Friday night non-routine Date Night
Aside from being the end of the week, Friday or Flyday tends to be a day where I get a couple of hours of "bachelorette" life. DS is enrolled in extracurricular activity and DH takes him. The timing is such that there really isn't any point in me getting home before 8.30 pm if I choose not to.
Not that I have a big party-rette Flyday lifestyle but I do take the opportunity to catch up with work friends over happy hour drinks once in a while.
(For the record - I am a one-pot screamer; about 1/2 glass of wine will set me comatose. So, I tend to stick with the non-alcoholic drinks more than anything else. I have been known to mix my soft-drinks!).
Last Friday night was an exception. DH called me up at work earlier in the week and it turned out that DH wanted a 'date night' with me.
DH wanted to head to a jazz club in the city...there was a local jazz singer playing that night. He wanted to book a table; starting time was 9.30 pm. He'd arranged from his mother to babysit DS and was expecting to get into the city no earlier than 9 pm.
Yeah. Right. I can smell a rat from waaaay off. But I went along with the suggestion.
The jazz club is located in the centre of town and I figured that there was no point me heading home only to head back into town almost immediately. Effectively, that left me with about 3 - 4 hours worth of time to kill.
And I knew exactly what I was going to do with that time.
The Concert Hall in Melbourne, Hamer Hall, has been undergoing a major refurbishment over the last 2 years. Coincidentally, the work at Hamer Hall has been completed and there were all sorts of re-opening free events and concerts from Thursday last week to mark the occasion.
I took the opportunity to go check it out on Friday night.
Hamer Hall is the building illuminated in blue.
I have no idea what that flower thing is....there was no accompanying plaque or information; aside from a 'Thanks Melbourne' sign somewhere on one of the flowers.
The foyer area had been completely refurbed with new carpet. There were a few more escalators inside than I remember; but that’s a good thing as I figure they will help clear the crowds better.
Structurally, there was no change to the hallways inside. I’m not sure I like the faux leather look on the walls; but it really isn’t my house.
It was early evening...and the bars were all set up for the evening's event. I even had a couple of waiters fall over themselves to offer me a drink.
I’m guessing that there will be a jazz type band here for pre-show entertainment.
I could see that the proper guests were starting to arrive and whilst it wasn’t a crime to be in the foyer, I figured it was time for me to head on out.
The Hall sits on the South Bank of the Yarra River, with the Arts Centre right next to it (The Arts Centre is the building that the spire sits on top). It certainly looks great to see it again....after the last couple of years of ugly construction. I’m particularly pleased with how this side of the Hall has been opened up so that people can spill out to the river bank. They have also put in a few more restaurants and cafés on this side; so it will be very pleasant to have a drink on a balmy summer’s night out here.
I took a look at the setting sun…it was time to keep going!
I had arranged to meet a work colleague for dinner. She was also flying solo on this night with her partner away for his work function.
Our dinner? We went to a cheap hole-in-the-wall place in the city. It served Indonesian food and we shared a Seafood Nasi Goreng (Fried Rice)…
….Pecel Ketupat, warm vegetables with a peanut sauce (rather like a Gado Gado but not quite) and a pressed rice cake…
CAUTION! Definitely contains traces of nuts in this shot.
…and we both had a Chendol to drink; shaved ice with (green) rice drops, jackfruit, coconut milk and sugar syrup.
My friend and I had planned an outing for the night. We had decided that we needed to do some time and hard labour.
The Old Melbourne Gaol was built in the 1840’s and was still in operation through to the early 1920’s. For a country where the convicts from England were sent, the conditions in the gaols here were harsh. The Gaol runs night tours during the week and Friday night. The Friday night tour is The Hangman’s Tour. I was to find out that the tour was held almost in complete darkness, with only the Hangman walking us through the gaol with a candle. The tour talked about how hangings (there were 133 of them in total) and floggings were carried out in the gaol; plus some of the infamous inmates.
We were allowed to take pictures after the tour, when they turned the lights on. This might give you an indication of how dark it would have been in there…pre-electricity.
There really was no more light than this during the time I was there!
The scaffold is located on the second level. That room behind the trap lever is where the hangmen stayed for a week prior to the hanging. Apparently, one of the hangmen decided to take their own life after about 3 nights in the ‘cell’; rather than staying another 4!
The condemned were dressed like this, with their arms tied behind their backs.
Cells of this size held up to 4 people. But when it was first built, these cells were pretty much for confining prisoners for 23 hours in the day...in solitude!
There were a number of death masks for various hanged prisoners. This one is Frederick Deeming….
….believed by some to be Jack the Ripper.
Afterwards, I said goodbye to my friend and met DH and we headed down to the jazz club. DH and I used to go see live music a fair bit when we were dating and it has been quite a while since we’ve gone to a club. We stopped because we didn’t enjoy passive smoking.
Thankfully, smoking is no longer permitted in closed environments! So we had a very pleasant evening enjoying the music.
I figure that this club has a maximum capacity of about 50 people and with the stage right there, it was a very intimate venue.
And I saw why DH wanted to come check out this singer….slammin’..er…voice.
All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable date night!
