Philly

We arrived in Philadelphia and it was strangely quiet on the roads.  For a city this big, it didn't feel right that there was so little traffic.  It turns out we hadn't chosen the best time to be traveling through this city at all.  We had arrived the day before Pope Francis was meant to be visiting the city with President Obama.... we're both geniuses who have done nowhere near enough research.

Still, it helped that there were so people out and about in the city as it meant that we were able to get to our accommodation quickly.  People were clearly worried about the huge rush of people the next day as the city did feel largely deserted.  We hopped on the local train and headed into the city centre.  There we found more people, and we were told by some friendly policemen that cars had been banned from the entire city centre.  It made for an eery walk around the streets of Philadelphia.  We made our way towards Independence Hall, where the declaration of independence was signed.  As we got closer, there were more crowds and by the time we arrived there were huge throngs of people all looking to see some history like us.

The line for the Liberty Bell was painfully long, and we didn't have the time, so we skipped it.  Instead we went straight into the historic halls and rooms where the most powerful country in the world was born.  In the hall where the constitutional convention took place, the guide pointed out where all the famous founding fathers sat, and pointed towards Benjamin Franklin's seat on which his cane still rested.  Whether this was actually his cane is probably up for debate, as I can't imagine something like that being left out in the open for all to see and potentially steal.

We walked through the whole area and soaked up the incredible history and importance of the place.  This was where it all began.  This was the location of the creation of "America".  For all of its problems as a country, the ideals that this country was founded upon are truly incredible and should be lauded and strived towards to this day.

Outside and away from this area, the streets were still incredibly calm.  The city really had been completely emptied of its inhabitants, even though the shops and restaurants were all still open.  We sat down for a coffee and looked out towards the emptiness.  The city was so peaceful and calm, it almost looked like a stage set that was out of use.

We wanted to go up to the museum where Rocky ran up the steps, but the whole area was shut down in anticipation of the Pope's visit.  Instead, we decided to go for a walk across the Benjamin Franklin bridge.  There were some cars driving across (not many) and there was the occasional person also wandering around.  One young guy was happily taking photos and he was nice to enough to take a photo of Rehan and I as we stood on the near abandoned bridge.  The bridge took us all the way over to a different state!  On the other side we were in Camden, New Jersey.  Camden is effectively a suburb of Philadelphia, albeit a poorer and less affluent one.  It was literally walking distance, but that bridge kept two worlds apart.  The central part of Philadelphia is beautiful and modern, but over in Camden we were standing in front of government housing and a generally run down neighbourhood.  As we stood around looking at our phones to read more about where we were, we found that Camden is considered to be one of the murder capitals of the US.... lovely.

After finding an uber who would take us back to Philadelphia, we circled continuously around the city.  The driver's GPS kept resetting as he tried to get us to where we wanted to go when it was painfully obvious that the roads were blocked.  Eventually we convinced him to stop so that we could get out and walk.  The city was still open, and we walked down the middle of deserted streets of an otherwise "living city".  Other people seemed to also revel in this strange sight as they lounged around the middle of the streets and took photos like we did.

As it grew later, we got hungry.  I new exactly what I wanted.  I wanted a cheesesteak.  I had read all about them since I was young and I had even tried to make them on occasion, but I had never actually "had" one, not a genuine one.  Everytime I made a cheesesteak at home, following a recipe, I was ultimately only making the dish to my own personal taste and preferences, rather than what it should be.  We went to South Street, the bar district of Philadelphia and went into the famous Jim's.  There was a huge operation set up for the creation of hundreds (if not thousands) of cheesesteaks a night.  Tonight, it was almost empty and Rehan and I were able to get our cheesesteaks without having to lineup.  I went for the classic and went upstairs to eat.  With the first bite, I knew that this was different to anything I had ever made.  The bread was softer, the meat saltier and the cheese was greasier.  It was fantastic.  This was junk food.  It wasn't something that was meant to be fancy or eaten in any fine dining manner.  It tasted real and like something that was made on an old grill, with all the flavours of that grill adding to the sandwich in front of me.  I ate it quickly and went downstairs to get another one.

We walked back along South Street.

