Friday 16^th March

Just in case I’m not in internet range tomorrow…happy 4^th birthday darling Jemima, swing-girl extraordinaire!

We were, of course, in range yesterday, but so busybusybusy I didn’t get a chance even to look at my computer.  Such is inner-city Melbourne life!  Well not just inner-city…

In the morning I tootled along to the supermarket on my trusty bike to retrieve my missing groceries (steak, coffee, potatoes.)  With all of these items, plus a few new ones just-in-case of hunger amongst the 2Xs Boys, I made my way through the rain with bags slung on the handlebars and backpack bulging and finally got back to the YE Marina area.  I had planned to make a quiet cup of coffee, play WWF for a bit, and eat the kitkat I had secreted in a hidden (SECRET!!) place.  But…Pete, James and Michael were waiting impatiently for me; they hadn’t gone to the Grand Prix after all, and could I please get into the ute right now because we were off to Robert Trethewy’s farm, south of Geelong.  Oh OK, change of plan, no problems, so long as I can have my cup of coffee before embarking on this trek.

I always love a farm tour, and Robert’s farm, Leighburn, in Shelton, is very beautiful, a typical Western District (Vic) farm. (Or so I imagine…)  Sheep, cattle, crops, and some lovely chooks which provided us with a dozen beautiful fresh eggs.  Robert drove us around the farm.  I oohed and aahed and said, how lovely, how interesting, well done, what gorgeous calves! etc etc while James and Michael asked intelligent questions about farm machinery, crop rotation, fertilisers and Pete benignly opened and shut gates.

We drove back to town and had half an hour back on 2XS before it was time to go to Mike and Helen Smith’s for dinner.  James took a photo of me leaning over the parapet at their 19^th floor apartment; I look very gleeful but I’m not sure the full effect of the HEIGHT is visible…

This morning, eventually, Pete, James and Mike did go off to the Grand Prix, in variable weather conditions – a bit of heat, a bit of sun, a bit of wind, and quite a lot of rain.

I had my own Melbourne adventures.  First I walked into town from Docklands.  Melbourne is so beautiful, so majestic, with its stately Victorian buildings. I was very impressed with the immense Supreme Court and hope never to cross its hallowed portals… Once in town I (how surprising!!) bought some postcards and had a cup of coffee at Ca de Vin. 

After a teensy bit of shopping for clothes to inspire me to return to work happily I caught the tram out to the Richmond Ikea store.  Simple – find the bathroom cabinet Katy has her eye on, buy it, get out, go back to 2XS, then ride my bike along to look a the galleries.  But…no.  Nothing so simple!  I made my way through the maze which is Ikea, found the cabinet, and attempted to buy it.  There is only one available in the Southern Hemisphere, and fortunately it is here in Melbourne, two minutes from here.  Go to the checkout desk, pay for it, then pop along to the warehouse to pick it up.  (All of this from an extremely bored young Ikea Chick.)  Two minutes, yes... IN A RACING CAR!!  A good 15 minute trudge along the hot (yes temporarily it was hot) street, a long wait in a queue, and the very heavy flatpack was mine mine MINE.  Now just pop in a taxi and back to 2XS with the unwieldy load.  Forty minutes later my taxi turned up… I kept getting calls from the taxi depot – Where are you??  The driver is looking for you outside Ikea!  I did explain each time I was a block or so away, at the WAREHOUSE but the message only got through after lengthy consultations.  I was faintly hysterical by the time my driver arrived, although not from hunger - I had chosen to have an Ikea lunch of Swedish meatballs.  $4.25 and…not all that yummy but now I can say I have eaten Ikea meatballs, in case anyone ever asks.

Pete rang from the Grand Prix – could I ride along to Docklands and pick up the parcel which had finally arrived at the marina over there.  It is small, he said, cajolingly, and light.  Well it was light but not at all small.  The two Janes (lovely young women, yes both Jane,) at the marina office were thrilled to bits with my predicament.  They helped my tie the (yes again) unwieldy package onto my bike rack, and took a photo as I set off with it firmly MacGuyvered in place.  It only fell off once or twice, well not completely off, just dragging unattractively along the ground behind me in the puddles.  (James has just looked at the photo; he said, You look like a Vietnamese.)

