Melbourne

Some weeks ago I bought tickets for Lindsey, Ian and me to go to the Good Food and Wine Christmas Festival. Quite coincidentally, the Saturday was also the day of the State election.

Lindsey and I went to Melbourne together, stopping at the Warrenheip Primary School so Lindsey could vote. I like voting at the Warrenheip Primary School. They take the opportunity to have a proper school fete, with a cake stall, used book stall, trash and treasure stall. They also have a plant sale, a sausage sizzle and, this time, people selling egg and bacon rolls. I got in the egg and bacon rolls and had a potter around while Lindsey voted. 

I had taken the opportunity of early voting and cast my ballots on Tuesday. I had been surprised to see how many people were also wanting to vote on Tuesday. Fortunately, they were mostly from the Ballarat Division. I live in the Eureka Division, which is where the early polling station was. So I got to go in and vote quite quickly. The rest were treated as absentee voters, which takes longer.

We met Ian, and Emily and Andre who are over from Canada for Christmas. They went off for a weekend away. Ian came with us to the Exhibition Building for the Food and Wine Festival. I have long thought that they should really be called Wine and Food Festivals - there is always more wine to buy than there is food!

The Royal Exhibition Building.
You can see it from the flat
and it is in walking distance

Fountain    

Inside the exhibition space

Waiting for lunch

Ian's photo of us eating Maine style
lobster rolls and drinking extortionately
expensive glasses of French champagne

It was a great Festival - although they could have done with more tables for sitting for lunch. We gathered up spare chairs and used one as a table and sat on the other three. There was plenty of space for more tables; I don't know why they didn't set more up.

We took the tram back to the flat. We seem to have filled our bags up with food and wine and things for Christmas. After a bit of a rest, Lindsey and I took another tram into town and wandered around not one but two Daisos, and a few other shops.

I do like Daiso (which is more or less a Japanese ¥200 shop). I haven't been into one for three years or so. I was very happy to renew acquaintance with it 😊

Mind you, I did feel somewhat like a small country mouse as I wandered around the city centre. So many things had changed since I was last there fir a wander around. And yet - so much had stayed the same!

We met Freyja and Simon in Smith Street at Kinyoubi for dinner. I like Kinyoubi very much but I do sometimes think I should try some of the other eating opportunities that Smith Street has to offer.

Christmas has come to Melbourne:

On Sunday morning, Lindsey and I met Freyja and Simon again and went to the Alphington Farmers' Market. I haven't been before, but Freyja and Simon go quite regularly. It's a lovely little market. I left with lots of delicious veg and some Seville oranges (the smallholder was very anxious that I knew that I was not buying eating oranges!!) and other fruit and things.

We stopped in Station Street in Fairfield on our way back to Freyja and Simon's place, for a potter about, then Freyja and Simon went home, Lindsey and I collected Ian and we came back to Ballarat.

It was a great weekend in Melbourne, marred only by Freyja once again testing positive for covid on Monday morning. I am waiting for me to test positive. I can't possibly dodge that bullet indefinitely!!