The Time Warp Meets 'Old Timers Disease'

When I heard the 'Rocky Horror Show' was coming to Melbourne this September, I went straight online a couple of months ago and booked tickets for our 12th anniversary (20th). I received the tickets in the mail soon after, checked the date quickly, put them back in their envelope, and thought nothing more about them.

We decided to make a trip of it and booked into our favourite B & B in East Melbourne for the night before, then planned a morning wander around The Queen Victoria Market, Eckersleys Art Supplies and Peter Stevens Harley Davidson.

Everything went like clockwork, although it rained at the market, and Melbourne Eckersleys was closed, necessitating a trip to the nearby Prahran shop, for my big spend up.

The Harley Dealership was choked with bikes, but didn't have the model my man is interested in, though he enjoyed seeing them. I'm sorta over bikes, as I am still chewing over whether to sell mine or keep it.

We went to Subway across from the Comedy Theatre for a lunchtime salad roll, and I got the tickets out of their envelope, checking them for the planned 2 o'clock matinee. I was horrified to read that they were for the 8pm evening show! How would we entertain ourselves for all that time, with my bad knee crunching away, and the car already safely parked in an underground car park? I must have messed up in the online booking process..................

We stared at each other with horror, then I remembered that Tickitek had an office only a few doors away. We called in there for advice and she directed us to the theatre booking at the Comedy. That done, we came out with exchange tickets for the 4pm (not 2!) matinee, so we only had a couple of hours to kill. A good result and soooo relieved.

We wandered down to the State Library, which I had never been into. A group of young men had a 'boom boom' music machine, and they were practicing their dance moves out the front, which was really entertaining. We went inside and marveled at the reading dome ......


.... and the huge computer room with mostly Chinese students flogging away. There were a couple of exhibitions going, displaying ancient books from the 14th century onwards. Ned Kelly's armour was in a glass case, and a recorded video about each section explaining how it was made and whose bullet holes were where.

His death mask was also there, and he looked very peaceful, considering being hung is probably not a pleasant experience.

The Rocky Horror Show was as good as it could possibly be, with great sets, costumes, music, cast, dancing .... you name it, it was all there in spades.

The only draw back was the narrator', Derryn Hinch, a dreary old has-been that a large percentage of the Australian public is over. He was wooden and dull, even though he appeared in the obligatory fish net stocking and red high heels at the end, I still couldn't laugh at him.

But that aside, I would recommend the show wholeheartedly.

'All Melbourne'd out', we high-tailed it for home, looking forward to our little slice of heaven once more.