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Published: September 1st 2007
G'day cobbers,
This almost certainly the last blog before the arrival of Galloway jnr (due 16th September!) so be prepared for less exciting blogs with photos from travels - it'll be mostly baby snaps and tales of puke, poo and lack of sleep from now on!
Anyway, just a quickie on a couple of recent trips across the ditch to Aus. I work for the Bank of New Zealand, which is part of the National Australia Bank (NAB) Group so as my project required NAB involvement (don't ask it's complicated and technical), I tragically had to drag myself over there with a colleague to meet with some people there to smooth our path to project success.
I had 2 days work on the Thursday & Friday and stayed with Louise & Damien Towers (some of you will remember them from their Standard Life days - Louise was Nicol then!) for the Friday and Saturday nights, heading back to Wellington on an early morning Sunday flight.
Annoyingly the weather was pretty sweet when I was at work - sunny and very hot both days, especially the Friday which had a high of 37 C / 99 F. It
Docklands
The impressive Telstra Dome on the left and the NAB office on the rightwas very windy on both days like Wellington often is but as the wind was a northerly it was a like a massive hairdryer blowing off the desert.
Almost uncannily, as soon as I'd left the swish NAB office at Docklands to meet an old BNZ colleague for a beverage, the rain started and boy did it pour! After getting soaked and just missing my tram, I finally got the right one but had no change at all so skipped the fare like 80% of the locals.
Damien picked me up after I got off at the wrong stop (wasn’t having a great day, to be fair!) and then I saw their fabulous apartment and met Louise’s Mum who was visiting. We had a lovely meal out and a lovely brunch the next morning albeit after an hour’s wait for the grub!
In true Melbourne style the weather was a different prospect on the Saturday - the northerly had turned to a southerly and so it had dropped from 37 C on the Friday to 17 C and a bit rainy on the Saturday. I think I wrote in an earlier blog that Crowded House wrote the
NAB office at Docklands
Sad to take a picture of the office but it is quite interesting from an architecture point of view sing ‘Four Seasons In one Day’ about the New Zealand weather but it was actually written about the Melbourne weather as they were based there for many years. It really can change very quickly indeed there so you have to be prepared.
We had a good wander about the food festival that was on and Damien and I had sampled some quality local beers from the many Microbreweries in the area while the girls drank cocktails or something nearby. We also did some shopping (Melbourne is probably the greatest shopping destination ion the Southern Hemisphere!) but I just bought a few CDs for me (JB HiFi on Bourke Street- much cheapness!) and some fab pyjamas for Jo-Ann from Peter Alexander and vowed to come back with Jo-Ann for a weekend before the baby came.
We went out for a great curry at Dockside in the evening and then had a fairly early night as I had to be up at 6 for the flight home. Louise & Damien showed such great hospitality, I just had to hurry back! Which I did 2 months later when Jo-Ann was sent to Canberra for a week’s training course. It was just
a week before my birthday as well, so my birthday present was being able to buy clothes for myself - a last splash out before baby arrival. I flew over on the Friday afternoon and met Jo-Ann at the airport after her flight from Canberra and Louise and Damien picked us up and I was back at their lovely flat pad again.
Damien cooked a fantastic Thai meal that night and then it was shopping heaven on the Saturday -0 I got some more CDs, some jeans, 2 great tops (one merino wool one which was subsequently shrunk in its first wash....DOH!) and a Paul Frank t-shirt. Don't know what Jo-Ann got but not as much as me, which made a nice change! We toured a few of Melbourne myriad of interesting and frankly bizarre bars and blew the froth off a couple.
We were back at Docklands again that night for a smashing meal (my memory fails me on its ethic origin but it was beautiful). On the Sunday we went on a road trip to Mount Macedon - a mountain by Australian standards but a mere bump in the road by New Zealand standards. Unfortunately the
views weren’t up to much as the weather was stinking but the scones in the Café were sensational.
Then it was off to the (in) famous Hanging Rock, the setting for Joan Lindsay’s novel “Picnic at Hanging Rock” which portrayed the disappearance of a group of schoolgirls on a trip there on Valentine's day 1900. A film was made of the book, which I remember seeing on TV when I was a lad and its certainly an appropriately eerie place.