This was seemingly the only lively part of town.  There were bars everywhere and people inside laughing and screaming.  It seemed to be on the edge of rough and grunge.  Inside of the different places we looked at, the people were dressed in rock and roll t-shirts and scruffy jeans, but it was hard to tell whether they were trying for a hipster vibe or if the places were actually dive bars.  We found the place with the best vibe and started drinking.  The atmosphere was great and the bar staff were actively engaging with all the patrons in a way I've never seen in Australia.  They were part of the party and they were having a great time.  One of the bar girls was a redhead dressed in a rockabilly style which seemed ideal for the location.  She seemed to be enjoying herself as much as anyone else there and was clearly the main attraction for most of the guys there.

We stayed there most of the night.  The beers were cheap and party kept getting louder as more and more people came in looking for something to do in this otherwise quietened city.

Driving

Rehan and I had so much time until we needed to go to the wedding.  A couple of weeks in fact.  He had seen off Nikki and other people who were coming to the wedding hadn't arrived yet.  With so much time on our hands, we decided to go on a bit of a road trip.

Before we set off, I wanted a good hearty breakfast.

Being in New York, there was nowhere else I wanted to go other than Barney Greengrass.  I had tried it with Andy the last time I was in New York, and so this was another opportunity to go to one of my favourite places in the city.  The lox and eggs were as good as I remembered.

After breakfast, we jumped on the subway and went to JFK airport.  It was a long trip.  We changed trains at Jamaica station, switching the far newer airport train.  The trip was much cheaper than a cab, but given how long it took I'm not sure it was necessarily worth it.  We weren't at JFK for a flight, but rather to pick up our hire car.  We started off on our road trip, heading east towards New Jersey.

We were going to drive south down towards Virginia.  We were both looking forward to this trip.  Rehan had already been in the US for a few months, so he had gotten used to driving on the right side of the road.  I on the other hand had never driven on this side of the road, so I let him have the honour of driving first.  We drove along the Belt Parkway until we crossed the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge.

The roads were definitely not what I expected.  The quality of the road maintenance was mediocre at best, but probably better described as appalling.  There were potholes, cracks and general degradation everywhere.  Lines weren't well drawn and there were several sections where different lanes hadn't been graded properly.  We kept driving and turned towards Philadelphia.

The Intrepid

There's an aircraft carrier in New York.

It's not in service anymore, but the USS Intrepid sits in the harbour as a floating museum.

The ship has been in countless movies set in New York.  It's one of the "things to do" in New York, so I agreed to go with Rehan.  We were both gathering in New York along with others for a wedding, but we had plenty of time that, so we had a long list of things we decided to do.  Rehan wanted to see military stuff, so here we were.

The bowels of the ship weren't all that open and there were only a few sections that you could go into.  It was interesting enough, but still felt a bit like a smaller version of the Australian War Memorial.  The best part was the flight deck.  Up here, were a collection of different planes and aircraft which sat open for all to see.  There were examples from different times as well as from different countries to be seen.

For me, I was easily most excited to see the Blackbird.  The fastest military plane in history.  It is an enormous beast of a plane and even now, after all these years out of service, it still looks threatening and imposing.

Is the Intrepid worth visiting?  Absolutely.  Particularly if you have any interest whatsoever in military history and equipment.  Even if you don't, there is still an amazing view of the city to be had from the flight deck.

The High Line again

After the long flights from Sydney, I was in New York again.

My favourite city in the world.

I managed to get a bit of sleep, but the jet lag still meant that I woke up at about 5am.  I was staying at the old Jane Hotel in a historic, but tiny room.  The room had a bit of a musty smell to it, so rather than lay on the bed and stare at the ceiling, I decided to take advantage of my early rise and go for a run.  The Jane Hotel is close to the Hudson River and Chelsea Piers, which meant I could run on the runner track along the waters edge.  I set out into the early morning as the sun slowly rose.  The air was crisp and refreshing as I ran.  I wasn't alone either, as other early morning runners joined me to start their days. 

As I turned to start running back, I got an unexpectedly incredible sight.  Looking down south along the waters edge, I could see all the way down the length of Manhattan all the way to the gleaming new One World Trade Center.  It stood out imposingly over everything around it, shining like a lighthouse in the distance.

I got back to the hotel, had a shower and got changed.  The hotel really was quite beautiful, but anyone who does decide to stay there should know that it has a "cabin" like feel with very small rooms and shared bathrooms at the end of the corridor.  It reminded me a bit of boarding school or my university dorm, but maybe with more Wes Anderson-like styling.  Refreshed and awake (enough), I walked over to one of the most popular attractions in New York, the High Line.  This part of New York has won plaudits from all of the world and seems to have become a model for the world on how to rehabilitate disused industrial parts of a city.

