Thursday, September 27, 2012

August

August arrived and we knew we were going to be busy.  Flights were organised for Melbourne but first we had to have a catchup with my cousin.
Janet and her friend Raewyn came for a short visit to KL and we managed to catchup with them. They came out to our place and then we took them our night market for fresh fruit and vegetable.  Was good to see them and to show them the other side of life apart from being a tourist.

Then it was off to Melbourne for a week.  The way out to the airport was a slow trip because of the rain.
 Finally in Melbourne and we were enticed by the aroma of coffee and knew we were in for a treat.
And yes we did indulge in quite a few coffees.  So much so that we brought some back with us and now intend to get some sent to us.  Malaysia just doesn't do coffee well.
We met Logan for a coffee at his favourite place and then picked up a car and headed to Mornington Peninsula for some wine tasting.   At the first place, I couldn't resist the daffodil...we just don't see these growing in Malaysia.
We visited Red Hill Vineyard and bought a couple of bottles home with us.  These bottles look like they have stood the test of time.
The view was amazing.  Logan and Wayne are deep in conversation admiring the view.
I can't resist taking photos of beautiful flowers, even with a little bitof imperfection they are still stunning.

Blue skies is something we don't see a lot of in KL so we were impressed with them while in Melbourne.
We took a drive up the Great Ocean Road to Lorne for some fish and chips by the sea.  We weren't disappointed by the views and the blue sky and fluffy clouds.
 We bought some fish and chips,they were wrapped in paper and we took them down to the beach front to eat.  it had been raining so we had to stand around a picnic table to eat.  We had some friendly birds come and join us for a meal.
 The even were tame or quiet enough to climb onto us and carefully take the food out of our fingers.
 These sulphur crested cockatoos were very pretty and very cheeky.

 A little further on we came across a double rainbow.  We could see the rain moving in and were fascinated by it.  From here we turned off and took the road trhrough the hills back to Melbourne.

The Yarra River running through Melbourne is always worth a walk.  There are many opportunities to stop and chat, have a drink or take some photos.

 I love playing with reflections and this one fascinated me as it had the other side of the river mirrored in the window.

 Everywhere we went in Melbourne they had some colourful elephants to celebrate the birht of a baby elephant as the local zoo,
 The knobs on the railing across the bridge provided a wonderful opportunity to play with focus points.
We love our sport and took the opportunity to watch Freemantle play North Melbourne.  We walked up tot he ticket booth to buy tickets onthe day and thinking we were going topay $70 for our tickets to be asked if we wanted to sits behind Freemantle's goal for $40...we said yes and they guy gave us the best sets in the house.
 AFL is a strange game, they look like little kids running around playing a game with a ball.  There is lots of running, kicking of the ball, punching of the ball and kicking of the goals as well as the usual off the ball niggling.
 Freemantle won and I am sure it was because we were cheering them on...well their colour is purple!  So who else would I cheer for.
At half time the kids come out to play and there were more than 9 games being played.
Reflections again....on the train with Logan and there were reflections everywhere.
 Our last night in Melbourne and we were lucky enough to go out  with Logan and his friends Nichola and Adam to the place where Logan works.  The meal was scrumptious, the company wonderful and to top it all off Steer Restaurant won a Chef's Hat to go with a couple of other awards they had won that year.

We had such a great time in Melbourne, enjoying the cold weather,catching up with friends in Ballarat.  We rented an apartment in Balaclava and this was ideal as it left us to be free and not tied to a cleaning schedule as in an hotel.  It was a short walk to the train stop and there were plenty of lovely eating/coffee shops in this area.