Last week and a bit!

So...nearly time to go home...this is getting a bit too close for comfort. On writing this update I've got one more sleep left in this beautiful city. I will miss it a lot, I'm looking forward to going home and all the things I've got to look forward to when I get there...but I will miss being in Melbourne too, eek!

 Anyway, so, the update since Monday the 28th of June. I swopped Monday for Friday and didn't go in to work. I did a few daytime tasks such as taking shoes back to be re-heeled and putting my watch in to get a new strap (Peter Lane 257 Collins street in the Arcade, cute elderly dude who knows his watches!), that sorta thing; and then met Michelle and Kate out of the lovely Virgin gym. We went to a Spanish restaurant with a slightly peculiar waiter, he was handsome and also had a strange awkward sort of manner, quite amusing. Don't remember the name of the place, but it was a Spanish restaurant on Johnson street...that narrows it down. It was a cute evening with Newton and Weir, as always. It's been fabulous having the two of them as my friends to hang around here and spending time in their company is just gorgeous and has made me smile lots on each outing. On Tuesday had our team meeting, my last so I brought in cake - there's some really good flourless chocolate and flourless orange cakes they do on site (almost as good as the two recipes I make at home!) Had our last belly dancing which was sad too and the teacher was extra crazy and kept making us spin round and round, it made me think I hadn't quite got over my cold yet as I started to feel sick after a while! On Thursday I met up with Michelle and Kate and we went to the lovely Anada www.anada.com.au on Gertrude street, really good, definitely one for the list. It was tapas orientated. We had stuffed calamari, beef cheeks, celeriac soup, in the $49 set menu. All the food was really tender and nicely cooked, just great!

Friday I was finishing off for the handover on Monday and then headed back home and Meg had returned and we both rushed and got ready and headed down to the Docklands for fireworks, Melbourne are doing fireworks down at the Docklands every Friday night for July at 7pm. Impressive display, it lasted just 15 minutes, but it was a very good effort. Veronica had come out as well, which was lovely. We stopped and had one drink down at a random bar and then headed up to Pellegrinis, oh my god! This place is mental, a proper institution, it was an Italian old school sort of eatery, with lots of people eating around the serving counter. The owner was excited to have five girls in his place and was determined to make us feel very welcome, very sweet. Veronica also knew him and he ended up putting us on the table at the back of the place, basically in the kitchen which was pretty cool next to the stove, it's Melbourne so the stove/cooker was very welcome! Also Ken Brown came out, a guy I'd met at Greenman festival last year, he'd helped me for around an hour whilst I was moving gates about for various famous people etc, it was very welcome and then I chatted and mentioned I was coming over to Melbourne and he gave me his email address. I wrote a couple of months ago, but only the week before had he picked up and checked that email account! It was fun to have him at Pellegrinis as apparently his parents were neighbours of the owner too, mental! So he was teased quite a lot. The food was pretty tasty home cooked and all as well. Then we headed off to Madame Brussels, lovely bar: http://www.madamebrussels.com/ and had jugs of cocktails all out on the roof top terrace. It's a sweet place and one of my favourite bars I think. Meg decided she preferred Tennis on late night TV to our company so left at this point. Then we tried to go and watch the football in the Holland bar (they have nominated particular venues for particular nationalities so it's like stepping in to that country for those couple of hours...it was very orange, but we clearly weren't), however, no room for us. So we went off to Canary Club, http://thecanaryclub.com/, been there before too, but it's quite cool with its bed-seat booths upstairs, the music was pretty bad though for a while. Then we headed to Pony Club...aaaaaaagh! Very rock-grunge, lots of moshing, fun, but we mainly went in for the sight-seeing and then left and went to Loop, http://www.looponline.com.au/, and when we walked in the DJs pretty much finished and they finished on a smart song which had the lyrics 'Bitch, you're my breakfast!' and the barmaid repeated the words at us until she was willing to serve us, she was fab! We danced bundles and then Veronica came out of the bathroom saying 'I've got to go, Matt's just called me up asking where the hell am I!?' and we were like 'why what time is it', and were quite surprised to find out it was 5am...so we stayed out a little longer after V left and went to Lounge too, http://www.lounge.com.au/, quite hectic sort of sinister music, but we found a way to dance...then 7am home.