I walking along the pathway and gardens which had been built up on this old raised railway line.  It really was as great as advertised.  It was this secluded spot through the middle of an intense city which gave all of the proximity to the bustle of the city, whilst still being removed from the crowds.

Walking along this raised platform also gave you an opportunity to look at a very different side of New York.  From the higher vantage point, you could see a lot of public art which you either wouldn't have previously seen, or would otherwise be seeing from a different angle.

I decided I would walk from one end to the other.  It was longer than I expected and I found myself at the northern end of the line which was still not entirely complete.  The pathway had been completed, but none of the finishes or the gardens themselves were properly installed yet.  The northern end also felt like it was surrounded but a slightly rougher area.  That would surely change with a bit of time.  Now that the High Line had been built, I couldn't imagine there being any bad areas surrounding it in the future.  Any residential areas nearby would almost certainly become highly desirable as a result.

The High Line was fantastic.  It was such a simple thing, but it brought so much extra life to an area that used to be fairly industrial.  It must have come at a great opportunity cost though.  I can only imagine the hungry developers who would have wanted to have turned the whole area into more apartments for sale.  This seems so much better.

Truly Paradise

I was incredibly glad that Manon had invited me to go to Hamilton Island.  The island was a unique paradise.  It was every bit the tropical paradise that I had always imagined as a child.

Growing up, my family wasn't very well off.  We weren't poor, but money was still tight.  The idea of international travel wasn't really something I ever considered.  In those days, the idea of international travel was one that was very much limited to the wealthy or as a "once in a lifetime" trip.  In fact, it was very common for people to have never traveled overseas at all or to only have the opportunity to travel overseas once after retirement.  People would often save up their entire lives for the opportunity to go overseas.  Times were very different then.  Flights were extremely expensive and there really wasn't the same variety of options which exist today.  Discount airlines weren't around and there weren't a plethora of websites available to help people get better prices.  Instead, most people would have simple holidays down the coast.  We would stay at holiday homes of friends or at short term rentals a few hours drive away.  Sometimes, we would visit friends and family in other cities and even that would often involve long drives.  I remember we once went to the Gold Coast for a holiday as part of a work conference my dad was attending.  The entire trip was booked through a travel agent and much of the information we had been provided was wrong.

In those days, a trip to Queensland, in particular to the Whitsunday Islands was a dream holiday.  I remember my mum would sometimes bring back travel brochures of the Great Barrier Reef and we would all think about whether it was possible for us to one day go and visit.  We looked at the pictures of the luxurious accommodation and the incredible beaches and dreamed.  That dream trip never happened for us, but times changed and we were able to have some great trips after we moved to Singapore.

Being on Hamilton Island felt like a throwback to those childhood days.  The place still looked very much like the photos I looked at when I was young.  Cheap global travel has left places like Hamilton Island a bit behind the curve and it no longer has the same luxury appeal that it had back when I was young.  There's been a lack of capital investment, so everything looks a bit dated and even retro.

It was still beautiful.  If anything, I felt like the older style meant that I was able to enjoy this place as I would have had I come when I was a kid.  It was still the tropical paradise that I dreamed that it would be sitting in the cold house in Melbourne with my family.  The sun was warm and the breeze was cool.  The beaches were wide and people everywhere laughed as they swam and paddled in the water.  I could have stayed there for weeks longer if I had the chance.  Being here felt like completing a puzzle, or finally finding something you had lost a long time ago.  I felt like that little kid again, looking at the pictures with my family.

Winter warmer

I've never really traveled much during winter in Australia.  Particularly during the school holidays, the flights become too expensive as families rush to warmer climates.  I generally just sit inside and mope about which probably isn't good for my mental health.  I definitely get a case of the SADs (seasonable affective disorder) at times so more sunlight is something I should probably seek out more.

Manon hadn't been in the apartment for a few weeks.  She was on break from her university studies and her mum had come to visit us.  Since they had the time, they decided to do a big tour around Australia.  It was quieter in the house without Manon which added to my boredom.  Before she left, Manon urged me to go with them (at least for part of their trip), but I didn't think I could with work and other commitments.  She didn't relent though and suggested I meet them in Hamilton Island when they reached there on their trip.  My initial inclination was to say no, as I didn't want to intrude on their trip, but Manon's mum was also insistent.  What was stopping me?  My lack of travel within Australia was getting strange as was the fact that I had actually seen a very small portion of the country.  The furthest north in Australia I had ever been was Brisbane!  What's more, Hamilton Island held a special childhood appeal to me.  This would be a trip to a Great Barrier Reef!  I agreed to go.