So what I did I do next?  Other than cook a chicken curry for – ummm - maybe for tomorrow tonight, maybe for our 2XS-ers yet to return.  Yes you guessed it, I got my hair cut, at Papillion Salon, right next to the marina office.  The trouble with having a shorter hair style is…you have to get it cut all the time, every six weeks, otherwise it looks just frightful.  I hate having it too short… Just right lasts for about two weeks, and my two weeks is just about over.  A lovely young stylist with pink hair, Samantha, came to do my bidding, and I said I REALLY only wanted a very slight bit of a trim.  She cut my hair brutally short, with a sweet smile, and we had a lovely chat about. life, love, the universe, everything.  My brutally short hair has passed the test – so far, Pete, James and Jabba have seen me, have smiled kindly, and have …not noticed. 

The crowds are massing on 2XS.  My chicken curry is not needed tonight; tomorrow, at sea, no doubt it will be A HIT.  We are off to Victoria Street, to a Vietnamese restaurant – maybe I should ride my bike, with a big load on the back…

Wednesday 14^th March

Still warm and balmy in Melbourne, with just a hint of lightning on the horizon.  We have increased the population of 2XS, by more than double:

Michael Agnew

James Headlam

Jason Bayley-Stark (aka Jabba)

are now with us.  Jabba is a late starter – he will come on board on Friday, freshly back from N. and S. America and the fleshpots of Copacabana and Ipanema.  James and Michael arrived from Tasmania this evening.  Pete and I went to the supermarket while we waited to pick them up from the bus-stop and we managed to leave behind one bag of groceries…and no not the one with Doritos in it, the one with Scotch fillet steak and a four-pack of freshly ground coffee in it.  Oh woe… Other than that all is well and we are very happy to see our new 2XS-ers.  We have just had a delicious dinner (late!) at a beautiful restaurant on the river – Bistro Vite and now the men are all going through safety procedures on deck – much raucous laughter in amongst serious discussions of how long they would last overboard at night.  (Not long…)

Today Pete had lunch with an ex-Tasmanian lawyer friend, and I had lunch with ex-Tasmanian nieces – beautiful Jo and beautiful Isabelle.  Pete had gourmet fare at a gorgeous restaurant near the Supreme Court; we had small savoury treats in a little café, Journal, in the Melbourne Library.

And in the morning – oh dear – Pete and I had a failed and slightly (ahem) stressful attempt to get to Ikea, to buy a bathroom cabinet for Katy in Hobart… I will take all of the blame for the failure… I had looked up the address – 630 Victoria Street –and programmed it into the NavMan, which faithfully took us there.  Pete was sure the NavMan was WRONG WRONG WRONG and indeed it was… There was only a small terrace house at 630 Victoria Street; we had gone in entirely the wrong direction, against Pete’s natural instincts.  I had omitted to program in RICHMOND, which is where this Ikea megastore is to be found.  By the time we got there I had 15 minutes to get to the city center to meet Jo and Isabelle… Pete drove off to meet Fabian; I didn’t even try to “pop” into Ikea to find the cabinet.  Ikea is a bit of a hellmouth, a labyrinth of majestic proportions.  I would never have got through it in time to be in the city in 15 minutes.  As it turned out I was 30 minutes late even whizzing there straight away in a taxi from the jaws/doors of the hellmouth.  Puff pant stress!!  Maybe tomorrow I can go there in a tram… Pete, Mike and James, with Pete’s cousin Robert from Geelong, are going to the Grand Prix…

And…of course….James is thrilled to bits to find the 44 gallon drum tied onto the rear deck with the large and rusty ex-anchor chain in it, just for him.

Tuesday 13^th March

Happy birthday Nicky, happy birthday Monique – daughter and sister!

Our Melbourne 2XS days are rushing past.  Lots of fun, lots of friends.