The next morn, Saturday, Meg and I got up 11ish and got ready and headed in to town to go pick up my watch and books and bag! We did a fair bit of shopping and got some pretty good finds, which was good luck. We also saw the remnants of a 'Where's Wally' gathering...Then we headed up to Rose street market, as I kept on hearing about it. I'm not so sure what I think, there's a lot of concentration on recycled jewellery and that sort of thing, but the best thing I did find was fork rings, so partly bent forks in to rings, which I thought looked really cool and would make a fine present to my prime dinner and drinking partners in crime whilst I've been here. We met up with Kate at Rose street market and went to a Japanese place with a $10 set menu called Yume (367 Brunswick street). The food was pretty tasty here and it was in the cheap eats guide too. After that we were all knackered and so went home for a rest...it was touch and go with the lack of sleep from the night before whether we would go out...Kate didn't make it. Michelle met Megan and I at the lovely Black Cat for one and then we decided to go to Loop to see DJ Ego and Mr Nice. They did a sweet set, some of the vids of which they've posted up recently via twitter and facebook, fun! We danced lots again and chatted to lots of people too which was good fun and the fun barmaid from the night before was there and remembered us too...and we made it home by 5am this night.

Then up early, well, 11.30am as Di was coming to pick up the futon base I'd been borrowing from her the past few months and we were going out to lunch/breakfast. We ended up going to the lovely Cafe Quince, one of the first cafes Kate took me too. They do just gorgeous breakfasts and I had a lovely polenta dish and Di had some lovely home made crumpets which were really like donughts with lemon curd and mascarpone. Somehow or other Kate had been chatting to the guy that worked there previously and he'd mentioned his prints, we took a look and I asked for his website: http://www.artman.net.au/# . In the afternoon, Meg and I went to the Sunday market down on the docklands and then headed to meet Michelle for the Tim Burton exhibition, http://www.acmi.net.au/timburton.aspx. It was very busy and popular, think it had come straight from New York where it first started. I didn't realise he'd done quite so many films! I want to watch lots I've seen before and some ones I haven't now! He's also obviously quite mental, just to note. After the exhibition we went and sat out in Fed Square on the deck chairs staring up at the sun (despite it being night time) as there was a giant sun/planet thing in Fed Square as part of the winter lights exhibition www.fedsquare.com/index.cfm?pageID=373. Then we went to Transit, a bar near Federation Square, it's cool but a bit concretey and too cold for winter! http://www.fedsquare.com/index.cfm?pageID=239. Then we headed off to the lovely Rock Pool, I had decided that heading home and getting back in would be too much of a hassle, but I kinda wish I had gone home and dressed up, the Rock Pool is deffo somewhere for dressing up, it's really nice warm feel inside and sofas to sit at at the dining table and things. The food was absolutely gorgeous, best meal of all in Melbourne, each forkfull you could taste the food before you'd even barely started chewing on it, gorgeous flavours. Very very nice meal, loved it! And Michelle and Kate paid as well as my farewell which was extremely generous, it's deffo not the cheapest of places. http://www.rockpool.com.au/melbourne/rockpool-bar-and-grill.html I had the lovliest minute steak as well. The eve ended possibly a little later than we all may have liked and we weren't in bed until 1am!

Monday, work and handover, feeling very sleepy, poor Megan who I was handing over to. In the eve I went out with my lovely work people to Anada again on Gertrude street. They gave me a gorgeous necklace and earrings. Was very sad to say farewell to them all.

Now, typing this with a cheese on toast breakfast in bed brought in by little Meg, soon we'll be heading out to try and squish as much more touristy stuff in as we can before we leave tomorrow night! The blog is nearly at an end...

Nearly there...

So the next day was Seb's last day in Melbourne, so I took him over to Lygon street which he'd yet to have the pleasure of. We hung round in the Readings bookshop and ate more chocolate and ice cream than we ever want to eat again in Koko Black's and then headed over to Brunswick street for random shopping and a final drink at the Black Cat.

On Tuesday I was back to work and thrown straight in to it with two various meetings and no chance much to catch up on the full inbox. That evening I went out with Veronica from work which was lovely too, down in the Docklands for a steak and things, I hadn't realised at that point though but it seems I was getting ill.

Wednesday at work was fine and Thursday I was feeling a bit too rubbish to go in so went late in the end because I had a teleconference I had to be part of at the end of the day.

