Under the Melbourne Sky!

This weekend has been quite a hectic one with lots of goings on - the major activity of which was a journey down to Melbourne with the parentals for their 'Alumni-reunion' get together.
Thankfully I wasn't forced to participate and got an opportunity to catch up with some friends down there.

I think we were a jinx because a couple of signs indicated we shouldn't have been there:
- as soon as we arrived on fri arvo, there was a huge pile up in a tunnel (burning it out)
- it started raining (although this was a plus since they hadn't had rain for about a month)
- that night after dinner we went for a coffee in Lygon st, and as soon as we stepped foot in the door the block that we were at had a huge blackout!

Seriously...what are the chances of all these things happening!?

Saturday was a lovely day spent being a lone tourist. The plan was to go to the Avalon airshow, but what with the wind and rain the gamble was too great to travel 1 hr (each way) to "maybe" have the possibility of seeing some fly-bys. So instead I thought I would take the opportunity to chill out and spend the day with myself seeing bits and pieces of Melbourne. I walked into town from where I was staying via the Vic Markets to Fed. Square where unbeknownst to me there was a ‘Food & Wine Festival’ happening. The intention was to spend a couple of hours at the Art Gallery, but the labyrinth of food exhibitions, stalls and cooking demonstrations that was beckoning quickly diverted my attention. Highlight of this portion of the day - I learnt how to make ‘Apple Strudel’ (gotta try it at home since winter is coming up).
I did eventually get to the Art Gallery and came across the VCE art display…my curiosity was appeased when I came to the conclusion that the quality was on-par with Sydney’s Art Express works. However, it is interesting to note that those kids down south are a definitely a lot more ‘creative’ with their works. A lot of different interpretation of art (in a positive way) – and their short film entries are better!

After having lunch at one of the many food stalls lining the Yarra river, I caught a tram to St Kilda to catch up with K. and B. who I haven’t seen for 3 years. I met these girls when I was in Europe on my travels and it just happened to be B’s birthday! Hip!Hip!Hooray! So to celebrate (I was assured this was not the norm in Melbourne), they decided to play some ‘Petanque’ (also known as Bocce) at the local bowling club. It was quite a laugh – and combined with lots of beer and wine (and watching seedy old French men trying to pick up young girls) made for quite an enjoyable afternoon! Lucky for me the weather held out until I left, when it started pelting down at the tram stop.

I was meeting D. at Fed. Square for dinner – Yummy crab! The atmosphere in Federation Square was still as exciting as ever. There was loads of live music and food was still around – all this stuff was happening as part of the FINA festival…and the beaut part of it was that it was all FREE. Sydney has the ‘Sydney Festival’, but a lot of it costs $$ - Melbourne definitely is the cultural capital of Australia! So I met up with D. and a few of his friends (lovely people!) and caught a tram to Richmond for dinner – the ‘Viet’ hood (or so it seemed!). Had some lovely crab…it was awesome!

Afterwards, we went down to the Yarra River to watch some performance art – the highlight of which was this French performance of Compagnie de Quidams – Herbert’s Dream. It was really cool! People on stilts inflating and running around...it was way cool.

Sunday was at the Dandenong mountains - found a big item! yay.

The other night after shopping I came home to find a TMX Elmo on my bed! I think it's my parents bribing me to stay at home...but it's so cute!! :-)

Until next week...Adios! A nice "What up!" to everyone :-)