Tag: Melbourne (Page 1 of 2)

Melbourne 2025 – 2 Weeks of Sport

January 19, 2025 / terry

Week 1, 6-12 January.

Softball State Championships U14, Waverley Softball Centre, Melbourne, Victoria

This was to be Kelsie’s third championships, following Canberra and Birisbane in previous years. This time, it dovetailed perfectly with our annual trip to the Australian Open tennis so we organised an AirBnB house in Glen Waverley to share with Tevor, Emma and Ashton, close to the Waverley Softball Centre and reasonably convenient to shops and train. We all travelled on the same day, us on Virgin and Trevor on Jetstar, but managed to land in Melbourne within a few minutes of each other.

We had organised a hire car for the week from a cut rate mob call Goldstar, which proved to be a bit of an ordeal because an airport pickup actually meant getting a shuttle bus out to the back blocks of Tullamarine to get the car. Despite the delays, we still managed to get across town some 40 kms, find the house, settle in and do some shopping for food before the sun went down in this crazy land of day-light saving. The house was a very 60s style place with four bedrooms and three bathrooms, which proved very comfortable despite being rather light on for essential items such as wine glasses and teaspoons. I am not sure how they advertise the place as sleeping 8 and then provide only 5 forks and 2 wine glasses.

Each day revolved around the softball fixtures. Our first day was an opportunity to explore Melbourne, with two late games scheduled, so we drove to Glen Waverley station, parked and took the train in to Richmond. It was Day 2 of the AO Qualifying Round so we all settled in to watch a few matches, including a bit of Leyten Hewitt’s son Cruz, do a bit of shopping in the AO Shop and generally soak up the atmosphere. Trevor and Em left to get some time to themselves while we took Ashton across the rail line to the MCG to the Australian Sports Museum. The display highlights many great moments in Aussie sports, with a big focus on the role of the MCG itself. Ashton revelled in the hands-on activites and sports quizzes, and showed off his expertise and knowledge of all things sporting (like his father). At he end of the museum time, we caught up again with Tevor and all travelled back on the train in time to change into softball support clothing and head to the first matches.

Trevor, Emma and Ashton went back later in the week to do the tour of the MCG and a BBL Match. Ashton even managed a photo with Gillchrist.

At the softball, WA had solid start, with a narrow 1 run loss to NSW Country and a big 19-4 win over ACT. It is wonderful to see Kelsie adopt a leadership part, playing at short stop. It is a great group of girls and are fortunate to have a talented coaching team.

As the week progressed, fortunes fluctuated, with losses to NSW Metro, a frustrating draw against Qld Country and wins against Victoria, SA and Qld Metro. The match against Victoria was clinical, resulting in a mercy walkoff at 17-0 and we managed a win against Qld Metro without a base being gained. A very disciplined effort.

On the Friday night, the team and supporters gathered at the Wheelers Hill Hotel, a beautiful setting overlooking the Dandenongs, to socialise together. Most of the parents have found accommodation nearby in Glen Waverley. We hardly recognised some of the girls out of their softball uniforms and relaxing in “civies”.

With the round matches over, WA was placed a very creditable 3rd, one place up from 2024 and two places up from 2023. The team has built well since Kelsie has been playing.

The first of the finals was a semi final against SA. It was a nail biter, with SA getting a solid start against us of a couple of runs and holding it for the first few innings. Eventually, WA followed up with a big innings, including a big three base hit from Kelsie, and squeeked home by a single run to claim a spot in the Preliminary Final.

The Preliminary Final went very well with a convincing win over NSW Navy, our nemisis in past competitions. Our pitcher, Gracie was the difference. No team can get a handle on her. During the round games, pitchers are restricted to three innings, but in the finals, there are no restrictions. The coaches managed her well, bringing Jade in when we had a comfortable lead, then bringing Gracie back for the final innings to make sure of it. Kelsie had a cracking two base hit and another run scoring walk. The team was Grand Final bound against the other NSW team, NSW Sky.

However, the weather looked bad. Thunderstorms were forecast, something that shuts down all outdoor events these days. The radar showed a large mass moving east through Melbourne. Later, we found that Melbourne received 25mm of rain in 30 minutes, causing considerable local flooding.

We all huddled under shelter and watched shade shelters crumble in the high winds and heavy rain that soaked the ground and made the diamonds resemble shallow lakes. Organisers hoped for a start around 5pm so the girls packed up and headed back to the their hotel to try and dry the equipment out. We decided to abandon the match and head into Melbourne to our new location for the Australian Open, and to live-stream the game later, if and when it happened. It was sad to miss, but with more rain on the radar we were not sure of the outcome.

As it happened, the rain eased enough to allow play around 5pm, once the lightning threat had disipated. Both teams would battle with wet and slippery conditions, especially the pitchers. We got a good live-stream up in our apartment, thanks to Softball Victoria and settled in to watch, not supremely confident because our girls had already played once whereas NSW Sky was fresh for the day. We got off to a shakey start, finding oursleves 3-8 down after two innings. Then a brilliant 7-1 third innings set up an amazing 1 run win.

The girls were over the moon, as were the supporters. Kelsie, as Captain for the game, went up to present the medals to her team and accept the trophy. Despite an uncharacteristic below average batting performance in the early matches, she continues to shine as an on field leader and adapts to the needs of the team. Her batting in the finals certainly came good when it was needed. Great job Kelsie.

Week 2, 13-19 January – Australian Open

Our apartment is really well located, at 220 Spencer St, right opposite the Skybus terminal at Southern Cross Station, making for an easy leave at the end of the week. It is a studio apartment on the 38th floor with all the necessary things, except a decent mattress. Why people leave sagging dead mattresses on beds in rentals is beyond me, it colours the whole review and rating when a couple of hundred buys an acceptable mattress from Ikea every year if needed. There was a sofa bed offering but they are terrible to sleep on so it ended up with the sofa bed mattress on the floor each night. Not ideal but the location makes up for it.

All around the neighbourhood are eateries, mostly Asian of some form with a great many Vietnamese and Korean. In the evening, the air is full of the smell of sesame oil and Asian spices. We have two choices to get to the tennis, walk down Spencer St to Flinders and ride the #70 tram to the gates, or walk a short distance to Bourke St and tram to Swanston, followed by a walk down Swanston then follow the Yarra along Princes Walk. The latter is more walking but much more pleasant than fighting the crowds on the tennis tram.

We did well on Day 1 (Day 2 of the Open) just buying a ground pass and getting in two magnificent matches with Aussies playing on Court 3. We saw both Tahlia Gibson and James Duckworth score much needed first round wins.

Day 2 we had seats in John Cain booked, but elected to go back to Court 3 to watch Emma Raducanu down 26th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova. It was an excrutiating match, with neither player holding serve much at all and both sets going to tie breaks. Then we headed to John Cain to see Taylor Fritz demolish fellow American Jensen Brooksby.

Wednesday was wet, which we didn’t know when we allocated it a non-tennis day. We spent the time wandering the shops, with lots of cheap clothes on offer at the Spencer Street Outlet Centre. In the afternoon, we headed to Docklands to catch the Banksy Exhibition. It is the largest privately owned collection in the World and was brilliantly displayed, each collection supported by video explanations of what had inspired the pieces or collection. I loved the “Dismaland” display with its Disney take-off of a chaotic theme park. The entire display was incredibly funny, thought-provoking and imaginative, all in one. The sections devoted to Banksy’s Ukraine and Gaza visits were particularly poignant and a reminder that the bad things aren’t going away anytime soon. Banksy’s work simplifies what politicians make so hard. Just fix it.