Friday, my day off and although a bit ill I headed to the opticians as I decided I'd like to go back home with some good new glasses, they were very good actually and I'm expecting a good prescription to come out of it...must choose glasses Monday, they say they can make them in 4 days...not long left! After that I went home to rest again and in the eve went for a softer option of cinema and dinner with Kate and Michelle rather than going out to the pubs. Was a nice night and we saw Animal Kingdom, it was a very good film, quite hard work to watch but really good, worth a watch I think. Saturday I went to meet a work colleague for dinner, he'd invited me along with another colleague and her partner, and it was a nice afternoon and good food too! Then I went off to meet Gabby and Michelle for a catch up and a bit of wine - we went to Temperance in Prahran, pretty place: http://www.temperancehotel.com.au/ particularly nice bathrooms. Then we went for some tapas-type food in Pandora's Box, all sat up at the bar, and Gabby's Mum came to join us which was nice too. http://www.pandorasboxmelbourne.com/home later on Michelle and I tried out Electric Liquid Lounge, weird different sort of crowd down in Prahran, we couldn't tell whether we were keen on it or not. To keep it cheap we left before the trams stopped running and headed in to town and went to the rooftop bar at the Carlton Hotel, although it was a slightly different roof top to the one I went with Kate before, cool though, and a more comfortable easy-going crowd it seemed.

Sunday, today, I have spent all day indoors because I feel ill and groggy and haven't really been able to leave the house...a rest is probably in order anyway.

Got to phone up Singapore Airlines to see if it's possible to move my return flight a little. I'm hoping to come back just two days later...will see how that goes shortly.

Meg update: she enjoyed Byron Bay and did go to Nimbin as she suggested she might, seemed to think it was a bit of a crazy place too. By Wednesday she'd moved on to stay with my parent's neighbour's brother between Byron and Brisbane. Apparently they live near a lake and I received a text from her saying she was planning on going and using their canoe! Sounds sweet. She left a pair of socks at theirs so apparently that's getting sent back to mine! She stayed one or two nights in Brisbane too and I think met quite a few friends whom she went out with...then on Friday headed over to Cairns and for $24 the hostel picked her up and gave her a bed for the night, quite bargainiferous! Next I think she was planning on heading to Cape Tribulation but I haven't had an update lately...time for a text I think!

There is a Winter light festival in Melbourne at the moment so lots of lit up buildings etc, here's a picture of one of the buildings from this.

Long weekend in Sydney

So, yep, early in the morning, like 7am or thereabouts we, Seb, Meg and I, got up and I drove us (avoiding hook turns) to the Airport. We hired the car with Europcar, you get a mini discount if you have YHA membership, it was cheap enough I guess between the three of us anyway.

Then we got the flight etc etc. Caught the train to The YHA at The Rocks...$15 one way...on balance we could have just got the three of us in a taxi and probably would have saved...also weirdly they won't take Meg's student cards, Australian students only, I guess I understand the principal of that but it seems awfully unfair. Maybe you need an ISIC or whatever it's called card?

So first off anywayz, we left our bags in the lockers as we were too early to be checked in. You had to pay for the lockers. Fancy electronic system, the whole hosel was very fancy and I'd say worth staying here beyond any other hotel because it's a really high standard etc and all very swish and new and built on top of some old excavations of the Rocks which are kept exposed for you to see, really cool!

We decided to go to the Zoo, Taronga Zoo, http://www.taronga.org.au

It was really good, we were very impressed, it was pretty pricey for it all though. To get there we caught the ferry from the main harbour point, Circular Quay and it took about 15 minutes. Then we caught cable cars up and you come in over the zoo seeing the elephants and the monkeys, very cool way to enter! We saw an allright seal talk and a cheesy but cool bird display with the harbour bridge and opera house in the background. Quite fun. It was hard work trying to make sure we saw all the animals there were to see but we did a good job at trying and then were possibly the last lot to get chucked out at 5pm and caught the ferry back. On the way back we called in at a bar called Basement where we were slightly tricked by their cheap drinks advertising but had some nachos to go with as we were getting hungry...however...

We'd booked to eat a bbq at the Hostel for $5 a head which was cool and there we made two friends, Olga and Jan who we went over to the Glenhorne pub in the Rocks with, up on the rooftop bar where we could see the winter light displays which was cool. Michelle arrived late on in the evening as well to join us.

The next morning we got up relatively early and headed on over to Sydney Fish market using the bus as advised by the guy in the hostel...who ommitted any information about needing to pre-pay your tickets in a nearby newsagent...weirdly the bus driver let us on for free anyway, nice of him!

There's a bundle of seagulls flying around everywhere waiting for any sign of fish for them to eat. It was fun but slightly sad too seeing all that fish. Lots of clear eyes, so proper caught that morning fish and of course we had a fish platter shared between us too, very cool! Then we walked back over towards Darling Harbour and the weather was lovely and sunny, though randomly cold, too breezy, then warm, constantly removing layers and then putting them back on again! Around Darling Harbour it was all decorated for the World Cup, so a massive big screen and apparently space for 20,000, and loadsa portaloos etc. There was also this cool fountain which I managed to take some pictures I was quite chuffed with!

