It's that time of year again. Melbourne trips seem to happen every 3 months. I flew down on Monday, after very few hours sleep. One of my goals for this trip was to wear different clothes - not just jeans and a top. This occupied more of my brain than I anticipated, which was partly why I'd had very little sleep. I still had a suitcase weighing only 9kg though. Throughout all the following activities was a much-needed dose of talk. Of the kind only a best friend can share.
Monday. Outfit: Jeanswest super skinny jeans, black organic cotton Ambra tshirt, green and grey striped cardigan from Miss Shop (via op shop), black Target flats, graduated grey scarf.
I met Jeannie at Flinders St station, and we went to Degraves lane for coffee. At Cafe No. 5 we had coffee and a pear and cinnamon muffin, then decided to get lunch. I can't remember the name of the place we had lunch (Cafe King? Cafe Kong? something like that) but it was an Asian place with great service, mostly Asian customers (always a good sign) and massive servings. My sizzling noodles with beef in black pepper sauce would have lasted me for 3 meals if I was making this at home. Because it was so tasty, and I was rather hungry, I ate rather more than I should have.
I have no regrets. Then, being after midday, and we were both in that mood, we went to Ponyfish Island. This is a bar underneath the Southbank Footbridge, and it's like being in
Pirates of the Caribbean. It has a lovely view, too.
I was a little worried I'd brought not enough in the warm clothing department, but Jeannie had a pile of clothes for me to check out. Just in case, though, we went to 2 op shops (more great finds). I then had a teeny tiny nap. I had been warned that Monday nights were swing dancing lessons. With all the other fun new things we had planned, combined with the immense sleep deficit, my brain was not enthusiastic about swing dancing. Eventually, I was hauled off the sofa. I went to swing dancing. It was my first time, but knowing where the beat is, and a bit of salsa dancing experience, really helped. I had so much fun, and didn't feel like an idiot most of the time. So much fun, in fact, that I'm going to check out the swing dancing options in Brisbane in a couple of months.
After swing dancing, we went to Cafe Sofia (2 doors down) for dinner. Jeannie and Matt have some experience in the meal sizes at this place, so we ordered one pizza for the 3 of us. I think we managed to eat the whole thing, but only just. Huge! This place reminded me of my childhood, a really great family restaurant with friendly staff. So friendly that we were given free 'cranberry juice' (port) after our meal. Needless to say, I slept rather well on Monday night.
Tuesday. Outfit #1: op shop dress bought on Monday (black and white horizontal pin stripes, not apparent in photos), black Dotti top, colour block stockings from Target, black flats from Target.
One of the things on our to-do list was to ride bikes into the city. So, after breakfast, I got on a bike for the first time in approaching 20 years. A little practice ride around the garage area, and I thought I would be fine. Then we got out onto the road. I got a little freaked out by traffic. I then realised I didn't need to pedal downhill, and that the brakes were there for a reason. My adrenaline was rather high, and thankfully we eventually got to the bike path. I won't go into great detail, but I did realise a lot about my brain from this experience. In those moments I wasn't concentrating on staying on the path and out of the river, it was a picturesque ride of about 15km in to Federation Square.
We were hoping for more people around and more coffee, but had an okay coffee and muffin at Opti. We then ticked off another item on my to-do list: seeing inside St Paul's cathedral. It's rather beautiful. It also reminded me of St David's, in Hobart. Many photos later... So I'll just share my highlights. The front door is impressive (that's the outfit photo). The tiles throughout reminded me of so many English cathedrals, and such a lovely feel.
The vaulted ceiling - I always enjoy looking up.
We also rode home. I had a little incident (again, brain - resulting in jarred finger) and so when we'd completed the bike path component I opted not to ride along the road. With the parked cars on one side and major road traffic on the other. Uphill. I could foresee an expensive disaster. Jeannie rode on ahead. Unfortunately, I didn't check the map function (thank goodness for my phone!) until I was quite sure I was in the wrong place. And how! It should have been 800m from where I now know I took a wrong turn, but I went about a circuitous mile instead. Lunch was rather delicious though, and really healthy. Thankfully.
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