Food Glorious Food

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We didn’t quite get round to writing a blog in Melbourne - mostly to do with the fact that we were hardly in! However we find ourselves with an afternoon in Pattaya (Thailand) where the heavens have just opened so a spare minute to update our blog! So anyway we’ll just give you a wee run down of what we got up to……. We could not have arrived at a busier time of year. Melbourne goes crazy during the Spring Carnival as people from all over flock to this magnificent city to enjoy the horse racing. Tuesday was a public holiday because of the big Melbourne Cup race! The horse racing isn’t much interest to us (I’m sure we would be if we lived here - a day off work!) but the atmosphere it creates makes for an extra fun time here. We stayed in St Kilda, where Mhairi had lived before. It is such a brilliant place to be, largely due to the yummy food served here. We ate everything from oysters to steaks and salads to kangaroo and sampled a lot of Oz wine and cheese. One of our priorities was to see some wildlife as despite spending time in Oz last year Bruce had not seen any kangas etc. We visited a wildlife park and introduced Bruce to wallabies, kangaroos, koalas, wombats, dingoes and his fav…the crazy Tasmanian devil! We also saw some little penguins down in Phillip Island….so cute!

Another highlight of our stay was our trip on the Tramcar Restaurant. We were treated to a lovely lunch on a fancy wee traditional tram that moves round the sights of the city whilst you eat and drink (as much as you like!!) For anyone that has done it they’ll know what a treat it is, for anyone that hasn’t it’s worth going to Melbourne just to go on it! Of course we also spent some time in the city soaking up the holiday ambiance - wandering around watching street entertainers etc.

We spent most of our time in St Kilda; Bruce making the obligatory trip to the Acland St cake shops (I learned my lesson last time!) and Mhairi ate a few too many 7Apples (gelato shop that Mhairi worked in)….is it possible to eat too many?! It’s so delicious! Another obvious highlight was seeing some of the lovely people Mhairi had got to know when she was here. We stayed with 2 friends, Anna and Sean, for a couple of nights and had a hoot the night of the races. We also visited the wonderful Carnegie Primary where Mhairi had worked and had a few drinks from the staff wine/beer fridge! All in all our visit was as good as we thought it would be - obviously not long enough but our wallets and ever expanding tummies were grateful for our short visit!!

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