We decided then to head off to Manly, so catching the ferry from Circular Quay. It's quite a lengthy ferry ride this one, maybe half an hour. Seb was so amused with the name Manly and kept taking pictures all over the place..luckily I still needed to get him a birthday present so snuck off to get him a Manly T-shirt and Towel! Manly beach and area was lovely but cold, even the sand was super cold, so we headed in for a pint next to a fire! That evening we met up with Olga and went, weirdly, to a vegetarian Chinese in the middle of nowhere, miles away, not barely passing any other restaurants. It was kinda good, but quite weird too. The place was called Mother Chu's www.motherchusvegetarian.com.au. After that Seb, Michelle and I went to try out The Argyle in The Rocks, quite a large venue and it had football on as well. Seb got slightly scared/bemused/confused by the unisex toilets and was then greeted with some Weissbeir that he wasn't happy with, neither were Michelle and I particularly so we all sipped a bit and then went back to sleep.

The next day, Seb's birthday, Saturday, we got up earlyish, although by comparison to the last few days it was a lie-in, Meg went to sort herself out for her trip up the East Coast, and the rest of us wandered round the rocks, found the cool puppet shop hidden in the rocks and the market, where I bought some beautiful earrings, annoyingly of which I've lost one already, grrr. Then we all met at the Opera house, as you do and went for a wander along through the Botanical gardens, they're very big and there's bats in them, I'm guessing Fruit Bats, but I don't know for certain.

We went down to the pie place that Michelle and Meg had read about I think...I can't remember its name, but I believe it has quite a reputation, it's even sign-posted as you walk down to it, it's just a pie stand, but the pies were pretty good to be fair. Then we got in a taxi to Bondi, which was like $25 or something. It was a bit cold, maybe not quite as cold as Manly. We met up with JP, my old flatmate from when I was last living in Oxford. So JP, Lisa, his girlfriend, and two-week old daughter Isabel came to join us for some lunch overlooking Bondi, but sadly not in the sunshine...so we were all quite cold! It was very strange to see him, lovely too, but sort of confusing 'you're the person I'm meant to see in Oxford, what are you doing here even though I know I arranged to meet you here'! He seemed really happy anyway, life's obviously plodding along nicely and he's settling in to being a Dad, and step Dad too which is lovely. In the evening we all went along to 'The Australian' a pub just near the hostel and had 'novelty meat' pizza, e.g Emu and crocodile pizza, all fine, Emu was my favourite.
After JP went home to catch up with fatherly duties we headed over toe Darling Harbour, it was pretty difficult to find somewhere nice to go for a drink due to the football, we found a quite nice place that was a bowling alley at the end of the row of bars etc, and we had some sparkling wine in honour of Seb's birthday. Then we watched a bit of the Aussie match on the big screen and then headed back to sleep.

The next day we checked out and went for a wander along the Harbour bridge. Rather than do the massive bridge climb we thought we'd just walk it. Then I spotted The Rocks market, beady eyes that I have, and we scampered on down to have a look. I found a few presents there as well as a lovely fancy red dress to wear at my brother's wedding! They are going to alter it a little (making it long enough for a 33 year old to wear) and send it on to me before I go back...hopefully...only a short time left now! We just wandered about really then, and down to circular quay and watched some people pretending to be statues and scaring the children, lots of crying children, we were dissapointed by the children we saw that didn't cry...how mean are we!?

Flight back was OK and little Meg caught the bus up to Byron Bay, Greyhound overnight bus. She went to spend two nights in Byron Bay (at Cape Byron YHA) and planned to visit Nimbin nearby too and lie around on the beach. When Seb and I got back to Melbourne we did a crazy quick taxi turnaround five minute change and headed on back out to farewell meal out at Matteo's, the lovely restaurant we went to before...although they were not as welcoming sadly as when we came along before...hmm...the power of the two girl scenario. Eh well! Still the food was gorgeous!

The collection of bars and maybe even restaurants seems a bit few and far between...I'm glad I did end up in Melbourne, deffo one of my favourite cities!

The Great Ocean Road

Soo I forgot to mention in the last blog that I was terrified of driving in Melbourne, it's a massive place and they have trams and it's foreign despite being on the 'right' side and everything...So I should thank Seb most gratefully for directing me from the Airport and also out of Melbourne as well the next day etc etc entirely managing to avoid me having to do any Hook turns...I know you should do things that scare you but, well, this one I just chose to avoid!

