Sat.26th Sept.I am looking for a program which will automatically start every day with today has been cold and wet.Today at 2pm it was 5 degrees with rain and hailstones.Berwick is unusual in that it has kept its country town feel and many of its shop so its town centre doesn't look like every other town and city. We had a quick look round before setting of once more for the gardens on Mt Dandenong .Today we had been prepared and made a reservation for Cuckoo restaurant www.cuckoorestaurant.com.auwhich has a smorgasbord every meal time.We expected a quiet little place and got a shock when we arrived and had to be directed by a car park attendant dressed in alpine costume to a large full car park.Sadly we didn't take a camera in with us and no way were we going out in the hail to get one so you will have to look on their website if you are interested.The food was all you could eat and very varied with a lovely unusual selection of desserts, there was an alpine band and a kind of floorshow with audience participation i.e. tapping glasses or plates with spoons and slapping thighs or wherever you had exposed flesh, not many people wore leather shorts today so you had to improvise. We spent 2 hrs there and came home still in the rain of course to watch the Aus. rules final on the TV.

Sunday 27th. Sept.When we talked to people about coming south we laughingly said "The advantage of doing a house swap is if the weather is foul we can stay in"well we are not laughing now today the temp is 10 degrees and at 3pm it has just stopped raining but the sky is still full of rain.We went to church this morning and after to a big shopping centre which has a cinema trouble is we go to the films so much we have seen any we want to see so we had our lunch and we are now back in the nice warm house and probably going to watch a video.No photos or videos this blog is not living up to the standard set by the first one last year could be something to do with the weather!!!

Monday 28th Sept.It was actually dry when we got up so we caught the train into Melbourne's Flinders St station and when we got there an hour later it was raining.We took the obligatory photos of the station entrance and the world time clocks and walked across to Federation Sq. which seems to be something people love or hate.The architecture is different and on a wet Monday morning not much is happening but the museum/display of the moving picture is very good and there is a museum of racing and an art gallery worth a look but probably not a return visit.On to the Immigration Museum which being immigrants ourselves was interesting but too much to see in one go.Over the river to South Bank and the Crown casino which has an amazing water and light display in it's foyer something we have seen before but good to see again.We walked the length of the designer shops looking for the cake shop and the fish restaurant which Joe remembered had a fantastic display of prawns etc. I of course remembered the cake shop with its fantastic display of desserts and the people queuing to get in.Both places had changed. The cakes were still impressive but not as many and the place was virtually empty sign of the healthier times maybe?The fish shop had a much reduced display and was empty perhaps it was the wrong time of the day.We had done a lot of walking by then and called it a day.The sun had come out by then and I had taken my gloves of yes I had been wearing gloves and I wish I had worn a scarf.