The next few days the weather cleared up significantly. The weather was quite cool in the mornings, but would warm up nicely by mid morning to early afternoon.
Friday night was spent in the company of old uni mates, who are now consultants or fellows in various departments of hospitals.. Austin booked us for Rockpool at the Crown casino at 630PM, but by the time everyone arrived it was probably closer to 8PM!
Still, the company was good, food was decent-- the steaks were well cooked but the other mains were not as impressive. Chris had a rib-eye steak that was tender while my pigeon was dry in some areas and undercooked in others... the sides were unusual.. mac and cheese, mushy peas to name a few. Service was prompt and efficient, once everyone was seated and the orders taken the food arrived fairly quickly. They were good in replenishing the table bread as well as water.
Only Angus, Chris and I had dessert: Angus had a chocolate mousse with a rice crisp base while Chris and I shared a passionfruit pavlova. Desserts were above average though not the best we've had.
Saturday arrived quickly enough... it was a flurry of events. Of course it didn't help that Madison woke rather early and was grumpy by 10 in the morning. We'd been on a whirlwind "tour" of the Queen Victoria Market, buying our meats and vegetable for the party first thing after we woke.
Next stop was to collect our helium balloons from "pinocchio" master.. we took Madison along hoping she'd have a nap while we were at it... as soon as she nodded of we took a detour to the beach to buy a cup of hot chocolate. Of course the cafe we chose HAD to be so popular it took 20 minutes to finally receive our order. I forget the name of the shop. nine something or other..
The balloons nearly didn't fit into the car! Chris could barely see with them all over the front and back seats! They were really colourful though ... we got Madison an Elmo balloon as well.
By the time we got back, preparations for the party were in full swing. We were so fortunate that the family all chipped in to help. Many thanks to Chris' mum, Anthony, Neil, Kei, Chai and Han Ting, and of course not forgetting my helper Warni. After that it was a simple act of transporting the gear to the park and setting up the tables for the party.
Unfortunately... we lost the Elmo balloon... the string broke and it flew away in the park(sob)...
Otherwise, the rest of the party proceeded without event... I have to thank Neil for kindly doing ALL the bbqing during the party, allowing Chris and I to entertain our friends. Madison had a great day out in the sun, running around in the park and being entertained by his uncles and their girlfriends.. Cheryl brought Kayla and Paul, Olivia brought Sam, Helen brought Praise, and Selene, Chung Fei, Peter Kelley, Michael, Yen, Angus and Lydia were the other guests.
It was a beautiful day that ended with an equally beautiful evening. We had a little thank you dinner at Beachcombers at the St Kilda beach. I think there was a stunning sunset that night too. After dinner we dropped Madison off at home and went to Brunetti's at Lygon street for dessert and drinks.
Sunday was the last day in Melbourne... we had lunch at the Callabrian in Carlton then it was pretty much packing and off to the airport. We had a tense moment organising transport to the airport, but in the end all was good...we made it in good time and we were soon in the plane back to Singapore.
The return flight was fairly uneventful.. Madison took awhile to finally fall asleep, but she woke just prior to landing. Pa and Ma picked us up from the airport and amazingly Madison stayed awake all the way home even though it was past midnight. The night, needless to say, was terrible... she woke crying several times because she was now used to having us sleep next to her.
All in... a great holiday and a well-deserved break from the monotony of daily life back in Singapore....
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