A wet and windy day in Melbourne

This morning Dee woke up in time to go to her yoga class while I lazed around in bed reading my book until 11. It was just too miserable outside to contemplate getting up! I managed to have a shower before Dee came home and we had breakfast together and then pretty much spent the rest of the day on the couch watching daytime TV and episodes of Flight of the Conchords.

About 3.30, we left for the airport. Dee had to start work at 4.30, so we had a coffee before she started her shift. I headed down to the boarding gate where I saw Dee again not long afterwards as she was the cabin supervisor on my flight back to Adelaide.

Dee had briefed her crew and amongst other things, told them that she had a friend on board in seat 23 "Charlie" and that if they were serving me, they should just call me C-dog. About half way through the flight, one of the crew, Jeremy comes up and says 'How is your flight going today C-dog?" I pissed myself laughing! I told him that he had obviously been chatting with D-dog and so we chatted for a while before he had to get back to work.

Dee threw in the usual gag over the intercom as she was giving her instructions for departing the aircraft "Please watch out for the items in the overhead lockers as they may have moved during the flight and if you are traveling with small children please make sure you take them with you". There was a brief second of silence as people processed what she said and then a lot of laughter. Ah, an oldie but a goodie!

On the way out, I said goodbye to my new mates J-dog (Jeremy) and S-dog (Steve) the other two crew and made my way up the plane to be the last passenger off so I could say goodbye to Dee. We hugged goodbye in the crew galley before I headed off to meet my Dad. The weather was miserable in Adelaide as it had been in Melbourne so we headed home, curled up on the couch and watched TV.

I had a great time in Melbourne catching up with Dee and her friends! Hope we can catch up again some time soon.

Hitting Chapel Street

Dee and I woke up about 9 and headed to Carlisle Street for an awesome breakfast at Las Chicas. Dee recommended the Baked Bean Brekky which was a poached egg on pumpkin polenta bread with home made baked beans. Yum!

From there we drove down to Chapel Street. Our first stop was Lulu Lemon, a groovy yoga clothes store. I went a little nuts and walked out with three workout tops, one pair of crop pants and one pair of full length yoga pants. A pretty good start to our shopping expedition!

We drove further down the street and then wandered up and down Chapel Street. I bought a present for Ross in one of the stores then we continued on down the street looking at the cute boutiques. We stopped at one of Dee's favourite stores, Gorman, and we both walked out with dresses.

We had worked up quite a thirst so we stopped in for a herbal tea (a bit different to our usual cocktails!). We continued on our way for a bit longer. I stopped into Rebel Sport and picked up a few more things. By this time we were exhausted.

On the way home, we picked up some shopping for dinner with the girls tonight. Back at Dee's place, we had a quick bite to eat, relaxed for a while and then started preparing dinner. We had tried to get a whole fish but ended up with fillets of rockling. We made up individual packets for each person with lemongrass, chilli, garlic, ginger, spring onion and fried shallots. Dee made an Asian coleslaw and I made Thai potato salad. Dee also stir fried some greens.

Dee's friends Kendra, Lydall and Anna came over and Dee's housemate Nana was there also. We spent the night chatting, eating the great food and watching a dodgy youtube video of Arni in Rio (very funny!). It was a great night - so nice to see Dee's mates again, great girls!

Off to Melbourne

Dad and I walked down to the cafe this morning for breakfast. After brekky we walked around the lakes and then headed back to the house. I spent the rest of the morning trying to get organized for Melbourne and also sort through the stuff in my room.

Once I was packed, I laid on my bed and read more of my book before having a shower and then heading to the airport. I was on a standby flight but I got a boarding pass easily. Dad and I had a coffee while we waited for my flight to board. I hugged Dad goodbye and headed to Melbourne.

I landed about 5pm and headed to the bar to have a drink and wait for Dee to finish work at 5.30. Dee picked me up and we drove home to her place. On the way, we drove down Acland Street and ran into her friend Kendra having a drink at one of the cafes with a couple of her friends. We drove home, got changed and headed back out to meet Kendra and her mates.

We chatted, had some dinner and a couple of drinks then parted ways. Dee and I headed home to her place to put on our PJs, watch some crap TV and catch up on things since last time I saw her. We were in bed reasonably early. It's nice to see a good friend again!

From Adelaide to Melbourne

This morning Dad had to go to work (early!) and I asked him to take some photos of him and the bus. I loved this one in particular taken in the rear view mirror.

After his morning shift, he dropped me at the airport to catch my flight to Melbourne. On landing, I caught up with Dee who came to meet me at my arrival gate before she started work - it was great to have a chance to see her again before heading back!

I jumped on the Skybus into the city and then took the little hotel shuttle to my hotel - Medina Executive on Flinders Street. Although the little apartment was great, it was only accessible by stairs so I left my 27kg suitcase at reception and just took up what I needed for the night.

I headed straight into the Bourke Street Mall to get my last retail fix before leaving Aus. I did pretty well in an hour and a half I had bought 3 dresses, 3 pairs of earrings and some clip-on koalas!

In the evening, I caught the train out to Mount Waverley to catch up with our friends from Doha Sue and Steve and their three children, Gabs, Cha-Cha and Charlie. They were staying at Sue's parents place (Stu and Marg) for a couple of weeks before they head to London for 3 years where Steve will be working for the 2012 games. It was a great night with good food, good company and a glass or two of wine. I was so happy to catch up with them before everyone scattered around the world again!

Catching up with family

Ross and I spent the day in Melbourne city browsing through the shops and enjoying another great summer day. Ross ended up with a backpack full of my new clothes and shoes - bless!
We headed over to Southbank for lunch and ended up at World, a great little bar where we had salads and sipped white wine over looking the Yarra River and watching the world go by.

From there, we headed to Flinders Street Station to catch a train out to Watsonia where Ross' brother Bruce lives.

It was great to catch up with family over take-away Indian and wine. In the picture from left to right are Christine (my sister-in-law married to Bruce), Caz (other sister-in-law married to John), Ross, Brooke, Bruce and me. You will probably notice that Charli is draped over our laps as the poor thing was dragged out of her bed to be part of the photo :-). So the whole family was there except for John who had just returned to Brisbane from Darwin that night. Wish we had more time to catch up and hopefully now we live closer to Aus this can happen more regularly.

Billy Elliot

A beautiful Sunday in Melbourne, so Dee and I headed out for a bit of exercise (read: sweating out the night before). So many people were making the most of the great weather around St Kilda.

In the afternoon we all headed into the city to catch Billy Elliot The Muscial which was amazing! The 12 year old, Dayton Tavares, who played the main character was fantastic but his best mate Michael, played by Landen Hale-Brown, stole the show.

After the show, we headed into St Kilda and met up with Phil and Bec who I worked with in Kuwait and another of Dee's friends Ana. A great meal and great company!