30 Nov - 5 Dec 2017
Feedback on my blog to date welcomed, but if you’re a regular reader in the UK - you might be pleased to see that this post has fewer irritating photos of cobalt blue skies and stunning beaches.
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The Maartens’s hosted dinner on Thursday night - with Lucy & Stu Hamilton and Sally Carroll.
Friday morning we saw Catherine Charles & Archie for a birthday cake & coffee, then headed off to Redhill (Mornington Peninsula) for the weekend with Jenny & Stephen Charles. Half way on our journey we had to pull off the freeway due to a serious belt of rain and had lunch in a bizarre “Bikers Tavern” in Baxter with adjoining casino and bookies.
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| Redhill |
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| Swan-necked Ibis (using Barnaby’s “Redhill List”!!) |
Seriously delicious dinner with Jenny, Stephen and Lucy at Petit Tracteur on Friday night.
Saturday
Homage was paid to the Caffeine God (it really is a religion here) with an outing to Green Olive - which turned into a mini-adventure when Stephen managed to get his car wedged over a concrete kerb, but a helpful passer-by towed him free with his ute.
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| Environmentally friendly loo paper at Green Olive! |
The rain didn’t really ease all weekend - which wasn’t the end of the world as we lit the fire and settled down to watch The Ashes from Adelaide, and ate and drank in comfort as the rain pelted down.
Another feast delivered by Jenny which we all voted better than Petit Tracteur, and Stu joined us late for a catch up into the early hours.
Sunday
Much of the same: more yummy food from Jenny, wine and watching England lose at the cricket... (OK - it’s only day 2, but ain’t looking good)
Then back to the city as the rain finally eased, and a visit to the Hamiltons to catch up with the whole family except for Gus, who’s in the UK right now. Stu cooked an impressive curry, and good fun to see my godson Hugh.
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| The Hamiltons: (L-R) Hugh, Stu, Lucy, Charlie & Chloe |
Into the city for a final wander around.
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| Flinders Street Station |
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| Street art, Hosier Lane |
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| Jess & Cin |
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| Mackerel dumplings |
Followed by a calm hour in the NGV (National Gallery of Victoria) looking at the wonderful indigenous art, then into St Paul’s Cathedral built in 1891 (with floor tiles from Shropshire and glass windows Regent Street!). Back home for a game of tennis with Nikki and Sam, then we all had dinner in the popular restaurant at Kooyong.
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| Merry Christmas! Ella, Cin, Sam & Nikki Maartens |
Tuesday
Jess and Cin joined a friend for a dog walk in the Royal Botanic Gardens and I ran two loops / 8km around “The Tan Track”. Then time to finally leave the superb “Maartens Hotel” - which is absolutely worthy of 6* as you have all looked after us so well for nigh on two weeks! THANK YOU. See you Europe in 2018 hopefully.
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| 6* Hotel Maartens |
Darwin here we come...
At least you have started noticing a few birds! (Love the blog by the way)
ReplyDeleteDay 4 a lot better tho
ReplyDelete