Sm-ASH-ing to see you!

Another colleague from Messier Services - Jason - and his family come to Melbourne!  They'd been to Melbourne, done some touring, and were back to Melbourne again so it was time for a meet-up!

It was on Jase's tick list to go to an Aussie Rules Footy match, so Friday night we arrange to meet him at the Etihad Stadium for a big match between St Kilda (St KFC - Yay!) and Collingwood (the Magpies - Boo!).  They are both local teams and there's great rivalry between them and it's lucky we got tickets in advance because it was a sell out!  Darren and I got the train from Brighton to Flinders St where we need to change trains to get to the stadium.  By chance I happened to spot Jase get on at Windsor in the carriage behind us so when we got off at Flinders we waited for Jase to get off so that we could get the next train together.  Through the crowds of people I was sure that I saw Jase get off and then get back on again!!!  Convinced it was him I ran back to his carriage and just before the train went back the way it came from I spotted Jase and yelled to him to jump off quick!  Good job we saw him because otherwise I'm sure we would never have met up (his phone was out of juice so we couldn't have rung him!).

Anyway, we got the train to Southern Cross and made our way into the stadium - with me grabbing a free 'clap banner' on the way!  Amazing folded fan type thing that makes a loud noise when you clap with it!

Hand on heart I didn't have a clue what was going on most of the time!  But it was a great game, the atmosphere was amazing, I had a good gossip with Jase, and St Kilda won!!!  AFL game - tick!

The Sunday was Jase's birthday and we hoped to meet up with them in Brighton, but wierd things were going on with texts and Facebook messages and it didn't quite come together, so we arranged to meet after work one night on the SouthBank for a drink.  It was lovely to see Kath, Matt and Josh (and it goes without saying Jase again!) and a glass of wine by the river with the sun going down was a nice treat after work!  Jase and Kath had got a lovely bottle of wine from the Yarra Valley for Darren and I and we swapped it for a St Kilda AFL ball as a belated birthday present for Jase!

I only had the camera on my phone with me which doesn't have a flash, so the photos when it was dark aren't the best I'm afraid!  I'm hoping Jase's come out better!

All too soon it was time to say our goodbyes!    But it was so nice to catch up with them and they've promised to come back soon!!!  We'll keep them to that!  They were due to fly back the next night - however, all flights to the UK have been cancelled due to volcanic ash from Iceland and I've just had a message from Jase to say that they are still here!  I know you would have liked to extend your stay here Jase, but surely even you couldn't have masterplanned this one!!!!  This is the latest on the situation in the UK:

Restrictions on UK airspace have been extended until 0100 BST on Sunday, as the danger to planes from volcanic ash from Iceland persists.

The UK's National Air Traffic Service (Nats) said the ash cloud was "moving around and changing shape".

Officials warn that European airspace could be disrupted for several days.
Prof Brian Golding, head of forecasting research at the Met Office said: "The latest information we have suggests the ash will remain over the UK for several days.
"We need a change of wind direction that stays changed for several days and there is no sign of that in the immediate future," he added.

Hundreds of thousands of passengers have been stranded in the UK and abroad by flight cancellations.
"Current forecasts show that the situation is worsening throughout Saturday," said Nats, adding that it was "most unlikely" that many flights would operate later.

Egg-cellent Easter Sunday!

Easter Sunday and it's a beautiful sunny day and about 25 degrees.  Darren and I get the train to the Docklands and meet up with mum, dad, Mark, Em, Mabel and Kieran who are happily playing with the circus skills stuff on the New Quay.

We head to the Lounge Room for lunch, stopping briefly for Mabel to have a flower painted on her cheek - it's a serious business!

The Lounge Room is a lovely restaurant on the New Quay with city and waterfront views and here we meet up with Cara (Emma's cousin), Kris (Cara's husband) and Blair (Cara and Kris's new baby).  There's a moment where Kieran comes and stands by Darren and won't speak, and we realise that it's because he wants to sit next to Darren, so Kieran and mum swap seats and everyone's happy!

The food was delicious and somehow we all managed to find room to share a pudding with our respective other halves, and Kieran was let loose with the chocolate sauce!  When asked if he'd had any chocolate the answer was an adamant no!