On our last day of tennis, we headed to Court 14 to watch the talented team of Kimberly Birrel and Olivia Godeke defeat a pair of Serbs in the women’s doubles. The great thing about the outside courts is being able to sit right up to the court and feel the power of the shots up close. The Aussie girls were the under dogs so their delight in winning was felt by the crowd and it was fun to be sitting only a few seats away from the families and coaches. It was a far cry from the big arenas. We stayed on to watch the Aussie men in Blake Ellis and Thomas Fancutt take on some higher ranked opponents but sadly, they couldn’t match the efforts of the girls. From there we headed to John Cain to see Elena Rybakina easily defeat 17 year old Iva Jovic, a possible star of the future.

On our final day in Melbourne, we took the train down to Mordialloc, a seaside location on Port Phillip. Azba, Mike and Evie drove up from their house is Mornington to meet us and we had a good catchup as well as an amazing seafood meal in the Tommy Ruff Fish Bar. This place certainly knows how to serve fish and seafood at reasonable prices. Christine’s seafood chowder was a standout dish. Az and Mike are keeping well, busy as always, and nearing the completion of their home build, a long term project. It is always good to catch up and follow their life’s journey.

It has been a two week stay for us, but seems longer. It was a very relaxed time and the move back to central city for the tennis was a good one, better than staying out and training in as we have done for the last few years. The vibrancy seems to have returned to the city, after the Covid exodus, and it is fun just to move around and discover hidden gems in the many laneways and malls. We may be back next year but who knows. A lot depends on the Softball and other adventures.

Melbourne, Canberra & Sydney – January 2024

February 2, 2024 / terry

14-21 January – Australian Open Tennis

We headed to Melbourne for the annual bout of the Australian Open. Melbourne does the event so well that it is hard to say no. The organisation is amazing, the tennis fabulous and almost everything is affordable, except for the drinks of course. We chose to fly Virgin and found it much changed since Covid. The positive is that the flight left on time. However, the food offerings were very limited and very poor value for money. The entertainment system is a WiFi based bring your own device, whcih it always was, but it used to work. Ours didn’t doing everything except allowing a press on the PLAY button. Luckily, we had brought our own downloads. The Skybus from the airport to Southern Cross Sation still works well and we were soon on the train to our accomodation.

We organised an AirBnB in Murrumbeena, south of the city and only a 300m walk to a train station on a line that took us direct to Richmond station for the tennis. It was a basic place, a little small, but having all the neccessary things for comfort. The biggest issue is with Murrumbeena itself. The place is dead. There is no supermarket and most of the shops are shut, even boarded up in some cases. It is a mystery as to why it is like this because the next train stop down the line is Carnegie and supports a bustling and vibrant restaurant and cafe strip that is never empty. We had to walk about a kilometre down the road to shop.

We organised three days of tennis, booking tickets in the John Cain Arena for each day. John Cain is excellent value, because reserved seats on the ends which are in permanent shade are only a little more than a day pass. Between that and a selection of matches on outside courts that don’t require booking, we saw many of the Aussie stars in action along with some big name international players. It was excellent tennis.

John Cain Arena

Kia Arena

In off tennis days, we wandered around Melbounre, had lunch at Mr San Ramen (a favourtie), travelled down to Mornington on the train to catch up with Azba and Mike (and Evie of course) and caught up with Simon and John in Brunswick. A highlight was going to an iMax version of the Queen Rock Montreal Concert of 1981. It was a memorable experience.

Mr San Ramen

No visit to Melbourne ever fails to impress. The transport system works a treat and is cheap, the food offerings are amazing and so varied that every taste is satisfied, while the organisation of sporting events is superb. The weather is usually the downside, but we were lucky and had mostly mild temperatures with only one day of rain.

Train Trip Melbourne to Canberra

With Week One of the Australian Open over, it was time for us to relocate to Canberra for the U14 Regional Softball Championships, starring the gorgeous granddaughter Kelsie. We shunned air travel and opted for the XPT daytime train Melbourne to Sydney. It does not stop in Canberra but gets close in Yass, with a one hour coach transfer to the nation’s capital. The trip was wonderful, with good scenery, a comfortable train, and a buffet car for snacks and meals. The trip takes 8 hours, quite long by world standards but there are frequent stops along the way. We added an extra 80 minutes due to a delay shortley out of Melbourne when someone had stolen the copper wire feeding the signals. We had to wait for two oncoming trains before proceeding at a slow speed for 20 kms. Despite the long journey, we were never bored, watching the scenery glide by, dozing a little, or watching some downloads. The train is 40 years old and lacks such things as wifi or usb charging ports. Fortunately, we were prepared and had charging pads and fully charged laptops. The ride was smooth on the Victorian side, less so once into NSW. At one point, passing throough some hilly country and climbing up, the train passed through a tunnel, then looped around and passed back over the tunnel again a couple of times as it gained altitude. It is a trip we could recommend and much better than flying if time is not an issue.

The coach transfer from Yass to canberra Central was not so comortable, with hard cramped seats and no noticeable suspension. At least it was only an hour so we were soon in Canberra and into an Uber for transfer to our AirBnB house in Hawker. The house was chosen for its closeness to the Hawker Softball Centre and its ability to accomodate us, Trevor, Emma and Ashton, as well as Simon and John who were flying up from Melbourne. Trevor and Emma arrived shortly after us and we gathered some supplies from the nearby Woolworths before settling in for the night.

24-28 January – U14 Regional Softball Championships – Canberra

The first day was a rest day for us spectators while the team settled in and familiarised themselves with the diamonds. The team is staying in cabins in a caravan park somewhere, so contact is limited to a few brief moments after games, just as it should be. Coach coaches, family watches and supports. Trevor and Emma met up with Rob Keane, a friend from high school days and now living in Canberra who offered the use of a car for our stay, an offer we gladly took up, the public transport being ordinary at best. We organised to retrieve the car while the others headed out to cover some of the ‘must see’ attractions in Canberra, something we did not need to do because of previous visits. The car would be particularly useful because the shops, although close by, are at the bottom of a steep hill, requiring a tough walk back carrying supplies. Simon and John arrived around midday and settled in, our group complete.

The rest of the week was all about softball, with each day revolving around the scheduled matches. Trev and Em and Ashton managed a few more sights in down times and we did take one trip into town, finding it just as dead and dull as we have in previous visits. The softball was great fun, the standard being so much higher than the normal club matches. Kelsie was brilliant, fielding very well at 2nd base and more than holding her own with the bat.

Trevor summarised each day on his Facebook posts.

Day 1. Great day from the girls – took NSW Sky down to the wire, going down by one with a series of great defensive plays. They got the bats going in game 2, winning by 10 over ACT. Great to see them putting what they’ve learnt in their training into action on the diamond! Kelsie was clean in the field and had a solid day with the bat, particularly in game 2!

Day 2. Another 1-1 day, with a great win over SA as we got on top of their best pitcher early with some power hitting. A loss to NSW Navy was a good learning curve, and the girls will be stronger having faced some quicker pitchers. Kelsie has a great hit to RF but was caught, a mixed bag at 2nd and a rest for the majority of the NSW game. Sitting 4th after day 2 with VIC and QLD Metro to come on Day 3!

