getting you up to thursday: zoo, hot choc, gaining weight

Well, now it’s Thursday, Danielle has her classes all day & I’m supposed to be catching this up & going on the free bus around the city… we’ll see if I make it!

So let’s see – on Tuesday after Danielle went to her museum class thing we met her friend Olivia (you can read about her on D’s blog) & her parents who were here visiting from SF for a nice lunch at the yummy Thai place (this was one of many meals we’ve dubbed our favorite! I didn’t get pictures, tho). Then Danielle & I ended up at the ZOO! It turned out to be a nice day & not raining so off we went & we didn’t get lost this time! 

very cool butterfly house

pretty "Gum Trees" while waiting for tram

After that few hours (we stayed till closing at 5) we needed our hot chocolate so we found our way back to the place we’d gotten the luscious samples from the other day. OMG OMG OMG – I wanted to make a movie of us drinking them because we were orgasm-ing again but Danielle wouldn’t let me! 

they're constantly slow melting huge hunks of Belgian chocolate into the vats they use to make the hot choc

then we needed to go try the Greek place that Olivia & her parents had recommended.

these are lamb wrap things - my god!

Do you get the feeling I’m putting on a little weight?!! I’m able to pinch way more than an inch now!

Wednesday Danielle had am class & we went to St Kilda for the afternoon – this is a little beach (I use the term lightly!) neighborhood a little bit south of the central business district (downtown). We took a nice tram ride & stepped off into this nice / strange mixture of beach town, funky, a little run down, a little exclusive type neighborhood. We walked out onto the pier & the café place at the end had just closed up (at 4:30! – it’s winter hours) but we walked on beyond the café to an area where the little penguins also come up onto shore for the evening. We were too cold & wind blown to wait for the penguins, tho. (we’ll see them tomorrow at the “Penguin Parade”). We walked around past the creepy amusement park, down the street famous for its cake shops & then found a wonderful place for dinner (thank goodness – I thought we were going to starve to death! Just Kidding!). and these crazy people sit outside even tho it’s blowing like crazy & cold cold cold! So they can smoke.

St Kilda

we actually saw 2 people go swimming!!

end of the pier cafe

beach where little penguins come up, apparently

not a penguin (Cyndy - for you!)

creepy entrance to amusement park (could film Zombieland here!)

bathrooms here have a 1/2 flush option (left button) + there are needle deposit boxes (??)

we HAD to try one!

hohum - another yummy meal!

On the tram back we met a nice young guy from Germany who actually asked us for directions! He was on his way to a heavy metal concert – invited us along! We didn’t go…

tomorrow: penguins! Sat - Mon = Grampians & Great Ocean Rd!!

(Donna! I'm going to drive!)

catching you up! it's tuesday

Now, it’s been a few days since I’ve written anything so I’ll catch you up. Let’s see, today is Tuesday. And I last wrote on Saturday, I think, before we had our Fashion Week fashion show evening…

We’ve not yet made it to the zoo OR the aquarium! It’s been too cold / rainy for the zoo & we decided on other things. We’ve been to the wonderful café where you can sit in or outside & enjoy (which we did!) coffee & sweets – I had an absolutely amazing chocolate puff pastry filled with a cream sprinkled with a chocolate / cinnamon powder. YUM!! And Danielle had a canola with creamy filling & chocolate. 

it's called "Brunetti"

We went to Chinatown & ate before the Fashion Show – we couldn’t decide which place to choose so we thought we should go to one that had lots of Asian people eating there… we went in & were seated at the table where there is a heating element section where you can cook your food… we opted for the already cooked food! So, you go up to the buffet table get your plate & fill it with your food. Danielle had to redirect me ‘cause I was starting to fill with the raw meats / fish! So we got our cooked food & enjoyed watching all the Asian people cooking theirs at their tables. I wish we knew them ‘cause it looked as though the stuff you made yourself was yummy ( even tho I couldn’t tell what lots of it was!).

archway in chinatown

artwork on the alleyway walls

We walked around until time for the fashion show. This was fun & I’ve never done anything like this. There were lots of “Beautiful People” (or wanna be beautiful people!) & it was fun to people watch. We got gift bags with little samples in them – like lotion, chocolate, a magazine, an energy drink. And it was neet seeing the weird clothes that real people would never wear!

waiting for the fashion show to start

Next day we went down to walk the laneways, the shopping area, the riverfront aiming to end up at this Sunday Market where artisans show / sell their crafts & art. This was sooo fun – we had good mostly sunny weather, no agenda, no rush. We walked thru one laneway where a chocolate shop girl was handing out samples of hot chocolate – ohmygod! It was so good we were orgasmic! It was like they had melted some wonderful chocolate bar, added a touch of milk & we were drinking it. We definitely plan to go back there & get a full serving! We went to the Opal Museum (Kathy!!) because, for 1 I wanted to see what it was about – it was advertised that they told the history of opals & explained the mining etc, from dinosaur times to present. But also & most importantly, they promised a free gift! That’s really why we went!

fancy laneway

cool artwork on alleyway wall

danielle going up creepy stairway to opal museum

danielle near cheesy dinosaur display

free gifts- little koala w/ opal tummy stick pin (bitchy woman who didn't want to give us these but we got em!)

