Archive for the ‘Melbourne’ Category

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Phoenix Park


07 Oct

Posted in At the park, Melbourne, Nathan's third year, Toby's first year | No Comments »

Nathan and I are on a mission to find some great parks/playgrounds in our part of Melbourne.  Several people told  us that Phoenix Park was great, so we decided to check it out today.

I have to admit that it was pretty amazing.  It was like a wooden fortress, with swings, a flying fox-type-slidey thing, plastic slides and climbing spots scattered around the wooden structure that had steps and bridges galore.  As far as the practical things went, there was a fence around the entire place except at the entrance, so I guess it isn’t too hard to make sure that your child stays in the playground though it wasn’t easy to always keep an eye on what the more active child is up to.  Toilets were close and there was a cafe somewhere there as well (I saw the signs but didn’t track it down).

The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating of it.  So what did Nathan and Toby think of it?  I think they both had a ball.  Nathan ran for nearly the entire time we were there…running up and down steps, across bridges, exploring what was around the next corner.  Toby seemed to have a lot of fun crawling from where I’d place him on a platform, up a few steps, and then coming down the slide.  He must have liked it because he went straight for the slide every time I put him up on the platform.

All in all, I’d say it is a pretty good playground.  It is very different to any that we have come across before, but I’d hate to be there when it was busy as I think it would be very easy to lose your child.

Homesick


04 Oct

Posted in Friends, Mascot Living, Melbourne, Sydney | 2 Comments »

I never, ever imagined that I would be homesick for Sydney….but I am.   There were many, many good reasons for moving to Melbourne, but that hasn’t stopped me longing for the beautiful city of Sydney and my friends there.

I miss the convenience of living in the inner city area.  So many places that I frequented were very close by, with some being just waking distance away.  I miss the wonderful Sydney Park, that had so many different things to do there.  The playground is one of the best I’ve seen anywhere, there were ducks to visit with eels and turtles to be seen in the water as well, there was a little traffic area for kids on bikes complete with traffic lights and roundabouts, and of course lots of open space.  Newtown cheap(ish) eating was just a few minutes in the car, and the ocean beaches were only 15 minutes of driving away.  Eh, I even miss the little 1 bedroom flat that was so light and bright where we saw aeroplanes and sunsets through the foliage of the gum trees, even though we had well and truly outgrown it.

I miss my wonderful Monday group of parents (mostly mums but one dad) and kids, who met up at Sydney Park that has a fantastic playground.  My Friday group was also great, but in a different way.  The Monday group all had a similar approach to parenting, but my Friday group was made up of women who all have similar aged children, having all been loosely associated with a Mother’s group when our first kids were babies.  We certainly had different approaches to parenting, but were all lovely people.  And then there is Mel and her daughter, Sarah.  I met Mel when Nathan was just a few weeks old.   Sarah is just 5 days younger than Nathan.  We became friends pretty quickly, and have met up on a regular basis over the last 2.5 years.  Mel is also a member of the Friday group, but we would generally meet up on a Thursday as well…just Mel, me and the two kids.

Nathan has a little chant that he yells at top volume when he is tired and when he wants to wake a sleeping Toby when in the car….the volume is almost unbearable in the confined space of the car.  He yells “Mummy, Daddy, Nathan, Toby, Sarah, Mel” over, and over, and over again.  As far as Nathan is concerned, these are the people he loves most in the world, because these are the people he has spent the most time with and knows best.

This chant nearly brings me undone every time.  Nathan loves both Mel and Sarah, and so do I, and it brings me to tears to think about how much we both miss them.  It’s not just missing them for the things we did together, but also the knowledge that we will miss the eventuation or not of their hopes and dreams.  I won’t be there to celebrate moving into their new house.  I won’t be there when (hopefully when) Mel is pregnant again.  We won’t share in the growing up of our little families other than from afar.  All these thoughts bring me to tears.

I can’t say that I have been particularly excited about this move to Melbourne.  Intellectually I can appreciate so many great reasons for relocating, but emotionally it has been so much harder than I thought it would be. Yes, it has only been a week so far.  Yes, I do have some friends here already though they are not just around the corner and I find traveling hard and tiring with two kids.  And yes, I will probably make more friends with kids.  If anyone else tells me not to worry, that I’ll make more friends through the kids, I think I will burst from wanting to say that I have friends and they can’t simply and easily be replaced.  Great friendships are born from years of shared experiences, and there will never be a way to replace those who have been with me through my first years of parenting.

