Day 87 - December 18

Met up with Julie at the Victoria State Library. We walked along some xmas decorations that the city put up.

Happy birthday baby jesus!

A random asian superman.

Julie on a random dog-pig.

Also went to see some gingerbread houses.

The Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Look at little lobsters!!

Melbourne markets.

Frozen bacon.

Santa and his reindeer on the roof.

The castle.

After that, we went back to her place to meet up with Nicolas to go over our Great Ocean Road trip in January. Julie already had in mind on what she wanted to see. I was fine with anything. In their car would be Ben, Nicholas and her. In my car would be Craig and maybe one other. Julie's car would only go for 5 days or so, Craig and I planned for about 10. After looking through the Lonely Planet, this is what we planned out:
*Torquay - Information Centre, Bells Beach, Charming Beach, Front Beach
*Anglesea - Check out Koalas, Kangaroos, Possums, do a creatures of the night tour
*Lorne - Resort Beach, Otway National Park, Erskine Falls, Sheoak Falls, Swim by the Rye River.
*Apollo Bay - Lighthouse Tour, learn to surf
*Port Campbell National Park - Gibson steps, 12 Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge
*Warrnambool - Whale watching, Thunder Point, Art Gallery
*Grampian Mountains - Mt William, Halls Gap

For dinner, I had already spoken to Meg that we should all go out for dinner at Lentil As Anything (a place where you pay what you feel). Meg texted me and said that she had just lost her wallet so she was in no state to join us now, that sucked. Julie and I went anyways.

Julie and I ate at Lentil located in Footscray. It was not what I expected. It looked like a cafeteria. There was a buffet set up to the right side of the restaurant and a sign at the front that says 'pick up a plate and eat, then pay what you want at the end'. The food was decent for a donation concept type of restaurant. There was also another sign that said 'no drunk people will be served. Any drug users will be reported'. Something tells me they won't be any lobster or steak on the buffet.There was eggplant spaghetti, roasted potato fritters, rice, squash and mushroom curry, fruit salad and lettuce salad.

As you can see, it was a vegetarian style buffet (to keep the costs down). You can imagine what type of people come into a place like this, but there was also a mix of people that look like they can afford meal at the Keg. The concept of the restaurant is solely to promote generosity and gratitude. There are some homeless that come in to eat and not pay but then there are others that come in to help the community and help pay for the meals that others can't afford it themselves.

Now we turn to Wikipedia for an official explanation of what Lentil As Anything is all about: "Lentil as Anything is series of pay what you can, organic, vegetarian restaurants in Melbourne. It is a multicultural and refugee friendly organisation. The restaurants wholly rely on the generosity of their patrons, volunteers and suppliers to operate, receiving no government or church funding. Patrons are asked to pay what they feel the meal, service and beverages are worth by contributing an amount of their choice into a box at the counter."

I'm the end I paid $15. I saw others put in $2, $5 and $20 an some that just walk out the door without donating anything.

PK had called me and said that Grace called him and said that the pavilion door was not locked from last night, some chairs were left outside and the coffee table was left outside. Guess PK, Meg and I forgot in our midst of bitching about working there last night.

(Rewind to last night) It was just the 3 of us that closed last night. We cleaned up most of the cafe, but then we all decided to have some drinks and munch on chips and muffins and just relax. We sat in the pavillion on the couches and talked for about 2 hours. After that, we finshed closing up. I left about 10 minutes before PK and Meg did as I had to catch the night rider bus. While I was running for the bus, I was hoping PK double checked the pavillion to make sure that it was locked properly like he usually does, apparently not.

(Fast forward to the present) There was also a text to PK from Grace that she wanted to fire me. Meg also got texts from Grace that she was disappointed that not everything was cleaned up. They both asked me if I received any texts from Grace, but I didn't get any. Kinda weird.

I decided that I would just show up for my 8:00am shift tomorrow as though I knew nothing. Guess we'll see what happens. If I get fired or not doesn't matter too much. Though I'd rather work the last week of my shifts to make a bit more money, I can also explore Melbourne throughly before I leave.