A little more Melbourne

  Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Wednesday, August 13, 2008

I decided to keep all the Melbourne stuff (apart from horror at the airport) together... so here's what we got up to!!

A cockatoo in Jan and Brian's garden

On our first morning, Brian showed up the cockatoos that come down into the garden... they are beautiful, but unfortunately they eat all of Jan's herbs, which is a bit of a pain!!

Pucker up!!

We met up with our friend Paul, who we met in Peru, and had a drink at Melbourne's Ice Bar... which was really cool... no seriously, it was -15... hahaha... bloody comedian...  You go in there and they give you a big ski jacket, gloves and a timer - you get 30 minutes to go in, have a cocktail and a shot, and generally freeze... which is plenty of time really!!  Everything in there is made of ice - the furniture, carvings, glasses, everything!

Beach huts in Mornington

One day Jan and Brian took us to Mornington, which is just down the coast from Melbourne... we had a nice little walk around the beach and through the town, looking in all the shops and stopping for coffee and ice-cream... it was really lovely, and Suki got a nice little walk too!!

The Reeves'! (and Tom!)

We've had lots of family time, spending time with Jan and Brian, Tom's cousin Steve, his wife Claire, their children Amy and Michael, and his other cousin Rob and his girlfriend Ivana - the whole brood and it's been really great...

Rob, Tom, me and Ivana 'on the edge'!

When we spent the day with Rob and Ivana, we went up the Eureka tower which, at the time of writing (!), is the tallest building in the southern hemisphere, and has a fantastic view of Melbourne... on the sky deck, there's an optional extra, where you can be put into a glass box that starts off as smoked glass, then slides over the edge of the building and then suddenly goes clear again... it wouldn't be even slightly nerve-racking if it weren't for the sound effects you get on the way, but it was, again, a fantastic view, and pretty weird to be able to look straight down from so high up!!

We've been thoroughly spoiled while we've been here, by everyone in Tom's family and I'm pretty sure I'll be moving on about 5kgs heavier than I arrived, thanks to all the amazing home cooking!!