Day 3. Began with a win against Vic, although not overly convincing. Then played a great game against QLD Metro, but going down by one, 7-6. It leaves us needing a win against QLD Country tomorrow and NSW Sky beating SA to make the top 4. The girls will give it everything. Kelsie’s had a great day with the bat, and was flawless in the field. She has also destroyed two socks and plenty of bark off her knees and elbows as her compulsive sliding and diving habits continue…

Day 4. Great victory today, and things fell our way! We are into the minor semi (3vs4) tonight at 7pm EDST (4pm WST), with the prize a spot in the preliminary final tomorrow! Kelsie was great in the field at 2nd base, and did her bit with the bat. Had a nice hit that was caught at CF.

Unfortunately, we lost the Elimination Final against Queensland Metro by a narrow margin, putting us out. THe girls played a terrific game and Kelsie excelled, taking two amazing catches and a couple of excellent takes at 1st Base. The girls can be rightfully proud of their performance across the carnival. The parents and families certainly were impressed with the dedication and effort of all the team members.

Australia vs South Africa – Women’s T20 International

With a lay day to to not making the Preliminary Final, we took the chance to go to the cricket at Marnuka Oval. With a small crowd of around 2000, good seats were easy to find and excellent value at $20. Unfortunately, the cricket was not so good, with a lack lustre performance by Australia and an easy win to South Africa, their first after a 6-0 head to head. It was a relaxing day, compared to the tension of watching close fought softball matches all week.

29-30 January – Train to Sydney

With the softball over, we all went our different ways, Trevor and Em to Perth via Sydney, John direct to Perth on the same flight as the team, Simon to Melbourne on the Sunday and us to Sydney via the Southern Explorer, run by NSW Railways. It is a four hour trip through the Southern Highlands and offeres some scenic delights. There are vast areas of woodlands, beautiful farmlands and a number of quaint small towns, as well as a couple of regional centres such as Goulburn and Bowral. It was a comfortable and enjoyable trip, and not overly time consuming when one takes into account the requirements of air travel and the convenience of finishing the trip at Sydney Central Station, only a short walk from our accomodation. We stayed at the Wyndham Hotel, which features rooms with a kitchenette, allowing basic meal preparation. It is very well appointed, if not a tad small, but is very well located witht the Museum underground station 300m away.

Once settled in, we headed out to catch the underground to Circular Quay for a ferry to Manly. When in Sydney, fish and chips at Manly is a must do, and the perfect weather made sitting by the water at sunset enjoying a feed a wonderful experience, except for overeating. When will we learn that one serve shared is enough for us these days?

The next day was a full day to sight see. It started out wet, but the weather steadily improved and gave us plenty of time to walk. We followed a chain of parks, starting at Hyde Park, and followed through the Royal Botanic Gardens on a series of pathways that would lead us to the Opera House. The BOtanic Gardens are a must visit location in Sydney, with beautiful plam groves, garden beds and ferneries. At one point, we passed a bench and there was a very classy looking Italian leather handbag lying abandoned. There was no one around so Christine guarded it while I set off to find a staff member for help. I soon found a gardener, who radioed for a ranger. Hopefully, someone’s bad day would turn out for the better.

As we neared the Opera House, I was stunned at how small it looked. However, it turned out to be an illusion caused by our elevated approach, and once down at ground level, it assumed its imposing look once again. The walk around to Circular Quay was crowded with tourists from a large P&O cruise ship in port. We stopped at a cafe to have an iced coffee and watch the passing parade. We had planned to catch the ferry to Parramatta, just for the ride and to see the sight of the middle and upper harbour. By the time we got to the correct wharf, we found we had over an hour to wait, so we grabbed a kebab (shared this time) for lunch while waiting. A check of the timetable revealed that the trip to Parramatta would be 3 hours return, so we changed instead to the ferry to Pyrmont Bay (Darling Harbour) via Luna Park and Balmain. The views were spectacular, and at $2.50, would have to be the best value harbour cruise anywhere in the world. We just stayed on the ferry and returned to Circular Quay and an underground back. A wonderful day.

: Maritime Museum, Darling Harbour

: Luna Park from the ferry

: Opera House from The Domain

: Royal Botanic Gardens

: Sydney’s famous ferries

: Museum Underground

: Fish’n Chips at Manly

: Manly Sunset

This has been our fourth visit to Sydney and our best, even though very short. Every other time has been hot or we have had somewhere we had to be but this time we got to just walk and and sit on ferries. The central streets of Sydney hold little appeal. The open spaces, beaces, parks and harbour are all delightful.

Tomorrow, it is a flight home. It is an easy train ride from Museum Station to the airport with our backpacks at a civilised time of 10am so things are working out well. Hopefully, the flight won’t be cancelled. Note: THe train to the airport took about half an hour, including the walk, and the plane was on time. We caught a train to Kinglsey to get home.

Melbourne–Australian Open Tennis

January 20, 2017 / terry

13-20 January 2017

We headed off to Melbourne once again for a week of sport, sight seeing and fine dining. This time, we had the company of of Ron and Jo, who were making their first trip to the AO despite being regular visitors to Melbourne itself.

We scored a really wonderful Air BnB apartment in East Melbourne right on Victoria Parade and less than a kilometre from the MCG, making the walk to the cricket and tennis a snap. The apartment was on the ground floor which meant we had a neat little courtyard and no awful wait time for the lifts. The block used to be the Victoria Brewery but only the old shell remained, the rest being rebuilt as units collectively called the Tribeca Apartments. An IGA, liquor store and several little eateries and takeaways filled out the ground floor so supplies were always on hand. More great eateries were across the other side of Victoria Parade and not far down the road in adjoining Richmond. With frequent trams at the doorstep, the location was ideal.

The apartment itself was spacious and very well appointed, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. The kitchen was fully equipped and there were good stocks of ingredients, giving us the option of eating in or dining out. The only down side was the very soft mattress. With the current state of my back, I keep finding myself paying for a bed and sleeping on the floor. The cushions from the sofa made a very firm and comfortable bed on the floor of our room. I had to do the same last year in another Air BnB in Melbourne.

We managed to find a couple of gems in the local dining scene, including the Aviary, a small pub about a kilometre down Victoria Parade in Richmond. It served a great range of amazing meals at very affordable prices. Ron and Jo also took us into China Town for some belly filling yum char in Little Bourke Street. The waist line didn’t take too much of a battering though because we made sure we did lots of walking.

On the Sunday night before the tennis got underway, Christine, Ron and I headed down to the MCG for a One Day International cricket match against Pakistan. At a little under 40,000, it was the smallest crowd we have experienced there but the mob just below us more than made up for it. We had seats in the front row of the first tier and beneath us was the main Pakistan supporter area. It was a riot of colour, chanting and flags, the spectacle enhanced by the fact that they were on top of Australia throughout. It was very entertaining and it was sporting of us Aussies to let them have an occasional win.

The tennis was the best we have attended, in part due to the weather which was mostly mild. We stuck to the outside courts in the main, with Show Court 2 providing a lot of Aussie action and some top class matches. Ron and Jo managed to score a couple of free tickets into Rod Laver Arena when Roger Federer was playing so they were happy. It was three days of great tennis and a fantastic atmosphere. The venue seems to get bigger and better every year and it is good to see that the facilities for the spectators is constantly being upgraded. Security is tight on entry but there are non of the ridiculous bans on bringing in your own food that seems so common in Perth. Go Melbourne, the sporting capital of Australia. When one thinks that $114 buys three days of top World class tennis it makes some of the other event costs seem ridiculous.

