Melbourne March 2009

Thursday 5th March to Tuesday 7th March

So we arrived back from the UK and made it to the flat shortly after midnight on Thursday 5th March. The weather wasn’t entirely what we had hoped for it was rainy and cool (but not cold). After a sleep we unpacked the bags and started on the washing and cleaning then finding room for all of the clothes that Corinne had bought back with her. Before long it was getting late so we headed out to get a bit off food shopping and other essentials.

Corinne got the call for some work on the Friday 6th and went in for a couple of hours to one of the many nurseries that she works casually at. In the evening we had some food and wine settling down and watched a DVD.

Saturday 7th March to Sunday 15th March

Back to work good style for Wolfie with 8 nights in 9 days. Corinne went off to the market on Saturday and got some fruit and vegetables, was great to get all the nice stuff especially after the anorexic stuff in the UK. On Sunday when Wolfie was sleeping Corinne spent the day sunbathing and reading in the park warming back up after nearly 3 weeks of 7’C.

Monday 9th was a bank holiday in Australia and Corinne went out with a couple of friends to the to the Moomba water festival on the Yarra River close to the MCG. There was a theme park, water skiers and wakeboarders.

Not much happened for the rest of the week just lots of working, apart from Thursday when we went to the cinema and we watched ‘watchmen’ which was ok! Oh and Liverpool beat Real Madrid on Wednesday 4-0 common!!!! And slept the best ever between night shifts getting around 8-11 hours each day.

On Saturday 14th for part of the Melbourne food and wine festival our local market in Prahan had a ‘step back in time’ day. Were all the store keepers dressed from different time periods and sold some traditional fare. There was even a store in the meat and fish area with sheep’s heads, bull’s testicles, tripe and all other kinds of internal organs from animals. Also on this day back in the UK the mighty Red men spanked the manc’s at old Trafford 4-1 come on!
As Wolfie spent the day sleeping Corinne went out with her friend mary and her daughter into the city for the food and wine festival. They spent the day in fed square as there was a chocolate lover’s day on there.

Monday 16th March to Sunday 22nd March

We went out bowling with Laura and Jomeil our housemates for St Paddy’s day we were going to try and get into the Irish bars but they were heaving. Anyways Corinne’s winning streak against Wolfie carried on she won the first game and Wolfie the second (Jomeil actually won them both)

Wednesday to Friday were boring just spent them working and all that sort of stuff that comes with working.

When Saturday 21st came we actually had a day off together something that we are starting to really appreciate. We headed off into fed square for the Viva festival which was a celebration of multicultural Victoria. There were stands there with people selling and showing stuff from their countries. There were Chinese dragon dancers and bands, a Mongolian tent and an international food area. Wolfie went for the Jamaican food because there was a really cool looking Rastafarian dude cooking on steel drum bbq’s and Corinne went for a Japanese vegetable fritter very nice.

Afterwards we had a walk along Southbank and played some Mario Kart in the arcades. We had a drink in the city in the glorious Autumn sunshine at beer deluxe. We then went up Swanston street the main thoroughfare of CBD and found the Greek Festival in full swing so we had a walk around, they were doing the traditional dancing, loads of people wearing Greek soccer shirts and the food hmmmmm we got a flame grilled kebab soooooooooooo nice. After a long day out we got a gelato to share on the tram on the way back and relaxed at home tired.

On Sunday 22nd all of the people from the Viva festival had disappeared to be replaced by a Thai people’s festival. There were pretend elephants, a Buddha shrine and loads of nice smelling food. After a good look around we got a show back for $6 with loads of cool sauces, noodles and sweet chilli sauce in it before heading and getting a pad thai to share before Wolfie had to leave for work. Corinne went to the market to get our healthy produce for the week. Oh and Liverpool battered another team Aston Villa 5-0 wow!

Monday 23rd to Friday 27th was really quiet just working and waiting for the weekend as fast approaching was Grand Prix time and come Saturday 28th March courtesy of Corinne’s friend Mary we had some grandstand tickets for the day. We arrived around midday and headed off for a look at Rory the Race car and in the expo tent. We walked around the lake watching the different cars zoom past. It was an absolute scorcher of a day at 28’c. We got a race program and checked out the grandstand area in which only people with grandstand tickets were allowed.

At 2pm we took our seats for the first of the F1 action of the day – last testing session. So we tucked into our pack lunch as the drivers battled it out for an hour or so testing their cars for the evenings qualifying session at 6pm. It was pretty cool but so loud you don’t realise the noise when their on the TV. For the rest of the afternoon we looked around the remaining areas we hadn’t seen the V8 super car paddock, the Vodafone tents and classic cars area.

Come 6pm with the twilight hour approaching we took our seats once again for the F1 action this time the Qualifying for Sunday’s main race. The session lasted for an hour and every now and then someone would get knocked out until Jenson Button for the UK was left on pole position. We then headed home had some tea before heading off into town to an Irish bar for Corinne’s friends Catherine’s birthday! Was very good fun with lots of Bundy, Guinness and music.

Sunday 29th March was race day and Wolfie was out on his own. Watched the xxxx angels warm the crowd up before chilling in front of the big screen and watching it on there, as there was no chance of getting a decent place close to the track. It was still awesome though like full on surround sound. The xxxx was cold and the weather hot the race was cool with overtaking and a couple of wipe-outs.

The coolest thing about the day was that Jenson Button won and Englishman come-on and Rubens came second. After the Race was finished everyone invaded the track and we got to see the spraying off the champagne. Got a bit of tire rubber and a couple more free programs walked a lot of the track saw the dancing red bull girls, before catching a bit of the free who concert!