melbourne city square

a picture of Melbourne City Square, next to the town hall, in the 1970s when it was an actual square (before half of it turned in the Westin Hotel in the 90s).

The square was originally installed in 1968, then redeveloped in 1976 as an architectural competition, finally opened by QE2 in 1980, complete with the Yellow Peril sculpture. The most recent change was the addition of raised grass areas in 2003.

do you ride a bike?

Monday, we went to take the hire car back. On the way, we stopped to get petrol.

Joe was driving the car, I followed on my motorbike so that I could give him a lift home. When we pulled up at the petrol filling station, we both got fuel, then both went in to pay. I was wearing my bike helmet and bike jacket. But the guy working behind the till still asked me "which one?". i said "the bike". he said "the car?"

back from queensland

just back from our holiday to the sunshine coast, queensland. had some great weather, 25 degrees and 7 hours sunshine a day, and thats mid-winter. i kept saying to joe that we should move up to qld someday.

lots of people seem to have retired up there (ie lots of oldies) esp compared to the gold coast.

had a relaxing time, swimming, taking hot spas, shopping and looking at show homes. we hired a car and drove up the coast from coloundra to noosa. we were staying at alexandra headlands near mooloolaba beach - great name that!

logan and brad (the cats) stayed at the purrfect cat holiday home in williamstown, we have just collected them from their holiday and they seem a bit subdued. jet lag maybe? or too many cocktails and late nights maybe.

having hired a car today to pick up the cats, we also were inspired by the tropical flora of south-east queensland to go and buy 4 palm trees for our garden. at least we can pretend its tropical when we look out of the window now.

we like the pandanus trees (shown in picture) that grow all along the queensland coast, but the one plant we saw here was very small and sorry looking after a melbourne winter.

Winter Logan

Here is a picture of our Logan in full Winter regalia - his coat makes him look bigger than he really is.

cold weekend

the forecast for the weekend here in Melbourne is a bit dreary: high of 12 degrees, hail and rain.

when will summer come back again? all is forgiven (except the mosquitos, humidity and 40+ degree days)

and mum & dad taunt me with their tales of a mediterranean cruise, visiting Vigo, Lisbon, Cannes, Barcelona , Rome, Naples and Gibraltar saying its just too hot....