Day 29 23/02/12

Hi ho, Hi ho, it's off to Ballarat we go!
I woke up to another beautiful, crisp, clear morning and took the opportunity to do some yoga by the lake.

Yoga by the lake

Then I was approached by this older lady who was up for a bit of chat and was quite interested in Freda as she's keen to do some travel too once some inheritance money comes through.
We had a good old chat and as we were leaving she said she had something for me and raced back to her car.
She said she was going to give it to a friend who she didn't catch her before she left so she handed me an envelope.
My initial reaction was "Oh God, this crazy old lady's not trying to give me money is she?" But I looked inside and it was just a newspaper clipping about Tasmania - thank goodness! Seeing an opportunity to get rid of another Common Trees cd, I fetched one out of the car and gave it to her - she seemed quite chuffed....wait til she hears it!! haha
So I drove about 2 hours to get to Ballarat - went through Castlemaine and Daylesford, didn't stop as I wasn't hungry and there didn't seem to be all that much to look at just passing through.
I got to Ballarat and soon discovered it too is afflicted with the curse of the parking metres in the CBD. So I found a place to park and went for a walk around the CBD and to the tourist info place.
Isn't it funny how you get a feeling for a place when you first arrive - it may be accurate or not depending on the mood you're in when you arrive, what the weather's like, a good or bad thing that may happen to you but after spending the last couple of days in Bendigo, Ballarat just has a more dirty, city and negative vibe than Bendigo.
Maybe I'm just talking shit but they're the first feelings after a few hours in town.

Downtown Ballarat

I eventually found the Botanical Gardens which are quite nice and next to the lake so settled down for some lunch, reading and writing, as you do.

Journal - check, Pen - check, Book - check.

Ballarat Botanical Gardens...better than Bendigo's...not that it's a competition or anything...

Within the gardens is "Prime Minister Avenue" which features a bronze bust of all the Prime Ministers of Australia from Barton to Rudd.
The birds obviously weren't a fan of Malcolm Fraser's work:

Putting shit on a politician

>Insert topical political caption here<

This bust was a little bit scary:

Scary Bust aka 'The Torri Spelling'

After dinner I went to the Bridge Hotel which I noticed on a poster in a shop window that a Jam night was to be had tonight.
It wasn't much of a jam night with one guy playing an acoustic guitar and singing for the entire time I was there.
I felt a little out of place with all these uni students in there so made my exit on sunset.
I drove around the lake to my parking spot and jumped out to take a pic of the sunset. This photo doesn't do it justice:

Lake Wendouree

I then drove to my parking spot for the night overlooking the lake and settled in.
For some reason I felt really creeped out tonight about the parking spot. A couple of cars around me came and left, and the water lapping around the lake was making me imagine these sea monsters stepping out of the lake and attacking me (yes, I have an overactive imagination at times!) but when the street lights went out at about midnight I lost my nerve and hightailed it outta there. I didn't even stop to put some shorts on so here I am driving around Ballarat in the middle of the night in just my jockeys and I'm thinking, "How the hell am I gonna explain this to the cops if I get pulled up?!?". Anyway, I soon found a spot to park which felt a lot better and settled in for some (sea-monster free) sleep.

Day 28 - 22/02/12

I enjoyed my first day in Bendigo so much I thought, why not stay another?
I didn't have any troubles parking by the lake and woke up really refreshed and to this lovely view first thing in the morning:

Lake Weeroona first thing in the morning (and by first thing, I'm talkin' 9am)

There is something about the cool, crisp, fresh mornings that you only get in the country and this morning was one of them.
I went for a walk along the 7km Bendigo walking trail which stretched from the Lake to the Botanic Gardens and another great example of some really good community infrastructure.

Bendigo walking trail

Botanical Gardens...not a patch on Wagga's

Unfortunately the Botanical Gardens were not all that great, and these birds realised that so decided to give me at least one good photo op:

"Ok, our Gardens are lame so we're gonna sit still and let you take a photo of us to compensate, ok?"

The gardens are obviously no place for a stag party either (ha, ha, ha):

And without further ado, I give you, Stag.

