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...

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!