The week in Melbourne was very successful, especially since we had a tour leader in Nicola who planned each day with precision so much so that she could probably get a job as Formula 1 boss!  We got into the nice new car, onto the correct trams and the correct trains all the while following her like two disciplined pets that were being taken on a walk – and walk we did!  The walks took us to interesting places like the National Gallery of Victoria where we upskilled on aboriginal art, a Japanese art exhibition and the magnificent works of Monet, Cezanne, Gainsborough, Picasso – honestly worth spending time there.  We walked down South Bank admiring the boats on the Yarra River and crossed the river to visit Federation Square and Hosier Lane which is home to the street artists who have a space to paint – in fact they can come along and paint over the top of another artist’s work so it changes daily – interesting.  We also went to see a Street Art Exhibition which demonstrated the amazing talent that many of these street artists possess.

The tour guide suggested I sit in an odd looking chair on the sidewalk in this busy area – I did – ended up making an exhibition of myself as the chair spun around according to your movement so legs in the air and head in a spin I spun – and spun – and spun!  The thing about that is that when you have finished spinning your head hasn’t finished spinning so you have to try and concentrate and act like you do this kind of thing every day, bring yourself to an upright position and wander nonchalantly off (while anyone watching is probably thinking that this old girl has completely lost her mind).

Nicola had booked for us all to go to see Tina – wonderful musical about the life of Tina Turner.  Now I had admired Tina and her singing “Simply the Best” which I have played a thousand times and it gets you dancing every time and this was no exception.  The show ended with that song and the entire audience were on their feet – and clapping and dancing and I worried momentarily that the floor above us would come down and join us such were the vibrations of a full house enjoying the show at that very old Princes Theatre.

Nicola celebrated her birthday with us here and was TL for the day – they say the apples don’t fall far from the tree and I can see that my many years of being TL are now maybe over – at least in Melbourne – because we are just happy following the orders for the day which took us to an MCG Tour and Museum visit with a fabulous guide and just the three of us.  We could just picture dear “Warnie” out on that pitch getting a hat trick and seeing behind the scenes including a 10-minute hologram presentation by Shane Warne made for a very enjoyable three hours.  Our weary legs then took us to Docklands to see where Brendan and Victoria spent six months while he was doing his Fellowship here in Melbourne 18 years ago and then to dinner at the local pub in Brighton to celebrate Nicci’s birthday.  Magical day indeed – and – I just need to say to those who have followed us for years – the bathroom!  Well, the thing is that the bathroom in this apartment is very nice indeed but I did not not notice that it had a dinner plate showerhead and three taps and, although not nearly as complicated or severe a reaction as Europe, I did manage to turn the wrong tap and got hit in the face with cold water which brought me to my senses big time, swung me around at a rate of knots which caused me to bang my head at the other end of the shower so then the back got a blast of cold water! 

We took a drive with our TL to the Mornington Peninsula.  Our 80 km journey took us past dry farm pastures on a 30 degree day out to the lovely Portsea where we enjoyed lunch looking over the bay with the busy car ferries going back and forth constantly. Made our way back to Aidan and Jenny’s with pancakes for afternoon tea on Shrove Tuesday.   We then spent a day at Williamstown with four of us looking after our little 9 month old great niece – four of us trying to offer her all kinds of different food and haggling over who was going to take charge of the push chair at the park – Vern won!

Our final day in Melbourne was interesting.  Jenny had won a “book a bathing hut” in a raffle and so she diligently packed up a lovely morning tea of hot cross buns, thermos flask etc etc for our visit on a windy morning to the said beach hut at Brighton.  Now, if you know Brighton beach you will know that this line of about 90 little colorful beach huts is a tourist attraction and they are almost always closed – you seldom see one that is occupied.  We arrived with all the gear for our morning stay in this little hut but dear Jenny had forgotten the key so the boys took the gear to the hut and we waited for the key to arrive.  We opened the hut, set out the chairs, the buns, the flasks, etc etc but we had forgotten the mugs!  Not to worry – there was bound to be mugs hiding somewhere in this tiny hut but NO – wine glasses to satisfy an army of friends but no mugs.  Having said that, there is no power in these little huts.  Not to worry – Kiwis make do with what there is so I found three acrylic glasses – Jenny was not ‘appy – worried they might melt for goodness sakes!  After much hilarity the tea and coffee was poured and we sat ourselves down to enjoy being in this little hut on a windy day.  All was fine for about five minutes until the Chinese tour bus arrived – now we were the main tourist attraction with faces at the door constantly, some wanting to engage, all wanting to take photos and at one point we vacated the hut so that two ladies from Singapore could have their photo taken in it!  Heaven forbid – this carry on went on for the entire time we were there.  We decided to stay and order fish and chips from the cafe along the beach for lunch so we did and we then wondered if we were going to be visited by the mass of seagulls down in front.  It was a fun day I can tell you and we finished our lovely visit to Melbourne with a very nice dinner at an Italian restaurant where we toasted family and the end of our visit.