Happy Valley

So, Thursday the 6th of May was a busy day...you can't do all this stuff I keep on doing AND keep up to date with this blog!! ...there was silly amounts going on at work trying to meet various deadlines, then at the end of the day at 5.30 I had my swim stroke correction class, as I hadn’t done any practice during the week I hadn’t really progressed and kept nearly drowning myself…weird when I do know how to swim and have done since I was rather tiny…but these new techniques involve gliding through the water more rather than moving me arms about constantly, and that seems to make me drown. Yep, then Di picked me up and I went to Megan’s birthday dinner (Megan is the person who’s role I’m covering here) at a cool place called Chin Chin at Koto Moon: www.chinchins.com.au/main.html - really good food actually and not too expensive either. I had some tasty Nasi Goreng noodles. Then I had to leave the gathering a little early to go back and make a teleconference (Managing Editor Executive), good productive meeting and I’m glad I got back for it…but then after that I had to finish off packing for the next day…which meant not going to bed till late and then getting up at some silly hour in the morning to get a taxi to get me to the airport for a 9am flight.


I was met by my Oxford work’s Statistician with a sign that said ‘Jessica T’. Fun! He took me back to his house in the Happy Valley where I met his two extremely fluffy dogs called Chow Min and Caramel Lion, quite sweet they were. Then we went to Hardy’s winery at Chateau Reynella. Apparently the site of the oldest winery in South Wales…however, a few years ago, real estate became more important so they knocked down the old vines and sold of some of their land…buying up land in less prime locations to continue to produce wines I’m guessing…odd. I didn’t want to taste too many, being drunk in the late morning with our Statistician who was retiring who I’d not met before didn’t seem like a sensible plan. We bought our dinner in the form of a pasty from a sweet bakery: Old Reynella Town, 211 South Road, Old Reynella. Cute family business and Norm Crittenden who runs it was very sweet and friendly. After lunch we went to Clelland Wildlife Park. Saw some cute animals. You can buy a bag of food for the animals as you enter which gets you quite a bit more attention. I gotta stroke a Koala which was cool.

At one point it heard a noise it didn’t like and turned itself in to a statue just staring in the direction of the noise it wasn’t keen on. We also met some kangaroos and Wallabies and some cheeky ducks, including a very cheeky one who bit my finger trying to fight to get some of the food I had. I also liked the Wombats and the Tasmanian Devils. Nice little park anyway. In the evening I took our Statistician and his wife out for dinner as a thank you for having worked for the group for nearly 10 years, unpaid! We’re now seeking more Statistics help…let me know if you know anyone…The restaurant we went to was called Candles, again in the Happy Valley. It was allright, but very country feel and big food but not necessarily amazing tasty food.

Anzac day and beyond

In lieu of Anzac day, Monday the 26th of April was a public holiday. Michelle and I cycled to Brighton beach, about 10kms in the breezy sunshine, if we stopped too long we got cold which encouraged us to go faster! The beach here was a lot nicer than St Kilda’s beach, proper sand here. They have cute little painted beach huts, which is the tourist reason for coming here, but the beach itself is quite pleasant, worth remembering – despite the treck to get there…think you can get there by train/tram/walking too…Then in the evening Michelle and I went to Birdman eating on Gertrude street, had pretty nice tapas (e.g. scallops with apple sauce and pancetta, and chicken breast with Jerusalem artichoke puree and halloumi and carrot salad) and admired the weird décor of Barbie dolls with wings hanging on strings.