The track wound back past the local pool and I observed one of the teachers giving the kids lessons on how to do bombs...he went through the entire arsenal including, the can opener, horsey, jack knife.....that sorta thing never happened in MY day! When did school become fun?!?!
By the time I got back to Freda it was midday and time for lunch and to head into town to the library (time flies when you're on holidays!).
I've often wondered what it would be like to be a full-time writer, working your own hours, and just writing all day so this afternoon I dedicated some time to this pursuit by writing a piece on the Numerella Folk Festival which I attended in January. It was really fun, sitting and writing once I got started. By the time I finished the first draft I had more than 1000 words and eventually managed to edit it down to about 600. Just before the library closed I emailed my piece off to all the Folk mags around the country and considered my time at the library this afternoon well spent.
I picked up some supplies for dinner - and may I say that since my tummy troubles of last week, I have not been inclined to eat anything cooked or processed and I'm feeling a lot better for it. I don't know how long this will last and whether eventually I'll get back to my old eating habits but for the moment it feels really good to be buying and eating fresh vegies, fruit and nuts as I feel like it. Though I did indulge in a sneaky Yoplait Choc-Coconut LeRice snack after dinner:

No! Duckys that's MY LeRice dessert snacky

Oh I should also add that my camera tripod is broken so you may be seeing less shots of me until I get a new one.  It was a complete pain in the arse to set up shots of myself when I had the tripod but now it's becoming even more frustrating. Example:

No tripod and the camera topples like a house of cards..ugh...(and no, i'm not scratching my arse!)

By sunset I'd finally managed to prop the camera in a position where it actually got me in the frame. Never mind the fact I would have looked like a total weirdo to all the joggers, walkers, picnicers and anyone else in the vicinity trying to set up the shot. UUUUUGH!

Day 27 - 21/02/12

Today I hit the road again, destination Bendigo.
When I got there I went for a little drive around then stopped in at the Tourist Info Centre.
After my parking ticket in Melbourne, I've been very conscious of looking at parking signs and I soon discovered that to park ANYWHERE within the Bendigo CBD you need to purchase a ticket.
Now, having grown up in Wagga where there never has (and hopefully never will be) parking metres, and being rather "dollar conscious" by nature, it was a bit off putting to rock up to a new town and be confronted with this ticket malarky. I know in the grand scheme of things, it's no big deal but one thing I did observe over the course of my time in Bendigo, there were less customers in the areas that had parking restrictions than the areas that did (make of that what you will, Bendigo Council).
So anyways, I eventually got to the tourist info place and was completely fussed over by the women there and walked out with literally an armful of pamphlets, visitor guides, maps and if I had've stayed much longer I'm sure the kitchen sink was on the cards, God love 'em.
I checked out the art gallery then went for a walk around the CBD which had a really nice feel to it.

Nothing quite like a nice garden and old timey buildings

I walked past a few pubs and noticed they were advertising live music on the weekends (good to see) and popped into a music store and picked up the "Bendigo Live Guide" which detailed all the upcoming gigs around town in the next month - what a great idea!
It was then time to head to Rosalind  Park for some lunch, a read and to work on some lyrics.

Rosalind Park

I noticed a hell of a lot of younger kids, and by younger I mean teenagers, about and figured there must be a high school nearby - I hope it was a high school and not university because if these kids were university age then I'm REALLY getting older.
It's funny that now I'm not working during the day, I have time to notice other things and it was funny to observe the hairstyles, fashions and attitudes of the young ones these days.  The boys with their floppy fringes that they're always playing with so it sits just in front of their eyes and the girls with their short shorts. Ah, the times, they are a changin'. It's also funny to observe the awkwardness and little games that go on between teenage boys and girls (this will never change) - the boys showing off on their skateboards or with the soccer ball pretending they don't want to be noticed and the girls chatting to each other, pretending not to notice.
It makes me glad I'm over all that now and pretty comfortable with myself and my place in the world and don't have to go through all that bullshit anymore.
Ah, so where was I?
After lunch I went for a walk around the Chinese area:

Big fibreglass lotus flower...now that's just wong... (much like that joke)

I laughed when I saw this. How old am I?

Then went for a walk up Bendigo's version of the Eiffel Tower:

Bendigo's Eiffel Tower

The view from the top

I went for a drive to the lake and for a walk around it - quite nice. I also spotted a place overlooking the lake to sleep tonight. There's no "no camping" signs so I'm gonna chance it.

Lake Weeroona

That night I went to a Jam Night at the Golden Vine Hotel - who'd have thought, live music in Bendigo on a Tuesday! I'm soon realising that Bendigo is a place that loves music - if only Wagga could take a leaf from their book!
The host for the night got up first and played a few songs:

Funniest man in Bendigo right there

And his between band banter was absolute GOLD - he was certainly "Mr Personality".
I left at about 11.30pm and there were still at least another 7 bands still to play!
First impressions of Bendigo very good.

