Melbourne Meals, Memories and Mayhem

Off to Melbourne

Back in August I booked a trip on The Overland train to Melbourne for November. I hadn't visited Kate or Kim for over three years so was looking forward to it immensely. I picked up the train in Murray Bridge (just over an hour from home ) taking a couple of hours off the almost 11-hour journey from Adelaide. [I have cheated with this photo from Wikipedia as it shows the train chugging out of Adelaide]. At Murray Bridge the train pulled into the station, an attendant jumped out, called the name of each of the six passengers who were getting on with me, gave us a seat number and took our luggage. How easy was that! 

How I love train travel. The rhythm of the rails rocked me gently into a restful repose as we passed by the bloated Murray River, through rain-soaked pastures and onto the Victorian border. We sped up. I ate my picnic lunch. I read. I closed my eyes for a brief nap. And then... a thunderstorm. We slowed down to a crawl. And then... a lightening strike that took out all the oncoming signals. We stopped - for an hour. Gone was my feeling of contentment and the joy of watching the countryside roll past. Finally on our way again, passing through Nhill, Dimboola, Horsham, Stawell, Ararat and finally Geelong. I arrived almost 90 minutes behind schedule, but luckily daylight saving meant it was still light at 8 o'clock. Time for a yummy meal at Kate and Kim's local Taiwanese restaurant.

At home with Kate and Kim

Staying with Kate and Kim was a delight. Their Art Deco apartment is comfortable and tastefully decorated. 

Dinner in the courtyard was a suitably delicious meal. 

Out and about

The next day it was off to the Prahan Markets. What fun we had. 

I became addicted to a Turkish flatbready-y item called gozleme and a Greek custard slice. 

Here is the lady in the process of making the gozleme. 

And here it is - a lamb and herb gozleme with a cashew and pumpkin salad. (No sighting of the Greek custard slice because it didn't stick around long enough to pose for a photo!) 

I always buy a jam when I'm away and wasted no time in picking up a Rhubarb and Cinnamon one I spotted. Then it was off to Essential Ingredient, an over-priced but wonderful emporium of kitchen gadgets, utensils, crockery, spices, oils, flours, and sweets! We spent hours ooh-ing and ahh-ing and buying!

On the way home we felt the need for a pick-up - especially as Kate had forgotten her keys and we had to wait for Kim to come and rescue us. Honey, cinnamon sticks and star anise were a nice touch.

Another day we trained to Coburg to the A1 Bakery where we had a delicious lunch surrounded by the gorgeous fragrant Middle Eastern bakery smells. I loved this community garden we passed on the way.

  

One day I explored my old Fitzroy haunts but some of the shops I remember had gone and, to me, there was an air of neglect about the whole place. I guess Covid has really knocked it about though the cafes and restaurants seemed to be doing ok. In the city I popped into the ever-reliable Book Grocer and bought two 1930s Golden Age of Crime Detection books from two authors I had never heard of but who were as popular as Agatha Christie back then. On Saturday afternoon I went to the movies with friend Michael. He had already seen, but knew I would love, the documentary 'Lost Melbourne',  a rather sad look at all Melbourne's gracious Victorian/goldrush buildings that were demolished in the 1950s because they looked oldfashioned. Evidently, the arrival of TV and then the Melbourne Olympics coming up made the city look dreary and they needed to modernise, so they started to knock buildings down and replace them with square glass structures.  It was great photography and commentary and ended on a positive note by showing all the buildings that had thankfully escaped the wreckers' ball.

I liked the flowers outside the Town Hall, and the toy soldier lent a festive air to the mall.

Weather Alert

And then the holiday took a turn for the worse as the temperature plummeted. It rained, the wind blew and I froze - as the forecast had been for humid and warm weather my wardrobe was understandably on the summery side. I had to make do with Kate's hoodie and tracksuit pants for the rest of my holiday. Of course Kim compensated by making me the best omelette ever and a yummy cocktail. 

And some more goodies.

The holiday ended with the purchase of a new little kitten - named Buster - a real cutie who nearly came home in my luggage.

Homeward Bound

But fate wasn't done with me yet. I arrived at the station at 7:00am with a number of other bewildered souls to discover that there was to be no train. It took ages to work out what was going on - evidently some people had been notified by the rail company that flooding had caused a derailment and the track was not repaired at this time and that we were going home by coach!!!! I had not received an email so had no idea that I could have altered my ticket and stayed a few more days. It was freezing on the platform and we were to stand around for another two hours while the rail company got organised. 

The decision was made to take everyone who was going directly to Adelaide in one coach and those who were getting off on the way (that is, me) on a second coach. And therein lay the seeds for my eventual flu. My coach stopped at every stop along the way, driving into each town, making sure there was no-one at any of the railway stations (even stopping for 20 minutes for a no-show). And then we had to stop to buy lunch then afternoon refreshments and the whole trip took simply ages. The airconditioning was freezing and all I had was a cardigan. No wonder I shivered. The only bright spot was that no-one sat next to me. Poor old Steve had been patiently waiting for me at the station for over 2 hours. The returned traveller was tired, cold, exhausted and annoyed. Hmmm. I will not be doing that again anytime soon. And then I was struck down with the flu and am still recovering! Bah humbug. 

Kate sent me a photo of Buster yesterday. What a sweetie.