Started my belly dancing classes this week along with Di, was good fun, also went back to Di’s for dinner and met her husband and three adorable kids. A sweet evening. This week saw Igor Stravinsky and Coco Channel in the cinema, kinda nice film in terms of being very stylish, but a bit really about them just having sex everywhere whilst his wife and kids lived with them. Before going to the cinema I went to a nearby place called Ember lounge (www.emberlounge.com.au/index/home) to get some din. They said should be easy to get pizza in 40 mins, then they forgot about me. When I brought it up, in a bit of a moany British way, the chef managed to convince me he could cook my gluten free pizza in 3 minutes…which he did and it was a good pizza too…then they refunded me…and cheered me up by being very jolly about it all…will be going back! Had my first swimming stroke correction lesson – I’m an all right swimmer but I thought it might be fun to learn to perfect my stroke technique. The teacher suggested loads in half an hour…I’ve kinda gotta change my whole swimming style! Also had yoga class on my own the same day…my bottom was killing by the end of the day from all the swimming and yoga stretching! On my Friday off I spent the whole day planning my trip next weekend to Kangaroo Island near Adelaide where I will be going off to visit my Statistician for my Oxford job. In the evening I went to meet Michelle and some other work-related colleagues at Loop (www.looponline.com.au/bar.html) in the city. Was quite a dark venue, but very popular too and quite cool with cocktails. Met one work colleague I’d written to for several months but never met which was fun. Ended up also in Comme Kitchen (www.comme.com.au), big bright white high ceilinged venue, it did food as well. Had various Australian terminology explained to us including the term ‘Bogan’…went to a venue called New Gold mountain (www.newgoldmountain.org), quite green, then further on to the upstairs venue in the same building which was very red.

At the end of the evening Veronica, who I’d met properly first of all at Auckland, invited me back to hers in the outer part of the city, so taxid it back and her and I stayed up talking until very late in the morning. Then Saturday morning she had to be up at 9am and off to Doncaster shopping centre…I decided to come and have a look at the shopping centre too, very fancy place with a good food mall and comfy luxurious looking sofas throughout the place. Got a taxi home as navigating via buses seemed too complicated. That evening went with Michelle and Kate (who’d been witnessing several hundred/thousand people in the city dressed up as Zombies!) to an Ice Hockey game of Melbourne versus Sydney…was kinda fun

…then we went for food in a £12 buffet Chinese, it didn’t feel like the most hygienic of places, it was a bit odd…don’t remember the name, but would quite happily avoid! We also went to 24 moons which is quite a cool venue, down a dark alley somewhere in the city: www.24moons.com.au - then we tried to find two venues from the Lonely Planet guide, one of which no longer existed and the other which had been knocked down (‘Shit Town’ the latter was called!), walked in and walked out just to take a look at ‘Sister Bella’ and that seemed quite cool.

On Sunday Kate and I took a Met train out to Belgrave. Whilst waiting for Kate I witnessed these cool piano steps here I’m guessing due to the Jazz festival being on, they played as you walked up and down the steps! The train ride between the city and Belgrave was not too exciting. BUT then! We saw Puffing Billy steam train! An old style train which cost a monstrous $35 for an adult, but there didn’t appear to be much else to do so we gave it a go.

It was quite lovely chugging along at 15Ks an hour and back again staring up at the Eucalyptus trees or down in to the valley. Sometimes if you’re lucky apparently you may see snow about…none sighted. We saw moor hens with blue tummys though and a Kookaburra! When we got back to the city we met Michelle at Movida for tapas and moider, I liked the food, but it was a bit on the pricey side, but the venue was next to all the cool graffiti, loads and loads of it, and the artists got so carried away they even painted the bins! We then wandered up and down the river and introduced Michelle to the delights of Trampoline ice cream. We also came across another fancy music thing near Federation Square in honour of the Jazz festival, lots of lit up balls dancing to the music - quite mesmerising.  Dancing balls for Melbourne Jazz festival. Dancing balls: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnsjAhu-oAA

After that we went to meet Gabby at the Carlton Hotel (the one with the stuffed Ostrich and Giraffe) for beer where she was drinking with two of her friends. A bit of a late Sunday night for me, very nice weekend though, really enjoyed it.

Monday and Tuesday have been OK. Monday I learnt to do the Round House Kick at Kick Boxing, very cool although obviously I'm no pro yet! It's really proper exhausting that class and he made us do press ups on our knuckles too. For the first time in ages on Monday I cooked for myself, rather proud, despite it being a basic pasta sauce! Did the same on Tuesday...if I'm not careful I'll get myself a reputation for aaaaaaaaalways cooking at home. Tuesday had belly dancing which also was pretty labour intensive, got to play with a scarf and a cane as part of the various shifts she showed us! Not much excitement I shouldn't think for the rest of the week but next weekend Kangaroo Island and sand boarding!???

April 19th to Anzac day

I feel a little like I’m writing this so back-datedly that it’s just stating a load of random activities I did with no real purpose, if you see what I mean…difficult to put your heart and soul and all your enthusiasm in to something you did three weeks ago…but I’ll give it a go.

SOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooo, gosh I’m still loving Melbourne, it’s so good, you should all move out here, NOW. I promise you you’ll love it too!

Had the morning off on the Monday to account for working on one of my Fridays recently. Went and put a picture to be framed in (my favourite) Westgarth: Northcote Picture Framing, for my Oxford job’s Statistician who I’m going to go visit in Adelaide in a few weeks. Also should mention, I think I did a little already, but Westgarth where I park up my bike is brill, it’s got the lovely cinema, but also has The Fruit pedallers selling hippy middle class healthy food http://fruitpedallersonline.com, as well as this they have Sacs which is an entirely gluten free shop so I’ve been buying some tasty lunch from there too sometimes. My boss went to Rome during the Volcanic Ash disruption for a meeting there…she was travelling the furthest and was the only one that made it there…so the meeting was cancelled and replaced by a teleconference. On the Tuesday this week sadly I had my last Pilates class, booo. I love the Pilates class it’s so good and all the crics and cracs in me body seem to disperse…boo, hoping she may set up another class on Thursdays and I’ll drop the good, but slightly weird and creepy yoga. The first week of the class was just Di and I from work who are going to these lunchtime classes (yoga and Pilates…soon to be belly dancing and Pilates hopefully…). The teacher showed us both how to do breathing lieing on the ground feeling our breath (for breath read breast) as it moves up and down through our body…was very odd having a display of that, less embarrassing doing it yourself, at least your eyes were encouraged to be closed too. The Wednesday of this week I went to the Podiatrist students again, and they said yes there was a large lump in my foot and recommended that surgery was probably the most effective way to get rid. So booked in to a Surgeon to discuss my options on the 13^th of May. 

In the eve I went to meet up with Jessica Fox. She’s one of my friend Miss Walmsley’s friends from school who lives out here, and has the surname I’ve always wanted…am going to figure out some way of doing an identity swop without her noticing as sadly she seems to like her surname (understandably I guess, it’s ace)…Anyway, we met at a Tears for Fears and Spandau Ballet concert at the Rod Laver Arena. I don’t know how many people were there to celebrate Jessica’s birthday, but there was several thousand, not sure they all knew it was her birthday as they forgot to sing, but still, that’s why they were there. Tears for Fears were cool, though I was late so sadly missed Mad World which I’m gutted about. Spandau Ballet were impressive performers, but I guess I’m not quite so excited about their music. Was lovely to meet Jessica and hopefully get another fun contact in the city. This Thursday, the 22^nd. My Step Mum, Sheena, had wanted to buy me a Christmas present of some activity or meal or something to do in Melbourne and she came across this cocktail tour: http://hiddenbarsofmelbourne.com.au/ it cost £35 a head which is not bad considering it included two cocktails and some food in one of the five bars. We met the tour by three brass men. 

Kate came along (Sheena got me two tickets so I could bring a friend!) and we were both reasonably sceptical, thinking we would get taken to bars that we’d been to before. But we hadn’t been to any of them…we also made some friends along the way, although the end of the night did involve us running away as it just seemed like the right time to do it…The bars we went to are as follows: Campari Red/Campari House – roof top bar with fancy painted stairwell all the way up and restaurant downstairs www.camparihouse.com.au/, fake grass and we had a ‘South side’: Mojito with gin pretty much. Then we went to Penny Blue, my favourite of the five I think, had loads of fancy beers and lovely cocktails and lush velvet surroundings: www.pennyblue.com.au/images.html. Then on to The Carlton Hotel which was very cool with a first floor bar with and stuffed Ostrich and Giraffe in it, very dark red…also there was the a roof top bar there: www.thecarlton.com.au/. Then on to Cabinet which was well hidden next to loads of bins, it’s funny how many nice looking places have bundles of bins outside them here. Cabinet we were given our second cocktail and a bit of food, this bar was quite small and really hidden away except for their balcony is out on to the street but lots of people would wonder how on earth to find the entrance due to it being out the back by the bins I reckon: www.cabinetbar.com.au/. The final bar was the Canary club - this was really cool, it had a DJ, a small dance floor, again fancy cocktails but upstairs it also had sofa bed style seating so you could lounge around – very cool! After that alcohol-fuelled, Kate and I accidentally came across the Gin Palace, a brief sign above the door down a dark alley had us querying what sort of venue it was, but it turned out to be another lovely velvet place with fancy cocktails and the like, a late crowd we came across there and we made a friend with guy called Nick who directed us to New Gurnica 

