Michael flew to the Big Smoke on the Flying Test Tube (Sharp airlines) early on Friday morning to attend an Educators Conference. After the girls had finished school, we packed up the car and left the animals and house to the mercy of Jess, our house-sitter. I knew she'd be fine, she lived in the house for almost 8 years before we bought it!
Jacob, the "IT Manager" from work, lent me his Tom Tom rather than having to rely on photocopied maps. I was fine getting to Melbourne, but wasn't sure about how to get from the motorway into the city. Boy, was I glad for its help!
We left Coleraine just after 5.30 and hit Ararat for dinner at 7.30. Rotten Ronnies was the meal of choice by the passengers, so we got some takeaway. I didn't expect any Einsteins to be working at Maccas on a Friday night, but even I was impressed by the level of stupidity of the staff and the general crappiness of the restaurant. All of the straw/serviette dispensers were empty, the tables were sticky and the bathroom looked like it hadn't been cleaned for a week. So we grabbed our meals and ate them in the car.
The highway from Ararat to Melbourne is quite good. We crossed over the Westgate Bridge just on 10pm. And discovered the motorway was closed for roadworks and everyone was detoured. Thank god for Tom Tom! After half an hour we managed to find the hotel, Quest on Lonsdale, and Michelle was there to let us in - as Michael and Mark were 'celebrating' in some pub around the corner.
The girls finally met their cousin Olivia, and for Mim it was love at first sight! She became an official Olivy-stalker for the rest of the weekend.
Mark arrived back shortly after, he'd tasted a lovely steak and red wine... twice!! So he chose to admire the tiling on the bathroom floor. Michelle, being the good wife that she is, covered him with a blanket.... and left him. Michael arrived back half an hour later, after wondering where Mark had disappeared to.
It was Mark's birthday on Saturday... he was feeling a bit ordinary first thing in the morning. We all walked up to the Queen Victoria Markets and grabbed boreks and bratwurst/sauerkraut hotdogs for breakie. Then we wandered around the markets checking out the stalls. Michael had some trouble with one of the stall holders. We'd stopped next to a material stall with Olivia in the pram, keeping out of the middle of the walkway. The stall holder, instead of going around the pram, proceeded to push past it on the inside, knocking it violently. She didn't even bother to apologise, just berated Michael for standing there. He told her she was a rude woman, and she then called him a bully for using his size to intimidate! She wouldn't even look me in the eye! Rude bitch! There was a very strong urge to bitch slap her into next week... but I resisted.
Back at the hotel, the children had a sleep... the boys and Jemima anyway, and Caitlin straightened my hair. Then Michelle, Caitlin, Olivia and I caught the tram to Harbour Town to find me some bras. Within 10minutes I'd purchased four for $42. Not a bad buy. Then we headed back to town to get ready for dinner.
Dinner was at Dion's Greek Restaurant, probably our favourite restaurant in Melbourne to date. We shared the meat platters, a scrumptious range of chicken and lamb souvlakis, lamb cutlets, a type of sausage, lamb rissoles, and the famous arni lemonato. Delicious! Mim was dressed like someone from the exclusive brethren with her pink checked Dorothy dress and kerchief.
After dinner, we had coffee sitting outside the dessert mecca - the International Cake Shop. We did some people watching, especially the "things" going into the nightclub a few doors down. Michael must have been gazing too long at one girl as she stomped past because she growled "do I have three heads! Take a picture next time!" We all burst out laughing, I had the camera with me so I could have! As we were crossing the road heading to the rooms, I heard Michelle call out, "Hello!" It was Cerebus, our three headed stompy woman, stomping her way back down the road. She ignored us, or didn't see us. But seriously, would you take on two men the size of Michael and Mark? With a baby involved?
On Sunday morning, we wandered around the city, visiting the art gallery (I finally got to see Shearing the Rams) and looking in some shops. Michael took Caitlin off to DJs to buy her some bras. In the afternoon, I drove Michael and Caitlin to Essendon airport to catch the plane home. There was a slight stuff up - Sharp was asking people to lighten their luggage as they were 60kg over weight! They managed to get enough people to leave luggage behind and finally took off, about 15 mins late.
Mark, Michelle, Mim, Mini-MOK and me had dinner at the Elephant & Wheelbarrow pub. It was a very nice meal, the best of 'British' cuisine. We went back to the rooms and had a reasonably early night.
The next morning, after a lovely breakfast at M's Cafe, we piled in my car and hit the road. We arrived in Ballarat in time to have a quick look around and then have some lunch. I dropped Mark, Michelle and Olivia off at Creswick in the afternoon and Mim and I drove home. We arrived home shortly after 5, exhausted and ready for an early night.
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