Out and About in Melbourne

Hi everyone, I can't believe we have now been living here for 3 weeks! Time flies when your'e having fun. Unfortunately the flu lurgy continues to plague me (Naomi) and is hanging around like a bad smell but the Codral has meant I have managed to get out and about with the family a little. I thought I'd tell you a bit about it, and include our observations about Melbourne while I'm at it!

Firstly the school run each morning. We are able to ride bikes to school which is fresh and invigorating in the mornings.....5 degrees yesterday! We follow the bike track under 2 bridges one of which houses a homeless guy that Tom especially finds difficult. We get free bread from Brumbys Monday night here at SAH (St Andrews house, which we also call  The Institute for cross cultural learning for safety reasons for our muslim friends) so Tom had the great idea to give this man a bag of bread each week to help him. Anyway, we then ride across the park where Carlton footy club has their practice ground, and across Lygon st known for cafes, and then to school. Along the way we constantly reinforce they stay on the left of the path because heaps of Melbournites cycle to work, and they go hammer and tongs and you don't want to get in their way - you'll be run over! Then there are lots of joggers too all out early exercising. I am dying to join the throngs exercising if only i can get over this bug.But this bike path at 8.30 am feels like Rundle Street!!
Another outing we took was to the Vic Markets which is 3 tram stops down the road. Thankfully it was nearly closing so not terribly busy, but the kids still weren't very impressed with the crowds and smells. They thought the fish section was disgusting but got some free oranges in the market and you could throw the peel under the mans stall so they thought that was fun. Then we saw live ducklings, chooks and pigeons for sale. It took a firm word for them not to buy the cute fluffy ducks! The markets were also a good reminder just how multicultural Melbourne is. We could barely hear English!! The trams to get there though are fantastic. Unlike Adelaide public transport which is few and far between the trams come every 5 to 10 minutes. The cars have to wait for the trams too, so you can just step off one and the cars will let you cross the road, unless its a SA driver called Shane who forgot to give way to tram disembarkers and almost took out 3 uni students and an old man!!! Ooops.
The boys another night went with Shane to Etiard stadium to see the crows play but considering they went dismally and had a world record lowest score ever, it may not be kind to mention it!! In fact Oliver at half time asked Shane 'do we have to stay longer?' The massive size of the stands and crowd really hit the kids. They thought it was great. Again the whole tram thing there and back was easy!
The final outing I thought I'd tell you about was part of our cultural course. We had to go to specific parts of the city - mine was little Vietnam - and have lunch, eating something we've never had before. So the girls and guys split up and while we hit Vietnam, they went to Turkey!! We saw Asain shops and noticed everyone sold toilet paper and tissues right by the front door!!! They all had gold good luck cats on counters, and sometimes little alters with offerings to the good luck gods. For lunch we only had one disaster - a prawn and beef rubbery gelatine mix wrapped in banana leaf and deep fried. After 2 chews the gag reflex set in, and there was no way it was going down! Shane on the other hand had total success in the food dept. Yummy dip with beetroot,quail ocre and chicken tavuk. He wasn't real impressed with his drink of yogurt, milk and SALT, but after our bad entree I opted with the girls for Diet Coke - found everywhere in the world and very multicultural!
Pick any nationality or type of food here and you'll find it somewhere! Choose any religion, and  you'll find a meeting place for them. Choose any language, and you'll find somewhere to learn or speak it! Thats my main observation of Melbourne so far....MULTICULTURAL. That and BUSY. There is always traffic on the roads, people on trams, shops that are open (the medical clinic I went to was open 8am to 12am 7 days a week with a chemist attatched). No wonder people say Adelaide is a sleepy little country town!!

A FUN footy outing???C'mon Crows

Chips for lunch - very multicultural

I quite miss that little town and the people attached to it. I'm glad in 5 months we return to Adelaide for awhile. However until then I'll keep you updated with happenings here! Until next time.