Tuesday 3 January 2017

Blog Down Under - Melbourne and around

The last few days in Melbourne to squeeze in the maximum before we head back around the globe. Melbourne is a fantastic city which reminds me very much of Vancouver - a mixture of old-world British Empire outpost, modern vibrant city with a massive natural harbour, and a huge Asian influence with a good dose of other cultures mixed in. It has lots of old buildings and trams . . . and and it has bikes, loads and loads of bikes; in fact the city is fantastically bike friendlly with a young hipster bike culture, so I fitted right in . . . with the bike bit at least. But we werent finished with the sight seeing yet, so off'ed to the Dadenong Ranges Park to walk the Kokoda 1000 steps memorial trail, in memory of the fallen in a WW2 campaign . . .
The walk was up a hill, a mere bagatelle for such hardened ill-climbers such as us; we just pretended it was Pork Hill on a summer Sunday, but with Palm trees - and S adopting the usual position of lanterne rouge . . .
. . . with the added authentic touch of my Akubra hat with dayglo laces . . .

After all the outdoors exertion we dropped the cultural bar somewhat and went to the Crown Casino. This vast, neon-blinking temple to mammon is the largest casino in the southern hemisphere so, high-rollers that S and I are, we headed straight for the cheapest ($2.50 minimum bet) roulette where I proceeded to lose my standard $50 flutter in about 10 minutes. S fared no better, flushing her cash down the loo over a very slightly more extended timescale. With my plan to recoup the holiday outlay lying in tatters it was left to the offspring to uphold the family honour by raking in the lolly playing poker. The fact that they duly did, perhaps reflects not so well on that bit of parenting when we told them about the evils of cards and drink . . . particulalry since I probably won't see any of the profit; so remember folks, only mugs gamble and expect to win . . . . bollocks!
Next on the must-do list was a visit to a dumpling house in Chinatown. The last time I had the authentic thing was with Sam Wang in Vancouver Chinatown, where he proceeded to force-feed me every variation on the menu. This was not dissimilar; dumplings are definitely the best lunctime deal to be had, and come in a delicious variety, floating around in hot and sour soup in my case. The soup option does make them slightly tricky to eat with chopsticks, beause they acquire a slithery outer sheen, thus requiring a deft and subtle hand to elegantly steer them into the mouth . . .
Last day tomorrow, and then the looonnng flight back.
G'day

Sunday 1 January 2017

Blog Down Under - back to the city

And so, the road trip ended back in Melbourne on New Year's Eve, where we checked in to our 22nd floor apartment on the Southside with stunning views over the bay . . .

The plan was to offload all the clobber and set off to Geelong, sans offspring who were on the town with young people, to spend NYE with Neil annd Darlene, old friends from the 1980s. Some readers will know, from personal experience out on the bevy in the Dolphin with Neil, that a gruesome end awaits this sort of activity. I was banking on the fact that age must must have slowed him down consideraby in the intervening 29 years since we last spent NYE together - on that occasion in our student flat in Plymouth, where the air became like a 1950s London smog as the evening wore on because we smoked like Ivor the Engine at the time . . .

. . . note my excellent hairstyle and shoulder pads in S's dress.
This time the occasion called for a barbie in Neil's back yard because the temperature was in the 20s, plus numerous bottles of rather excellent red wine from his extensive cellar - so yes, I was feeling slightly jaded the next day, but perked up somewhat after the restorative of one of the Queenscliff, Rolling Pin Bakery Jumbo Chunky Beef Pie, judged Australia’s Best Pie 2013. Once my blood alcohol had metabolised to below the 50 mg/100 ml limit we bade farewell . . .
. . . and returned to Melbourne for a quiet night in watching the telly.
G'day