Full on sugar we decided to go for a walk along the South Bank to soak up the Autumn sunshine.  Em headed back home to take advantage of some 'me time' while there were plenty of us to entertain the children!  On leaving the restaurant cheeky little  Kieran slapped the waitress's bottom - not sure whether he learnt that particuar trick from daddy or uncle Darren!!!

With a stop for a play in a park and a drink on the South Bank we made it to Flinders Street Station where we boarded the train to play muscial laps until Darren and I got off at North Brighton and the others carried on to Sandringham.

It really was a lovely Easter afternoon and it so nice to be able to spend it with mum and dad, and my brother's family too - that didn't happen that many times back home!!!

(And thank you to the Devaneys for the lovely Haigh's Easter Egg!!!!!)

Gentlemen start your engines please.......

28th March - the day of the Grand Prix at Albert Park and we're all looking forward to a busy, noisy day!  Darren and I meet up with mum, dad and Mark in a cafe in St Kilda for a coffee before heading towards the circuit.  The roads around the circuit are closed so it's a bit of a walk to get there, but you could hear the cars getting louder with each step!

On getting our tickets and getting in, we walk towards the track and are greeted by a crash that stops the race!  I wasn't really sure what had happened - just saw a yellow bit of car fly up in front of me!

As with the MOTOGP I'm probably not the best person to be writing about this, but we saw races throughout the day starting with little minis, through the V8s and finally the Formula 1 cars, which what can I say.....are loud!  Luckily we'd all bought a Grand Prix Survival Kit, which had ear plugs in it - and oh yes did we need them!

Incase you're interested:

The circuit uses everyday sections of road that circle Albert Park Lake, a small man-made lake just south of the Central Business District of Melbourne. The road sections that are used were rebuilt prior to the inaugural event in 1996 to ensure consistency and smoothness. As a result, compared to other circuits that are held on public roads, the Albert Park track has quite a smooth surface. Before 2007 there existed only a few other places on the Formula 1 calendar with a body of water close to the track.

The course is considered to be quite fast and relatively easy to drive, with drivers having commented that the consistent placement of corners allows them to easily learn the circuit and achieve competitive times. However, the flat terrain around the lake, coupled with a track design that features few true straights, means that the track is not conducive to overtaking or easy spectating unless in possession of a grandstand seat.

And the result:

As in Bahrain, Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull were the fastest combination in Melbourne. But as in Bahrain, mechanical failure meant the win escaped them. Instead it was Jenson Button and McLaren who did the best job of capitalising on their rivals’ misfortune in some very difficult conditions. A stunning drive from Robert Kubica brought Renault an unexpected podium, and Felipe Massa struck back in his battle with Ferrari team mate Fernando Alonso, beating the Spaniard to third place.

Jenson Button, P1
Lewis Hamilton, P6

When Button entered the pit lane on lap six and found it soaking wet he believed he had made a catastrophic error of judgment in coming in so soon to switch from intermediate to soft Bridgestone tyres, and an off on his out lap did little to change that feeling. But by lap eight the track conditions came to him and when Vettel retired on the 20th lap the way was clear for the world champion to storm home to his first victory for McLaren, at only the second attempt. Hamilton drove like a hero after getting delayed in Button’s brief clash with Alonso, but was furious when the decision was taken to make a second tyre stop which cost him any chance of victory. Subsequent attack by Webber ended his hopes of a really good points score. McLaren, however, move to second place overall with 54 points.

Yes I did copy that from the Formula 1 web site!  All I know is that it was an amazing day with a great atmosphere and to top it all a Brit won!  And then there were the obligatory photos on the track........

 
 
Oh, and it was a bit mucky.....

The 'Mother'-Ship has landed!!!!!

After a long flight from the UK, it's time to meet mum and dad Perry at the airport.  Mark picked me up at 7.30pm ready for their arrival at 8.30pm.  At gone 9.30pm they come through the arrival doors!  It's Thursday night and they haven't slept since Monday night, but they looked surprisingly awake and it's so good to see them!

Mark then dropped me back home on the way back from the airport to take the weary travellers to their beds.  They are here for a couple of months so there's plenty of time for us to catch up - I just wanted to meet them off the plane and have a quick catch up in the car!  Couldn't wait another day!!!

