Melbourne

I was once again working on Friday and, once again, went to Ghost's house after work.

This time I got my pizza. Not a Carlton pizza - I still haven't made it into Carlton. I realised, as  I was driving  along Plenty Road, that I had forgotten to get milk, so I called into the supermarket in the next shopping complex along. I was tempted into a small pizzeria on my way back to the car. And the pizza was delightful. I probably wouldn't feel the need to return to the supermarket which wasn't very exciting (although it did have milk). I might be tempted back to the pizzeria, although the pizza shop in our shopping complex also does more than acceptable pizzas.

Ghost was surprisingly pleased to see me on my return. Lots of snuggles:

I took the train into the city on Saturday morning, from the Westgarth station which is a five minute walk from Ghost's house. It was a bit confusing, though. There was a big sign indicating that there was a bus replacement service but it wasn't clear where the bus was operating. The platform sign didn't say anything about buses, just that the next train was due in a few minutes. One grumpy woman stomped off to catch a train from somewhere else. And elderly gentleman sat serenely on the platform, waiting. I decided to follow his example and just wait. If worst came to worse, I could always take a tram.

The train arrived. I got on. And got off at Flinders Street because that's where the train said it was terminating. Apparently, that was a mistake and it was going through the City Loop. Didn't matter. I caught a tram up to Melbourne Central. I could have easily walked it but tram trips are free in the CBD and in any case I have a Senior's Myki card so public transport is free for me on weekends anyway.

I had a good potter around Melbourne Central. 

I found the Oriental supermarket by the station entrance. Freyja tells me there are others dotted about. Must go hunting for them next time.

I had lunch in the food hall, from a Japanese place. 

Katsu don for lunch

I had a quick wander through The Emporium and made my way to one of the Daiso stores in the CBD.

Enough shopping. I went to Bourke Street, intending to catch a tram back to Ghost's place. This seemed to be more difficult than I had anticipated. There was a small group of people sitting or standing on the tram tracks, bearing placards, chanting and being inconvenient. The trams seemed to be reluctant to run them over, so weren't moving. Then the police arrived and started moving them out of the way. And the protesters stared banging drums and shouting and generally making a lot of noise. I left them all to it and went back to the trains, which were unimpeded by noisy protesters.

Freyja tells me that the anti-vax people often clutter up Bourke Street on Saturday afternoons. It seems a bit odd to me. Unless you work in health or aged care or a small number of other professions,  I don't think it is compulsory to be vaccinated against anything, apart from childhood vaccines and even they aren't compulsory - it just limits what children can do if they are unvaccinated. Apparently they are fighting for our freedoms. They weren't fighting for my freedom to travel on the tram! There weren't very many of them. My feeling was that the people standing around watching outnumbered the protesters by a long way. One of them was carrying a large banner bearing a cartoon image of Donald Trump. "Do you miss me?" it asked. No. Not really. Can't say that I do.

Freyja, Simon ad Ross were due back at 6:20 on Sunday morning. There is not a huge lot of traffic going out to the airport at that time on Sunday morning. Their plane was slightly delayed, and then they were delayed disembarking by some sort of emergency. I had coffee and did some Japanese practice while I was waiting. Then we went back to their place, everyone got organised, then I packed the car and came home.

Brandy and Whiskey were very pleased to see me :-D

They hadn't been starved on Saturday.
Julia called in to feed them

Better get moving. I am heading into work today, although I am not expecting to be on the desk. We are interviewing for a new receptionist and then I thought I might try and catch up with some of the other stuff I'm supposed to do but which is being neglected.