World Australia Victoria Melbourne

Round Australia with Ev and Az

Day 93 - 96 – Melbourne Oct 25, 2009

Thursday

Either the time zone change or pure exhaustion allowed a good sleep in this morning, particularly for Aaron. After some cereal we gave Evan his ‘treat’ for being so good yesterday on the flight, hotcakes at Macca’s. In our defence, this is the only visit so far to the golden arches in the last three months.

We drove out to the Dandenong ranges. As with our arrival in Perth, traffic jams are something I have not seen in months…..and Melbourne seems to do the particularly well. I thought Sydney could throw a good traffic snarl.

The attraction of the Dandenongs was a steam train ‘Puffing Billy’. The boys had a real blast as we chugged our way up through the hills and more than ocne got covered in smoke and ash from the engine. Aaron in particular attracted as much dirt as was humanly possible but managed to have fun in the process.

The whole Puffing Billy organization is run by volunteers, so credit to those that spend their spare time maintaining this historic train….but when you combine ‘train nuts’ and volunteers the majority of the staff either looked like they were extras from “Weekend at Burnies” or were on day release from Pentridge (yes I know it is closed but I don’t know its replacement)

After a quick lunch we headed back into catch up with Saturdays Bride and Groom, Marika and Chris. For those who do not know Marika and I went to school together in Canada in 1982. Over the years either our families or more recently we have kept in touch and when ever we were anywhere near Niagara falls we caught up. Now Marika is living in Melbourne and has met an Aussie guy….Ok so he is from South Australia but in spite of that he is still a great guy….amazing.

Dinner tonight was interesting. You know when something just doesn’t feel right, like when you walk into a pizza place and the staff are Chinese. You have to know that you arec probably unlikely to walk out with the best pizza you have ever eaten…..and guess what it wasn’t. I loved this places ‘meal deal’. A large Pizza, 3 spring rolls and a bottle of coke. Something is not right.

Tonight we ran through the rehearsal for the wedding. As Marikas father is not well enough to travel from Canada I have the honour of giving the bride away. With two boys this is probably the only chance I will get to do this.

…..I also found out tonight that I am in the welcoming ceremony (which involves a vodka shot ) and have a speech…..after the vodka shot..

Friday

No wedding related work today so we had a day in Melbourne, ‘at leisure’. Sounds like we are on a grey sheep tour. Alison had first pick of the day so we started at the Queen Victoria markets. As you know we have been in Ev’s proverbial “middle of nowhere” for a LONG time.

One feature of the “middle of nowhere” is the complete lack of any variety ion the food, so you can imagine the response of two self confessed food lovers when we walked into the food section of the Markets. I think I had a dedicated staff member following me around mopping up the drool. It was like heaven and hell at the same time. The greatest selection and variety of fresh food we have seen for months…….and we couldn’t buy any because we were due back on a flight……Aaaarrrggghhh!!!!

When we come back through on in the caravan we will definitely arrive with an empty fridge.

After the markets we wandered around Melbourne CBD, nothing more involved than that. E rode some trams, wandered through some shops and then got some lunch. It was interesting and frightening at the same time to be back in ‘big city land’. We got a taste of what it will be like to be back in the real world….and to be honest we are not looking forward to coming back.

I took the boys back to the caravan park while I left Al in town to get a haircut and go shopping. Unfortunately Aaron feel asleep on the tram so by the time we got back to the van park, all he wanted to do was to play on the playground…..so I let him.

A quick afternoon at Essendon DFO for Al to do a bit more window shopping while I showed the boys around Essendon and we settled in for an early night in. To be honest the trip is starting to catch up with us. Rather than being 100% relaxed, we are rather tired from the constant movement.

Saturday –Here comes the bride

Wedding day – Two very excited boys (and Aaron) woke up this morning and ran out to the airport to pick up ‘Nanny and Poppy’. Since July I have met my parents in airports more than anywhere else, but I am also very grateful they have made the effort to visit us. It has made a huge difference on the trip.

On the way out to the airport we dropped Al at a tram stop so she could explore Melbourne a little more…..specifically she headed into Bridge road for some more shopping. Just as we have been starved of good food, Al has not seen a decent shopping district since………………??? So she is getting her fill in Melbourne.

We picked up my mum and dad from their Tiger airlines flight. Understandably their arms were sore from flapping but thankfully they did arrive safely. Actually they were very complimentary of Tiger. Ev rode in their car back from the airport and I can confirm that their ears were bleeding by the time they arrived at the motel….Yes we actually decided to stay in a motel for one night. It is 800 metres from the wedding/reception so it makes sense.