Day 26 - 20/02/12

A very lazy day today - a fair bit of drizzle and general crappy weather so it was a good day to spend in the library writing some blog notes and doing some reading.
It's always a weird feeling when a festival is over and everyone goes back to their usual routines and here I am just hanging out wondering what I'm gonna do next - a good problem to have I suppose!
Nothing much more to add about today. I thought I'd better take a couple of photos to show today wasn't a complete non-event:

Ohhh, picture of the view from my desk in the library, how exciting!

Old timey building in Echuca

Day 25 - 19/02/12

Day three of the Festival and it was time for me to earn my free festival ticket with a shift on the bar.
I got there at about 11am and met the rest of the crew who were all really nice.
I was a bit nervous about doing this shift as the last time I poured a beer was at the South Wagga Bowling Club (RIP) more than 10 years ago.
It didn't help that one of my first customers had a go at my shakey hands - but I just lied and said I had a big night last night and that seemed to satisfy his curiosity.
But once things started to get busy and we got into the swing of things it was all good and actually quite fun. It felt strange (but good) to be working again after almost two months off.

Rare sight - Me in a white shirt, it felt so wrong.

I knocked off at about 3pm and had a feed, courtesy of the festival and settled in to watch Tex Perkins and his latest band.
His set was very laid back and countrified which suited me just fine. He had all the middle-aged women in the crowd swooning. I overheard the makings of a domestic when one woman said to her husband "He's just so sexy" and hubby wasn't real impressed.

"Oi Tex ya grandmother wears army boots!" I shouted. "Who said that?" said Tex. (Not really)

Tex Perkins and his biggest fan. Aww c'mon it HAD to be said.

Then it was time for the Festival's headliner and Men at Work frontman, Colin Hay.
I had never seen him live before and walked away very impressed with his musicianship, songwriting, storytelling and general stage presence.
He told some really good stories in between songs (especially one about having Paul McCartney over for dinner) and had the crowd hanging on every word. For the record he did play "Down Under" but I think he did so because the crowd were not expecting him to, they were quite happy with whatever he wanted to do.

Colin Hay - He comes from a Land Down Under.

On my way out I ran into Craig from the night before who appeared a little more normal and less distracted today. Apparently he runs historic walks around town and offered to show me around a few of the historical sights. I was really itching to get back to the caravan park and have a swim in the pool while the sun was still up but I figured I need to just keep saying "yes" to whatever opportunities come up so agreed to go on the walk.
It was pretty uneventful, I learned a bit about Echuca's past with the riverboats and what not and Craig did not once stop for breath. I must admit I wasn't paying all that much attention so was caught out when he asked me if I had any questions. The best I could do was "So which way does the river flow?" haha!
A couple of times he angled about the possibility of tagging along on my travels to Port Fairy but in the end I had to tell him I'd prefer to travel solo for the moment.
Had he been blonde, 20 years younger and had a name starting with "In" and ending with "ga" I may have reconsidered but as it stands it was just not gonna happen.
He seemed like a nice enough dude with his heart in the right place, and I don't think he was homosexual (not that there's anything wrong with that) there's just no place for it inside Freda (or me!).
I finally got back to the caravan park and had a glorious swim in the pool with the sun setting, the gumtrees swaying and the cockatoos gliding gently overhead. A great way to finish off a pretty good weekend.

I was gonna set up a shot of me in the pool but there was some pretty scary looking bikie dudes in close proximity so I didn't risk it. I hope you understand.

Day 24 - 18/02/12

Woke up after a nice little sleep in and had a (glorious) hot shower in the amenities block.
Speaking of which, this is the first amenities block I've come across that has a radio going 24/7. It's quite a good idea as it's nice to listen to some tunes whilst you have a shit, shower or shave. It's also quite useful in helping to block out the god awful noises that some blokes make whilst performing any of the previously mentioned functions!
I drove into town and had a walk about the riverboats area and the main street.

Ah, nothing like a re-created old timey street to lure in the tourists...

Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river...

I also stumbled across the "Thong Tree" - does it get any more Australian than this?

The Thong Tree: More Aussie than a shrimp on the barbie

I then drove over the river to neighbouring Moama and had a lazy lunch and read in this ampitheatre type thing:

Beautiful day courtesy of Echuca. Feet by Steve.