On the Tuesday, we caught up with our “daughter” Azba after work and travelled with her on the train down to Mornington. She and Mike have a beautiful place there, shared with Pickle, the real owner. After only a few minutes with Pickle, I was sold on Miniature Dachshunds as a breed. She is possibly a little indulged but rightly so.

Azba took us out to breakfast in Mornington Village, complete with a walk along the pier. It is a relaxed spot and the food at a little vegetarian cafe was sensational. We visited the Mornington Peninsula years ago and always said it was worth a re-visit but now we have marked it down for a serious exploration some time. (We have a few places on that list and it keeps getting longer).

Our trip to Melbourne lived up to all expectations once again, enhanced this year because we had the company of Ron and Jo. The morning we left was the day that the horror occurred in Bourke St, with so many people being injured or killed by a rogue driver. Ron and Jo were only a few streets away at the time whereas we had caught an earlier flight. A sad sign of the times I’m afraid.

Melbourne – ODI Cricket & AO Tennis

January 23, 2015 / terry

January 15-22 2015

We flew to Melbourne for a week of tennis and cricket. The Virgin flight across was quick, taking only a little over three hours courtesy of a good tail wind and we used the excellent Skybus service to into Melbourne itself. This system is so good that Perth needs to consider something similar rather than wasting a fortune on a rail system that we can’t afford. For $30 each, we got comfortable transport, with never any more than 10 minutes wait, to Southern Cross Station followed by a personalised shuttle service to our hotel. The same ticket gets us a return pickup from the hotel and transfer back right to the door of the departure area. Amazingly, I’ve heard people say it is expensive, yet in Perth, we pay over $60 for a one way taxi ride to the airport.

We stayed at the Nova Stargate on Franklin St, really well located. Our room overlooked the Victoria Street Markets so there were always lots of cheap eats around. The room was a small serviced apartment and had all the basics, without being overly flash or expensive. Another bonus is that the nearby tram stops in Elizabeth St are within the new free tram zone so we spent next to nothing on transport for the week.

Most days, we took the tram down to Flinders St and then walked along the Yarra Walk to either the MCG or the tennis. The streets are always full of people off to sporting events at this time of year so we blended in with our green and gold shirts and often got questions from shop keepers or tram drivers on the way home about how things had gone with the Aussies.

We took the chance to catch up with Azba and Michael, staying the night at their place near Glen Iris so we could consume more red wine than was good for us. They both had a big weekend of a bucks’ night and hens’ party so we helped prime their livers for the onslaught. We caught a lift home with Azba from her work, located in a quirky little part of Richmond where light industrial is giving way to residential and professional. The area was a fascinating mix of derelict factories, old tumbling-down cottages and modern glass boxes. The streets were quiet, like something out of a post apocalypse movie. Azba was astounded when we said we had popped in to the local pub although she admitted that she had never been in but was speaking from its reputation.

The National Sports’ Museum

Housed in the MCG, the National Sports’ Museum is a wonderful place to spend a half a day. There are comprehensive exhibits featuring the Olympics, AFL and cricket, with lesser displays covering cycling, tennis, horseracing and a host of other sports. A display following the development of the MCG itself complements the whole thing.

My foot is next to one of Ian Thorpe’s shoes and Christine’s is next to Aaron Sandilands’

Entrance to the cricket display

Amazing holographic presentations from both Shane Warne and James Hird are particularly interesting. It was hard to believe that we weren’t in a small room with the champions themselves as they gave their ten minute talks. I’d love to see this aspect of the museum expanded to include others, such as Hewitt or Freeman.

Down in the AFL display, I tried my hand at kicking a ball at three targets set into a wall. I was doing quite well, scoring a few hits until Christine pointed out that it was actually a handball activity. Things went downhill after that. I need to stick to kicking.

The MCG is always a great sight

We spent about two and a half hours soaking up the “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie” atmosphere before heading back to the hotel. We left a lot undone so a return visit is on the cards sometime. Well worth the effort!

The Cricket

We had tickets to the Australia – India One Day match, originally purchased for the Friday, the day after we flew in. The death of Phillip Hughs saw things rescheduled and our game changed to the Sunday, no big deal, but it did mean that we would be out late on the night prior to the tennis commencing.

The match itself was a ripper! Attendance was down for the MCG, with only 35,000. Of these I think there were 20,000 Indian supporters. We seemed to be surrounded by them and the old Bay 13 was a sea of blue and ornage shirts. There was much chanting and whistling. Christine actually resorted to shoving tissues in her right ear to protect against the shrill screaming of the mob next to us.

Part of the huge crowd of Indian supporters

India was out cheaply and Australia seemed to be cruising to an easy victory, until the usual middle order collapse brought on a nail biting finish. We just got there in the end and there was much wailing and sobbing from the sub-continent.

The Tennis

It is hard to imagine a sporting event better organised than the Australian Open Tennis Championship. We went to the first three days and the crowds averaged 40,000 a day, a figure that would put enormous pressure on most systems, especially given that the tournament runs for two weeks. The catering kept up, the transport is fast and efficient and the atmosphere has to be experienced to be believed. A lot of people just buy a general entry ticket and sit around eating, drinking and watching the giant screens, content to be surrounded by lots of sporty types. Others study the draws and court allocations to chase down the great matches on the outside courts that crop up during the first week of the tournament.

This year, HiSense Arena was opened up to the general public, providing 9500 undercover seats with top ranked matches available. Show Courts 2 & 3 also provide top matches in comfortable conditions if you work things right and get some shade. We managed things really well and enjoyed three wonderful days of top-flight tennis. On our final day, we left Show Court 2, having made the decision to have a beer at a bar then head for home. As we headed for the beer line, a woman approached us and asked if we would like two tickets to Rod Laver Arena to watch Roger Federer. The beer was put on hold and we headed in to the inner sanctum. Unfortunately, the seats were a great view but in the sun and things got really hot after a while. We stuck it for a set and a half then gave in, the beer being more appealing. We gave the tickets to two young guys who looked like they would handle the heat better than us. They were thrilled.

Matosevic serves it up

It was terrific to be part of the best Australian start to an Open in over a decade, giving us no shortage of Aussie matches to go and see. The weather was so much better than the 40 degrees plus of 2014. We will be back sometime.

Eats

We tried to ease up on the eats a bit this year but it is hard in Melbourne because there is so much on offer at reasonable prices. Street food abounds, especially around Victoria Street Markets. We gave a lot of patronage to a Vietnamese place in Elizabeth St called The Noodle Kitchen. Surprisingly, they have two outlets in Perth, one in Kardinya and one in Thornlie. The food is quite outstanding for the price. It was easy to pick because it was full of local Asian ethnics all day when the surrounding places were empty.

The Krispy Kreme mania is still in full swing and we again saw people lining up at the airport outlet to bring boxes of the things home. It makes no sense when every block in Melbourne has at least one amazing sweet food outlet with great looking do-nuts at half the cost of Krispy Kremes. It would be interesting to see a pie graph break-up of production costs vs profit and marketing.

