Monday, November 13, 2006
6th November Melbourne City and 3 left legs
6th November (Monday)
We drove in to Melbourne City and saw a little of the Parade for the Melbourne Cup Horse race meet on 7th Nov. Wandered around with Jon and familiarised myself a little with city layout. Had lunch in a mall called Australia on Collins in Collins St where they have free wifi, and uploaded some photos and blog. Did a little more wandering and we used the city Central Tram system which is free for a mini guided tour. Melbourne is a big city and I suspect slightly larger than London but with about a tenth of the inhabitants. Quite a friendly city and customer service in shops, bars, restaurants, etc is excellent. Have just realised I have been putting wrong date on my blogs. You sort of lose track of time and dates as you are not involved in your normal daily routine of work and weekends so my apologies if anyone has noticed and wondered why I left Bali a day earlier than expected and have missed a day out. Funny it’s taken me so long to notice.
We have done a lot of walking as well as using the underground and trams. Went to Flinders Street station which is quite famous in Melbourne and used by everyone when meeting in the city with the phrase, “Meet you under the clocks.” These are at the front entrance to the station and were used to indicate the arrival time of the next train at each platform in years gone by. Pictures in the Snapfish album.
The outside of Flinders station is a very beautiful Victorian building and just one example of some very good architectural building works throughout Melbourne dating back to the early 1800’s. Decided to phone the number of the woman whom I met on the plane, Donna, as I had promised. They had been expecting the call and invited Jon and me to dinner on Saturday night. Jon said he had to visit another dance studio in Collingwood after which we went and had early dinner at Naxos’ Café Restaurant in Smith St, Collingwood and had Lamb roast. Very tasty.
Went to the dance centre’s social evening which is every Monday and joined in the beginners class, to learn; Evening 3 step, Cha Cha and progressive jive. 2 young lads called Neville and Matt are our instructors and make it look so easy. Bit of a dismal failure at this and seem to find my feet where they shouldn’t be and my hands seem to swop themselves over while I’m concentrating on my feet. Everybody is incredibly kind and supportive but I know that I am rubbish. Maybe if I practice enough I could raise my standard to just hopeless. Found out from e-mail that Ludy has booked us for dance lessons when I get home! The triumph of hope over experience.
Still, I enjoyed the evening watching the accomplished dancing of everyone else including Jon who is pretty good. My hat goes off to him.
Finished at 10pm and many of the Club dancers regularly finish up at the Pancake Parlour nearby. So with Jon and his friends, Rebecca (semi professional dancer, high standard), Michael (uni student dancing for pleasure), Michael (dances for pleasure but good standard) and Mark (dances for pleasure, quite good) I had single pancake with a huge plate of strawberries and a little ice cream. Not necessarily the best thing to go to bed on.
We drove in to Melbourne City and saw a little of the Parade for the Melbourne Cup Horse race meet on 7th Nov. Wandered around with Jon and familiarised myself a little with city layout. Had lunch in a mall called Australia on Collins in Collins St where they have free wifi, and uploaded some photos and blog. Did a little more wandering and we used the city Central Tram system which is free for a mini guided tour. Melbourne is a big city and I suspect slightly larger than London but with about a tenth of the inhabitants. Quite a friendly city and customer service in shops, bars, restaurants, etc is excellent. Have just realised I have been putting wrong date on my blogs. You sort of lose track of time and dates as you are not involved in your normal daily routine of work and weekends so my apologies if anyone has noticed and wondered why I left Bali a day earlier than expected and have missed a day out. Funny it’s taken me so long to notice.
We have done a lot of walking as well as using the underground and trams. Went to Flinders Street station which is quite famous in Melbourne and used by everyone when meeting in the city with the phrase, “Meet you under the clocks.” These are at the front entrance to the station and were used to indicate the arrival time of the next train at each platform in years gone by. Pictures in the Snapfish album.
The outside of Flinders station is a very beautiful Victorian building and just one example of some very good architectural building works throughout Melbourne dating back to the early 1800’s. Decided to phone the number of the woman whom I met on the plane, Donna, as I had promised. They had been expecting the call and invited Jon and me to dinner on Saturday night. Jon said he had to visit another dance studio in Collingwood after which we went and had early dinner at Naxos’ Café Restaurant in Smith St, Collingwood and had Lamb roast. Very tasty.
Went to the dance centre’s social evening which is every Monday and joined in the beginners class, to learn; Evening 3 step, Cha Cha and progressive jive. 2 young lads called Neville and Matt are our instructors and make it look so easy. Bit of a dismal failure at this and seem to find my feet where they shouldn’t be and my hands seem to swop themselves over while I’m concentrating on my feet. Everybody is incredibly kind and supportive but I know that I am rubbish. Maybe if I practice enough I could raise my standard to just hopeless. Found out from e-mail that Ludy has booked us for dance lessons when I get home! The triumph of hope over experience.
Still, I enjoyed the evening watching the accomplished dancing of everyone else including Jon who is pretty good. My hat goes off to him.
Finished at 10pm and many of the Club dancers regularly finish up at the Pancake Parlour nearby. So with Jon and his friends, Rebecca (semi professional dancer, high standard), Michael (uni student dancing for pleasure), Michael (dances for pleasure but good standard) and Mark (dances for pleasure, quite good) I had single pancake with a huge plate of strawberries and a little ice cream. Not necessarily the best thing to go to bed on.
# posted by desmond22 @ 1:38 am 
