EC-Rider Travels

So nice to be back ‘home’ with the lovely Dehns. I have to confess I spent much of the Wednesday on admin booking my last flights and also a trip to Heron Island to try and see a little of the Barrier Reef – another thing on my bucket list. In the afternoon I headed back across town to the neighbourhood of Prahran to see my lovely friend Vicky Korner (or Tabain as she has been for the last 18 years). She married her best friend’s, best man Aussie Stan (she being the Maid of Honour – that ol’ chestnut’) and they have been living happily here with their two children (Jess and Pete) ever since. It was SO lovely to see her and her beautiful home here, and can clearly see why she is so content! She and Stan and their charming daughter Jess took me to dinner at the most spoiling restaurant in St Kilder called The Stokehouse. Oh my goodness did we have a good dinner, one of the best I think I have ever had. Such a treat.

Talking of treats, on Thursday Tim, Sarah Caroline and I went to the fourth day of the Australian Open. We had tickets for the evening session so had an early supper in Federation Square and walked to the Margaret Court Arena where we had fabulous seats at one end of the court. Melburnians love their sport and they have a huge area in the centre of town dedicated to sport with many different arenas and stadiums for their different sport – Tennis, cricket, netball, soccer, AFL (Aussie Rules football). It is incredible, immaculate and beautifully run.

Our session started at 7pm and we watched a great five-set match between Hubert Hurkacz (Poland) and Denis Shapovalov (Canada) – eventually won by Hubert. So special to be sitting in this stunning arena, still warm and as the sun went down seeing the seagulls circling above. There are no longer line-judges and all the calls are automated. Unfortunately the call on the base-line, sounded very like a duck which caused us very childish giggles! We wondered if the seagulls were also fooled by this! At the end of the match some lovely ladies came on court with lawn-mowers which was a little confusing on a hard court!

The men’s match was followed by a ladies singles between Lin Zhu (China) and Maria Sakkara (Greece). This commenced at 11.15pm with a nicely refreshed and tuneful (not!) team of Greeks next to us supporting Maria. Sadly it didn’t work and just over two and a half hours later the Chinese girl knocked out the No 6 seed. We called it a day at the end of their second set, at about 1am, but they were still playing when we got home. How do they operate at that level in the middle of the night? Admittedly not as bad as Murray’s game the night before, which finished after 4am. It was so much fun and such a treat.

Quite tired from the night before, Caroline and I headed to Barwon Heads on Saturday morning to have lunch with the Adams Family. Oh so lovely to see them and we got the full team, plus a charming friend of Eds, called Joe. Everyone was in such good form and we had the nicest time and the most delicious BBQ lunch. We went for a lovely walk on the beach and eventually after much talk and discussion about conditions and why they could not go surfing … they went – Caroline surfing for the longest!

Tonight is my last night in Melbourne so, it had to be another cheese soufflé!