Christine managed a very high standard of packed picnic lunches for the tennis and we were often the envy of those around us, although we did eye off their chips with salivating mouths. We resisted and saved our lapses for the beer sampling on the way home.

The Murray River to Sale (Vic)

May 29, 2014 / terry

19-22 May Waikerie (SA) to Sale (Vic)

We faced a 1000km drive into Victoria and through Melbourne to East Gippsland to access the much talked about Gippsland Lakes. A check on Google maps gave us three possible routes, each within 5km of each other so I talked to a Victorian who was parked near us in the caravan park at Waikerie. I figure he would know because he’d been a truck driver all his life.

Unfortunately, he advised us to go down the Sunraysia Hwy through Ballarat. His advice proved poor, because for much of the trip, the yacht acted as though it was caught in a heavy sea, pitching and rolling over the horrible uneven surface. The Victorian roads lived up to their reputation. Crap!

Our trip took us through Renmark and across the Murray to Mildura. Once again, we gave up our fruit and vegetables, despite the fact that they were grown and sold in quarantine controlled lands. Travelling along the Murray, one learns to only buy as much as you need for the day.

The sheer size of Mildura surprised us, and it took quite a while to get out of town heading south. We drove through some beautiful mallee country, showing the first green of Winter to overnight in a little place called Woomelang. Christine had found this gem on WikiCamps and it sported a FREE caravan park with hot showers and powered sites. We are not sure why they do it but it was a bargain at any price. As has been our practice in small country towns, we headed off for a pint at the local to talk those that know all. Alas, the pub was shut, not quite boarded up, but very much shut and definitely for sale. What a tragedy!

The next day took us south along the terrible B220 through the towns of Donald (we looked for the duck) and St Arnaud. Both were bigger than I would have imagined, since I’d never really heard of them before. The mallee country gave way to the Grampians, all clothed in a beautiful cloak of green. Every town had a main street of autumn coloured plane trees, making us feel as though we were driving through Europe instead of Australia. Finally, the pain of the B220 gave way to the Western Freeway and we entered Ballarat, to stay the night at the Windmill Holiday Park. This place boasts an indoor heated swimming pool. The thought of actually swimming some laps was too much to resist.

We set up our “caravan” and headed into Ballarat. Ballarat is a serious city with a population 86,000 and the process of finding desired locations and parking reflected this. The traffic was medium to heavy, and some of the road habits somewhat foreign but we managed to find the train station, Target and Rivers. What more could anyone want? We bought a couple of train tickets from Sale to Melbourne so we could get to the footy on Saturday. Then it was off to the general shops for a pair of jeans (the old legs are getting cold) and an Eagles beanie from the AFL store for the big match against Collingwood.

Beautiful Ballarat

On the way home, we dropped in to Lake Wendouree, a large man-made lake in Ballarat surrounded by beautiful gardens. Once again, the autumn colours made a gorgeous display. We unloaded the fold-up bikes from the car and cycled the 6.5km around the lake, feeling every metre of it because we have let our fitness slip of late.

Cycling around Lake Wendouree, Ballarat

Then it was off to the Aldi store. We can’t wait for Aldi to come to WA. The shops are full of really cheap stuff that we probably don’t want but can’t refuse at such bargain rates. It makes shopping fun again. Mind you, we bought the Brooke James Shiraz and SSB in 2 L casks for $8.95 that we had had in Melbourne earlier in the year. It is so much better than any other cask wine it is worth a trip to Aldi.

Once back at the caravan park, we headed for the pool, despite the fact that the temperature was only around 10 degrees. The wonderful indoor pool is a delicious 29 degrees and the twin spas an incredible 39 degrees. Swimming laps then jumping into the spas and watching the giant screen TV has a lot to recommend it. The old body is feeling better already.

The wonderful heated indoor pool at the Windmill Caravan Park

The drive from Ballarat to Sale is mostly along the Western Freeway through Melbourne itself over the West Gate Bridge. Things are pretty well sign posted and the GPS on the iPhone helped a lot. Even so, we managed to get caught in the wrong lane as we passed through Melbourne and were forced to exit the freeway into South Melbourne. As we came down the off ramp, we were faced with the terrible sight of a low bridge, one of the old train subways, that was limited to 3m. Sandpiper is 3.4m where the mast rests on the rear bar work so things didn’t compute. I managed an immediate right turn into a factory area and we found a way of getting back to an on ramp and the safety of the freeway.

We negotiated the City Link tollway tunnel, surrounded by huge trucks and cement mixers, all roaring along. The lanes are extremely narrow and at times it seemed as though there was no room to squeeze through. I learned not to look in the mirrors and just focus on the lane ahead. Once clear of the tunnel, the road fed through a series of interchanges until settling down into a standard four lane dual carriageway and we were out of Melbourne.

The scenery heading towards Gippsland is very pretty, with some lovely rolling hills and low mountains inland. Once again, displays of autumn colours amongst the lush green was an added attraction. We passed through Moe, Traralgon and Sale before heading off to Maffra, where Paul and Tamsyn, some contacts through the trailersailerplace.com, had kindly offered us room to stay on their 8 acre property. We found the place with little difficulty and waited a short time before Tamsyn arrived home from picking up their lovely children from school. The property is beautiful, with a horse and donkey in the front paddock, numerous ducks and chooks out the back and a variety of fruit trees in evidence. We found a spot to park the boat and unhitched, finding to our dismay that a hose had broken on the hydraulic brake system. More repairs needed but not too bad.

Paul arrived home around 6pm and after dinner we got together to pick his brains. Paul and Tamsyn proved to be absolute gems and gave us so much valuable information and made the area sound so attractive our only problem will be doing justice to it in the time we have. It is so good to have the hospitality and help from local people as we travel. Hopefully, we will be able to repay the kindness when they manage to get over to the West.

Paul and Tamsyn’s gorgeous house in Maffra

The next day I tackled the problems with the outboard, stripping down the carby and cleaning out the low speed jets. Fortunately, Paul has a well equipped shed so I was able to use a compressor and really give things a good blast of air. After putting things back together wrongly three or four times before getting it right, all was well and the outboard restored to its best (fingers crossed).

Then it was off into Sale to find someone to help with the hydraulics. An inspection showed that it was not just a case of a simple broken pipe bit rather a break in one of the main steel lines. A contact Paul had given me was unable to help but referred me to a mechanic who could do the job and we booked it in for the following Monday, on our return from Melbourne. We arrived back at Paul and Tamsyn’s tired but content that we had our life sorted and settled in to catch up with a few administrative things and a iPad Facetime linkup with Ben.

23-25 May – Melbourne

The train trip from Sale to Melbourne took about three and a half hours on a comfortable diesel powered train. We paid about $5 extra for First Class, giving us wider seats and more leg room, money well spent. The whole round trip for two only set us back $92, much cheaper and easier than driving. The country east of Melbourne is green at this time of year and quite picturesque, with the line running back along the M1 through Tralalgon, Moe Warragul etc. We alighted in Flinders Street Station, right in the heart of Melbourne and had about an hour to kill before Azba could get off work and join us for a tram ride to her place in Richmond. We used the time to buy two tickets to the Eagles-Collingwood match and settled outside St Pauls to watch the passing parade. With Azba off work, we headed to her place to order Pizza in and consume too much wine (what’s new?).

