Marvellous Melbourne

After returning from our lovely hike, I had the pleasure of staying at the Hall residence in gorgeous Hampton.

A beautiful home with beautiful people, I couldn't have wished for a lovelier home It was so nice to spend quality time with Julia and the rest of her clan. We laughed, we chatted and ate great food. Hampton was a great base for me to see the city so spent a few days exploring.

Family time, party for Julia's birthday, day in the city, a day cycling, a day chilling, walks on the beach and all too quickly it was time to move on.

I'll miss watching the kitchen dance performance each night, a family in harmony whilst undertaking their clean up tasks.

After a delicious brunch in Sandringham (Melbourne has the most amazing food scene especially brunch), Julia popped me on a train to Frankston and I navigated my way to Mornington to meet an old friend, Nic, who I used to work with at St Mary's over 20 years ago.

My journey was fun, I met some very interesting people and I appeared to be the entertainment for many people on the bus all helped by a charming elderly man who decided to talk to me, very loudly, about all things British!

It was great to see Nic after so many years and we left off where we started all those years ago. We caught up on life. The time with Nic consisted of a fun yet very wet walk along the peninsula to Fort Nepean, an important land mark for World War 1 and chilling time with friends, doing lovely normal things! It's the biggest thing I've missed whilst travelling, normality and the simple things we take for granted.

A wonderful addition to my time in Melbourne was a couple of lovely catch ups with old colleagues, Anju, Elsa and Sam. A beautiful reminder of home and work and how important my work and colleagues are to me.

Finally a stroll round some cool places near to the city with Nic including Brunswick, Fitzroy and Brunswick Street and another amazing brunch.

My final event in the city was catching up with Nick and Shanti from our Nepalese trek. We met in an Indian Nepalese Restaurant, we drank Nepal ice, ate Momos and caught up on life. That's what it's so cool about travelling, the people you met and the memories you make. Hoping that, at some point, the whole gang can get back together.

I have been pleasantly surprised at how much I liked Melbourne and how well I've adapted to not living in a car!

Thank you to all these lovely people who are sharing my journey, giving up their time and sharing their homes, friends and family with me.

And now to move on to Canberra.

Thank you Melbourne.Læs mere