Somewhere Where I'm Not: 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: