Melbourne - September 1997

I had never been to Melbourne before this small excursion. In fact in may ways I had only be intrastate once before and that was on the way back from the USA in August, when I stopped in Sydney for a mere 24 hours.		Andrew, Phil, Shane, and Phil
Shane	BBear	The fact that I was goign away to a strange place, was telling on me before I left Kalgoorlie to see the likes of Andrew, Phil and Ross. Andrew had been to see me in October 1996 and it was a pleasure to see him again. I was greeted at the Airport by Andrew and Phil (on the right in the above picture), and hugged and kissed.
This threw me for six as I was not expecting it. Coming from Kalgoorlie, where that sort of affection is not seen, it was a bit disconcerting.		Me and Ray
Mikey	Jeff, Chris and Warren	I spent the evening with Andrew and Phil, plus Ross came around. When the guys had gone, Phil and I spent a long time talking, hugging, and cuddling. A time which we both valued.
I stayed at Phil's, I slept in until 1pm that first day, then got up and just relaxed, went for a walk, and awaited for Phil to get back from work. We chatted, and I then went out to dinner with some other friends.		Phil mid song?	Phil on the tit-flash
Jeff & Joe		The next day I went shopping in Melbourne proper, got myself a couple of text books, and some CD's. In the evening Phil and I had our hair trimmed by Peter, and then I was introduced to "The Laird" and had a good evening chatting.
I was also shown around the place. This evening was very useful as I met a lot of the guys who would be there the following day at the party. The party was a great afternoon and evening, and I got to talk to Shane, David, Jeff, Gav, Rick, and others.		David	David (again)
Gav and Rick	David, Brendan, and Jeff	I was left at the party by Phil, and entrusted my safe keeping to David. He turned out to be a super host, and a fine gentleman. The following day, Phil and I chatted some more, and he arranged for some of his closest friends to come to dinner to say bye to me.
I was so honoured to get more time with Gav and Rick, plus Shane and Andrew. We chatted laughed and I admit I cried at the thought of going back to Kalgoorlie. Melbourne had made an impression on me. Why I am not sure.		Barry	Randall
Ross	David & Trevor	I got to talk more to Shane, and that night Phil and I talked and cuddled some more. The next day came too quick for me, and in morning Phil took me to the airport.
We said goodbye in a quite overt manner, standing in front of the other passengers on my flight, holding each other, and kissing. Oh well, I had relaxed. There was one member of staff from the college, but it did not worry me. I've become less worried about other people since I was in the UK for 9 months.		Mikey (centre), SwissCub (front right)
Ray & Gavin		Not a case of not worried about people, more a case of not worried about attitudes. Anyways, I cannot thank the Melbourne bears enough for making my quick visit such a pleasure! I know that the guys found out that this Kalgoorlie based Otter is the same in real life as in the IRC channels.
The trip to Melbourne was one I needed, and I think my partner knew that. The guys looked after me so well, and I made some very special friends there. It was very hard to leave and return to Kalgoorlie, but I did, and look forward to another visit.		BBear	Ray, Kevin & a hand!
		The following pictures were taken on a further short visit to Melbourne... Hmm... who is this dubious man? Well we know where he got the outfit from, the culprit is on this page - but don't BBear look good :)
*Jeff looking as stunning as ever - I especially like the picture on teh right - cool, relaxed and posed - HUGS* mate**
		This has to be one of the BEST pictures of Phil I have seen, and I am glad I took it.