Then it was off again to the festival for an afternoon and evening of more music.
First up was a guy called Ryan Meeking - he was very good - good voice and some good songs.
Next up was Lanie Lane who played mostly solo apart from a couple of songs where she was joined by a dude on trumpet.
I was surprised to observe a big chunk of the crowd knew most of her songs - I thought a couple sounded familiar but it just goes to show how out of touch I've been with listening to new music in the past 12 months. Anyways, she was quite good and had a cute stage personality.

Mmmm, chick with guitar - Lanie Lane

Then it was The Audreys who played as a duo. They were ok but I wasn't all that impressed, would take The Waifs over them any day.

The Audreys.... zzzzzzzzzzz

I then went and got some tucker and got back just in time to catch the start of Mick Thomas' set (from Weddings, Parties, Anything). I really enjoyed this set and he even played his hit song "Father's Day" which was a suprise. His in-between song banter was quite funny and he told a couple of good yarns.
It's funny how long the wheels take to turn in the music business. He played a song which he announced was a new song and would be on his forthcoming cd to be released in a couple of weeks. The song was one I remember him playing at an APRA songwriters in the round afternoon at Tamworth two years ago. So it was even newer then but it just shows how long it sometimes takes to get a song, once written, recorded and released.

Mick Thomas spinning a yarn.

After the set finished I sat back on the hill, writing in my journal and taking a few photos when I was approached by a dude called Craig.
Now I know a lot of people can talk, but man, this Craig could TALK and talk, and talk, and talk...
After a while he said "You're not saying much" and I felt like saying, "Well, you haven't shut up in the past half an hour and the couple of times I did try to get a word in you didn't listen anyway!". It didn't really bother me either way, but he ended up talking through most of Mark Seymour's set so I don't really know how it was.
After Craig eventually moved on, I then got talking to a Julie. She was a 20-something girl up from Melbourne for the weekend.
We were just chatting about general stuff, well, she was doing most of the chatting, and she mentioned how cute and shy I was - so I thought I may be in with a chance here. But then the conversation turned to her husband and how she was not happy that he had spent all afternoon playing with random kids rather than hanging out with her. The conversation just spiralled further from there to the point where I was effectively counscelling her about a situation which I knew nothing about and really didn't want to know any more. I ended up saying she'd better get back to her husband and she said I should meet him but I respectfully and sensibly declined.
Fair dinkum, who are these people and where are the non-psycho, unattached single women in this world? You've gotta laugh but at times I feel like the flame to which these psycho moths are drawn to. Ah well, it takes all types.
I stuck around to see half of The Bamboos set but by this stage I'd had enough and it was back to the Caravan Park for me.

Day 23 - 17/02/12

I'm back, baby!!
My lord, you don't appreciate your health until it is cruelly taken away from you but today is a good day to be alive and feeling 100% better - woohoo!
Today I headed off to Echuca which is on the Murray River for the inaugural Riverboats Music Festival.
Apparently this is the first year of the festival (hence the "inaugural bit I guess) - Echuca had previously held an annual jazz festival but it was decided this year to re-vamp it and turn it into a more general music festival.
I got in at about 6pm and had a little bit of difficulty finding the caravan park as my gps could not locate the street it was on. I was however able to use the maps on my phone and eventually found it - what did people do in the days before gps and phones? Probably used their brains a bit more I guess!!
Freda seemed pretty happy with our pozzie:

Which was only about 15 metres from the mighty Murray:

I then went into town to check out the opening night of the Festival.
The setting was really nice, surrounded by massive gum trees, the river and a lagoon. With the sun setting and a gentle breeze, the conditions could not have been better to kick back and listen to some music.

Festival by day

Festival by night

I missed the first performer but caught the next group who were a 20 member African choir with energy to burn.
Then at about 9pm the night's main attraction, Vicka and Linda came on and they put on a pretty good show to a crowd who I reckon was nearing 3000 at a rough guess.

Vicka & Linda

I had not seen them live before but I was fairly familiar with their work with The Black Sorrows and other tv appearances.
Their band had a couple of what I would call, celebrity musos in You Am I guitarist Davey Lane and former Even (one of my fave Aussie bands of the 90's) singer songwriter Ash Naylor trading off guitar lines from either side of the stage.

Davey Lane

Ash Naylor

Linda did an encore on ukulele then it was time to go home - good to see some music and good to feel healthier again.

Days 19-22

Lets just say during the course of these days I was very much MIA (missing in action).
I saw a LOT of this public toilet, 20km out of Ballarat:

uuughhhhhhh...

Being sick isn't fun, especially when you're relying on public toilets. Welcome to life on the road, Stevo!

