The brief for Sunday was that we would meet The Gang in Melbourne for a look-around. We are only 5 minutes walk from the local station and the cost of an all-day fare, using any of the bus, tram or train options was cheaper than the cost of parking and petrol. We set out about 11 o’clock and walked down the local main street consisting of restaurants of several different cuisines, a few boutiques and the usual assortment of high street essentials. The one that caught the eye, however, was the toy shop called “Golliwogs Toy Store”. I wonder if the BBC could send Carol Thatcher to do an interview with the owners on “The Dangers of Unintended Racism”!
The journey is about 30 minutes and the arrival station is Flinders Street, which outside the main entrance has a series of clocks showing the time at various venues. Meetings in Melbourne have to be “on the steps at Flinders Street”, which is under the clocks and is the iconic equivalent of “under the clock at Waterloo”. A lot of people meet a lot of other people in Melbourne because it was hard to actually get out of the station for the bodies adorning the steps. Not unexpectedly the first words from Susan were: “There’s been a slight change of plan” and we were whisked on to a tram to go to the other side of the city centre to Queen Victoria Market. Oh, M & S, Waitrose, Tesco, Sainsburys, ASDA, Morrisons, Aldi, Lidl, and any other supermarket, you don’t know how lucky you are not to have competition like this. There are superb delicatessens, masses of fresh meat and fish stalls, fresh fruit and veg by the tonne (metric), clothes stalls, ethnic barbecues, and UGG boots by the foot (non-metric), and many other sorts of goods. Lunch was had, on the pavement but with tables and chairs provided, from a couple of the highly recommended fast food stalls, one serving Turkish hot pastry wraps called Boreks and the other the best tasting Bratwurst (with all the works) that I can recall. Normally one tends to shy away from such places because they come with free salmonella and e-coli, but there were no ailing birds or dogs in the vicinity so no worries!
Shopping complete, it was back to Susan’s for tea, watch the F1 Grand Prix, church for the ladies whilst I tried without complete success to troubleshoot Susan’s new computer, despite on-line advice from the UK. Although yet to be confirmed, it appeared that there was an incompatibility between the new operating system (Windows 7) and the older Microsoft Office 2007. However, without the installation discs the solution was going to require divine intervention i.e. the vicar had to be invited for “roast tea” (Australian for supper) the following day…and to bring his discs! Finally, following a lift from Susan to Flinders Street station, back home by train, where we collapsed into bed.
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