There was a re-occurring theme here, woke up feeling hungover yet again but was determined to get to Melbourne Park for the 11:00am tour which did. Well it was really good to se behind the scenes, particularly the interview room, which when you sit in the chair is very intimidating with everyone looking down on you. Got back to the hostel at lunchtime to pick up my gear and meet Dave who had decided to head down to St Kilda with me. When we got to the St Kilda district we ventured to the main street having heard good things about the scene, especially the nightlife. Unfortunately and unbelievably given yesterday's Sahara style weather it was absolutely pissing it down, bouncing off the pavements! People were right when they told me Melbourne can have four seasons in 24 hours.

Knowing the 3rd test between the Aussies and the Windies was on, which I was going to on Saturday, we decided to go and find a pub that was showing it. The only place we could find showing it was the Australian equivalent of a working men's club, which seemed perfect for two grumpy old b******s like us. Well we were more than happy just to chat about women and sport for the afternoon. Turned out Dave plays for a decent club cricket team back home and they need a spinner (so I might just have to come out of retirement and get involved). With the tea session to come we decided to run to Base bar with the rain still pounding down, but even better it was showing South Africa v England in the first test and it was happy hour! Halcyon days! The bar manager told us that it was Ladies Night later in the evening an warned us that it would be rammed and queues to get in if we didn't get there before 10pm, yeah right.

Having sunk several pints and having a good time (and it was only just 6pm) Dave decided he wanted to stay out and continue the fun even though he was staying back at the YHA in central Melbourne and had to be up at 7am for a trip, good lad. Only problem was he had come down in his Arsenal shirt, shorts and thongs, and the best I could offer was a change of top. What neither of us had really accounted for how bloody cold it would be in the evening! Both of us were shivering on the way back to my hostel but at least I knew I would be putting jeans and trainers on before heading out again, something which obviously I had to keep mentioning.

Post-change we headed back to the main strip for a burger and then a bar crawl. Well we went from place-to-place walking bloody miles and although were having a laugh we were both slightly concerned that it might turn into a bit of a damp squib due to lack on females, never good. We had two choices left for some late night fun having spoken to various bar staff along the way, one was Base and the other was the Vineyard Restaurant. With the latter supposed to be a bit more upmarket obviously tried Base first. It was about 11:30pm and sure enough there was a queue! I mean who the hell queues to get into a Base bar!? On principal Dave and me refused to do so, especially given the look of the t*** going in, and so it was time for a last throw of the dice at the Vineyard.

Well when we got in it wasn't that upmarket at all, in fact it was pretty busy and had a live band on and so all good. I saw a pretty girl and her mate stood near us at the bar and used one of my favourite techniques to get them to speak to us…asked them to take a photo of us! Sure as eggs are eggs they heard our accents and started talking to us. Brilliant. Well they were both locals but I concentrated on the fit one Kate, and fair play to Dave he played wing-man like the fine chap that he is. Although she did smoke I kept going outside with her for one even though it was doing me no good, anything for a fine filly. Kicking out time came around 3am and all four of us had enjoyed the evening, before heading off I got Kate's details and she said she is heading to the UK soon. Anyway a great bloke, one of my favourite days so far and I'm sure we will meet up back in London town one day in the future.