So we left around 9am on the Tuesday morning heading out of Melbourne, avoiding all Hook turns! It takes a long time to drive round Melbourne and out of it all the way down to the coast/Geelong etc, about an hour/hour and a half...then we eventually got to Torquay, the first stop...beach didn't look so impressive, I remember being quite impressed the first time I saw it..but maybe Winter and whatever..we didn't stay for long, then we drove on and on and on...the actual Ocean part of the Great Ocean road takes a while to come about, but eventually it does.

The Great Ocean Road was built after the first world war to keep all the war veterans busy and distracted from all the horror they'd seen etc.

It's strange driving in Australia, I don't know quite why, maybe it's the scenery, but driving for nine hours with the occassional stops etc is not that tiring. I've driven in Australia before and found that to the be case too, very odd. Reckon I'd be broken driving for nine hours in the UK...and I'd have done pretty much the whole length of the country rather than a tiny tiny fraction of it!

We also, of course, saw Koalas, Megan was super enthusiastically keeping an eye out for the Koalas and anything living in the trees as we drove by so spotted I think maybe all of them pretty much! Probably due to the winter they were all quite active, maybe in the Summer it's too warm (someone was suggesting this to me last night) so they just go to sleep and keep still to keep cool.

We did a few little detours and stops along the way for photos and quick stretches of legs. Had fish and chips I think in Lorne too...then drove on quite quck the last part to catch sunset at the Twelve Apostles, some massive rocks in the middle of the sea, parts of the coast that's worn away over years and every now and then one of the rocks fall down, so there's not quite 12. When I last saw them in 2005 there was definitely at least one more too... 

After the sun goes down on Twelve apostles ...you can wait about half an hour and you'll see 'Little Penguins' to fall out of the sea, they sort of fall in with the waves and then fall over and wait for each other and then wobble up the beach to their little beds for the nights, cute, sort of, or well, it probably is, it's just it's really dark and all you can see is this tiny blob, because you're so far away from them.

We stayed in Warnambool as we'd hoped to see Whales, think it's the Southern Right Whales? We stayed at the Warnambool beach backpackers, 17 Stanley street. It was fine, but extremely empty and we were in the sort of outhouse type part of the building, meaning it was freezing in the corridor. We searched around a bit for food, nothing seemed to be quite right, we ended up eating at a Thai restaurant which was fine.

The next morn we got up early and left to find breakfast, we wanted somewhere interesting but ended up settling for a Subway because the other options just weren't that good. Then so, we had hoped to see Whales in Warnambool but apparently so far none had been sighted, but they had been sighted an hour and a half down the road in portland...so, I'd already driven this far, why not give it a go...so we did, and also called in on Tower Hill reserve on the way which was very cool, big valley and you drive over cattle grids to get in and out of it. It was quite a gloomy day so we totally chose the right day for driving along the Great Ocean Road the day before. I'd hoped to see sugar gliders, but they are nocturnal and yep, apparently rarely sighted, boo. We did see Emus though and Meg saw her first Roo in Oz too! Then we drove on to Portland and did see the occassional flip of a tail in the harbour, although at quite a distance and we were using binoculars. Was pretty cool. So satisfied with our findings we turned on back and drove ALLLLLLLLLLLL the way back to Melbourne, only with one little jolly stop off at the park to give me a rest.

Dave comes to visit for the weekend...popping in on his way back from Perth...

OK, so I fall behind again in updating this thing but manage to keep my paper diary up to date so I can vaguely figure it out. I gather people are reading it still so there's still just about justification in writing it, I hope...at least it will be nice for me to look back on it should I ever have the need, to remember what I got up to, reminisce and maybe figure out whether I want to come back out again for real...that idea does still seem very appealing, but I'm also getting excited for going back home now too, I've got so much planned before I start work in mid August too!

On Saturday the 12th of June, Seb, Michelle and I went to the Melbourne museum to go and see the Titanic exhibition, which was really good I thought. To get in though you had to queue up for your 'boarding time' as it's all very busy and sell out every weekend. So we booked our time slot and then went for breakfast to Southpaw for breakfasts like 'The Cat's Meow' I think. Good breafasts: http://www.southpawbar.com.au/

So then filled up with breakfast we headed off to the exhibition. You got your own boarding card of a real-life person aboard the Titanic. Really interesting exhibition, although exhausting, worth taking a look.