which Kate had been to before, where there was a DJ and the décor was very Alice in Wonderland…as I had the Friday off Kate and I decided that we should attempt staying up until the trams started running again…we danced a while and chatted a while…then went to get £2 pizza from the £2 pizza shop…then had a wander down the river, still with our new friend Nick and in to the Casino, which I wasn’t so keen on, so many slot machines, ugh . Then I got tired and decided that Kate and I were going home…only an hour until the trams started again…

Due to the late night I didn’t have a very productive day except at the end of it to find out that Danny’s burgers near me are actually rather good quality burgers! Saturday was a little better…still up late, but I went to pick up my framed picture and met Kate in ‘Traffic’ in Westgarth for an early afternoon breakfast…then we checked out a ‘Garage sale’ of a cool shop called Lupa…then walked in to town and went to the Black Cat, which I really like for some reason on Brunswick street, it’s a bit beaten looking and has old sofas in it, but it’s got a sort of cute homely I wanna make you my local sort of feel. www.melbournepubs.com/venue/908, Michelle then joined us and we all headed to a raw food café (Michelle and Kate had talked about this quite a lot before and I confess not to being very enthusiastic, but with the Thursday night hangover still looming I was still very happy to eat out rather than cook for myself, so I went with it. The place we went was called Yong Green Food on 

Brunswick street. It wasn’t the prettiest of places and we were crammed in a ridiculous table and they didn’t serve us for ages, then when they did it was one meal at a time, so we watched Kate eat her raw food nachos (they dry the crisps even rather than cooking them!) and it was actually really tasty, really, can you imagine!? Then Michelle and Kate watched me eat my Rawsagnia! It was lovely, I think it had thinly sliced courgettes on the top but also involved cashew butter or something like that, really tasty, seriously! Weird! Then we watched Michelle eat her food which I forget now, but I can highly recommend it anyway! They were actually quite apologetic about the slow service and I think knocked a little bit off the bill. Oooh the other thing was that I think I found the bridesmaid dress for Miss Walmsley’s wedding too, fun! That was with Kate’s help.

On Sunday the 25^th I got up after not sleeping very well with two hours sleep for Anzac day, meaning I had to leave the house at 5am. Michelle and I met up in the Botanical gardens and we listened to the very crowded ceremony. We were part of a minutes silence, which was quite incredible with that many people in the dark, and also heard the New Zealand and Australian national anthems. We then both decided that maybe we needed a rest before doing anything else. In the afternoon I met up with the lady Gabrielle and went for a few drinks in Cookie, and then some food too. We then wandered the streets a little and she showed me a cool street with some graffiti and I randomly bought a cool hat…which may get worn at Roland and Lucy’s wedding!

Monday 12th April - 18th April 2010

Monday 12th did Kick boxing, it’s such good fun…when I got home I used the long corridor to practice some of the kicks, lots of high ones and things, fun! On route home also called in at the Thai in Westgarth (I have recently become a Westgarth fan clearly…but it’s also where I park my bike up!). The Thai was fine, called Thai Spoon on 101 High Street, Northcote. Was finding work very difficult this week to keep up, loving it too, but worried that I will never get to the bottom of any piles…

Tuesday after work went to the Westgarth cinema again with Kate and we went to see ‘Date Night’, quite funny actually, easy going watch anyway, had Steve Carrell and Tina Fey in it, after that we ate pretty straightforward but good food at Traffic in Westgarth, very friendly waitress. On Wednesday I caught the tram late to work and was punished by there being an accident on route and them chucking us off the tram to work to La Trobe, around three or four miles away I think it was…I walked for half an hour, with my hurting foot and all…and then everything cleared and I got back on the tram…hmm…the one cool thing I did get out of the experience though was that I saw a Possum jumping along, that was cool, though I didn’t quite believe it was a real thing because it was so very jumpy. At the end of the day I went to the student Podiatrists based at La Trobe to get ‘em to have a look at my left foot…

They were very interested in it and made me walk and watched me walk for ages, and then referred me over the road for an Ultrasound and an X-ray…which I did the next day and had to pay for…think I may be able to claim it back on Medicare…need to sort that still – you can back date though so should be OK…cost me $190.