I am sure that the fact that I dislike the rental we are currently staying in doesn’t help with the homesickness at all.  The stained carpets, the cheap and nasty items within the house (it’s furnished) that make cooking and cleaning difficult.  The vacuum cleaner that barely sucks, the washing machine that leaves fluff on all the clothes, the bedrooms with that musty old house smell, the shower that barely fits a single body inside (to wash my hair I have to stand on the diagonal so that my elbows fit in), and the horrible beds.  At least it’s all temporary.  There are good things too….a heated roof over our heads, the big back yard and being less than 3 km from Andrew’s workplace.

I think this move to Melbourne is going to be a good thing for us as a family…..but right now it just doesn’t feel much like it.

And now, just because Nathan insisted that I also put this photo into my blog……

Hello Melbourne


27 Sep

Posted in Melbourne, Nathan's third year, Toby's first year, Travel | 1 Comment »

We made it! We got to Albury at dinner time on Saturday night, left on Sunday at 10 am and arrived about 3pm at the place we are living in for the next three weeks. The boys travelled pretty well. Thankfully Toby slept much of the way because he was not happy in the car when awake. Nathan also had long sleeps, but that meant he wouldn’t go to sleep easily at night and at least one exhausted parent had to delay their bedtime until he was asleep.

Sultanas were the big hit for the trip. They kept both boys quiet in the car. 🙂

Melbourne again


16 Apr

Posted in Family, Melbourne, Nathan's second year | 2 Comments »

The best laid plans can go awry, and when Nathan got sick recently it seemed that our holiday plans went out the window.  I first noticed he was sick on the Wednesday afternoon, so driving down to Melbourne the very next day was out of the question.  Thursday night we were supposed to be starting our holidays and had planned to drive to Melbourne, getting there in time for Andrew’s dad’s 60th birthday party held the following weekend.  Thankfully Nathan seemed to be feeling better by the Saturday, so we decided to fly down to Melbourne in time to make it to the party.

Nathan helping to pack the case.

The party seemed to go off well, though I’m finding these days that when we are out with Nathan I spend the entire time concentrating on what Nathan is getting up to, and I don’t get a chance to really talk to anyone.  Nathan had a great time trying to get away from me and slip behind the bar, but I always caught him in time and he would giggle delightedly!  Nathan was getting pretty tired by 9 pm, so we left straight after the cake was cut and took Nathan back to Andrew’s parent’s place for him to sleep.

Originally we had planned to catch up with several lots of friends during our trip to Melbourne, but we weren’t keen to take Nathan anywhere near other children until he was 100%, so we had to avoid most of our friends.  We caught up with my parents for lunch the next day.  They, along with Bruno and Keren, had started the mammoth job of clearing out Oma’s flat.  We stayed the night with Steph and had lunch on Monday with Janis at our old haunt, Don Vincenzo in Fitzroy.

Travelling, these days, means that we are always on the lookout for playgrounds.  We found one near the Children’s hospital where Nathan could exert some energy, then detoured back through Lygon Street to get a few things before going to Tricia’s place for dinner.  It seemed weird that there were no kids there while we visited, but it was rather fortuitous really, even though Nathan seemed to be recovered by then.

We spent Tuesday in the city, having a yummy (and cheap) lunch at the Hari Krishna place and then wandering around Myer, camera shops, and the interesting little lanes that Melbourne city has before seeking refuge from the rain in the car.  We had dinner that night with Andrew’s parents before going to the airport to fly home.

Nathan trying to put earplugs in mummy’s ears on the aeroplane

We had trouble getting a taxi from Sydney airport to home, and I learned that Taxi drivers are not meant to ask you where you’re going before you get your stuff or yourself into the taxi.  We had a couple of taxis decide not to take us….one told us he didn’t have an anchor point for the carseat, another didn’t want the short fare, and when the third asked us where we were going Andrew just started dumping our stuff into the taxi without responding to the question.  The taxi driver wasn’t particularly nice to us until he saw Andrew photograph his licence and then he had no more problems from him, though when he dropped us off he told us to get our stuff out of the car quickly so he could get back to the airport but didn’t lift a finger to help us.