Day 18 12/2/2012

WORST. DAY. ON TOUR.
Stomach flu + gastro = not good.
Spent all day either going to bathroom, thinking about going to the bathroom, sleeping, listening to talkback radio, feeling so sorry for myself when I should be at the Country Music Festival! Aggghh.
As a funny aside though, I was positioned near the tennis courts and observed this young kid practicing against a brick wall. I heard these grunts and groans and thought he must have been playing against someone, but no, it was just him and the wall. The trouble is, I'm not sure whether he was working more on his groundstrokes or his grunting! Let me put my old person's cap on when I say, "It's a sad state of affairs when these young ones are working on their grunts rather than their backhands". But, it's the way things are heading...
Now something, kinda gross, but very funny (in hindsight) happened that night but I can't reveal in this blog what happened in case it literally incriminates me. So next time you see me at the pub, buy me a pint and I'll tell you the tale.

Day 17 11/02/12

It was a weird feeling not sleeping inside Freda - it's only been a couple of weeks yet I'm already becoming quite attached to her! haha
I had a funny feeling last night that I should have either slept in her or that some bad shite was gonna go down - and it it did, but luckily Freda was spared.
I got up after breakfast to move her around closer to Amanda's place and there was a guy running up and down the street looking a little distressed. He came up to me and told me his bike had been stolen from his van last night, the van that was parked RIGHT NEXT TO MINE. So I dodged a bullet there. Had they've known in my van was 100 copies of my latest Ep "Leaving Home" I'm sure they would not have thought twice about busting into Freda and getting away with all that musical bounty.
There was also graffiti on the wall and on a tv mere metres away from Freda that wasn't there yesterday so given what a nice, white, virgin canvas Freda's exterior offers the budding delinquent artist, I was fortunate she was not tagged either.
Ah, as Amanda sang all morning "Inner city pressure". Melbourne you have not endeared yourself to me in the slightest. Time to get away from the city again.
And off to Whittlesea for the Country Music Festival.
It took me about 45 minutes to get there and once there I had a brief drive around to see where things were - it didn't take too long.
Then it was off to the Bowling Club for a "Songwriters in the Round" with Shane Nicholson, Sam Hawkesly and Kim Ritchie.
This was an afternoon well spent as the performances and talking between songs was at times inspiring, humorous and just entertaining.  Even if you're not a song writer and just like music, I'd encourage you to go to see a "Songwriters in the round" performance - it's a great chance to hear about how songwriters come up with songs or to learn about things about the art and mystery of songwriting.
As you probably know, I'm a pretty reserved and quiet dude, unlikely to approach anyone unless they approach me first.  I wanted to give Shane Nicholson a copy of my cd as you just never know what might happen (perhaps Kasey Chambers will love one of the songs, decide to record it and make me rich?) plus James, who plays guitar in the Common Trees and his wife Carla are pretty big fans.
During the break I ummmed and aahhred as to whether to "seek out the Shane" and pussy-footed about too long and missed my chance.
So when the show wrapped up I knew it was now or never and I bit the bullet, "grew a pair" and approached him to give me my cd.
As I did so, expecting him to just fob me off or be a complete arsehole, I was taken aback at how approachable, friendly and generally "cool" he was.
I didn't take up too much of his time but it was cool to think he gave me a bit of his time and I was proud of the fact I actually approached someone semi-famous AND gave them a cd of mine. Whether the cd actually makes it to his cd player or not I'll never know, but the fact I plucked up the courage to approach him with it was a little victory for me.

The talented (and nice bloke) Shane Nicholson

After this, Whittlesea took a bit of a nosedive for me.
Upon leaving the Bowls Club I decided to walk up the main street to scope out my dinner options for the evening.
To my surprise, walking down the main street in my direction was a group of youths brandishing baseball bats!
I stopped to mentally check that this scene was in fact real and unfolding before me. "Teens, baseball bats, main street, Whittlesea, broad day light". Yep, it was happening alright.
"Maybe they're off to baseball practice?" I hoped as they got closer. Nope, kids who have baseball practice normally don't put their bats down their pants.
"Ok, do I cross the street and/or go the other way in case they decide to have a go at the lanky hippy guy with glasses?" No, that's just gonna look weak and draw attention to you.
"BUT THEY HAVE FREAKIN' BASEBALL BATS!!!!"
And before I had decided what to do, they had passed me, off down the road to some bruhaha that was, erm, brewing.
So yeah, that was a bit weird.
But not as weird as the night that was the result of a meatlovers pizza I was to have an hour later.
I thought it was a bit odd that it arrived 5 minutes after ordering it, but gave it no further thought as I dived head first into the meaty goodness.
Two hours later I wish I had not partaken in said pizza....it made me SO CROOCK.
As soon as the sun set I went back to Freda to settle in for the night, feeling a bit strange but thinking it may have just been tiredness from sleeping on a futon the night before.  But by midnight I was shaking, sweating and totally hulucinating, seeing all sorts of weird colours on the back of my eyelids - it was like my own personal Fantasia!
I somehow managed to get into the driver seat (Ace Ventura style) and drove to the sports ground where I jumped out of the car in my boxers and let the cold night air wash over me and eventually bring my body temperature down. My god, I was sick.
I eventually settled into some fitful sleep but worse was to come the next day.