On my Friday off I decided to go and visit the Australian Cochrane Centre, a bit worky for a day off, but I thought it would be interesting to see where they are based and it was nice to see Miranda too. To get to Monash I had to catch the train, a new experience…then I got the train back to Chapel street, shopsville, but expensive shopsville…clothes do seem to be more expensive than I think they should be allowed to be here, also clothes are often interesting but fit you weirdly I’m starting to find…weird, not accommodating for curves or even mediocre chests either…went to ‘Made gorgeous’ to get a Pedicure, beauticians near me. The woman was reet full of information and told me loads of places to visit in Melbourne. That Friday evening Kate and I walked out down Brunswick street, spying a possum on the way…and passed by a lovely looking place called Matteos on St Georges Road as you get nearer Brunswick street….it had red lamps in the window (we’re noticing a trend of us tending to gravitate towards venues with red lighting of some sort…) At Matteo’s, (www.matteos.com.au) the sort of venue that you get seriously dressed up to go out to, we ate divine food, I had beef and we had two gorgeous desserts, mine had crisp banana slices, then the manager gave us two additional drinks, a dessert wine, which was lovely and some grappa, not quite so lovely…after that Michelle joined us and we all headed towards Bar Open on Brunswick street, to listen to some Jazz, scary Jazz I think, it was a bit too Maths-brain for me! Then we went to the Night Cat, club venue in Brunswick street area, just off on Johnson street www.thenightcat.com.au/main - we saw Mister Savona, cool reggae/dancehall/hip hop apparently, good dancing music anywayz! Then we headed over reasonably drunkenly by this point to Polly which was a lovely cocktail venue. The exterior is weird and a bit like an English garden with fountain sort of…the inside is gorgeous and very red, though you only realise this once you are in there as there are no windows to the outside, just lush velvety redness everywhere and a cocktail bar in the centre (www.pollybar.com.au) and we were served by ‘Vanilla Rice’… – added to the list of must sees for tourists…

It was a very late night but the next morning I had to get up for beauticians again for hair removal, nice! But first off I had a skype conversation with Dave, James, Jude and Marlo which was lovely, they were all rather drunken which was kinda strange witnessing at 8.30am, but sweet too and it made me miss them a little and I admit feel a tad home sick…then in the afternoon Michelle and I we cycled to the Zoo, a really nice cycle ride from my house along cycle paths off the road…but then it was quite late when we got there and a warm day so all the animals appeared to be half asleep…which didn’t make for particularly exciting viewing with the remnants of a hangover. There was a wedding go on whilst we were there though, weird! It was very good the first time I went there though…perhaps I had gone there a whole lot earlier which seems weird! After the Zoo we cycled over the Smith Street to check out a Japanese restaurant, Shoubu after a beer in the Union Bar just off Smith St. All good, but we were both tired so went home to bed early.

Sunday I headed on down to the Craft Market near Flinders street train station and the Art gallery that I’d missed before due to going there on a Saturday, when it’s not in fact on. I did buy some little things I didn’t really need and then went to sit in the Botanical gardens which was lovely in the sunshine…then randomly texted Gabby to see if she was around and she was ready to meet up after work…so went down to St Kilda to watch the sunset and people watch and then met up with Gabby and she took me to one of her favourite bars on Fitzroy street in St Kilda…but I don’t remember the name as I didn’t get a little card from it (which I’ve been routinely collecting from almost every venue I can wherever I go if they have them)…then I saw her lovely house in St Kilda…and she took me to a good Thai place on Chapel Street (expensiveville shopping) and a late bar, upstairs…name…don’t remember, didn’t have a card for me to pick up…

7th April to 11th April - not the most exciting update, but here goes...

