Musings on Melbourne

Behold the long awaited declarations regarding my recent escapades in Melbourne!

After a turbulence-filled yet comedic flight with Virgin Blue, I stepped into the refridgerator-like embrace of the Melbourne Airport landing strip. The ankle-length trench coat I wore then hardly left my back during the entire stay, so nippy was the weather in both the Yarra Valley and Melbourne city over those four days.

I was spoilt with offerings of fine wines, cheeses, gourmet meals and a host of friendly locals to whom Uncle Tobes introduced moi. A delectable hot chocolate was had for it's sugar-boosting properties [made from entirely local produce] in anticipation of meeting my young cousins. An evening of gentle wrestling and fairytale reading proceeded, followed shortly by a lengthy discussion on modern youth's tech-dependance, afterall I am an avid participant in such avenues! Accompanied by a pack of Beanie Bears I passed the night in an entirely pink Princess room and was lullaby-ed by singing plush.

Numb from the knee down, I waded through fog the next morning at the Victorian Markets - best in the Southern Hemisphere they say! Having now overcome resentment for discovering I'd been largely ripped off, I'm happy with my purchases and found their spread of European foods most impressive. I drooled from cheese/salami laden stall to stall. On this venture I discovered the nature the 'Biltong' to be quite similar to what I know as ye jerky. In my attempts to purchase and try such a Tong from an Africaans themed stall, I found the sales assistant to be quite unresponsive in only offering indecipherable mumbling from the back of the stall- perhaps he being subdued by infamous jerky robbers or more likely under the influence of some enlightening form of intoxication. I resolved to dine on the tempting Lebanese Borek's neighbouring the jerk - twas nothing short of a heavenly flow of cheese and spinach being hugged by some fresh lebanese loaves - yoom!

Following this I climbed aboard for a detailed tour du Melb by my esteemed Uncle. We saw the sights and felt the frost - me ooh and ahh-ing at the glorious scene before me. I quite enjoyed the stark contrasts betwix Victorian museum and contemporary Rubix-cube style establishment side-by-side. Next up - a treck through this city to meet a fellow blogger, Alexis. Thanks to a misunderstanding with a foreign waitress [and my tendencies to eat everything on my plate] an all-too-hearty vegetarian meal(s) was had and I then had to actually carry my own tummy back round the city. Innocently staring in at chocolate fountains in the window of San Churro, we waited for the pain of being too full to fade before dining on some promised Aztec hot chocolate accompanied by similarly chilli-ful truffle. It was so divine an experience, I hardly noticed that I had practically burnt off my top lip [from chilli] and it remained so for the following two days! Upon realising I was late to head home, I ran an phenomenal distance from one woggy end of Lygon street right down to the other darned woggy end - quite an effort! I got down and muddy with my wild-child-side that afternoon waiting for my young cousin to finish Aussie League by entertaining a troop of 5-year olds [yes, including endless spinning, tickles, piggy-back rides and tree-house role plays]. The snotty smiles were payment in themselves....