Monday, November 06, 2006
4th November Melbourne - No Worries!
4 th November
Arrive at Melbourne and stand in interminable queues for immigration. Proceed without trouble to bag reclaim. Where’s my bloody luggage! Have been round the carousel twice and it’s not there. It is not doing the round robin of the carousel and the bags that are on it show QF144 on their tags so I know it’s the correct carousel. Noticed a group of people standing nearby with bags and muttering, has theirs gone walkies too? Decide to make one more lap of the return belt and arrive back where I started but the group of travellers has gone. In their place is my lovely lonely suitcase. I won’t ever tell you you’re overweight again suitcase, just never leave me! Pass through customs where I have to give my email address as I don’t know the address of Jon’s house and make my way into the arrivals hall. Can’t see Jon. Don’t panic, he’s always late, but have a good look first to make sure I haven’t missed him on the first sweep. Look for long fair hair on tall guy with glasses. There he is with his back to me.
“Jon Hynson are you there?” I called in a loud voice. Boy did he jump!!
It’s good to see an old friend after a long time but you know after 10 minutes it was like we hadn’t been apart at all. Quick trip to the BMW Z3 and just managed to squeeze suitcase in the boot. The alternative being me in the boot and the suitcase in the car! Discovered we are not going to Brunswick where Jon lives but to Templestowe where he is house sitting for a friend. Stop off on the way for a spot of breakfast and coffee at a little parade of shops near the house. Hear my first “No worries” from the very helpful and chatty waitress! Arrive at the Templestowe house and unload bags and enter what appears to be a single storey house. It’s a lovely house with a huge downstairs den which leads out onto a covered patio and smallish garden. I think it has 4 bedrooms and is very roomy and airy. We are guests here for the next 2 weeks and it is most acceptable.
In the afternoon we go to a shopping mall near Templestowe as Jon needs to swap his mobile phone and we decide to have a look around and have a small spot of lunch. All the staff in the shops we visit are extremely friendly and genuine in their desire to serve you properly. Especially in the Vodaphone shop where the assistant apologises to us that she is serving another customer and will be a few minutes before she can attend to us! Would you get that in England ? I don’t think so! Working in a shop seems to be a reasonable career here as opposed to just a job as it is viewed in this country.
Whisked off by Jon to one of the dance studios he belongs to where he has a regular Saturday lesson. Introduced to a number of people some of whom I am ashamed to say I cannot remember the names of. In my defence, I am extremely tired as did not sleep on the flight over and probably drank too much. However the lady who runs and organises this club is Darlene and she makes me feel welcome. Jon has his lesson with Julie, an accomplished instructor, dancer, and Australian Latin Dance Champion, and, even to my untrained eye, you can see she is very good and she takes Jon through his paces. After the lesson we return home and I grab an hours sleep before we are off to pick up Richard, Jon’s oldest friend and take dinner in a country pub. Steak dinner to be precise and the size of the steak has to be somewhere round 18oz. It includes chips and salad and we have a dessert also, all for $21Aus. Say £8ish. After dinner we return to Richard’s house for a cuppa and meet his wife Angela. Both she and Richard are Bali enthusiasts and their house has many Bali statues and artefacts as they visit regularly so we had plenty in common to discuss.
Arrive at Melbourne and stand in interminable queues for immigration. Proceed without trouble to bag reclaim. Where’s my bloody luggage! Have been round the carousel twice and it’s not there. It is not doing the round robin of the carousel and the bags that are on it show QF144 on their tags so I know it’s the correct carousel. Noticed a group of people standing nearby with bags and muttering, has theirs gone walkies too? Decide to make one more lap of the return belt and arrive back where I started but the group of travellers has gone. In their place is my lovely lonely suitcase. I won’t ever tell you you’re overweight again suitcase, just never leave me! Pass through customs where I have to give my email address as I don’t know the address of Jon’s house and make my way into the arrivals hall. Can’t see Jon. Don’t panic, he’s always late, but have a good look first to make sure I haven’t missed him on the first sweep. Look for long fair hair on tall guy with glasses. There he is with his back to me.
“Jon Hynson are you there?” I called in a loud voice. Boy did he jump!!
It’s good to see an old friend after a long time but you know after 10 minutes it was like we hadn’t been apart at all. Quick trip to the BMW Z3 and just managed to squeeze suitcase in the boot. The alternative being me in the boot and the suitcase in the car! Discovered we are not going to Brunswick where Jon lives but to Templestowe where he is house sitting for a friend. Stop off on the way for a spot of breakfast and coffee at a little parade of shops near the house. Hear my first “No worries” from the very helpful and chatty waitress! Arrive at the Templestowe house and unload bags and enter what appears to be a single storey house. It’s a lovely house with a huge downstairs den which leads out onto a covered patio and smallish garden. I think it has 4 bedrooms and is very roomy and airy. We are guests here for the next 2 weeks and it is most acceptable.
In the afternoon we go to a shopping mall near Templestowe as Jon needs to swap his mobile phone and we decide to have a look around and have a small spot of lunch. All the staff in the shops we visit are extremely friendly and genuine in their desire to serve you properly. Especially in the Vodaphone shop where the assistant apologises to us that she is serving another customer and will be a few minutes before she can attend to us! Would you get that in England ? I don’t think so! Working in a shop seems to be a reasonable career here as opposed to just a job as it is viewed in this country.
Whisked off by Jon to one of the dance studios he belongs to where he has a regular Saturday lesson. Introduced to a number of people some of whom I am ashamed to say I cannot remember the names of. In my defence, I am extremely tired as did not sleep on the flight over and probably drank too much. However the lady who runs and organises this club is Darlene and she makes me feel welcome. Jon has his lesson with Julie, an accomplished instructor, dancer, and Australian Latin Dance Champion, and, even to my untrained eye, you can see she is very good and she takes Jon through his paces. After the lesson we return home and I grab an hours sleep before we are off to pick up Richard, Jon’s oldest friend and take dinner in a country pub. Steak dinner to be precise and the size of the steak has to be somewhere round 18oz. It includes chips and salad and we have a dessert also, all for $21Aus. Say £8ish. After dinner we return to Richard’s house for a cuppa and meet his wife Angela. Both she and Richard are Bali enthusiasts and their house has many Bali statues and artefacts as they visit regularly so we had plenty in common to discuss.
# posted by desmond22 @ 2:58 am 