In the afternoon I headed on down to Southern Cross station to pick up my friend Dave! He had recently got a job and they'd flown him out to Perth to do some work there for a few days and he'd persuaded them to fly him back through Melbourne for a couple of days! Was so very lovely to see him, one of my friends that I've been missing the most whilst over here as I spend a lot of time with him and Jude and James in the UK and they're such fun and so sweet too. :-)

So Dave was taken back to the house and we had some pink sparkling stuff from my trip to the Yarra Valley a few weeks before. Then we went out to The Edinburgh Castle, Seb, Dave and I to listen to my work colleagues husband's band playing there. Not really been to Brunswick much, not so keen on it really, although if I was here longer I might try and invest a little more time in it. There's so many different areas in Melbourne it's quite difficult to get to know all the different areas so I've been inclined mostly really to focus on Fitzroy and the CBD I guess.

After that we headed on in to town to meet Michelle (Kate was sick sadly) at Cookie for dinner, I couldn't think of anywhere else to meet and Cookie: www.cookie.net.au/ sadly was a bit of a dissapointment...I guess it was a Saturday night but it was stuipid busy and we were put on a table where you have to go order everything at the bar and then they were daftly slow and it was just a bit of a painful process...not really a good welcome to Dave! So, then next we used the 'secret bars' cards I have and found 'Emerald Peacock', I liked this place, the downstairs didn't look as exciting as in the cards but it had a nice rooftop bar and did allreet Mojitos I think...

Then, although we could have stayed longer, we decided to try and squish a few in, so we headed to 1806, 169 Exhibition street. As with Emerald Peacock we walked straight past it initially, it's quite weird how the bars in Melbourne are that well hidden that you don't even seem to notice the bouncers on the door or a doorway with a sign that says the name of the bar above it, don't know how or why that happens! 1806 is apparently the year the word cocktails was first defined in print! This place: http://www.1806.com.au/ has the longest menu in the world, I'm not sure they've got in to the Guinness book of records for that, but they should have, it was quite boring really and explained every drink in great detail, nice idea, but boring. It didn't feel like it had much life beyond being a sort of history to alcoholic drinks and so we went for one bottle of wine between the four of us and headed off. The boys had vitoed a couple of the cards Michelle and I had chosen but then left Michelle to figure out the route and specified that a roof top bar would be nice...so we went to Madame Brussels which looked and sounded ace http://www.madamebrussels.com/ see!? The venue was fun with astro turf inside and out and sort of tennis garden/English garden furniture and the staff all in semi-tennis gear, lively sweet place and we stayed in it quite some considering the boys weren't so keen on it, and started drinking absinthe in protest...after that we had a go at going to the lovely Carlton club, but this evening apparently we had to be members...hmm. So we went for a final drink at Gin Palace again, where everyone looked a bit tired and in need of sleep...so we headed home!

The next day, Sunday. We had a go at a breakfast at Gluttony's, 278 Smith Street, bleeeeeeeugh, don't recommend, very greasy but not in a nice way, it was just too much. Was dissapointed to take Dave to a bad place, the huge majority of cafes and restaurants here are wonderful so not representative! I played with my food to make better use of it.

Then we went to meet Michelle in the Black Cat, my favourite and for food in a sweet Noodle place on Brunswick street but I haven't got a card I don't think for that one so how could I possibly tell you what it was called!? Good though it was and cheap and staff friendly too. I took Dave and Seb to Polly then and also for one at The Alchemist with it's fancy bizarre cocktails. I love Polly, the Alchemist is a bit not quite there maybe.

The following day I got up at the crack of a very cold dawn (OK maybe the sun had been up for a while but I wanted more sleep!) to go and pick Megan, my little sister, up from Southern Cross station. Was lovely to see her and I took her home for her to get showered and have a quick nap before going to an AFL game: Melbourne vs Collingwood, apparently 67,000 people had turned out to watch the Queen's birthday public hol weekend game. Cost us $44 each, not too bad. To those that don't know, they play on a massive oval pitch and it's like a cross between rugby and football/soccer (!) and they're a bit fighty with it and rough and the goals are weird scoring large numbered scoring systems, like in Rugby. The game's in quaters, so three breaks...so it takes a long time...but yep, on the whole it was pretty fun to watch, particularly the last quarter where it was quite tense, and then crazily the game ended with a draw, which apparently is very unsusual due to the weird scoring system! On the way to get there we also went to a cool fast food place 'Lord of the Fries' that Kate suggested for those that needed a bit of food. They were ace, just near Flinders street station.

Before Dave went we went for one last cocktail at The Carlton Club and then Dave, Seb and I caught a taxi to the Airport..Dave was heading home but I needed to go and pick up the car for our short road trip along the Great Ocean Road!