Day 16 10/02/12

Today involved a lot of driving, which was fine as the windy weather after lunch time made it unsuitable to do anything else.

Good day for wind...and hoodies

Before breakfast I went for a little drive around Wonthaggi and the place is a lot bigger than I first thought.
Then it was on to the Mornington Peninsula. Why the Mornington Peninsula, you ask? Why not! I say.

Well one of the reasons is that I may never get as far down as here again so I may as well see what there is while I'm here.
The other, and slightly more pathetic and deluded reason is because "Coxy", lead singer of one of my favourite bands from the 90's The Fauves, lives or at least lived in Mornington Peninsula so I owed it to myself to check it out if I was in the area.
It's funny, driving there, my mind was wandering and I played out a little scenario in my head whereby I'd drive past a little coffee shop and there would be Coxy sipping on his beverage of choice. I'd pull up, say "Heeeeey Coxy!" and we'd sit down and have a bit of a chinwag and we'd finish off by a shake of the hand and me giving him a copy of my cd (of which I'm sure he would pan mercilessly after hearing it).
Well, that didn't happen. Though it reminds me of a time many years ago when we were on a family holiday and passing through Newcastle and I was absolutely convinced in my own mind that we were going to run into silverchair JUST because we were in Newcastle. That never happened either.
It just goes to show that you're never too old to have unrealistic expectations about meeting your heroes in their home towns.
So my trip around the Peninsula began at Hastings (boring, no character), Flinders (small but kinda hip), Sorrento (nice but very commercialised), Portsea (just a freckle on the arse of the Peninsula), and Mornington (bustling place with the longest main street I've seen on my travels so far).

This is the bay at Sorrento...and unfortunately I had Tina Arena's "Sorrento Moon" going around in my head ALL afternoon!

I'd warned my sister, Amanda, the night before that I may pop in for a random visit on Friday to check out her new digs in Fitzroy North so with perfect timing, that being peak hour, I braved the Melbourne traffic to get to Amanda's place.
So what? Big deal? What's the problem? I may here you ask. Well for those who don't know me all that well, I HATE driving. Well, perhaps that is being a bit harsh but I certainly don't enjoy it so like my Grandfather before me, if given an opportunity to play passenger and be driven I gladly take it with open arms.
I could have wimped out and stayed the night in the Peninsula but, in keeping with the notion of wanting to keep challenging myself, Stevie and Freda took on the big bad Melbourne traffic and eventually won!!
I think my couple of years of driving in Brisbane helped me to get through it but I was up against it with congestion everywhere, having to hop on and off freeways as I didn't have an e-pass, it being 5 o clock on a FRIDAY and there was an impending storm which makes people antsy anyway. Combine this with BLOODY VICTORIAN DRIVERS and it was an awful little automotive cocktail.
Needless to say, I was shaken and a little stirred by the time I got to Amanda's but Freda and I had survived.

Nothing says driving in Melbourne like a tram up your clacker!

It was good catching up with my little sis and she was kind enough to shout her bro to a lovely chicken parma and a couple of beers at The Standard Hotel just down the road.
Not wanting to do the sensible thing and get someone to take a photo of us, we persisted with the "camera on the table and crouch" approach which had a few false starts but we eventually got there:

Not too bad for a first attempt apart from the fact i'm holding my arm in a very homosexual manner...re-do.

Woeful...my head missing..Amanda completely missing...re-do.

Amanda's head found....Steve's missing. Re-do.

Steve's head found but now laughing. Re-do.

Picture perfect.

When we got back from the pub I went to see Freda to make sure she was alright and found this on my windscreen, d'oh!:

Damn you Yarra City Council

I guess you win after all, Melbourne traffic.