So I arrived late back after the Fraser Island trip due to silly Tiger Airways so didn’t have much energy for all the work that was there for me to do on arriving back after the long, long, weekend…after work I called in at the lovely cinema in Westgarth, at the bottom end of Northcote. Had some quick hot chips for dinner from Westgarth Fish and Chips, they may only have been chips and they may have taken longer than I would like so I had to eat them quick and give myself blisters so I could make the film on time, but they were good – there are quite a few little cafes and bars to choose from in this little pocket, as well as other useful places like The Fruit pedallers which also seems to have a complementary therapy type wellness clinic.. Went to see Mic Macs, fabulous sweet adorable film, worth a watch I think, by the same Director that did Amelie, Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Lovely. The cinema itself is really nice actually too, apparently not used enough though...so I must persevere with my idea of weekly films :-)

For Friday met up with Kate who’d returned from a good time in Byron Bay and Michelle, who’s just started working for a group related to my organisation, in a similar situation to myself. We all met on Lygon street and decided to go and see if anywhere appealed on Lygon street for dinner…it was a bit of a nightmare with various people from the restaurants trying to call us on and give us deals…we found it all a bit stressful so decided to avoid going in to anywhere on Lygon street at all and Kate drove us over to Brunswick street to go to St Jude’s cellar, which had caught my eye as it kept reminding me of my lovely friend Jude at home who I'm missing! (http://www.blogger.com/www.stjudescellars.com.au). Quite a nice place, steely sort of venue, food was pretty good and they had some OK wines, though not as many as I would have thought considering they were calling themselves a cellar! By the end of the meal and half a bottle of wine I was exhausted so didn’t go out which was a shame and a bit of a waste of a Friday night!


On Saturday morning got up a bit late then headed in to town to try and seek out the craft market…with my painful foot (to those of you that don’t know I’ve been having problems walking the past few weeks with a stupid and annoying painful foot…have Podiatrist booked…more details to follow about that…). Walked down the Yarra River on the South Bank I think it’s called…down near the Casino in the direction of Federation Square/Flinders Street train station and the Arts Centre. There are loads of restaurants to eat in along here, lots more than I remember when I came here in 2005/2008. Discovered after all that walking, but the occasional stop off to watch a street performer that the craft market is on Sundays...so headed over to Federation square/Flinders Street train station quite a bizarre building…then
down to Degraves place,
which I discovered by accident…has loads of fancy little shops and nice restaurants along it as it turns out…and lots of wedding parties have their pictures taken along there as Michelle and I discovered later on in the afternoon as she came to join me for shopping. Whilst on Degraves Place we ate in La Citta http://www.blogger.com/www.lacitta.net.au - perfectly fine little place. It’s quite difficult to find the good and interesting shops in the middle of town, or so I’ve found so far! Although there are a few. There’s a shop called ‘Buttonmania’, http://www.blogger.com/www.buttonmania.com.aubut sadly it was closed, near it though in this shopping centre
was another shop, called l'uccello which had some very lovely things to look at and mostly old genuine war vintage stuff including cheek reddener, though she did say, it might have lead in it so if we bought it not to use it…She sold cool hair accessories and things by a designer called Serena Lindeman http://www.blogger.com/www.serenalindeman.com.au - take a look at that website, there are some really cool hattettes and the like...We also accidentally walked in to a small gallery in this ‘shopping centre’ where there was two really cool canvas’ which basically looked as though they were covered in aluminium foil which was peeling off a bit and then spray painted gold – really cool look – like the idea of trying to replicate it somehow one day. http://www.blogger.com/www.pigmentgallery.com.au

In the evening Michelle and I went to see another comedy act (the Comedy festival was Still going on!). We were stood outside the town hall wondering who to see when some randomer came over to us who was dishing out flyers and offered us comedian advice, we took it because he said this guy had been recommended by quite a few people and was interesting and surreal, and indeed he was, good fun to watch, though somewhat stressful e.g. he flicked banana in to the audience as part of the initial act…tried to barge through a very narrow passageway between the audience with a massive suitcase and computer wheely chair, whilst also smelling rather a lot! But he was good and it was quite a captivating show, so yep, the show was called 'Dr Brown Behaves' and we went to see it in a venue called the Tuxedo Cat, which looked very temporary but I think someone suggested to me that it wasn’t that temporary, despite looking a bit derelict-like!