Saturday dawned with a beautiful Autumn day, warm by Melbourne standards. We needed to access a boat supplies in Collingwood for some very specialised sealant, so we walked the 3km from Azba’s, putting Christine’s knee to the test. It held up quite well and is improving steadily. My back, on the other hand, just chooses random times to protest, usually for an hour at a time. The walk was pleasant and with the sealant procured, we trammed across town to Harbour Town in the Docklands to shop in the factory outlets. We scored some real bargains in the AFL outlets, with a great Eagles wind breaker for Christine and shirt for me. Eagles buyers were in abundance and we were both surprised by the number of Eagles supporters walking the streets. By contrast, Collingwood supporters were not in evidence but we figured they were home sharpening their teeth.

Catching a tram down Bridge Road to the MCG in full Eagles colours was fun. We were welcomed by a group of young men who had just exited the pub who hailed us as visiting Sandgropers. Most were expats and there was a lone Magpie being very quiet. Once on the tram, the group had some banter with a very rough looking Collingwood supporter and when the guys jumped off the tram again, having gone a whole four stops without a drink, and headed for the next pub, the Collingwood guy started yelling out “Eagles @$#%&”. They happily gave him the finger. Pulling up to some lights, the Collingwood gentleman proceeded to lean out the door and call across to a young girl, telling her what a lovely arse she had. She tried hard to just look straight ahead and spent the time until the lights changed trying to pull down her skirt as far as possible. He and his kids exited just before Jolimont Station and he walked along drinking from his can. True to form, he finished it and tossed it into the bushes. Where was God when you needed Him?

There is nothing quite like the excitement of sport at the MCG, even if a 55,000 strong crowd only half fills the place. We had good seats, on the first tier along the 50m line. Even with a crowd of this size, we found that Vauna Watson, a friend from Marmion Primary School was seated four seats away and a group of teachers from West Greenwood that Christine knew from her time there were two rows ahead of us. There were enough Eagles supporters around us to make a lot of noise, especially since the Eagles led for most of the match. Unfortunately, the Magpies over ran us in the final quarter by 8 points and the noise from the Collingwood army was deafening. We slunk out licking our wounds and caught a tram back to Richmond. Mike had arrived for the weekend and Azba had cooked up a delicious fish meal so we dined like kings and consumed more wine.

The train trip back on the Sunday turned out to be a short one, only to Packenham, before we were transferred to coaches so work could be done on the station at Warragul. The coach actually proved very comfortable. It concluded a very relaxing and wonderful trip to Melbourne, one of our favourite cities anywhere. The big downside was only discovered later that night. I had left my Android Tablet in the seat pocket of the bus. I have a very bad record with these things, having sat on one in a plane and smashed the screen, left another on charge under a hotel bed where the maid could hit it with the vacuum and smash the screen and just cracked a screen through no apparent cause.

26-27 May – Port of Sale

Once back in Maffra, we organised Sandpiper ready for an early departure. The hydraulic brakes need attention so we have planned to take the boat off and spend the day tied up in Port of Sale while the work is done. As often happens, the work was more complicated than anticipated and we spent a lovely day in Port of Sale and a night tied up to the jetty. Christine contacted V-Line Rail and the bus company about the Android with no luck.

Port of Sale is a small series of docks located on the Sale Canal, a narrow canal cut through to link Sale to the Gippsland Lakes via the Thompson River in the 1880s. Today, it provides secure facilities for a number of small boats and a small slipway for boat servicing.

Port of Sale

We spent another day at Port of Sale, this one no so pleasant, with low temperatures and regular light rain. Everything was damp and slushy. I checked my Google account on the Internet and found that my Android was at a place in Highfield, part of Melbourne. We could narrow it down to an address, but it was a block of apartments. Even so, we went around to the Sale Police and gave them all the information that we had. They took all the details and promised to do what they could, short of getting a search warrant for the whole building. After a number of tries, I managed to contact the tablet itself and lock it, with a screen message asking the person to give me a ring. I won’t lose any sleep waiting for the phone to ring.

With the trailer work complete, we picked it up late in the day and decided to sleep over night and pull out fresh in the morning, to head off to sail the Gippsland Lakes, the whole point of being here.

Melbourne – Australian Open 2013

January 17, 2013 / terry

Melbourne during the two weeks of the Australian Open Tennis Championships is a crazy place, full to the brim and even more sports mad than usual. We have long promised ourselves a trip to the Open and finally made it. It won’t be our last trip.

Perth can be so dysfunctional at times, with needlessly long queues, ridiculously high prices and dreadful service. West Aussies hate being beaten by the Vics but having spent a time in Melbourne we’d better lift our game. This city works. We paid a little more than one day’s play at the Hopman Cup for three days at the Australian Open, never had to queue for more than 5 minutes despite a record attendance on the Tuesday and walked freely along lovely wide shaded avenues to and from the tennis. There has been a huge amount of rebuilding and restructuring in Melbourne since our last trip, nearly 20 years ago, and everything is definitely for the better. It now must surely rank as one of the great tourist cities. We loved it.

The tennis scene is amazing. There are the fanatics, the crazies and the fashion-conscious in abundance. We scored terrific seats in Rod Laver, Margaret Court Arena and Show Court 2. Somehow, we always got lucky with the outside courts and grabbed some shade. Having any tennis tickets in your possession gives you free access to the #70 tram and good discounts or free drinks at lots of eateries around the city. Giant screens are set up around the city to keep track of the action and big crowds gather to watch when an Aussie is on court. We joined the crowd watching at Federation Square and wandered past another mob outside Crown Casino.

To get around, we either walked or used the free City Loop tram. This will take you within an easy walk of most CBD attractions and the extra walking simply means that we could eat more. The trams rattle and crash their way around on rails that look as though they would support anything more than a kid’s train set and the cars somehow negotiate around the crazy system of lights and tram stops. Despite the chaotic appearance, things seem to work. The Starshuttle from the airport certainly worked. For $17 each, fast comfortable buses run every 15 minutes of the day to and from the airport and Southern Cross Station, where-upon you can catch a small shuttle bus to your hotel. What wonderful service.

The abundance of street eateries was certainly tempting and reasonably priced. One night, we went to the Victoria Night Market where it is wall to wall food kiosks. The usual array of market stalls has been packed up and put away to be largely replaced with hundreds of dining opportunities and entertainment facilities. We met friends Azba and Mike for a meal but the crowd proved truly daunting. Christine eventually solved the problem by launching herself across a table and securing some chairs as another group showed the early signs of leaving. She hustled them out of the way and we settled in. Azba set off to buy curries for the others while I had my eyes on the Sawawakian Dumpling stall. So did a few hundred others and I eventually gave up trying to locate the end of the line and settled for some polish meatballs. The entire market place seemed filled up with people eating from take-away containers, squatting on kerbs, sitting on the bare ground and perched on railings. It was a staggering sight. Half of Melbourne was at the tennis and the rest were at Victoria Markets. The amazing thing is we were at the markets early the next morning and the exact location that we’d eaten our meal the night before was transformed into a clothing and handbag stall.

Dinner at Victoria Markets with Azba and Mike

The same location the next morning, transformed into a clothing stall.

Melbourne’s claim to be the most cosmopolitan city in the World certainly seems accurate. While sitting in a crowd at the tennis, the variety of accents, dress styles, skin colours and snack foods supported the claim and the food outlets along Swanston St are like an International Food Festival. It all adds to the attraction of the place.

