Victoria Market, Southbank and DJ Chrissy M

Manda writes:

We headed for the Queen Victoria Market today. The market sells a wide variety of merchandise and is quite a big place. As well as the usual fruit & veg, clothes and jewellery stalls, there were also places that sell Aboriginal art, black and white photos of Melbourne, pet accessories (even live budgerigars) and Chinese dresses. We must have easily spent three hours wandering up and down the aisles. In the end I left with some socks and a charm bracelet and Ian, some honey-coated cashews and a new hair-cut. The hair-cut suits him actually and was definitely long over-due (at least 8 months). The funny thing is that up until this point, he has been walking around sporting an Andrew Ridgley (back in the days of Wham) hairdo, oblivious to the fact that his look is so 80's. Still, 80's fashion had made a come-back not so long ago - maybe he was trying to follow the trend, but then again, maybe not!

[Ian adds: nah, I was just being lazy. Also, I was interested to see what happened if I just let it grow, a bit like my beard experiments earlier in the year! Besides, most of the time the dodgy hair was covered up with a hat ... except for the curly tufts that came out the back]

After lunch we took a walk down the main shopping precinct around Bourke Street. Again, lots of choice but we have to remain disciplined and not pick up too many trinkets - our rucksacks are full enough as they are already! Along the way, we spotted a few interesting looking statues on the corner of Swanston and Bourke.

The Arts Centre is quite an interesting building; it has a rather unusual roof that resembles a witch's hat. We strolled over to get a closer look before walking over to Southbank.

Melbourne Arts Centre's distinctive 'roof'.

Southbank is lined with bars and restaurants along the river bank. It offers great views of the city and, I imagine, is a great place to people-watch. Unfortunately for us, it was a case of grabbing a coffee indoors in a food court as there was definietly a chill in the air and it was beginning to drizzle. At 5.30pm, the sky had turned dark which was perfect for some night-time photos of the city.

Melbourne CBD viewed across the Yarra River from Southbank.

Flinders Street Station.

We took a train back to Sunbury and spent the rest of the night listening to Chris' collection of old cassettes and CDs. She can be quite the DJ, enthusiastically serving up the next tune as soon as one ended. A surreal moment where I was reminded of my teenage years, listening to track after track of pop music with my school friends, we found ourselves tapping our feet along to Chris' Cuban, Jazz, New Age, Peruvian pan pipes and Afro-Celtic collection. Chris is a lively character and not like any other 71 year old I know!