My busy week in Victoria


21 Oct

Posted in Family, Friends, Melbourne, Travel, Vic | 1 Comment »

My one week holiday has gone very well really. I spent a night with Grandma in Timboon, then drove to Melbourne and spent a night with Janis, took the car into the Docklands Subaru service place on Monday morning to get the cruise control reset and then had the rest of the day for shopping (I needed bras). I popped into Kate’s mum’s place to drop off birthday presents for the girls and then ended up at Steph’s for the night. We decided to have pizza for dinner, but found that the pizza shop was shut so we made our own with mushrooms, capsicum, spinach, goats cheese and normal cheese. It was really yummy!

Tuesday morning I went to a bra place in Camberwell that was fantastic and got me fitted out in less than 15 minutes with comfy and supportive maternity bras. I hadn’t felt so comfortable for probably the last 4 months!! Then I visited Liz and Tony for lunch and stayed there until almost tea time! I stayed that night with Trish and we ordered pizza for dinner. It wasn’t until I was driving over to Huntingdale to meet Tim and Janine for a pizza lunch on Wednesday that I realised how much pizza I’d been eating! Oh well, it was all yummy.

After lunch on Wednesday I went for a swim at the pool in Waverley Road. The complex was being built when I lived in Melbourne but didn’t open until I left, and was busting to go there. I used to swim in the 50 m outdoor pool before the complex was built, but now it’s nicely heated. Nothing like the freezing water that Tim and I used to do lunchtime laps in many years ago now. From there it was to Oma’s house where my parents were staying, and we went to a Vietnamese place for dinner with Bruno, Keren and Conrad, and finished up at their house for desert. I stayed that night at Oma’s.

Thursday morning I drove to Andrew’s friend Aaron’s warehouse in Ringwood to drop off Andrew’s turbo that he no longer needs. I hadn’t really spent much time talking to Aaron before, and was amazed that we chatted away quite easily and I was there for an hour! From there I headed to Danielle’s place in Bayswater, but before visiting her I dropped into a great second hand children’s clothes shop at The Basin called Hand Me Downs and purchased 11 little outfits for $1 each. It was great to catch up with Danielle and meet her son Nathan for the first time. He’s now 5 months old, and Danielle gave me her bassinet and some clothes that Nathan no longer fits into. He was a bit grizzly all afternoon, but he was still very cute!

I was spending the night at Tricia’s house again, but I’d only just got there when it was time to go and pick up Andrew from the airport. So off I went, picked him up and went back to Tricia’s. Ian was spending the night, and Aaron was there as well, and we all had a late dinner after Andrew and I got back. We celebrated with Trish the fact that she most likely has a new job because we wouldn’t be around in a week when it’s all sorted out.

Friday morning Andrew and I took the car back to Docklands Subaru because the engine light had come on again and the cruise control light was flashing. They told us that the problem was the catalytic converter, and it was just going to keep happening. I had hoped that we’d get some time using the cruise control on the way back to Sydney, but at that stage it seemed unlikely. And as expected, the engine light came on again not long after we left Melbourne so cruise control was inactive for the entire trip back to Sydney.

I had left my bag at Tricia’s house, so we had to pop back there to pick it up, and then we drove to Jeff’s Shed to meet up with mum and Andrew’s mum to go to the baby expo. Thankfully it wasn’t as busy there as it was in Sydney, and I felt I got more out of it. We spent about 3 hours at the expo, then walked to Swanston Street to have lunch at the Hari Krishner place, went to Koko Black for a chocolate each, and then got the tram back to the car. We drove to Oma’s house where we packed the car with all the stuff that Mum and Dad had brought to Melbourne for me, went to Tamani’s for dinner with mum, dad and Andrew’s parents, and then went back to Andrew’s parents’ place to stay the night.

