Birthday Week

It's been quite a fun week.

I met Lindsey at Papa Gino's in Lygon Street for lunch on Thursday, largely because I was hankering after a Lygon Street pizza. And it was very nice indeed. Then Lindsey went to Ballarat and I went pottering around in the city centre.

Lady Gaga was in town on Friday and Saturday. I was surprised that there were so many people on my tram when I came home on Friday evening. Usually most people get off at the station. I was wondering why so many stayed on the tram - until they all got off at the stadium stop, when I remembered that Lady Gaga was throwing a party. I hear very little from the stadium, although I do sometimes hear people partying on the waterfront. I went down to Level 1 (road level) and level 4 (concourse level) to see how much I could hear from there and I could hear quite clearly from the concourse. People facing that way were sitting on their balconies, glasses and food to hand. 

Saturday was the work Christmas party, very conveniently held at The Harbour Kitchen, a mere 200m from my place. The weather wasn't all that it could have been but the venue was perfect. It's a glass house by the side of the harbour with a lovely view of the water. The space was more than enough for our party. The food was really nice and very plentiful and there was good choice of drinks included in our package. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

Sunday was my actual birthday. I had arranged to meet Lindsey and Wendy at the Convention Centre to go to the Good Food and Wine Christmas Market.  How to get there? I checked with the online maps to see which trams I needed to catch. It was going to take more time than I expected to go by tram. Then Google said: you could walk it in 12 minutes. It's only 1km away.

Really?  12 minutes? Surely longer than that? But it was a lovely morning. The sun was shining. It appeared to have stopped raining for the time being. I was in no hurry. So off I went. And it is a lovely walk. I went down along Docklands Park, across the Jim Stynes Bridge, along a riverside walk and then over the Seafarers Bridge to the Polly Woodside. I knew that all these things existed. I had no idea they were so close to my place or so close to each other. I didn't know about the cafes and children's park along the riverside walk. And I got to the convention centre in the 12 minutes that Google had said I would, therefore much earlier than I needed to be. I sat in the sunshine by the Polly Woodside while I waited for the others.

Hot air balloons from my bedroom window
first thing Sunday morning

Seafarers Bridge up ahead

Polly Woodside

We enjoyed the Christmas market although, as is usually the case, there were many more alcohol stalls than food stalls. These things really should be called Good Wine and Food fairs! I had pre-ordered a piece of pork belly which I needed to find. Then I went for a wander around the food stalls and bought shortbread, flavoured butters, gingerbread, oils and vinegars, other festive treats. We had arranged to meet at the Christmas tree at the entrance at 12 but by 11:45 it was getting a bit crowded for me. Plus I had seen everything I wanted to see. So I wandered out back to the Polly Woodside, where Lindsey and Wendy met me.

We came back to my place to offload the shopping and then ambled up to The Quarterhouse where we were meeting Freyja and Simon for my Birthday Sunday Lunch

Freyja and Simon's gnocchi and pizza:

Lindsey and I had the Sunday Roast:

This is a plate for ONE person and there were
green beans, peas and carrots hidden under the meat
and Yorkshire pudding.

Lindsey took a Leftovers Box home with her!

We didn't get a photo of Wendy's chicken Caesar salad. But we did get a photo of Wendy!

The Three Sisters

It was a good day. Beautiful weather. Great company. Excellent food. Fun Christmas market. The heritage ships were in the harbour during the afternoon. Two new bridges for my "collection". An excellent start to my 8th decade.