Friday we go to Mark and Emma's for a 'Welcome' bbq for mum and dad.  We go straight from work armed with sausages, rolls, some beer and a bottle of pink bubbly!  It was really nice to have everyone together again - it must be almost two years since we were all in the same room!

Emma, Mabel and Kieran work hard at pudding - and Mabel kindly puts a chocolate Easter Egg on the top!

After a couple of drinks, the tiredness starts to show signs of creeping in on mum and dad, so after a lovely evening we leave them to their beds and head back to Brighton.  Apparently they didn't sleep that night though once they made it to bed - jet-lag is a funny thing!!!

Cellar Door

Launched in 1993, the annual Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is one of Victoria’s hallmark events. Each March the festival celebrates Melbourne and Victoria’s vibrant food and wine culture in a fortnight-long program of over 250 events.   Operating on a not-for-profit basis, the festival’s charter is to promote the quality produce, talent and lifestyle of Melbourne and Victoria, and to reinforce Melbourne as the food and wine capital of Australia.

Not unsurprisingly, the event that I chose to go to was the Cellar Door at Southgate.  Victoria boasts more than 800 wineries across 21 regions - more than anywhere else in Australia.  It was a really hot, sunny afternoon for it and there were 92 stalls set up along the Southbank Promenade - more than enough wine to keep 7 ladies very happy - topped off with a foot long pizza at the 'World' restaurant to soak some of it up!

Relaxing and running!!!!

Friday night I left work at four, quickly got changed and headed out for a night with the girls.  I think Darren was particularly looking forward to his own little boys night in with a stop at the fish and chippery and then a whole evening of playing on his X-Box!

I met up with Diane and Gill at Flinders Street Station and then we went for dinner, sat outside in the sunshine at Federation Square - lovely!  It's been a couple of weeks since we got together so it was great to have an hour or so to catch up on where our lives were.  Diane and Gill went for an amazing seafood pizza with heads and eyes and shells and everything - looked impressive, but not for me!

We then walked to the Botanical Gardens and met up with Jayne, and made our way into the gardens to the Moonlight Cinema.  It was really busy but we found a spot for our picnic blankets.  It was odd because everyone was facing the same way but there was no screen!  Settled into our spot we got out the plastic champagne flutes and popped open a bottle of berry fizz!

As the sun was setting, from nowhere a big blow up screen appeared and the movie 'The Lovely Bones' began.  It was such a beautiful night with the gardens around us, huge fruit bats flying overhead, stars above, the city lit up in the background and a couple more bottles of wine!

Sunday was a little less relaxing!  Darren and I had entered the 'Run For The Kids'.  So, we were up at the crack of dawn, into our running gear and heading into the city on the train, along with many others participating in the 'fun' run for a kids charity.  Even though we had left plenty of time to get there, there was still a little panic while I joined the queue for ladies, and Darren dropped our bags off and we couldn't find each other again!  Just in time we managed to find each other, lose my sunglasses, find them again and join the masses heading through the start line!  The course was 14.4km and until that point the furthest Darren had run was 7km!  It was a beautiful sunny day, which also meant that it was really warm, and with very little shade you certainly felt every kilometre of the way!

The route won't mean anything to anyone, but I'm going to put it here anyway so that we can look back on it in the future!  The race starts at Kings Domain in Alexandra Avenue, right next to the Alexandra Gardens, heads over Swan Street Bridge, into Batman Avenue and through the Domain Tunnel. Coming off Bolte Bridge with its million dollar views, runners travel back into the city via Dockland along Waterfront Promenade and New Quay Promenade, a new feature of the course. Runners then turn right onto Harbour Esplanade then turn left into Collins Street, right Spencer Street and cross the river again, turn left into Yarra Promenade with Crown Entertainment Complex on one side and the Yarra on the other, then down St Kilda Road via Flinders Street, past the Arts Centre and finishing in Linlithgow Avenue.


It incorporates unique features that make it a landmark event and gives participants access to normally off-limit roads.

30,000 people ran, jogged and walked through the long and short courses (20,000 did ours - the long one!) and raised over $1 Million dollars for the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal.

Despite feeling very weary afterwards it was all worth it and great to be a part of such a big event for a good cause!  I'm very proud of Darren for running every step - next event half marathon?!