We walked past St Pauls Cathedral which is simply amazingly beautiful. Walked around Federation Square which is where there are museums (they have an “ABBA” display!), cafes, street performers. They have an info center there where you can go & they help you plan / arrange trips or tours you may want – in here we got tons of brochures about hiring a car to drive to the Grampians & the Great Ocean Rd. also the tour info about going to the Penguin Parade! Apparently they have these info centres (AU spelling!) all over. THAT would be a fun place to work!

St Pauls Cathedral

St Pauls

St Pauls

Federation Square

Waiting for the tram to head back for the evening

We finished up our free tram circle, headed back. Danielle needed to work on her papers due this week. I needed to chill out since I felt a cold or something trying to get started. That evening, dinner, then off to our separate rooms for sleep since Danielle needed to work.

afternoon coffee (little cafe off Federation Square)

fireplace in that cafe (sunny when we came in - pouring rain while we drank our coffees)

Library (taken from tram on the way back)

yummy Italian dinner

at least we shared dessert!

I took a Benadryl & slept like the dead!

Next day (yesterday now) I was so out of it all day – I don’t know how people take Benadryl like they do at my workplace (the patients, I mean – I don’t know if the nurses take it!) – that stuff knocks me out. so yesterday was a do nothing day where Danielle worked on her papers some, I learned how to post pictures to my blog, we got some dinner & went to the Woolworths for sundries – where I got me some herbal stuff for allergies. Today I’m taking my herbal stuff & feel much much better. I think this must be allergies – I never had a sore throat and my eyes & nose are dripping enough to use a whole box of tissues! And it is early spring here with lots of stuff budding & blooming.  But I am way better today with this stuff: Nyal contains albizia lebbek (equivalent to dry stem bark) & scutellaria balcalensis (equivalent to dry root)…hunh? Anyway, it seems to work!

So this am Danielle went to the Ian Potter art museum for her Australian Art class. Now, we plan to try for the zoo or aquarium again today… let’s see what we end up with! Humnh, that hot chocolate sounds good! I think we could get there on the way to the aquarium!

burgers, walking on Lygon, mouth guard, Chicks Footy

Some things that are different in AU: they drive on the other side of the road, right? Well, they walk on the other side too! They say “take away” instead of carry out or to go. they call coffee drinks all different – like, I like a latte – I need to say a flat coffee white. (hunh??) their accent is sooo nice – even at the airport, when the announcements come on. In America it’s so annoying, those announcements, but here it’s so nice. But, I have trouble understanding them sometimes – and you don’t say “What?” if you didn’t understand – you say “I’m sorry” or “Excuse me”. They’re very polite, good manners. Very friendly.

Friday evening we went to this burger place called Grill’d. It was not Red Robin! Enjoy the before & after photos. Mine was a mustard pickle burger – yum! And the ‘Chips’ (fries) were seasoned with herbs & dipped into a sweet pepper mayo. Yum Yum!

so big my mouth could not open wide enough for a bite!

After dinner - & we were too stuffed for dessert – we made our way back down Lygon street through the restaurant guys trying to get us to come in, not taking no for an answer. But there WAS  a woman – I didn’t get her picture, She was very intense & trying to get us to eat there, her mother is the chef etc. but I was happy to see a woman doing that.

nice italian guy - very inviting - we felt bad to say no thanks

We got back to my room with the plan that Danielle would go back to her room since she had to get up early for the Footy game – but she remembered she needed a mouth guard. Like they wouldn’t let her play if she didn’t have one. So we went off on a search for an open ‘Chemists’ which is a pharmacy. We walked up this one street to find one closed, then tram-ed down to this HUGE mall in downtown called Melbourne Central. I mean, I’ve been to malls in Ca but this place was HUGE! We found the Chemists, found the mouth guard & went back to my room where we had a good time laughing our heads off at how it looked in her mouth. Pictures to enjoy follow. I laughed so hard my face was wet with laughter tears, I even woke in the night chuckling about it.

Last night it started raining (luckily after we were in – oh, & Danielle stayed with me!) and it rained all night & drizzled / rained hard all morning. This made the field for the Chicks Footy games nice & muddy – I mean muddy like you sink into the mud as you walk, you slide if you stop suddenly or if you walk down an incline…

The Chicks Footy games: photos can only partially explain what these Australians enjoy! This game is very popular (with everyone, but mainly guys play it – like our football with fewer rules, more hockey-like behavior & tons of mud). And today the different ‘Colleges’ girls played one another – the ‘colleges’ are like dorm groups: Danielle’s in Queens College, others are Newman College, St Marys College etc. Mainly it was good fun, mud sliding, lots of mud wrestling, mud face paint, mud play fights. Oh, Queens didn’t win.

doesn't do her mud-covered face justice but this was pre shower

Our plan now is to eat, go to the Aquarium, eat, and tonight go to this Fashion Show put on by the fashion students at RMIT University (we don’t know what that stands for) & their show is titled “Dangerous Goods” with a warning to be ready for anything… I’m ready! I hope I can take pictures.