Fragments from the Australia Diaries 2000 (part 15) - Bondi Junction

VIDEO NIGHT

The whole weekend was perfect...


laaaaazzzzeeeeee days ….

On Friday night we rented a video recorder and a few tapes. Now, you’d think this would be an easy task… oh no. We went to all the reputable big chain video stores and not one of them had any machines left, so we ended up going to this place called Dr What in Bondi Junction. It was gas, it was like stepping into a shop time forgot. The people were all dressed in retro 1970’s faux fur and love beads and they had every single video you have ever heard of. I think there might even have been camcorder footage of Noah’s regatta party on the Ark!

We got the vidser in the end there, but wait for it, $11 to rent the machine and $4 for each video, not bad at all I hear you say. Here’s the stinger, $100 deposit on the machine (reasonable enough) and a whopping $100 deposit on each video cassette, we were blown away. Managed to bargain the hippie down to $130 deposit for everything. Granted I conveniently didn’t have that sort of cash on me (I prefer gold bullion myself) so the girls coughed up the deposit between them (ha ha snared rapid!).

I had recommended the first video, Double Jeopardy, which the girls hadn’t seen, I remembered it as a fast paced thriller with loads of twists and turns. The girls found it mildly entertaining but painfully predictable (Ooooooopppppsssss).

The second video, Sharon had suggested, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, an old movie and a cult classic, the tape was in ribbons and we could only make out the tops of peoples heads. Lian and myself called it quits and went to bed, Sharon doggedly watched the remainder of peoples heads till her own head dropped off.

It was a great night though, just chilling out and pigging out. Saturday we had every intention of rising with the dawn chorus and plunging head long into some disgracefully energetic activity. Well, reality bites as they say, we crawled outta bet at noon, and set about reassembling our apartment.

There were cables and extensions cords all over the shop, glasses wedged behind the wallpaper, bowls balancing on the inflatable poof, the couch over the complete other side of the room, the microwave practically in the cupboard, the kettle in the fridge, Princess Diana's wedding dress in the loo, and so on. You see, the night before, I had turned my back to do some serious supervising of the microwave popcorn and the girls had got organizing. I turned around to see that obviously a woolly mammoth had entered the flat to take the sting out of his day with some dodgy break dancing.

With a little help from Mary Poppins we had the place ship shape in no time. Then we had the bright idea of a walk to clear the cobwebs…

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