Melbourne..........Finally

We left the last blog with us cooking in 39C, it cooled down nicely on Monday which was pleasant it was about 30C this was to lull us into a false sense of security because on Tuesday we got hit with a 42C day, this as you can imagine was a bit sticky that coupled with the fact that I work next to a furnace basically meant I spent the day dripping.

Sue wasn't faring much better to be fair, she had taken James down to the playground at Eastern beach which is down a rather steep hill, alarm bells should probably have started to ring when it was absolutely desserted, but hey ho James was enjoying himself. So the time came to head home and tackle the Hill. Sue started off ok but quickly tired halfway up a rest was required. Sue sat down while James shouted at her that he wasn't tired. So like the good mother she is she soldiered on to the top of the hill, where she proceeded to vomit. Never let it be said she won't push herself to the limits to ensure James is happy.


We had our first taste of a proper storm on wednesday caused by Cyclone Yasi up in Queensland  it wasn't part of the cyclone but it had forced other weather systems south. Oh lord I have never seen rain like it, when it started to rain the spots on the floor were about 1.5" in diameter then it went heavy. Geelong is quite hilly so the roads very quickly became fast flowing rivers I have never seen anythig like it manhole covers had popped off due to the force of the storm water. After about 10 minutes though when the rain had stopped there was no sign of any sort of storm.

Saturday we eventually made it to Melbourne, we got the train in and went without a plan we just thought we'd have a bit of a look around. First impressions Melbourne is tall very tall  it is also very European. The Southbank is exactly like Londons Southbank and the north of the city is very like Frankfurt and it's a mixture of old buildings and new skyscrapers some places it works some it just seems confused.

view from Fed. Square

We walked up a few of the side streets by Flinders street station and even though they were no busier than Liverpool on a saturday afternoon it felt very claustrophobic i'm not sure why its only been 4 weeks since we've left big cities. Perhaps we've got used to the big sky and spread out nature of Geelong without realising it.

Flinders Street Station

We also noticed it was full of Chinese and I mean full, there were more asians than white people it was strange and not expected we knew it was culturally diverse but we didn't think it was an extra suburb of Beijing, so we made our way to the free city tram and jumped on. The fella who announces the stops on the tram decared that the stop we had got on Swanston Street AKA ...........Chinatown. Suddenly everything became clear.

Next time we go to Melbourne we'll have a plan of where to go as we ended up ambling a bit aimlessly, but it was good all the same.

Today we started looking for a car with the intent to try and get one only to be foiled by the fact that none of the car showrooms are open on a Sunday, bizarre.

We have got James into a couple of playschools next week and Sue is going to have a look at a Kindergarten. So everything is going quite well now and were getting into a routine and at this moment in time it actually feels a bit cold.

Parliment building

The MCG

View of Southbank

View of the north of the river

Until next time

The Nuttalls