On Saturday evening when I returned home I learnt that Roscoe Frederick Worthington was born, weighing in at 8”10 at 11.10am. Willow gave me a call and sounded very happy about having him in the world, and had a natural birth this time, which I was really pleased for her about too. :-)

Sunday I was very rotty and lazed around. Felt a bit down after the Fraser Island trip, it was very cold on returning to Melbourne so could have been the shock of the weather change! Sunday I went along to Brunswick street and started having a look for bridesmaid dresses for Clare’s wedding in August. Tried a few on but not much found. In the evening when I returned I tried out Al Albero, a newish pizza/pasta place (am amused by how Australians say Pasta, Vic and I used to say it this way as a joke pretending to say Pasta in a posh way…silly silly). Anyway, yep the pizza place 354 St Georges Road, North Fitzroy, really pretty good and they do gluten free pizzas too which is cool and right interesting ones too e.g. I had Mushrooms, feta and thyme. So that gets me to the 11th of April....really falling behind on this thing...

Fraser Island Part 2

So on Saturday morning we awoke rather early, the sun comes up at way earlier than the crack of when dawn should be I reckon so you wake up at like 6am or something...still, it gets dark early too, so it all balances out I guess...So yep, as you can see from the picture, we saw a dingo pretty close to us today, looks like they tag them all. Isn't Dingo just a great word, Dingo dingo dingo...

Today we went off in a 4 4x4 car convoy, the tide was high so we went inland to avoid getting stranded and stuck on the beach, but eventually one of the cars started dying from all the hard work it was having to do, so we went back out to civilisation.

Then the rest of us headed to Eli Creek, which was just lovely too. Ami spotted that there were loads of blue bottle jellyfish on the side of the water, tiny little things that look like broken bits of bubble wrap..not fatal, but not nice stings either. There about the size of your nail and so you might easily not notice them floating about in the water...luckily Eli Creek was fresh water and we were seeing them where the sea met the creek.

It's just a whole lot easier to say this thing with pictures isn't it?
There was also a ship wreck where I reckon we all got some pretty cool pictures. Funny how people just leave ship wrecks, I guess they're too difficile to move and they then become tourist attractions!

There's so much to see on this island considering, you know, it's just a big sandune, but it's just amazing, every new thing you see is equally beautiful and slightly breath-takey, it's great! So on the way to go and catch us a campsite we saw the pinnacles, big pretty sandune formations.

Then we got a campsite with not so much wind protection from the sea and I got a bit freaked about all the holes in the ground, paranoid that we were going to be camping on a ton of snake holes......as dark came on, I drank a bit, discovered Bundaberg, cool rum ready mixed can things...must buy a couple of them...I didn't die by snake bite and slept pretty well. Oh there's a thing about snake bites and spider bites too I think it is...if you ever get bitten, don't waste time by trying to find the spider or snake flavour, just get yourself to hospital...there they have kits that test the flavour without you having to risk getting bitten a second time. Handy to know...if you're here.
I think Ami caught the sunset this morning, then came back in to the tent to sleep more. When we awoke we headed off to Champagne rocks and I got in the water!! It was lovely...although with me hurty foot a bit risky as the tide pushed you about a bit. So pretty though and it did bubble as the water came in sometimes too!

Then we went to a lake where we hoped to see little turtles, sadly we didn't, it was right brown and to clean a bit of the sea water off I got in, though didn't really enjoy it, and it was oddly cold...this is Australia don't you know I thought, it's meant to be hot hot hot! In the evening we went down to join Christian and crew in our original campsite and took advantage of their bbq. We got an ace glimpse of the Milky way as well as a few shooting stars, and a really cool image of a Dingo until some random horrid person drove up on to the sandune randomly to scare it or something, v odd.
The next morning we headed off to Lake McEnzie which was almost as amazing as Lake Birrabean, only there were more people about, I swam about for quite some time in it. If lakes looked like that in the UK I'd swim in them all the time. Who'da thought Australia would be the place where I'd choose comfortably to swim in a lake and ignore my swimming in a lake or the sea fears?

On the 'other side' (Rainbow Beach) we stopped for lunch and then spent an hour cleaning out Hit's car for all the sand that it had accumulated over the weekend...then a car wash, then a 3 hour drive back to Brisbane...I had a fab time travelling about with Ami, Joanna and Hit, it was really nice. We experienced the excitement of discovering that there were 'real' loos together (would it be a long drop or an Elsan type loo...), having ceremonies, they were subjected to my music taste, and all nearly got marrooned on the way back to the ferry on our return as the tide was a bit too high...