After a good look around the weird looking rock formations and some appropriate pant-shatting at my memories of the film, we headed off in search of wineries. Unfortunately, even our local guides fell victim to the rather poor sign posting around and we were only able to find one - but it was beauty. It was imaginatively titled “Hanging Rock” but had some cracking wines. We sampled a few and I bought a quite pricey Gralaine Merlot 2003. We’re saving it for a special occasion - probably Jo-Ann’s first stint back on the bevy after 9 months of pregnancy and 6 months of feeding, which means she’ll fall asleep after half a glass and I’ll get to drink
the rest!
After a lovely beer in a kind of weird local pub we headed back to the big smoke and had another amazing meal out. I had an outstanding Kangaroo steak, medium-rare - I’d recommend some quality ‘roo to any meat eater....damn fine!
Jo-Ann and were on the red-eye back across the ditch on the Monday morning so we had another early night after packing up our stuff. Thanks again, Louise & Damien - you’re fantastic hosts and we hope we can entertain you sometime over in NZ!
It’s the first day of spring down here and right on cue the temperature is up (16 C on Friday and 18 today) but the wind is howling and will now do so for probably the next 3 months - spring is the windiest time of the year in Wellington and it has been gusting to 90 kms/hr or 60mph so not good weather for dresses or hats. Just as well Emily Howard doesn’t live here then.
Jo-Ann is now on maternity leave and is living a life of leisure if a slightly uncomfortable one - I’ll give her a week and then she’ll be screaming “OK,
I’m bored - get out of me now you little bugger!”. I’m trying to cram in some last minute sporting events - last weekend in had a double header of Rugby on the Sat night in the BNZ Corporate Box and then Sunday was the first competitive match for NZ’s new Australasian League football franchise, the Wellington Phoenix FC!
They’re pretty crap by the high standards set by the mighty Glasgow Rangers (just who are Barcelona, Lyon and Stuttgart anyway?! Never heard of them....) and it was a bit like watching the bottom teams in the Scottish Premier League play - I guess I now know what it feels like to be a Hamilton Accies fan.
They had a tough opening fixture against the defending champions, the Melbourne Victory but came away with a creditable 2-2 draw - pretty good considering they were 2-0 down after 81 minutes. They also missed a first half penalty and hit the woodwork twice in injury time!
They got spanked 3-0 last night away to the Central Coast Mariners (captained by the one and only Tony Vidmar!!), though despite hitting the woodwork twice again! I suggest a larger goal frame for
Phoenix matches.
They have this Brazilian defender called Cleberson who is a serious donkey but has his amazing moments - we’ve nicknamed him Marvin after Mr Andrews, the former Livingston, Rangers, and current Raith Rovers happy clapping Trinidad & Tobago internationalist. There were other Scottish fitba’ connections as well - Grant Brebner (ex-Hibs and Dundee United) was in the Melbourne midfield and their captain in Kevin Muscat, who was a short-term hammer-thrower for the ‘Gers a few seasons back.
They’re likely to struggle this season being a brand new team very quickly thrown together but they’ve already broken the NZ attendance record for a domestic football match at 14,421 which was more then twice the paltry crowd that turned up for the rugby. The beaks at the NZRU are worried now they have some competition for the punters!
It was great to be a footie game again and listen to the banter and the chants - in fact it made a great change to actually laugh at some of the songs from my fellow supporters rather than hang my head in embarrassment. Although, some of the Aussie bashing going was a bit OTT considering half a third
of the Phoenix team are Aussies. However I did particularly enjoy the ditty “A dingo stole your baby” and “We’re the Phoenix over here, you’re the convicts over there”. I was waiting for the classic “You’re going home in a Wellington Free Ambulance” but it never came. It was noted by many that the Phoenix fans were chanting in a variety of UK accents - the Brits abroad just have to get that footie fix! I saw Rangers, Celtic, Hearts, Morton and Scotland strips being worn and even a Berwick Rangers one!
I also encountered another example of why its such a tiny wee world sometimes - sitting in front of me was a guy I knew from Standard Life days. Kevin Rice used to always play in the Standard Life golf club events and each year put a team into the Basketball Tournament we used to hold. We had a couple of swift ales after the game to catch up - I'll see him at the next game! He's lived here for about a year now.
I really have to go now as Jo-Ann requires help in the kitchen preparing the pudding we’re taking round to friends'
tonight. Cheers all - next blog, baby time!
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