The trip to Hamilton Island was a bit more annoying than expected.  Heavy clouds meant that my flight couldn't land in Hamilton Island and instead we were diverted to Prosperine airport.  We then got shuttled to Airlie beach, and we were ferried over to Hamilton Island.  It had taken a lot longer than expected, but I still arrived.

The whole place felt like a throwback.  It felt like what I expected a perfect beach resort to be when I was a kid and it was still the 90s.  There decor, the designs and just the entire look of the place was still stuck in the past.  In a strange way, that was fine for me.  Everything was still clean and exceptionally well maintained.  In any event, it still felt like a tropical paradise.

As evening fell, the quiet of the island took over.  Sitting on the balcony of Manon and her mum's hotel suite, I felt the beautiful calm of being so far from work and the crowds.

We went for an early evening walk up to the top of a nearby hill to look out at the view.  There seemed to be a longer dusk here than normal, maybe because of the lack of any buildings to interfere with the light.  Who knows?  We went to sleep early.

The next day, we went out to the reef!  This was the reason for coming out to Hamilton Island.  Located within the Whitsunday Islands, it is the perfect embarkation point to explore surrounding reefs and waters.  Manon had arranged for us to go out to a floating platform for the day which included a huge range of activities and food.  It was all incredibly touristy, but also amazing.  Everyone was in a fantastic mood and it was infectious.  When everyone around you is happy, it's difficult not to become happy yourself.  We arrived at the platform and there was a huge amount of stuff to do and see.  We went snorkelling, scuba diving and swimming.  There were various underwater viewing rooms to look at the reef and the fish.  There was even a semi-submersible boat which had windows all along the sides which would take people out further into the reef for tours.

I had a great time.  I felt completely re-energised being in the warmth and the sunshine.  Being outside and in the water made me feel happy in a way I hadn't been for months.  As the day continued, I lay on the upper deck in the sun, chatting with Manon's mum.  Manon meanwhile had run off to do more scuba diving.  To the side of the platform, a family boarded a helicopter to go and have a look at the famous heart-shaped reef outcrop which seems to be in almost every marketing campaign for visiting Queensland.

When we sat on the ferry to head back to Hamilton Island, everyone was much quieter.  No one was sad or upset, but half of the passengers were asleep in their seats.  It was an exhausting day in the very best of ways.

Canberra in the winter

I'm really not used to the cold anymore.  Sydney has made me soft and weak with its good weather and temperate climate.

I was in Canberra visiting some friends and I could not believe how cold I was.  Standing outside, when the wind was blowing, I really didn't have any resistance to it at all.  The cold cut through my coat as though it wasn't there and sucked the life out of me.

My friend brought me to have a look at the new arboretum.  I never knew what an arboretum was until I arrived.  Apparently it's a tree museum or something like that.  Whatever it was, it was quite scenic.  Much of this area had been destroyed by the Canberra bushfires back in 2003.  I was lucky to have been away from Canberra during those fires, but I remember reading emails from friends who were dealing with the terror of the approaching fires.  It was nice to see that the area was now being used for something useful.

Ice in Sydney

Sydney never really gets that cold.  Winter is annoying because it gets incredibly wet and can rain for days on end, but it never gets cold enough to snow or anything like that.  Even a frosty morning isn't something I've seen in my time in Sydney.  Living in Canberra during the winters was always tough, it would regularly go below zero, but there would never be any noticeable amount of snow.  At the very least, nowhere close to enough for there to be any fun winter sports.  One of the few pleasures on the icy cold mornings was when there was a hard frost that hard settled overnight.  Walking through grass on those mornings, you could hear and feel the crunch of the ice under your foot.  If you walked past any puddles, you would also be able to crack the layer of ice that had formed on top.

In this mild wintered city, it was a surprise to see an outdoor skating rink.  It had been set up outside of St Mary's cathedral as well, which provided an almost European backdrop to what had been put together.