Yesterday we rode down to Mornington to spend some time with Cam and Del who are on their way from the Gold Coast to Western Australia with their caravan.  We went to the local yacht club which was heaving with people - a hot, sunny public holiday Monday.  Perfect for trade, perfect for hoicking the prices way up.  We had delicious bruschettas which cost about as much as eye fillet steak on a normal day but never mind – the ambiance was great, the view sensational.

It is 60 miles from the caravan park Cam and Del were staying at to Melbourne.  We were due at St Kilda, for dinner with our ex-(briefly)Tasmanian friends Liz and Robbie at seven.  I said it was a good thing we had the bikes in the back of the ute – we could go for an invigorating bike ride along the foreshore at St Kilda, maybe.  But…no.  We drove bumper-to-bumper nearly all the way to St Kilda and got there in just under three hours.  Just in time for dinner with the ever-hospitable Burns family.

Today Pete built a big wooden slat construction for the bunk in the other big cabin.  Poor Steve had suffered greatly from cold damp wetness in his ten days on 2XS.  This will never happen again which is small consolation to poor shivering Steve!

I didn’t stay to hand nails through the doorway; I went to town with Del, who had persuaded Cam to drive up from Mornington - - it took them two, not three hours to travel the 60 kilometres.  (Melbourne traffic is hell!)  Del said she hadn’t been to the city center for 40 years so she really enjoyed our few hours strolling through the Big and Little streets, the arcades, David Jones.  Cam was certain that she would spend up a storm and his face was wreathed with smiles and delight when we turned up with no shopping bags at all.  He doesn’t approve of SHOPPING.  I had bought a pair of silk knickers, in a pleasing pale shade of pink, vastly reduced to $10.  Other than that we had bought a cup of coffee and then a bowl of soup – we were not good for the economy of the CBD.  We had a good time, gasping and stretching our eyes at the price of this and of that, admiring beautiful things, raising our eyebrows at strange and unusual fashions.

Tonight we went to dinner in Docklands with Pete’s friends Jo and Malcolm Cleland, who have lent him their farm ute.  It was Pete’s idea to bestow a big treat on them as a thank you for the ute – steamboat for four, in a new Chinese restaurant.  It was a very warm night so I wore one of my Vanuatu dresses, the one like a tropical cocktail.  Quite fetching when I am all warm and pink with heat but…not so good with goosebumps… It was icy cold in the restaurant - oh that cursed air-conditioning!  I managed not to whinge too much, and the steamy hot steamboat did warm me up.  But…poor Pete, he hadn’t realised that not only was this restaurant not licensed to provide alcohol, it was also not licensed for BYO… We each had a nice big refreshing glass of…water!!  Now Pete never drinks water, not unless it has Aspro Clear in it, so he had a completely dry dinner.  We did of course have fun, dropping bits of fish, bits of spinach, bits of goodness knows-what into the steaming broth and fishing it out later.  Some of our bits of lovely fresh green vegetable stayed in too long and turned a not-so-appetising shade of khaki.  These were discarded in our bowls, next to the poor rejected tofu which nobody seemed to like at all.  (And in case I hear a cry of outrage – I have tried to love tofu…but, please tell me, what is there to love??)

Tomorrow is another day…James Headlam is arriving, and his cousin, Michael Agnew.  They are coming with us to King island and maybe beyond.  And at lunchtime I am talking my very own nieces, Jo and Isabelle out for lunch in Flinders Lane.  Good times…

11^th March 2012

Well 2XS is still in the middle of Melbourne and in the middle of the Moomba Festival.  More luck than good management, but what fun!

The bikes have been, yet again, invaluable.  Pete and I have ridden happily for many miles along the bike paths which line the Yarra River.  We met up with Pete’s daughter and family, who are staying at Quay West hotel, not far from this marina, just behind Flinders Street Station.  We took over from Nicole and James in the midst of the Moomba Merriment and sent them off shopping (Colette Dinnigan was having a big wonderful sale…)  Suddenly we stopped being carefree people on bikes, stopping and staring at this and that, and became cautious pram-pushers and hand-holders.  (The bikes were safely stored in the basement at Quay West so fear not!)

