Girls Day Out Means a Girl Day Out

I’ve been down under since early January, and I didn’t have any chances to dress. Then my female cousin arrived three weeks ago, and the combination meant I went over two months without a day out.

However, my wife arranged a trip for her, my cousin, and my wife’s three sisters (total of five) to have an overnight trip to a series of natural hot pools and a spa. As I was happy to NOT attend, I realized that while the girls had their day out, I could have a girl day out. 

My wife and cousin left about 9 AM. I did a few errands, then got dressed and left a little after noon.

I did have one minor (read major) complication. My wife and I have an apartment in a 10 unit complex, arranged like the letter L. There are two floors of two units facing the street–the shorter part of the L–and three floors of two units perpendicular to the street. Our apartment is in the two units/two floors section. My niece has been living in the downstairs unit opposite ours, but the weekend before moved from that unit to the unit UPSTAIRS opposite ours. I helped move some of the bigger things, along with my niece’s boyfriend.

To get out of our apartment, I had to walk past their downstairs door, the apartment they were vacating. My niece was cleaning, and had the door open. Thus, I had to time it right. Close (quietly) our apartment door, lock the door, walk down sixteen steps, pass the open door downstairs, do a 180 turn, and walk into the open courtyard–hoping she did not look out the window as I walked away. I dressed, waited to see (hope) the coast was clear, and briskly (and quietly) shut and locked the main door, shut the screen door, and quickly scurried down the stairs.

I’ve included a picture of the new arrangements; our apartment is #6 on the left, hers is #5 on the right in the background. The stairs down are also to the right, and the door to the downstairs apartment is at the foot of the stairs.

I made it without incident, or at least I think I did. 

My niece living in our complex is a pretty simple story. During Covid, our apartment was empty for about a year. My wife had returned to the US and couldn’t return to Australia without spending two weeks in quarantine. My niece moved into our apartment, became acquainted with two of the other unit owners, and rented one then the other.

I chose a red top/black skirt/blue cardigan combo (it was rainy and in the 60’s). I also lugged along a carry bag with a LBD, booties, and nylons to change into for a later visit to the downtown casino. I decided returning after dark made the odds of returning undetected a lot better, plus I really wanted a night out in a fun dress, nylons, and heels.

It’s about a ten minute walk to the train station, and about a thirty minute ride to downtown. I took the obligatory selfie waiting for the train, and the obligatory selfie ON the train. Upon my arrival at the main station, I walked across the street to the Dangerfield store opposite the train station.

I’ve been to this store a number of times, because of the wide variety of fun clothes and the warm and accepting staff. Most of the staff–generally young women–often wear unusual clothing combinations combined with dyed hair of some vibrant colour.

It’s like a chocolate shop for a candy addict; lots of choices. I walk around the upstairs racks (the discount area) and chose some items that both might fit and would be fun to try on. A lot of times I just want to see how something looks, along with the occasional “oh I really want that”. I selected about a dozen dresses, tops, and bottoms, and headed to the change rooms. The process is to try something on, text Ms. Dee-ism, and occasionally my GG friend Renee, in case they have opinions. It’s my version of the girlfriend experience, when women go shopping with their girlfriends and try things on together.

My favorite choice was the leopard fabric corset style spaghetti strap top, that fastens in the front with the same type of hook and clasps found on bras. It’s probably not age appropriate for me, which is why I liked it a lot (unfortunately, my Thanksgiving to Christmas <over> eating habits have added a bit to my waistline, and that extra bit detracts from the look). But nothing was a winner, and I headed through downtown to another Dangerfield store in the nearby downtown mall.

That store is pretty small and was fairly crowded, so I didn’t see anything I hadn’t seen at the other store worth trying on, so after a few minutes I headed to the food court for a snack (an Oreo McFlurry and a hot apple pie–there are Macca’s here) and some leisure time doing my math puzzle book.

On the way back towards my final destination, the casino, I walked through a David Jones store, an upscale department store. I was on the floor with bathing suits (and open change rooms) so I gave a few of the bikini and one-piece suits a bit of a go. Nothing worth buying, but the change room allowed me a chance to don the nylons and LBD in my carry bag (I saved changing into my booties for later after reaching the casino, as my Red Keds are much easier to navigate city streets).

Along the way, I spotted a tram car that listed the casino as one of the destinations. As trams are free in downtown Melbourne, hopped on, took a tram selfie, and hopped off at the casino.

I’m not much of a gambler–I go to casinos because they are open most hours and have adult beverages and time killing machines–but I have yet to find a video poker game (my vice of choice for the $20 I’m willing to gamble) at the Crown Casino. However, the casino does have an upstairs bar–which was mostly empty–and I ordered a hard cider and a bag of potato chips and found my way to a comfy chair in the bar. I killed time on my phone, took some pictures (of course), and enjoyed my time out in a fun dress.

One bonus of this casino is the large round support columns have mirror like wrappings on them. As the surface of the column is curved, the image you see of yourself is thinner than the reality of the actual person. It helps me imagine what I might look like a few pounds lighter. It’s also fun while walking column to column seeing your image in action–strutting in a LBD and booties.

Around 8 PM I decided to head home, as the sun had set and the walk back from the train station (and into our apartment) would be in the dark.  Yes, I would be walking in the dark dressed as a woman, but it’s extremely safe here, and that is not a fear, however I am dressed.

I arrived home, tried on a couple of my swim suits to see how they looked, and made plans to get up early the next morning to take advantage of day two of my wife’s day out (and mine). Read about that next Sun-Dee!