With Gabby and Manon driving me to do more as always, we all paid for some skates and jumped on the ice.  I struggled along, having not ice skated for at least ten years, but still had a great time.  Manon unsurprisingly was flying around the rink.  She's a snow bunny from the Alps, so all winter sports are second nature to her.  Gabby was more tentative as she made her way around slowly before moving towards the edges.

After being circled and lapped several times by Manon, we finished up and moved towards one of the nearby cafes which had been set up.  Keeping with the theme, I ordered cups of hot cider and gluwine for all of us.

Cliffs of Coogee

It took me a long time to find the cliffs of Coogee.  Years in fact.  The cliffs are actually not on any walking track and it takes a bit of searching to realise that you need to jump some fences to get out to where they are.

Once you find them, you realise that they are one of the best places in all of Sydney.  They give a near uninterrupted view up and down the coastline of Sydney.  The rocks on the cliffs themselves are also beautiful, and some intrepid artists have managed to climb out and decorate some parts with some graffiti art (of varying degrees of quality).

Getting out to the cliffs is itself not that dangerous, but once you are standing on the edge it's easy to appreciate why the area is made more publicly known.  There are too many ways you could foresee someone slipping and falling.  Added to that is rocky outcrops beneath the cliffs.  If anyone were to fall in, it's not clear how anyone would be able to get to them to rescue them.

Still, it's lovely standing out there and looking out at the ocean.  When there's a nice breeze coming in you almost feel like you're completely alone in Sydney, standing on the very edge of Australia.

Birthday and cheese

For Gabby's birthday, she wanted cheese.  Lots and lots of cheese.  As a Frenchwoman this seemed fair.

We decided that we would get her some fondue as the best way of celebrating.  Times in Sydney are changing as there seem to be more and more casual French restaurants opening these days.  It's been amazing seeing the change in Sydney's dining habits over the last few years.  There's an increasing sophistication and willingness to explore which has really helped to increase the variety of offerings available.  Only a few years ago, the only French places that were really ever available would have been the traditional fine dining places.

I bought Gabby a birthday cake from Lorraine's in the Ivy complex.  It was a light and crumbly hazelnut and cream cake that matched the richness of the cheese we had just eaten.

As we left, it started to rain hard.  We started to run for the bus and Maylis decided it was now the perfect time to start singing "La Vie en Rose" at the top of her voice.  

The Microsoft XP desktop picture

Having lived now in Sydney for a few years, I felt I now knew quite a bit about the city and some of its less famous features.  The city is beautiful, but it has a lot more to offer than the superficial views of the harbour and its beaches.  I think it's quite sad that most people, including many Sydney locals, never seem to get past that part of Sydney.  For them, Sydney is nothing more than that initial layer.

They're missing out on a lot.  Sydney is actually a city that has a deep multicultural base with people from around the world.  You can get incredible foods and experiences originating from around the world if you only leave the city and drive a little bit further into the suburbs.

Beyond that there are also some incredible sights to be seen.  One of my favourites would have to be Sydney Park.  This is a huge area of park lands and manicured grass that sits to the south of the city.  Every time I've been to visit, it's been relatively empty.  The car park always has space and you can walk around the whole area without being disturbed.  It rises up onto a hill which also gives an incredible view of the Sydney skyline from the southern side.

One afternoon, I took Manon and Gabby out to visit.  We had been eating at the nearby Grounds of Alexandria, when I thought that it would be nice for us to walk around the park as well.  Both of them loved the place.  The enormous open space and the lawns give you a sense of freedom.  You want to run and jump when you are out there.

Gabby made Manon and I walk out a bit because she wanted a picture.  She decided that everything looked a bit too much like the Microsoft XP desktop picture. 

Emus and wombats

I don't do much when I visit my parents in Newcastle.  I never lived there so I don't really know anyone there.  Instead, I treat my visits as a time to relax and decompress.  Not too far from my parent's house is Blackbutt Nature Reserve.  It's a nice place for families to take the kids to see some native wildlife.  I didn't have anything to do so I thought I would go have a look.

The reserve is a huge area, but there is small part of the reserve which has been designed as a wildlife habitat.  It's in this part that you can see some native animals.  When I was there, the wombats were out and about, shuffling around and making their loud grunting noises.  I've never seen a wombat in the wild, only in sanctuaries and other locations like this.  It's hard not to like wombats.  They always look fat and they waddle when they walk at their own pace.  They are definitely one of the funnier animals in Australia and they never seem hurried or scared.