Matilda, who is only just one, was fast asleep in her stroller, and the older two, Grace (8) and Olivia (nearly 5) were very keen to WIN A PRIZE.  Oh dear… Off into the hellmouth of rides, games, sausages and fried potatoes in batter on a stick.  Poor Matidla awoke to find herself in NoisyWorld and was most startled to become the proud owner of a bright yellow plush banana with big googley eyes – I made sure the girls won THREE cheap-o prizes not just one or two.  She looked most unhappy – where were Mummy and Daddy??  So we made our way very swiftly to the only icecream stand available to buy fruity icy poles.  Oh dear they had run out…only magnums and cornettos available.  Pete bought three magnums and Matilda changed from imminent tears to current joy.  At one stage Pete thought she might like to swap her great big fat choccy icecream for his small remnant.  Dear little dainty Matilda suddenly developed great strength in her fist and held on for dear life to her big fat choccy treat.  It melted, of course, all over her dear little dainty outfit and she was very soon a sticky slimy vanilla-and-chocolate mess.  I took a photo and sent it to James and Nicole, in Colette Dinnigan’s elegant South Yarra shop, saying, “Aren’t we THE BEST babysitters ever?”  People passing by stopped to stare at our sticky baby in amazement, and everyone seemed to find it all very amusing.  We got back to the hotel before Nicole and James and whipped everyone swiftly into a big deep bath.

We went to dinner at Tutta Bene just round the corner from Quay West.  Back at the hotel we watched the fabulous Moomba Festival fireworks, to a loud and crashing Carmina Burana soundtrack, very appropriate, from the 13^th floor where the Darcey family had been evacuated after a flood in the 6^th floor rooms (yes it was Pete and me, washing the chocolate-encrusted clothes in the handy Bendix washing machine…Who could tell it wasn’t properly connected???)

(I had a few pangs of longing for my own “grannies” and rang Katy, to find that the children were all very happy and playing a wonderful game involving jumping off the outdoor table and throwing potatoes into a bucket.  Much fun and probably less exhausting than traipsing round the Moomba Festival in search of light refreshments.)

At about ten we retrieved our bikes and whizzed back to our lovely Southbank marina.  It was a totally enchanting bike ride, wending our way through the cheery crowds, riding past buskers singing, strumming, miming, joking.  And here we are again, moored in the Yarra, with party boats passing by – all the women inside dancing (“I Will Survive” is a perennial favourite) while the men stand on the outside deck, drinking beer, laughing, smoking.

We are very happy.

Saturday 10th March

Back on 2XS…with its gleamingly clean carpets and DRY beds.

Sad to leave my darling little ones (my grannies, as they say in the Pacific Islands…)

But…happy to be on CleanBoat, and to be with Pete, who is also excessively clean and tidy after being in these beautiful inner-city Melbourne marinas, with clean fluffy white towels provided.  (Two of them.  Two different marinas, two fluffy white towels provided in ech mrina.)

We are in the very middle of the city, on the Yarra, surrounded by high-rise sparkly buildings.

And all is well!!!

Friday 9th March

This is my last day in Hobart for quite a few weeks.  back to sea, well, marina...tomorrow night.
Yes I  will miss my family but I am looking forward to being with Pete again, and to being in my cosy nest on 2XS.  At least...I hope it is cosy and not soggy...

Thursday 8th March

All I know is that 2Xs has reached Docklands in Melbourne safe and sound, if not – ahem – dry.  And Pete has to move the boat to Pier 35 on the Yarra on Saturday.

On the home ie Hobart front – well this is not a grannyblog… But all is well and I have very kindly and generously bought each of the three older children (2, 4 and 6) in this house…a musical birthday card – Star Wars, and Disney Princesses, and Tinkerbell.  Oh deary me… I should have waited to give them as I stepped onto the plane, they are so noisy and annoying… Something to remember me by!

I had a night out at the pub (Republic in North hoabrt) last night with a group of long-term friends – much catching up and a blessedly early night, and some new foes to defeat at Words With Friends!  Plus lunch at Shippies – thank you Dad and Fleur!  Love that seafood chowder and the glass of champagne which magically appears at my side!