A report on the fish and chips from the new chippy. The fish was fantastic. The scallops weren't bad. The prawns were nice. But the chips were rather disappointing. They tasted a bit like frozen chips not properly fried up. Still, they've only been open a week and as Lindsey says, it takes time to learn to cook chips. So not bad. Worth another try.

Simon stayed for a bit and then went home. We went to bed.

The Builder's shoes have developed a crack along the sole. When we were in town on Saturday with Simon, Ian and Lindsey, I had noticed an Ecco shop in one of the arcades. The Builder wears Ecco shoes. We went into town to see if we could find the shop. We walked through the park and down and around Parliament House and onto Collins Street. We walked down, dropped back into Treats from Home for more twiglets, for Simon had seen the twiglets on Thursday night - and scoffed them! Then we went looking for the ecco shop -and found it almost immediately! But the shoes are very expensive, so we didn't buy anything. We had a potter in David Jones instead. I'll bet, though, that when we get back to England, we'll find that they're very expensive there to

Time for lunch. We walked down, across the Yarra and onto Southbank for souvlaki. And then we walked in the magnificent sunshine along the Yarra and then up through the Fitzroy Gardens and back to the flat. A nice, long walk.

We had intended to head to Mount Martha in the evening, but Lindsey had come up with the notion that, since The Builder was in Melbourne during the football season and since he had never been to a game of proper football, it was time he went. And that he should go to the Bullies v Bombers game. On Friday evening, at Telstra Dome. And that we would go down to Mont Martha on Saturday morning. So The Builder, Lindsey and Simon took themselves off to Docklands to the Tesltra Dome to watch the game. I had declared early on that I had no intention of going. So Ian and I went to Smith Street for dinner. We went to somewhere called Panama Court which is on the third storey of something that looks a bit like a warehouse from the outside. It was very crowded. And noisy. It was an interesting food experience. My first course of calamari with crispy ham and a salsa sauce was lovely. I had asked for a t-bone steak with some vegetables without nuts and without vinaigrette. They brought me a beautifully cooked steak. But the spinach was so, so salty and the broccoli was effectively raw and cold, also salted - and had French dressing on it! Because French dressing doesn't have nuts in it so as all right. Odd how they could do the meat so well and do such horrible things to the veg.

The others left at three quarter time and came home via a food place to watch the end of the match on telly. It was very,very close but the bullies eventually merged victorious.

The Builder was a tad on the tired side. They had walked back from Tesltra dome. He must have walked KILOMETRES in the course of the day.

Which meant that he didn't particularly want to come on a morning constitutional with Lindsey and me at 7:30 on Saturday morning. He did wake up and come and look at the seven hot air balloons which were drifting past the flat at 7:00. Lindsey and I left him in bed and went across to the MCG then down to the Yarra, pausing to admire the swans, the rowers and the tubular bells which are tucked away on a walkway. This area of the Yarra was in a state of considerable disrepair when I left Melbourne. It's had lots of interesting things done to it in the intervening years.

And then it was time to head to Mount Martha. We hopped in the car and off we went. I'm glad I wasn't navigating. I'd have had trouble, I think. Will be even worse next time. They're putting in a new road. To make things even easier :-( We haven't been to Stella and Tony's new house. We saw the show house but theirs was behind a cyclone fence the last time we were here, in a state of not-readiness. It's very nice. Spacious, light and airy, but easy to maintain and with a small garden. There is a dog called Martha living across the way. She waved at me through her lounge room window.

We had lunch in a seafood restaurant in Mornington with some friends of Stella and Tony who used to live in Chesterfield and who will be visiting there at the end of August. They are a very nice couple. The food was very nice too. Then we went to Officeworks to look for something that Lindsey is after for tomorrow. They didn't have it. We headed back to the house, decanted Tony and The Builder and gave them a glass of whisky each to keep them occupied, then Stella, Lindsey and I headed off looking for various different things. We didn't find them. I did find a very cute bathroom mirror with beach huts around the bottom for the bathroom. And we bought lots of wine. But none of the things we had gone for. We went home.

I had just sat down and started the blog when Tony suggested a stroll around the block. That sounded nice. Oh - an hour's stroll. OK. I'll take a coat and a bottle. Actually, it was a very pleasant walk. Except that Tony had forgotten to take his lunchtime angina tablet so was a bit uncomfortable. We ended up walking along the coast cliffs and then up past their new local shops and back. Oh - and as we were heading out, we met Fleur who is a six month old small poodle puppy. She was very cute. And very enthusiastic. It seems there are lots of dogs in the complex.

Time for Chinese food.