The next day we trekked into the city centre to take in the sights and sounds of a bustling city. The city skyline and wide roads really put Brisbane in perspective and it feels like we live in a small country town in comparison. Here's a picture of Flinder's street station and the ubiquitous Melbourne trams that trundle pass on the main streets.
We had a real nice breakfast at Federation square (my staple for the weekend seemed to be eggs benedict) and marched on. Alison of course had to stop by Haigh's, her favourite chocolate store to get some chocolate covered orange slices. I don't fancy them too much myself for which she's very grateful.
John and Sheena suggested checking out the Queen Victoria Markets which we did. It was really surprising how cheap all the food was and the samples we tried were delicious. I've since discovered that the cost of living in Melbourne is actually lower than Brisbane so chalk up another reason for relocating.
I started getting lazy with composing pictures and just wanted to catalogue the sights as we went so this shot (among others) was taken from the hip 'lomo' style.
For lunch we trotted along to Lygon street which is probably one of the most famous food spots in Melbourne. It's basically a long row of predominantly Italian restaurants with especially friendly waiters that entice you with the specials as you walk past the store front. We ended up choosing this little spot on the promise that they had great lasagna (they did). Here's Alison scanning the menu before settling on chicken and mushroom fetuccini (also excellent).
I didn't hope to find a large board game store on our trip but Alison was kind enough to point out a Mind Games store we walked past so I had to go in to take a look. I really wish they had as wide a selection here in the Brisbane shops because I could have picked up at least three or four new games right there and then. We ended up walking out with just one new game (Formula De) and three Blue Moon expansions which was pretty restrained considering.
Here's a picture of our game of Formula De in the hotel room. It was seven in the morning and nothing was open before anyone starts screaming at me for wasting our time playing games when we could have been out shopping/eating. It's a good game for lots of players that doesn't use up too much brain juice. I believe it'll be great for an wine and cheese evening with friends.
We met up with Tim on Friday evening and on Saturday to head out for some Chinese food and a quick trip to St Kilda. Every spot in Melbourne reminds me of AFL which is understandable considering how many teams there are in Victoria. While in St Kilda we stopped to take a few pictures of Luna Park's disturbing entrance way. Clowns are just freaky.
On Saturday we walked across the bridge over the Yarra river, which is basically a drain, to Melbourne's South Bank. There were heaps of really nice looking restaurants there but nothing really took our fancy at the time. Instead we decided to stop to watch a side show that was just starting. The girl was just about to hula hoop forty rings at the same time.
Our anniversary dinner was at a little cafe on Hardware Street. There was a wedding procession making their way through while we waited for our meals to come. It was a very nice candle lit meal accompanied by a jazz trio on one end of the street and a flamenco band on the other.
Sunday was a quiet one which we spent wandering through the international art exhibition that was held in Federation Square. It wasn't long before we found ourselves packed up and waiting for the shuttle bus to the airport. A very relaxing weekend and we really should do this more often.
I noticed while writing this post that the new version of Picasa has stopped using Hello as an upload system for posting pictures on Blogger. The new format along with support for my camera raw files earns mucho points in my book. Ah, I love Google news.
4 comments:
Dude, sudden memory trigger - what's the name of that game that we used to dig out at your place from time to time, the one with the massive volcano and a giant murderous fireball that rolled down and destroyed all in its wake?
That was absolutely hilarious. I can't remember the full details, but I can recall the rough edges of one incident where we played it with Cel, and it resulted in the usual flailing hand hysterics from our emminent Chindian as the luck of the dice turned against him round after round after round.
Then of course there were the times when we played Trivial Pursuit, and I was always stumped as to how you could answer virtually every question correctly. You were either a brainiac, or you spent your days memorising the answers. I know which is more likely... :p
The game in question was Fireball Island. Still a pretty fun game even now. Cel, Ding and I had an extended boardgame session about three years back in Malaysia when we played a few rounds of the old faithful. I think I might have some pictures somewhere of the night which I'll try to dig up.
Heh, it's amazing how times have changed. I think I only got all those answers because we played an easy Disney version. Alison's a real mean and highly competitive Trivial Pursuit player so I don't get to win anymore at that unfortunately.
What is it with the girls and the upper hand in Trivial Pursuit? Rusty is the same, I couldn't be arsed about trivia.
Fireball Island is definitely a rocker, a rarity in the market nowadays - but among all else, you can't beat Monopoly sessions as well.
On and ending note to your post: not only have you now proven yourself a pleasure slave to Canon, you have emphasized your obscene lust for Google.
Wear protection for heaven's sake...
They must just have a head for these things. I used to think that Alison was good until we played a game with John and Sheena. Her mum is unbelievable. I look like a complete retard when I play with them.
I've never denied my infatuation with Google. :P
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