On the other side of the reserve were some enclosures for emus.  These animals look terrifying and enormous up close.  Some of them looked to be limping a little bit, so this reserve must also be a rehabilitation centre for them.

We kept walking around and eventually spotted some green and shiny.  When we got closer, we realised it was an emu egg.  I'm not sure whether it was abandoned, or if that's just where the emu decided it wanted to keep its egg.

The whole reserve is a nice place for a couple of hours.  Living in Australia, you don't often actually see the animals that are so famous to so many around the world.  It's nice to get close to them once in a while.

Round and round

Ferris wheels seem to be experiencing a renaissance around the world.  It seems like you can't really be a global city unless you have a ferris wheel in the CBD to show all the visitors how great you are.

Normally I walk past these things without a second glance.  Having Manon and Gabby with me meant that we were going to try more things.  They both wanted to go for a ride to see the city and I was more than willing to have a look.

The view wasn't that great.  It just isn't high up enough and the location of the ferris wheel in Darling Harbour means that it's a bit too far away from the rest of the city.  There are better places to go with better views of the city.  Still it was fun to go up, though I'm not sure it would have been had Manon and Gabby not been there screaming as we made the turns.

Oh Vivid!

It was Gabby and Manon's first year in Australia, so they hadn't experienced Vivid yet.  I really love Vivid, I remember the first year it was held, when it was nothing more than a few exhibitions and some pretty lights being projected onto the Opera House.  It's come so far since then and I think it's probably now my favourite event in Sydney.  Martin Place in particular is lovely during the time of year as it fills with lights, colours and people.  This year, they had set up a set of drums for people to play with, and at 5pm sharp everyday, we could hear the "boom, boom, boom" from our office.

Winter in Sydney is normally quite boring.  I've often said that this is a city that is made for the summer.  When it's not summer, most of the city just goes into a hibernation as it waits for better weather to return.  Vivid changes that whole atmosphere as the whole city and fills it with colour and music.

We went for a long walk around the city to try and see as many of the displays as possible.  The festival organisers had even created an app which made it easy to locate all the different spots to visit.

Manon and Gabby loved it all.  It was easy to understand why with all of the incredible lights and displays around the city.  The interactive displays were particularly fun this year and we spent lots of time playing with the various lights which responded to our actions.

It sounds like a cliche, but Sydney does feel a bit more magical around this time of year.  You walk around the familiar places you see everyday and they come alive in front of you.  The moving images and colours seem to make the buildings appear to be living entities, with feelings and a soul.

It's incredible to think that Vivid has become so big and popular in such a short amount of time.  I'm all for it.  Winters don't seem as boring in Sydney with this incredible festival to look forward to.

So much football

When I was young, I always dreamed of moving back to Melbourne when I grew up.  One of the things I hope to do was to live in the city and to be able to go to as many Aussie Rules games as I could.  At one point, I looked into moving to Melbourne for university, but that never happened.  The dream of being able to spend every weekend going from game to game remained sadly out of reach and I had to content myself with the occasional game in Sydney.

One weekend, I found myself in Melbourne and I thought I'd try and experience a little bit of what I had always wanted to try.  I called up my friends John and Marty and we arranged to do the double header.  The timing was perfect, the first game had the John's team the Saints playing and the second game had my team the Hawks playing.

In the early afternoon, we met near Southern Cross Station.  From there we walked over to Docklands Stadium.  All of us were AFL or club members in some form, so we walked into game without any additional cost.  Membership also gave us great seats.  We were seated near the 50m line and were close to where the teams ran out.  Sadly for John, the game didn't go well and the Saints lost to the Eagles.

We left the game and saw a food truck.  The day was cold, so we bought some hot jam donuts to warm us up.  Standing there in the cold eating the hot donuts, I thought back to when I was young and at Waverley Park with my brother and dad.  Waverley always seemed to be freezing and my memory of the place was that the weather was never good!  We had a bit of time before the next game started, so we went to a parmy place that was a favourite of John's.  This seemed to be a true Melbourne experience now, football and parmys.

After dinner, we walked to the MCG.  My team the Hawks were playing the Swans.  It was an incredible coincidence that John and I had both been able to see our teams play on the same day.  Sadly for me, the Hawks also lost.  I still enjoyed the game though.

We had watched a lot of football, and both our teams had lost.  The day could have ended better, but I was still happy with how it had gone.  How often do you get to overindulge in something you enjoy so much?