Leaving day from Melbourne for Singapore. Had a small lie in and took time out to go over to the leisure centre for a swim on what was another lovely sunny day. Azzy did a gym session whilst Jan and I were swimming then we wandered over the back of the pool onto the Oval Footy pitch for a little kick about with the ball before getting a nice coffee whilst we wandered back to Chloe's for packing. All gear jammed into our bags and then jammed into Chloe's car an...

Today is our penultimate day in Melbourne. It has been great staying with and seeing Chloe after 20 years or so. We has a lay in followed by a swim for Jan and I at the local outdoor 50 m pool and a gym session for Azzy followed by a breakfast and coffee at one of the thousands of pavement cafe's in the area. It's amazing how many cafe's and resturants there are in Melbourne and its districts and how they all survive??? We decided to have a final fling in Mel...

Today is all about the big game. The Mighty Hawks (our adopted AFL Team Hawthorn), vs West Coast Eagles. Aussie Footy is a fusion of many games which produces a fast all action spectacle with high scores and no certainty of a winner until the final whistle. It appears that the rules are on a need to know basis, so only the players and umpires are in the know. The Aussie fans certainly don't know the rules, so what chance had we as mere Brits. We had a lie in ...

Had a long lay in today as yesterday's walking round Melbourne had taken its toll. We had wanted to go to Bells Beach, Torquay, which is the other side of Geelong to watch the World Series Ripcurl Pro Surfing competition but it was to be at least a 3 hour journey on Train and Tram each way with no guarantee that we would even see any surfing so we decided it was not worth the effort. Instead we went to St Kilda for the afternoon to see the beach, visit the oldy...

Up at a reasonable time to go try out the local sports centre. Don't get this in UK even though Melbourne didn't have the best weather patterns. Fantastic but simple complex with large gymnasium and 50m 8 lane outdoor pool. Did an hours swim with Jan and Chloe while Azzy worked out in the Gym. A nice Coffee and snack after then back to prepare for our first trip into the City. 15 mins on the train into the famous Flinders Street Station next to Federation Sq...