to kick me out. Not just one though, an entourage of about 10 came to escort me off the premises! What a ridiculous overkill, its not as if I was causing any trouble. George being also smashed took serious umbrage and began t abuse one of them and seeing the bouncer roll up his sleeves up worried we were going to get duffed up outside I defused the situation and went quietly and quickly. I stumbled back to the hostel with no clue about getting to bed. As per usual a night not without incident.