Real time

So, I thought I'd have a go at writing a real-time blog. Yesterday I didn't do much but work hard, and work late. Then I got a Burmese take away, to reward for working late, and because I'm lazy...which actually in my mind turned out to be a reasonably poor and very meaty beef massaman and thai fishcakes...I blogged and updated that lots and tidied up my Whitsunday photos. It's nice to draw a line under these things, but I'm anxious that there are a few weeks ahead of fun things to happen before I return to the UK and that I'll have guests and maybe little time to update, then anxiousness comes and I'll be all behind and trying to catch up again...as I keep hearing lately, technology was meant to make things easier for us, and instead it's just filled up our lives and made us more busy...I would love to have the will power to get off facebook, twitter, email etc etc for say even a month, but it's not in me...not yet anyway...I'd be interested to see how suddenly lonely I felt! It's nice hearing about what people have been up to...but I guess it stops me making time for myself, taking a rest, getting out of the house and adding another thing to my list of things to tell you about in my blog...how does that work, I'm not sure...

While I was out here I had plans of compiling material for a book, a semi true real-life book, but using little patches of stories and turning them in to something more real than they actually were...I live in daydream-land most of my life...the reality of that idea is of course that I've had no time to work on such a thing and so it hasn't happened...I don't really feel like I have failed though, I guess I have a bit of this blog to help..and I have a little book with some basic ideas which I add to every now and then, so it may happen at some point...when I'm back in Oxford and trapped indoors and have flushed my mobile down the toilet and broken my wifi thingmyjig. I don't have the intention to write for publishing...unless I magically find that it works well, but more to have an outlet for creative energy. I think even the most sciency of people need to be a bit creative every now and then, especially when they're not feeling on top of the world as it's a good use of negative energy too...I think anyway, from all the thinking and talking I've done with people...I know that any arty silly project I've done has always made me feel more satisfied and wholesome anyway. There are more things I'd like to write about this, but due to my potential open audience I think I'll stop there.

Today, I left for work really late because it was raining. It's just no fun cycling in your new trousers and stilleto boots on your bike in the rain for 10 minutes when you could wait a little longer as you know you worked late last night and will stay late anyway. So, I left a little late and got in a little late, but had a good day at work again, Yesterday was a good work day. At the end of the day my work colleague, Rebecca, gave me a lift home and we had a fun chat on the way. I then went to meet Michelle (do you lot mind being mentioned randomly in my blog...perhaps I should be checking in advance...or making up names for you, or maybe I have done...) in Brunswick...we were both dissapointed with the general coldness (coming from two places that know cold...well, know the difference between hot and cold anyway) and were very keen to find a place with a fire...the Vegie bar ended up doing an OK job, the food in there was allreet, it was XXXtremely packed and we had to wait a while, it's a surprisingly large venue and clearly very popular. Michelle's curry was a bit too spicy, in a too spicy way, hiding the flavour, my stir fry was kinda OK, but the tofu was a bit too un-stir fried (no pre-fry) and well it wasn't how I'd expect a stir-fry to appear. After that we tried out another inviting red-look venue, The Black Pearl. Nice place...lots of snogging couples on sofas, but relatively high scoring clientele and relaxed atmosphere, like it! Now to bed....damn without finishing those Whitsunday pictures completely...

Whitsundays!

Soooooo, Friday morning the 4th of June, also Willow's birthday, Happy Birthday my Dear friend, I'm celebrating it in somewhere you would like I think! We caught a taxi reet early in the morn to Tullamarine Airport which flew us to Hamilton Island in the middle of the Whitsunday Islands up Northish East Australia...the weather there was 25Cish degrees...I removed my socks and put on my thongs when we arrives and removed my coat. :-) The runway on Hamilton Island is just long enough for the plane to stop...interesting to see the sea getting closer and closer as the plane grinds to a hault. Then you purchase tickets to Airlie Beach, if you're us, and you don't have several hundred dollars to spend per night on your accomodation in Hamilton Island along with your several hundred dollar deposit to rent your golf buggy...chortlable place it is. So, the ferry, with Fantasea that takes 45 minutes over to Abel Point marina, near Airlie beach and then a bus drops you off...with a grumpy peculiar driver who appears to have been doing the job too long. YHA in Airlie beach...fine, but a bit scummaroo..guess it's a hostel...but some of them can be OK...hey, it was fine, I was just jealous of the golf buggys. We had a wander round and then spent the evening in the Airlie Beach Hotel, watching a bit of an AFL game, me drinking an Apple Pie cocktail and eating a lovely, rather large meal as well...the cost matched the size though...www.airliebeachhotels.com.au

.Saturday the 5th of June: we had an 8am pick up, don't you love being on holiday and relaxing, taking it easy, all that...we were picked up by a guy from Eco Jet safari, currently the Number 1 activity on Trip Advisor. Basically costs $349 per jet ski for 6 hours or so of your day to go out on a jet ski and look at the wildlife. Had to get our wetsuits on and were with two couples and one guy, with quite a bad hangover apparently.

