I love Melbourne

Sorry about the long gap between last entry and this one! I been away. So here is a catch up. I went to Melbourne (aah, Melbourne...I love Melbourne).

It was a loooong trip to get there. Countrylink train was late into Taree and by the time it limped into Sydney, still with electrical problems, I had missed my plane to Melbourne. So the nice young customer-wrangling person at Central Station, the charming and efficient Matt, organised a free sleeper cabin overnight, complete with complimentary food and wash bag.

An hour or so free between connections so I went to visit Linda and Phil.  So convenient at Surry Hills.  This was Saturday night and the streets around the area were infested with groups of giggling young women all dressed in a curious uniform of tiny black dress, enormous tottering heels and too much make up. None appeared to have any handbags or other accoutrements. They were stripped right down for action. Lian tells me they carry nothing but their phones and cash cards, kept in their bras. These would be the same young women who, a year or so later, will lace themselves into the formula strapless white sparkly meringue wedding dress and get married.  Lian wondered aloud whether any grooms ever get confused and marry the wrong one, since they all look the same...Yes, the trip to Melbourne was to go wedding dress shopping with my daughter. Hence the observations. Can you picture what kind of wedding dress Lian does NOT want?

But back to the long, nearly 24-hour journey, some piccies:

Gloucester region, so green and picturesque

My personal ensuite, a masterpiece of miniaturisation, containing a foldaway basin (pictured), toilet, lockers, dispensers for everything you can think of, and a shower.  Which actually works! I had one, just to experience a shower on a train!

 Here is your free Countrylink toiletries bag.

And your Countrylink bed, all fresh white sheets and soft doona, with a picture window past which the country glides as the night goes on.

 
This is what I woke up to see outside my picture window just after 4am.

Later in the morning, the outer dormitory suburbs of Melbourne.

Arrival at the schmick new Southern Cross Station on Spencer Street, with its wave-form roof and everything spotless and shiny.

Matt and I went to Vic markets. Heaven. Then Lian and I went to High Tea at The Windsor. Nirvana. The Monday treats included a visit to see Gabi at Hawthorn to talk about Weddings and Other Things. Lunch at St Ali's in South Melbourne, then a precious afternoon bridal shopping in that quintessential Melbourne bridal precinct: Sydney Street in Brunswick. One of those peak lifetime joy type experiences, going out with your daughter and watching her try on wedding dresses. Most of them were awful.  But it was fun and educational. Also, rather unexpectedly, we found one. No, I can't reveal any details. But it is not strapless, or sequinned or enormously bolstered and buttressed and be-trained. It does not weigh 15 kilos and it will not take up half her available wardrobe space, nor cost $4000. That's all I will say.

Dinner at Wim and Akinyi's in Brunswick was a yummy collection of African spiced dishes. It was so good to see them both. On Tuesday I had some secret women's business to attend to, involving hairdressers and so forth. Then I went to see Andrea who is taking such wonderful care of our apartment at Southbank.  It looks better than it ever has. Mind you, there's one or two things for the landlady to get fixed. I'll attend to those this week.

Being spring, the azaleas in the courtyard are in full flower and staging an amazing recovery from the bedraggled specimens they were during the drought. The whole of Victoria is looking pretty really. Tuesday night we went out to a newly opened Japanese restaurant, Kumo. Foodies like Matt somehow get to hear of these places and this one was a cracker. The Sake menu stretched to five pages and came with a sommelier to explain the list. The food was right up to expectations. Here is the sashimi platter.

You know how school-holiday essays in primary school always ended with "tired but happy, we all went home"?  Well that was exactly how I felt this morning.

Caught the plane this time, and the train trip from Central back to Taree was just so pretty. Not that I saw it all. I was laid out on the seat and fast asleep for a good part of it.  How do they keep up the [pace, these young people? Love to go away and it's nice to be home too.