We're in Melbourne at the moment...
And it's been great fun. I'm so glad I decided that Warni had to come along to help so that we could all relax and have a proper holiday.
It was a real hassle organising her visa and Madison's passport but it's all worth it.
We took a gamble and decided to fly at night. Madison did pretty well. She fell asleep just prior to boarding the plane so it was an easy take off. She woke though, about halfway through the flight and was a little figety. I broke out the entertainment and between the 2 of us, managed to keep things calm. She fell asleep again just before we landed too, so that was great.
We arrived on Sunday morning and the rest of the day was quite a blur of events. It felt like a super hang over from the lack of sleep on the flight and time difference ( Melbourne is 3 hours ahead ). Chris' mum and Anthony came to pick us up so that was really nice. We went to Ikea to pick up a baby chair as well as a mattress for Madison.
Selene invited us to dinner at her house Monday night, so we got to meet up with Cheryl, Jake, Kayla and Paul; Chung Fei, Dean, Mei and Damien, Lok and Jia Jia. Selene's house is huge by our standards; only thing it is not quite in the city. She's expecting her first child th
is year too.We hired a MPV and drove to Belgrave to catch the Puffing Billy on Tuesday morning. It was a cold drizzly day but we still made it. The Puffing Billy is a heritage steam train that takes people on an experience of old Melbourne. You get to choose the distance that you want to take, ranging from 20 minutes to over an hour. There was a big group of tourists with us, but they got off at the next stop ( Menzies Creek ) just like us. Anthony picked us up from the station. ( takes 6 minutes by road and 20 on the train! )
After the train ride we had our picnic lunch at Emerald Lake, 15minutes drive from Menzies. It was so wet and cold. Fortunately the picnic site had sheltered picnic tables so we were eating in the rain, surrounded by all the wetland birds. After the picnic we HAD to get some hot cocoa and dessert at the little town nearby.
Next stop was the Dandenong ranges, a 30 minute drive from Belgrave. We went to Sky High, where there is a hedge maze and some tearooms. The maze was unfortunately closed due to the bad weather, but we did wander through some English Gardens.
Wednesday was spent at the Werribee zoo. Initially we were intending to go to Healesville Santuary, but after having the drive to the Puffing Billy we'd had enough of long car rides.
Again, it turned out to be a wet and cold day. Fortunately the showers never lasted terribly long so we had periods of sunshine. We had a safari bus tour, which took 45 minutes and took us through different types of grasslands. We walked around after, had a look at several different types of animals in their enclosures before breaking for lunch. Post lunch we were fortunate enough to be in time AND be able to observe lions getting fed. Apparently they normally aren't fed daily to mimic their natural pattern.
Dinner was at home, steamboat courtesy of Anthony. IT was really nice having the hot soups in the cold weather. Post dinner Chris and I met up with Michael and Yen for drinks at San Churros in Lygon street. It's a place famous for spanish donuts with thick syrupy hot chocolate for dunking. The food and drinks were average, but the donuts were a tad expensive. Almost $7 AUD for 3 little pieces of donuts.
Yesterday the weather was slightly better, albeit still quite cold. We took Madison to the Melbourne sport and aquatic centre to play in the wave pool. MSAC is great when fairly empty during off peak hours and they have multiple pools for different activities that seem to run through the day.
After the swim we went to MART 130 for lunch. It's "tram" spelt backwards, and Chai reccommended it to us. Service was quite good though the wait staff were, what shall I say... quite sharp with their words.. ?sarcastic?. Had their famed corn fritters, pasta, lamb salad and eggs. IT was a tad pricey but the food was good. Also quite difficult to find, as it was on the side of the road that was opposite to all the other stores.
The afternoon Chris had to attend a funeral/wake so I didn't go with him. Shopping was on my agenda. I got dropped off at Chadstone shopping centre to wait while Chris went to the memorial. Managed a spot of shopping in the 2 hours or so that I was there. Shops in Melbourne close rather early so we left by 4. Next stop was the balloon shop selling party supplies to buy stuff for her birthday party on Saturday.
The shopkeeper at the party supply shop seriously reminded me of Gepetto ( of Pinocchio )! He was friendly and quite helpful and seemed like a pretty nice guy in general. We ended up ordering 30 helium balloons for the party and getting some Elmo themed table covers and cutlery. He was probably more expensive than other shops but I guess he could use the extra business... we'll see... the balloons are to be picked up on Saturday.
The day ended with dinner at Shark Fin house. I had a feeling the "English" menu was significantly shorter than the "Chinese" menu... unfortunately my written Mandarin has deteriorated to the stage that I am unable to comprehend a Chinese menu in a restaurant... we were charged for a dish that we didn't order but was delivered to our table... I felt we shouldn't have to pay for it since it was the restaurants' mistake and not ours.. we honestly didn't realize it wasn't the correct dish until another one arrived. I didn't want to pay and was persistent about it enough for the charge to be taken off.
Now ... just awaiting for the weather to clear up and for the party to begin...
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