Melbourne

We decided early on that when we reached places like Melbourne on this trip we would focus more on catching up with friends than worrying about trying to race around seeing ‘sights’. Obviously we have all been to Melbourne before, and will visit again.

This has been even more important while here as we have a number of friends we want to spend some time with, all with kids around the same ages as ours.

On Saturday we ventured up in to the Dandenong’s to a park for lunch with one of Liz's cousins and his family and Liz’s best friend from her school days and her family. The view was spectacular, the kids all had a marvellous time and on the way home we stopped in at the William Rickett’s Sculpture Park, which was really interesting, well interpreted and surprisingly well received by the kids as well.

Sadly, some of our visiting was curtailed as on the way home from friends on Sunday I started to feel unwell and ended up spending the following day in bed with a nasty bug – but yesterday dawned and all was well in the world again, therefore I took the kids into Melbourne itself via tram and we wandered around in a fairly unstructured way. Stops included the ANZ building, which Harry asked if we could have a look inside. This was while Liz was still with us (before she left for a slightly less strenuous and more relaxing day) and what a great call it was. The building had been maintained in largely original form with historical displays also incorporated into the customer waiting areas.

Following this we split up and during our wanders the kids and I managed to spend almost an hour perusing Bernard’s Magic Shop. Finally, after a few hours we made it to the Melbourne Museum, which included the Tutankhamen touring exhibition, however due to the elongated route we took to get there we decided it wasn’t worth going in given the amount of time we had left to actually look over it. This was an easy decision for the kids I think as we also hadn’t yet had lunch (our original intention was to be home for lunch so we were a little under-prepared).  Luckily there was a small display in the foyer of the museum that included an overview of the science behind unravelling the young Pharaoh's life (and death) which kept the kids riveted and made the visit worth it on it’s own.

On the way home we stopped next-door the the school of Grady and Iris (who we have been staying with) at a playground which I think could be the finest I have ever come across. Max agrees with this however Harry thinks the Donnybrook Playground outshines it as this one doesn’t have a large climbing frame. Last time we were in Melbourne the kids spent many hours there (however it was summer that time which meant it rained considerably less!) and I thought they should at least have the opportunity to run around on it once this trip. The playground is predominantly made out of wood (rather than the plastic and metal construction of most around these days), was community sponsored and all elements interlink brilliantly, making it into one huge affair rather than a number of discreet elements all arranged in close proximity to each other.

That night we went out for a birthday dinner for Harry. While his birthday wasn’t for a couple of more days he really wanted to celebrate it around the kids he had been playing with all week rather than on his own on the road. Given that we are intending to leave this morning (I say intending for a reason and will get to that soon) it was also a good chance to spend a final evening with both of Liz’s cousins and their families, who had shown us great hospitality over the past week.

Sadly, this morning started a little earlier than I was intending (hence the early morning post – I am now fully awake and trying to find things I can do without disturbing everyone else.

At 5am I hear a couple of people talking outside on the pavement (canvas walls don’t stop a lot of sound). While this wasn’t a big deal given the number of people walking and jogging in this area before work, the fact that I am a fairly light sleeper sometimes has it’s benefits. Just as I was about to put my head down again I heard a window smash and bolted out of the caravan. Obviously the people outside heard me coming and by the time i got the door open they were back in their car and heading off (so all I saw was a Nissan Navara D40 ute with canopy – black with silver trim, but no rego…. bugger it). The bad news is that we now have no rear window in the Pathfinder. The good news is that everything else is still there so we will just be a little lighter in the pocket once we cover the insurance excess. Once I had finished speaking to the police, insurance and Windows O’Brien however there wasn’t much point trying to go back to sleep. It has also left us waiting until later this morning to find out what timeframe repairs are likely to take, meaning that we are now unsure whether today is actually leaving Melbourne day or not!

It does also suggest to me that you don’t have to be particularly intelligent to be a thief (attempted in this case anyway). Why would you pick a car sitting within 5 metres of a caravan with canvas walls around the sleeping areas? I would think that that is the least likely place there is to be able to smash a window without disturbing anyone.