Saturday morning we left early to drive to Echuca. It was a pretty hot day, and when we got there we went to the tourist info place to get ideas of things to do. We decided to do a 1 hour cruise on a paddle steamer, and ended up choosing to go on the one that starred in the 1980’s tv series All The Rivers Run. Before the cruise we had a yummy lunch of fish and chips, and afterwards we walked around town for a bit and then booked into our B&B which was a gorgeous old house with some 100 years of history. There were 2 rooms available to stay in, and we had the one with the spa bath in it…and given I’d never been in a spa bath, I just HAD to have a bath. It was devine. The B&B was also just walking distance from the restaurant we were booked into for dinner, and it was a very pleasant balmy evening and perfect for being outdoors.

Sunday morning we cooked our breakfast, and left for Sydney just before 9 am. It’s now nearly 5 pm and we have just passed Goulburn, so I guess we have about 2 hours to go. I’ve had a great week. 🙂

Out and about in Melbourne


06 Aug

Posted in Melbourne | No Comments »

We flew to Melbourne on Saturday morning the weekend before last.  Andrew’s parents collected us from the airport, took us back to their place in Greensborough and gave us a car to use for the weekend!  We drove over to Brighton to catch up with Kate and the kids, and to meet Morgan for the first time.  Kate’s parents gave us lunch and we had a lovely time.  We dropped in to see my grandmother (Oma) on the way back to Greensborough to tell her that (all going well) she’ll become a great grandmother in about 6 months, and she was so happy that she had to ring both my uncle (who lives a couple of blocks from her) and her sister (who lives in Austria).  My parents were visiting Oma’s sister to help celebrate her 90th birthday, so at least they got to find out that the scan had gone well. 

 We had dinner that night with Andrew’s parents at a Japanese restaurant in Greensborough.  The food was absolutely delicious, and I think Andrew’s dad was quite surprised at how much he enjoyed his meal. 

Sunday morning we went up in the balloon, had brekkie and drove back to Andrew’s parent’s place for a snooze.  Then we went to the city to meet up with Janis and go to the Pixar exhibition which was a bit of fun.  We then wandered around the city, bought some chocolates at Coco Black (very yummy chocolate) and wandered along the Yarra River to the bells.  Unfortunately they didn’t chime at 5 pm as the sign said they would, so after waiting for 15 minutes in the cold to hear them chime, we decided it was time to call it a day and Janis went home while Andrew and I went to find somewhere to have dinner.

After dinner we stopped to visit Tricia who was staying at her boyfriend’s house, so we got to meet the new man in her life.  He seems very nice and I think it’s wonderful that Trish has someone in her life who makes her so happy.

Monday I did the experiment that I had come to Melbourne to do, and got Andrew to help out.  We had lunch at one of Andrew’s favourite restaurants, picked Andrew’s mum up from work and got dropped off at the airport.  It was a really busy weekend!

Balloon flight


05 Aug

Posted in Melbourne | 1 Comment »

Last weekend Andrew and I went to Melbourne. We had a couple of vouchers for a balloon flight that my parents bought us that we had planned to use the morning before our wedding, but the flight had been cancelled due to poor weather. We decided to try again this time we were in Melbourne, because the tickets had to be used before January and we weren’t sure if we’d be back again before then. So Sunday morning we got up at 4:50 am and drove Andrew’s mum’s car to the Yarra Valley to Fergusson’s winery where we were to meet. There was a huge leg of a cow rotating on a huge fire, so it was nice and warm inside the winery. Outside, however, was very chilly.

At 6:30 am we got into the cars that took us to the balloon launch site, but the first place that was chosen was too windy and so we kept driving to another spot which was perfect….not a puff of air. Even though there was a frost, it didn’t feel so cold because there was no wind.

We helped to take the basket off a trailer and unroll the balloon. Some people held the bottom open while two fans blew air into the balloon. Then they blew some hot air in and the balloon started to rise. When it was up we all climbed into the basket and gently left the ground. It was so peaceful and lovely up in the air, and it didn’t feel cold because we were floating at the same speed as the air, and so there was no wind chill factor. That combined with the heat from the burners, and we were quite toasty and warm!

We flew for one hour and seven minutes before landing in a farmer’s paddock…one of the 45 sites that the company has for launching and landing. The balloon was landed on the trailer, and then we all helped to roll up the balloon and pack it away. We were very lucky with the weather, because it was the first time in a week that they’d been able to fly! And afterwards we went back to the winery for a yummy breakfast! It was such a wonderful morning.

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