So we saw a turtle, a female apparently...we were told that apparently it's the season when all the females are getting attention from several males all in one go...so are a bit tired out. She was all moss covered on her shell too, very big, sadly I didn't manage a photo as couldn't get the jet ski near enough. Then we saw two dolphin jumping around who were trying to catch a flying fish..(can you see it in the picture on the right here...) the chase went on for quite some time...then mysteriously one of the couples fell off their jet ski...they initially blamed it on the Dolphins..but apparently it was their own doing. Then we also saw a Pelican on the beach. We were going to head up the river but apparently the sea levels were so low that it wasn't safe to do so...stuck on a jet ski in the mud next to the crocs...not what either Seb or I had hoped for in our adventure! The hungover guy kept causing a bit of trouble. The Eco jet tour can only run under strict guidance of all tours following each other in a line etc etc and not behaving like bafoons....we had a bafoon with us though sadly. We were fed a lovely meal when we returned in the sunshine at Montes resort..nice hidden location, a couple were getting married there later that afternoon: http://www.pleasetakemeto.com/australia/whitsundays/montes-reef-resort-9044263

In the later afternoon we were driven back and went for a swim in the Lagoon at Airlie Beach - a public, free swimming pool in the middle of the town....thinking about it someone said to look out for Elvis whilst I was in Whitsundays....I wonder where he was? In the eve we drank cocktails at the Rum bar, D'vine www.fishdvine.com.au, loads and loads of different types or rums, quite impressive...then we ate in the same venue, you ordered at the fish counter (pretty much all of it caught that day) and then it was brought to your table. A rum bar and a fish counter in one venue together..what more do you need?! Except maybe a Trampoline ice cream counter...?

Sunday 6th June, also Lucy's birthday, my sister-in-law-to-be! Happy Birthday! So many Geminians there are in my life! Got picked up at 9am at the YHA and driven to Coral sea resort where we sat around for quite some time in the sunshine...then got on a RIB with Jay and Brad, who were to be our guides for the day. Apparently Oceanrafting is the quickest tour in the Whitsundays, also Eco etc too. They were good fun, and it was nicer to go along fast along the waves...I get sea sick, so find speedy boats better than slow bobbing ones. We did two spots of snorkelling...I had my underwater camera which was fun to use. Then the second trip they had as a regular feeding spot and there were three fish they had names for who were at least half my height coming up for food...at this spot the little fish were not scared of us all swimming, so there were a few little screams along the way too...I was glad to have chosen to have a wet suit (for warmth, but also for stinger protection, just in case). Then we were driven over to Whitehaven beach and the look out. Absolutely stunning scenery. There was no opportunity for loo stops, so had an interesting quick adventure weeing in the woods with Seb acting as my look out further up the path! We also saw a mass of these little blue crabs all moving together, I filmed this, but sadly my video mode was set for underwater so the sound was turned off...also as people walked along in the sand, which was somet like 90% silica they made funny squeaking noises which had me laughing for quite some time, simple things. Then to top the experience off we had a buffet lunch on the beach in the lovely sunshine. Really good trip, that was $110 each and I'd say much more worthwhile than the Eco Jet tour...but would I be saying that if I'd gone up the river, not got stuck and seen loads of crocodiles...I have been singing 'Never smile at a crocodile, No you can't get friendly with a crocodile...' etc etc for the last few days now...In the eve we went to a sweet little place near the sea front called Sidewalk cafe and had an amazing 9 things platter, we could have done with just that and the Innocent Bystander Pinot Noir (also one of the wines I bought/tasted in the Yarra Valley last weekend...). Lovely way to finish off the weekend.

 Monday...we got a pick up and had a pretty rough crossing to Hamilton Island...I was concentrating on eating my apple for some time ignoring the idea that I might feel a bit nauseous. Can't deny it was fun being rocked around on a medium sized ferry by some waves that didn't look that big but were certainly dropping us up and down quite some! As we had time to kill and the Airport was tiny we decided to go for a little wander round Hamilton Island...it was quite comedy...like something out of Stepford wives I think it is? Very weird!