A crush, Wagons again and new places

(Sans specs, but with smile)

Think I have a little crush on Justin Townes Earle after his solo show at Thornbury Theatre last night. Talent, a gorgeous smile and I can't say I've ever found a Southern drawl quite so alluring before...

You know how in those American teen comedy movies like She's All That they cast a pretty girl to play the school nerd and they nerdify her by giving her a daggy hairdo and slapping a pair of dark-rimmed glasses on her face? Well, Justin was kinda like that - a cute guy with a short, back and sides and a pair of dark-rimmed specs. Mmm....I do like a cute nerdy guy (if you know any who are single, please feel free to pass on their number to me).

You could tell he loves getting up in front of a crowd and playing his songs - he played for about an hour and a half without a break, just him and his guitar on the stage. His guitar playing is quite mesmerising - to the ear and the the eye.

And Wagons was great too, although it was a fairly short set. We had an ace spot right in the front row. The friend who came with me hadn't seen them before and he enjoyed it more than he expected, which was pleasing. They've got two more shows coming up on the Melbourne Cup long weekend too. Yays! I had been thinking about going away as I have a five-day long weekend, but now I'm glad I'm not. (I'm in the middle of planning a bunch of other things to do with my Melbourne mini-break too.)

The other star of the night was the venue. I'd never been to the Thornbury Theatre before and I fell in love with it as soon as I walked in and looked up at the beautiful pale blue and gold foyer (above). I'm going there again in a few weeks to see Aussie songstress Clare Bowditch and her band.

Speaking of places I haven't been to before, the Royal Botanic Gardens had its Spring Open Day today and I visited Gardens House, which is normally off limits. It's an old two-story house which used to be home to the director of the gardens but it's now a private function venue. I don't think I even knew it was there before. I've seen the locked gate, but never knew what was up the path beyond it. Told you there's always something new to discover in the Botanic Gardens!

After I had a look theough Gardens House, I spent the afternoon in the sun reading the paper. And I took a few photos. Of course. A nice way to spend a Sunday.