Tram stop at Harbourfront, Docklands

One day we caught the tram down to the river, walked the length of Southbank then trammed on to the Docklands area and its famed outlet shopping. I came to Melbourne determined to buy some Australian Open clothing, regardless of the cost, but when I was actually confronted with the ridiculous prices, I chickened out. At Harbourfront, we found a sports outlet that sold official Australian Open gear from previous years so we left as happy as Larry with a cap each (no year on them) and a 2012 T-Shirt all for a total of $15. Once we’ve done the gardening in them a few times no one will ever know and we are around $100 better off. There was plenty of really cheap AFL gear as well, but they didn’t seem to have heard of the West Coast Eagles.

We also thoroughly enjoyed our stay at the Arrow on Swanston Accommodation. Its best feature is the provision of a simple kitchen, meaning that we didn’t have to eat out all the time. With a tram stop right outside, it is a great cheap place to stay.

OK, now that I have been overwhelmingly positive about Melbourne, I’ll offer a criticism. The people here have absolutely no idea of walking on the left. They march up the street five abreast. They cross at lights on the right hand side. We tried holding a line but they are accomplished at boring straight through, although so many are actually on the phone it wouldn’t matter. The problem is so wide-spread, I started to think that keeping right was a local rule so I looked it up on Google and found these quotes from the Mayor of Melbourne in 2011. “He [Jack] says that he travels a lot around Australia and the world and Melburnians are the worst offenders.” I agree. The next time here I’m going to wear a giant pair of Madonna bras with sharpened steel tips.

Aside from the maniac street walkers, we enjoyed every minute of our stay in Melbourne and saw some terrific tennis (even a few rare Aussie wins). We will definitely be back, although maybe not in Winter.

Sydney on Friday

April 18, 2008 / trevor

Our plane trip from Melbourne to Sydney went smoothly… if you blinked, you would have missed it – about 10 minutes after finishing the ascent, the captain announced we were beginning our descent! An hour trip overall.

The first thing we noticed about Sydney was that the city’s drivers aren’t quite as laid back as Melbourne’s – our taxi driver managed to beep and abuse before we had even left the airport. He was quite engaging, however, even if he did have a disturbing habit of constantly creeping at red lights, ensuring we were regularly in the middle of the intersection before the light went green.
Our hotel was a step up in class from our Melbourne one. We had booked into an executive suite on Albion St in Surry Hills – king-size bed, living area and huge flat-screen TV. What a shame we will spend most of our time exploring, not hiding in our room!
A good 90 seconds after arriving in our new room, we were out again, ready to explore. Walking out, we quickly discovered we were in the middle of Chinatown. We stumbled across Paddy’s Markets, and being around lunchtime, chose a little curry place. I had a simple (and mild) lamb curry with naan bread, and Em had a vegetable curry. Both were fabulous.
Having left the hotel room so quickly, we had no idea where we actually were. Using the mobile WhereIs, we were pleasantly surprised to discover we were only about 2 minutes from Darling Harbour. Darling Harbour is interesting – initially, it appears there is plenty to do, but there is that real contrived “touristy” thing happening here. The idea of having an Australian Wildlife Park crammed onto a pier seemed to smack of inappropriateness. The Aquarium next door was more at home in the area, but the advertising of “joint-pass” tickets for “only” $68 per person sent us packing.
Instead, we shot across the harbour, walking underneath the monorail, and visited the National Maritime Museum. We began with the submarine and destroyer walks – HMAS Onslow and HMAS Vampire respectively. The submarine was surreal. So small, so thoughtfully designed to contain so many people, it really would take a special person to serve on one. In the main control room, nine of us crammed in tight as a tour guide informed us that on a normal operations day, 22 men would man the same space. The HMAS Onslow spent its life listening and following Russian submarines around the Arctic Ice, obviously listening for either the grumblings of a Cold War or the first grunts of Anna Kournikova. Like Anna Kournikova, the HMAS Onslow never fired a shot in anger during its career.
HMAS Vampire was also a stunning walk. Built in the 1950’s and decommissioned in 1998 (I think), there are still remnants of the last crew’s activities, like sports rosters, and graffiti in the mess.
The main part of the Maritime Museum was also full of interesting history – the obvious things like Sydney to Hobart memorabilia, First Fleet information and famous passengers cruiseliners were on display, but the highlight for us was the Summers of Australia exhibition, which was walls upon walls of colour photos from the 1950s to 1970s, highlighting Australians affinity with water. There were images from all around Australia – including 1960s golf in Port Hedland!
We finished off our day hanging around the habour until Simon finished work. We met up with him and his workmates at a bar called The Watershed, which had a stunning view of the city skyline – and Little Creatures on tap! Simon’s workmates seemed cool, although they spent most of the time trying to extract embarrassing “family secrets” out of Emma. As always, Emma was able to put up the brick wall and maintain a code of silence. I think this will only encourage Andrew, Simon’s boss, to just make up embarrassing stories instead.
We finished off at a charming little restaurant near our hotel called Mint. Simon recommended it highly, and he wasn’t wrong. With Moroccan themes, Emma and I both tackled a lamb dish which was brilliant, while Simon’s dish also looked yum. Dessert was probably the highlight, with all of us ordering pistachio and orange icecream, with a little baklava on the side.
A good start for Sydney!

Melbourne on Thursday

April 17, 2008 / trevor

For our last full day in Melbourne, it was actually fairly uneventful. We began with breakfast across the road, where I ordered what looked like a small meal (omelette with cheese, mushroom and spinach), but turned out enormous – they must have used about 10 eggs in the thing! It was lovely, even if I could only get through half of it.
Having become excited by the markets the other day, we had promised Marcus we would come to his house and cook dinner for him and his two flatmates using only market produce. We began by searching for a specialty spice store, where I proceeded to buy spices in 100g lots –smoked paprika, turmeric, fennel seeds, whole star anise, cinnamon quills, whole cloves and whole black peppercorns. All of this came to only $11! One of those, with about 25g in it, would have cost close to that in Fitzroy Crossing alone.
With the spices covered (I was making Pork loins with a Chinese Five Spice and paprika rub), we wandered around the city before falling upon the Eureka Sky Deck. It proclaimed to be the highest public viewing platform in the Southern Hemisphere (which we actually thought the Auckland one had proclaimed as well when we were there… we must have been mistaken). Upon reaching the top, having parted with $30 for the privilege to travel up the 88 floors at over 9 metres per second, we found a stunning view of Melbourne, Geelong and most of Port Phillip Bay. We were a long way up – I was convinced it was no higher than Auckland, but a great view nonetheless (later research showed the Melbourne version is a mere 60m higher). There was also an outdoor section, where you could wistfully pine through the wire mesh across the city.
Although we weren’t prepared to fork out the extra $12 each to go on THE EDGE – an extra platform that has a glass bottom (even with our savings on the spices!), we were satisfied that the Sky Deck is worth visiting, even just to get that “big picture” of the city. The Edge claimed to be for the hard-core people, but for us, the hard-core people were the ones at Auckland Skytower who actually paid to BUNGEE JUMP from the top. Scary stuff.
From here, we ate at a non-descript little café that served up a stunning little chicken and mushroom filo for no price at all, before venturing to the markets again to see what values we could find.
Getting there with only half-an-hour till closing time was a buzz – the butchers were screaming, and throwing ridiculous specials around – like a 10kg platter of scotch fillet steaks for $25. I wandered around six butchers before settling on 5 pork loins from local stock for nearly nothing. Wandering out to the fruit and vege place, we picked up some spuds perfect for mashing, sweet potato and green leaves (weeds, I’m sure) for a simple salad.
Marcus is living on a serious budget. He’s studying Social Work at Melbourne Uni, and does relief teaching when he gets the chance – but in a couple of weeks he begins a fulltime, unpaid 15-week prac. I suggest he shops at the markets, because the grand total for our meal for five was less than $16, and less than $27 if you count the spices which would last for months anyway.
Dinner went smoothly, and Marcus provided a lovely dessert (as he always did in Fitzroy Crossing). We passed the evening away chatting, and making promises to catch up again soon.
See – told you it was a lazy day today! Bring on Sydney tomorrow!

