We’re leaving on a jet plane…….

31st October 2006

We ventured out of NSW last weekend on our first interstate trip since arriving down under. On Friday night we packed our bags and jumped on the short flight down to Victoria, and the beautiful city of Melbourne.

Melbourne is the home of Neighbours, Australia’s only noteworthy export and apparently the third most visited soap opera set on the planet (behind ‘the grove’ – Byker Grove, and America – Sesame Street). As if that wasn’t draw enough, this trip also gave us the long awaited chance to rendezvous with my long lost drinking buddy, Geordie bed wetter Chris ‘Don Dons’ Donachie and his slightly better behaved better half Jen! Don Dons and Jen had jetted in from New Zealand earlier in the week, 4 months into their own journey of debauchery discovery.

We arrived late on Friday evening, so immediately met up in the hostel bar to make up for lost time in the only way a gaggle of Geordies (Charlotte now officially adopted following her efforts on the red wine in New Zealand) know how, by binge drinking until the first man / woman fell by the wayside (I agreed with Jen that it would be unfair at this stage to expose the first faller). The night ended in the small hours in a casino in the city, although none of us were alert enough to our surroundings to place a bet!

The next morning we were up bright eyed and bushy tailed (i.e. drunk) to catch the morning official neighbours tour. We were driven from the city centre in our own little neighbours fun bus, out to the Melbourne suburbs and Pin Oak Court, aka Ramsay Street. Once on location, we, along with our group of about 15 others were treated to a chronological history of all the residents of Australia’s most famous street, viewing the residences of the Ramsays, Robinsons, Mangels etc. In our drunken states we were even able to out bamboozle the tour guide with our knowledge of niche characters such as Mr Udagawa. For those who clearly had better things to do after school in the late 80’s, early 90’s please see:

http://www.perfectblend.net/neighbourhood/bio/mr-udagawa.htm

[This is Charlotte – What Chris’s blog fails to mention is that throughout the tour we were asked ‘who used to live in this house’ and along with fellow Neighbours enthusiasts we were guessing most houses correctly until the crowd got stumped and the tour guide gave us a clue ‘two girls lived here together’ – well that was all the prompting Chris needed before he bellowed (yell is not strong enough-a-word) ‘Beth and Annalise!’. Now other Neighbours addicts will probably have a knowing smile on there faces at this point, but for those of you who have never watched Neighbours (what were you doing at 5.35pm in the 90’s?), Beth and Annalise were probably the fittest cast members to grace the street (Flick Scully aside) – clearly a childhood fantasy of Chris’s!]

After some cheesy photo opportunities we jumped back on the fun bus and a trip past the lassiters complex, where with a lot of imagination you could see the set of the hotel complex, before finally arriving at Erinsbourgh High School. Not wanting to hang around school gates for too long, we climbed back aboard the fun bus for our trip back to the city, during which we got to enjoy some nostalgic episodes such as Scott and Charlene’s wedding, Des and Daphne’s Wedding and Madge and Harrold’s, wait for it….wedding.

In the afternoon we went our separate ways to re-charge the batteries for a couple of hours, before re-convening in the beach side suburb of St Kilda. St Kilda had a nice feel to it, a decent sea front with pier, some good shops and some great views back to the city. We popped in to a bar / restaurant for a quite early evening drink, and 6 hours, 9 jugs of beer, 14 glasses of wine, and 2 meals each later we left via taxi (or so I’m reliably informed) back to the city and the much needed bed.

Sunday morning saw Charlotte and I take in some culture at the museum (this is culture Aussie style ….i.e. the original set from the Robinson’s kitchen complete with Scott and Charlene’s wedding cake). In the afternoon we met up with Donny and Jen who had the great idea of hiring bikes. We spent the next few hours acting our age again and enjoyed the lovely weather whilst taking in the Yarra River and the botanical gardens, complete with crazy eels.

And that was just about it, we jumped back on the plane to Sydney on Sunday evening, for some much needed R&R. We had a great weekend away and it was great to catch up with some old friends…..if anyone else fancies popping over for a weekend then we know a nice bar in Melbourne in which we can meet you!

23 October 2006

We were out having dinner with Dan the other night in a little Thai restaurant in Randwick when I happenend to comment on how many different hairstyles Chris had had since we left home? (if one could call ‘the stig’ look Chris was sporting in the amazon basin – remember that photo of him and his pirhana- a style?) For the record he is now sporting a grade 3, what the Aussie’s refer to as a ‘buzz’ cut all over.

It was the result of my comment which led Dan into enlightening us about ‘Movember’. Whilst October is the month of ‘Oktoberfest’ and December is the month which beholds Christmas the otherwise uneventful month of November has been comandeered by Aussie males as the month of the Moustache – yes you heard correct I said ‘ MOUSTACHE’!.Males everywhere hone there hair growing skills in the name of Charidy mate!

Whilst Chris’s eyes were shining and his attention was already confined to his secret desire to grow a handlebar moustache….I was serious doubting this was a common practice. So imagine my surprise the next day when I stumbled across these posters – see top. So if you see Chris popping up in our photos looking like Merv Hughes (or even you Dad come to think of it! – you know – in that photo that Nan had of you and Uncle Lyn of the Ski slopes in your all-in one 80’s ski-wear for which you are excused because it was actually the eighties!) then please be aware it may not be for charity in his case but the month of Movember is providing Chris with the perfect surroundings in which to grow that long-desired Walrus-look which he has secretly coveted for many a year!

So what have we been up to?

Yesterday we headed to Sydney’s fish market. Whilst Chris and I are not strictly museum people we do love a good fish market having visited them in both Venice and Lima. I think our love stems from Chris’s fascination with fish and my fascination with food! We were a little disapointed with the size of the market – it was a lot smaller than we had imagined – but not at all dispointed with the fish on display! After doing the rounds of the fresh fish stalls we stopped for a bite of lunch with lobster and tunasteak on the menu which proved to be absolutely delicious!

On our way through China Town we stopped to watch some guy make music from bottles of beer filled to different degrees (how typically Australian!). The guy was full of energy and whacking out tunes such as ‘The Pink Panther’ theme, ‘Inspector Gadget’ and the Grand Finale – ‘Eye of the Tiger’. Now being travellers we dont tend to share our money but felt compelled to give at least 80 cents (a whopping 32 pence) in exchange for our ten minutes of entertainment.

After lunch we headed up to the Rocks. Nestled at the foot of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and on the western shores of Sydney Cove, The Rocks is the foundation place of Sydney and Australia, being the area of the first European settlement in 1788. Before the 1820’s it was full of convicts and prostitutes, although this has changed from slums to three-story houses, cafes, markets and pubs.

We whiled away a couple of hours looking around the market and popped into one of the pubs from where live country music was blasting. The band were excellent and typical Aussie humour was being blasted out in between each song involving the crowd and generally creating a brilliant atmosphere.

We then wandered down by the bridge before visiting the oldest house in Sydney – Cadman’s Cottage built in 1816.

Today we have walked along the coast southwards to Maroubra. The beach at Maroubra is lovely and in our opinion the beach itself is probably the best we have seen in Sydney although the surrounding area is not as vibrant as Coogee, Bondi or Manly. Needless to say we have not spent all day walking so the afternoon hours have been whiled away at the CBH (Coogee Bay Hotel) which has a massive beer garden.

Next weekend we have flights to Melbourne where we will be meeting up with Donnie and Jen who are flying in from New Zealand.

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