On my return to Brisbane I went to stay with Liz and loved the shower I got when I arrived! The company after that was lovely too, and she fed me lovely home made food and we shared a bottle of wine and had a good old moider. On the Tuesday Liz took me for a little tour of New Farm and to some delis and the like and then to eat in a nice restaurant there. Liz also recommended lots of films for me to watch, and showed me her book of all her film flyers which I thought was cute, it sort of inspired me to start going to the cinema more whilst I was here anywayz. My return flight I caught with Tiger Airways was even more annoying than the way out...This time they put us on the plane then had to get us off and scan our luggage again...as they'd received a 'there's a bomb' note or something. Sniffer dogs were in the luggage hold and the like too...that was all fair enough I guess, but the annoying thing was that they didn't try and help get us reasonably speedily back on, re-scanning more efficiently nor keeping us up to date via the tannoys. grrr. So back after midnight ready for work the next day. Humph! After a fabulous adventure on Fraser and a lovely evening and day with Liz it was an annoying way to finish. But I highly recommend you go and stay on Fraser Island if you ever get the chance, it's just lush, well worth it!

Fraser Island adventure Thurs 1st - Tues 6th April

OK so finally getting to this one...
On the Thursday I went in to work and had to be back home late avo to get me taxi, had plans of getting a few things on the way, but only managed a slightly mental looking orange hat and a bit of first aid bits. Was a busy day for the taxis in Melbourne as everyone was heading off for their holidays - taxis aren't ever present in Melbourne, there is a bit of a shortage..but I had booked so safe. Was flying with Tiger Airways, oh yay, one hour delay: it's at Terminal 4 in Melbourne which is a cardboard building with a runway which you practically have to push yourself off the ground from...as there was an hour wait, I went for the 5 minute walk to the International terminal to get some dinner to keep myself busy. Once actually on the flight, I felt desperately British and dull as the air hostesses/hosts frolicked and joked around and 'Magical Marklz' had a crowd in the back of the plane in hysterics...and then wandered up and down the plane with a blonde wig on...this would not happen on a British plane . Now, don't get me wrong, the more relaxed friendly attitute from people when you're flying in Oz, that I've experienced so far, is generally better, but irritating kid-like air hosts is less appealing. Anyway arrived in Brisbane and in true Hitesh style he said we were off to one of his friends house for drinks. Nice bunch of people, but then we had to run off to get some shut eye as we were to be up at 4am...and then we were off, Myself, Hit, Joanna, Ami and Cerry (we were going to meet Cerry's boyf up at Rainbow beach)...after packing etc we were off, 3-4 hours up the coast to Rainbow beach, with an interesting detour through some bumpy tracks for Hit to test the Landrover with.

At Rainbow beach we met up with Dan and Adam and Brook...but Christian's party were nowhere to be seen...the funny walky talky things were used but no response from him...so we got on the ferry over to Fraser Island. Over the other side was great, bumpy up and down roads...I started to worry I would get car sick, but it was too much fun to watch to get sick! We drove along the beaches with the tide coming in and out and then inland too. We went to one lake which was a bit brown and mirky for my liking, you couldn't see your bod as you went in...but then we all went over to Lake Birrabean, it was soooooo beautiful, clear white sands and amazing crystal clear water, I was gutted I hadn't changed in to my swimming costume so just paddled about...oh yep, the weather too it was just lovely and warm. In the evening before it got dark (around 6pm) we went to seek our campspot and by luck and chance came across Christian's party, so camped up near to them. So it was primitive camping with no loos or owt...so on out going for a 'ceremony' as it became known Ami and I spotted a little legless lizard...or snake...on checking my books since being back home I think it could be either. It was small and deffo looked more scared of us than we were of them...but I wasn't keen on it biting my bum whatever!! We saw dingos once or twice walking near the campsite too. Skinny torsos they have, not coz they're starving all the signs say....I'm going to post this one there now I reckon, coz otherwise these things just get rather long with the way I moider on...will do part 1 and part 2 Fraser maybe instead...