Now as I explained a day or so ago, Marika (the bride) has been a great friend for a long time……but sometimes friends push too far. Being part of the ceremony, giving away the bride, no problem. Making a speech, again no problem. Flying from the other side of the country and interrupting the caravan trip, I’m even OK with that….but would you believe she asked me to wear a suit and shoes!!!!!! Totally unacceptable.

So for the first time in three months I put on a suit and headed off to the ceremony. Man I have forgotten how uncomfortable ties are. When I come back to Sydney I think I need to find a job that allows me to wear shorts and thongs everyday.

The ceremony itself was great (and my work was finished early – walk a bit, two words and sit down) . It was very personal, very funny and very ‘them’. To give you a taste of the vows Bride – “ I understand Chris does not have to do the dishes until after he has finished playing the guitar. And from the groom, ‘ I will be responsible for removing all spiders and creepy things from the house’. There were the serious ones as well but it was very personal.

We fed the boys and then headed back to the reception. With the motel being around the corner and 4 adults there the plan was to have three people at the reception and 1 back as the baby sitter. This worked well except by the time I had all of my formalities out of the way I never actually did a shift of baby sitting.

Cleverly we had left the camera at home so we have no photos from the wedding or reception to share.

Sunday – Roadwork Victorian style, just close everything

Happy birthday Dad.

Mum and Dad had a reasonably early flight back to Sydney this morning so we all set off with a bit of extra time up our sleeve to make it to the airport. Using the GPS we knew we had nearly an hour’s drive to the airport. Small problem, VicRoads in their wisdom had decided to do some roadwork. By some I mean they completely closed the freeway we were on and pushed us onto back streets. So in a section of Melbourne I was complexly unfamiliar with we were trying to find our way to a main road that was open and heading to the airport.

This might have been a bit annoying if it only happened once. But no, once we ‘found ourselves the first time, the next freeway we got was also completely closed and we needed to find back streets again. Unfortunately as those of you who use a GPS system know, you can’t put in roadwork so it keeps trying to get you back to the road that is closed. We resorted to, this is west and that’s the general direction we need to go.

To cut a long drama short we managed to pull up at the airport with a whole 3 minutes before the flight closed and Mum could get checked in while we parked/returned the rental car. We all made it into the terminal with exactly enough time to watch Mum and Dad get in the line and board the flight….but at least they made it. Not sure how many speed camera fines are heading my way but I will not be surprised.

On the upside, we did pass something that I knew had to exist in Australia. I am not sure which suburb in Melbourne it is in but we did pass an amusing swimming pool complex on the trip. Yes you guessed it, the sign out the front proudly proclaimed it was the “Harold Holt Swim Centre”. Priceless.

While we waited for the plane to go (not a long wait), we got Macca’s for breakfast again. Twice on the trip and twice in three days. This will not continue I can assure you. Interestingly Aaron has tried hotcakes twice now and both times he has ….err….ummm….returned it, quickly. I can only hope, for his sake, he is allergic to crummy food. He has no problem at all with anything else.

From the airport we headed up to visit some old friends from Sydney that had moved down to their farm in Lancefield. Jo and Carlos have twins (Darcy and Gabby) Evan’s age and the three of them used to spend a lot of time playing together. It didn’t take long for the old friendship to be rekindled.

The farm is in a beautiful location with an amazing view out over a valley. On the farm itself there are four horses, three dogs, two cows and a goat so you can imagine both of our boys were in ecstasy. Evan even more so when he got to ride a horse around the paddock and feed the cows. Aaron was just giggling when he got to pat a horse and the dogs licked him.

Carlos our host is South American by birth. As such he can BBQ better than anyone else and as the farm produces its own beef you have to believe lunch was something spectacular. Sprinkle in a few glasses of good red wine, great friends and the kids amusing themselves and playing brilliantly together and it was a great way to finish off a great long weekend in Melbourne. We now know we are going to have to make the time to stop in Melbourne again on the way home.

To make the time up we may need to move Christmas into February. Does anyone have Santa’s e-mail? I seem to have lost it

For the night we checked into another caravan park, our third different accommodation in five nights, 10 minutes from the airport. The cabin was great with five separate rooms. It was almost a shame that it was so far from everything we needed to do or we would have stayed there the whole time.

It was an interesting caravan park and something we are noticing as we travel around. The concept of the caravan park is changing. The thing about this caravan park was there were basically no caravans. It was almost exclusively cabins. Probably 10-15 caravans in 170 sites and the rest are cabins. I can assure you there was nothing that even remotely resembled a tent site.

As a cabin rents for a far higher price than an unpowered site you can understand why owners would push this option. We have seen it a lot but never this pronounced. Not that we use unpowered sites but you wonder if the cheaper end of the market will start disappearing. It certainly had here.