Melbourne on Wednesday

April 16, 2008 / trevor

We had a late start today. It wasn’t Emma’s fault, and I maintain it wasn’t my fault either – I blame the Esplanade Hotel from the night before. We spent the evening (and part of the early morning) enjoying The Espy in St Kilda – four live acts on a Tuesday night isn’t too bad – and some of the acts were actually good! The others struggled though. It was great to catch up with Marcus again, and we swapped stories long into the night on the happenings of Melbourne and Fitzroy Crossing. Marcus suggested a great little café on the main strip of St Kilda before venturing to one of the great venues for up and coming Australian artists. Top night, but lousy morning!
We ventured off just before midday back to St Kilda to see the area in a sober state… and in the daylight! After sighting the mandatory “mouth” to Luna Park, and sighing over not being able to see a gig at the Palais Theatre, we wandered into Rare Records for a look. Wow! Apart from having all the You Am I singles from over the years, there were also vinyls from Metallica dating back to the early 80’s, and a Nirvana CD Single for Pennyroyal Tea… which I assume was very rare, because it was on sale at a mere $750! After dragging Emma around that store (but staying strong and not buying anything), we then went up the road into another record store – quite unremarkable, except for the fact that it is owned and run by Bon Scott’s son.
We jumped on the tram again straight back into the city, and began the (what turned into a) long walk to Docklands and the DFO store (Direct Factory Outlet). DFO is like HarbourTown on steroids. But like HarbourTown, we walked around and actually visited very few stores. Emma bought a new pair of trendy sneakers and some tops, and I tagged along, slowly recovering from the obvious drink-spiking that had occurred the night before.
From here we walked towards Docklands itself, past the majestic Telstra Dome (the retractable roof is amazing! Unfortunately the sun was in a horrible spot, and no photos turned out).
By this time, it was getting close to dark, so we caught the tram back to Bourke Street Mall and met up with Azba and Brad. They took us to a lovely bar on the edge of Chinatown (which claimed to be the “longest bar in Melbourne”. It was long), where I discovered that my taste for beer had finally returned. We also enjoyed a wonderful meal, and Azba even put a tiny piece of squid in her mouth. She then proceeded to pretend to like it. We were all very proud of her!
We said our goodbyes to Az and Brad, and on returning home, pretty much crashed and burned. So far it’s been flat out, but fantastic. Interesting to see what tomorrow brings!

Melbourne on Tuesday

April 15, 2008 / trevor

Another busy day today! After a lovely dinner last night (we used WhereIs to search for nearby restaurants and chose one based on its name), we were ready to go. Yesterday we managed to tackle two locations, which took all day, so we decided to keep to form – the King’s Domain and the Victoria Street Markets.
We began with a walk through the Botanic Gardens, and were stunned at the variety of vegetation and the presentation of the whole area. Walking through, you could hardly tell you were in a major city, with only the smell of trees, flower and grass about – no smog! The highlights for us (apart from the tearooms complete with cheesecake) were the Glasshouses and the Herb Garden. The Tropical Glasshouse not only felt like home, but held a huge variety of tropical plants – including some from our patio! There were beautiful flowers, and also plants like ginger, coffee, and vanilla – which we learnt is actually a type of orchard.
The Herb Garden was very interesting, and we looked on in envy, imagining our own herb garden at home looking even remotely like this one. It would be great to set up a big barbeque in the middle of it and greedily strip the herbs back just to create a huge variety of marinades!
From the Botanic Gardens, we ventured to the Shrine of Remembrance. It had been empty and closed when we first walked past it, now two hours later it was a hive of activity. We were denied access through the first entry as there was a major unveiling going on for some Victorian stamps commemorating the April 15 battle of Borneo (or somewhere) in 1918 (or sometime). We then noticed it was April 15. And there were lots of diplomats, and all flags at half mast. Who was to know?? I remember a similar situation when we were going around Australia, and decided to visit the national War Memorial in Canberra. We got close, but noticed there were far too many people milling around the area, and it looked like too much effort. It was only as we drove away that we noticed that not only was it November 11 (Remembrance Day), but it was dangerously close to 11am as well… (*Footnote – the News has just stated that they were officially unveiling this year’s commemorative ANZAC Day stamps. No wonder it was packed…)
We gained access to the Shrine through a different entrance, joining the throngs of Japanese tourists. I’m probably underestimating, but there were at least 20 AAPT buses lined up. The Shrine itself was full of information, and quite grand. We were able to climb to the top level and get a stunning view of the city and the surrounds. Obviously my diet and exercise has paid off, because one Japanese tourist not only wanted Emma to take a picture of him with Melbourne in the background, but he insisted I be in the picture as well… while he hugged me! I don’t have photographic proof, but I’m sure it will be on YouTube in no time.
Having explored the King’s Domain for well over three hours, we jumped on a tram heading into town. From there we jumped on the Airport West tram which took us past Victoria Street Markets. Wanneroo has some catching up to do. We could move to Melbourne just to buy our meat, seafood, fruit and vegetables from here! With about five different seafood stalls and at least 10 different butchers all running out of the same small space, competition was high, prices were low and the variety in cuts was amazing! Their barramundi were pitiful though – they’d be used as live bait in Fitzroy! We wandered through, revelling in the smell of fresh bread, browsing through hundreds of different cheeses and tasting some stunning oils and vinegars – one, an apple-flavoured balsamic vinegar, tasted so much like apples, you could have poured it in with the pears and custard! It would go great in a pork marinade, I reckon.

We finished by strolling through the other parts of the markets – “rubbish goods”. If you ever need useless pieces of junk to fill up your house, I recommend coming here to splurge. One stall did catch the eye, with some great wooden chopping boards and cheese boards, but other than that it was just a good way to work off the cheesecake from this morning.
We finished off our afternoon wandering back through the city, through the Bourke Street Mall (only buying a few things, we promise) and deciding to cross the Yarra to visit the Art Gallery. We reached the Art Gallery to find that Tuesdays are the only day they are closed! Oh well, it leaves us something for another day…

One thing we have noticed on both days in Melbourne is the amount of school kids out and about on excursion. The teachers all look very happy, and the kids all behave themselves beautifully. We are starting to remember what mainstream school look like. None of this helps our Principal in Fitzroy Crossing, Paul, in his quest to convince us to stay for a fourth year… we’ll let you join the dots!
We’re catching up with Marcus tonight at the Esplanade Hotel in St Kilda. It has a rich history for Australian Music, and with any luck there will be a bit to see on the walls around it. It’s also a good opportunity to drink with a fellow Fitzroy Crosser! Until tomorrow…