Life Can be a Beach in Melbourne

Friday was supposed to have been Day Four of the test but England had already managed to lose what should have been a five day game in less than three. It meant that a lot of England supporters, including us, were a little lost. What shall we do? The weather was much better, but not quite hot enough to lie on the beach, so we decided to go for a long city walk.

Firstly, we walked to Alma Rd and looked at the outside of the flat we lived in eight years ago. Nothing much has changed there. We continued our walk, via Chapel Street passing all the interesting off beat shops and designer clothing shops, all the way up to the MCG. From there we walked to Federation Square and soaked up the vibes. Finally, we enjoyed a pint in the 'Young and Jackson', a pub opposite Flinders St Station, eight years after first intending to do so. We then decided we had done enough walking for the day, so we caught a tram back to St Kilda.

Back at the apartment, we should have been getting ready for a meal out, but instead sat around enjoying a few beers. This set us back a couple of hours, which ended up having a detrimental effect on the evening ahead. When we finally did leave, at 8.30pm, we were all a little hungry. Unfortunately, upon reaching Lygon St, we settled for the first restaurant that we came across. We must give it to them, though. They certainly know how to microwave and serve food quickly, but the meal was a big disappointment. We decided to give dessert a miss and head back to the appartment to finish off our beers and finally crack open the Christmas Freddo!

Saturday dawned, the last day of our holiday. The weather was great, so a day on St Kilda beach was called for. Andy and Jenny were also up for a day of lazing around. St Kilda attracts a lot of day visitors and as it would have been Day 5 of the test there were still a lot of English supporters in Melbourne, also enjoying the lovely weather.

Pete and Andy went into the water to play a ‘throw the ball at each other and make a spectacular catching dive' game. Jenny joined in later, when the game was changed to ‘piggy in the middle’. Chantal kindly stayed behind on the beach, to look after the bags.

Luck would have it that Chantal spotted Denise walking past, with her husband Tony. Jenny & Chantal played cricket together with Denise, for the New Forest Ladies' Cricket Club, back in England. Denise and Tony sat down with us all and we caught up with the team gossip. It was nice seeing someone you know, that far away from home.

Jenny and Andy left the beach around 3.30pm, to get their bags packed as they were catching the overnight bus to Sydney. We stayed a little longer, but went back to the apartment around 4.30pm so that we could all have an early dinner together. There were some sausages that had to be eaten!

After Jenny and Andy left we packed our suitcase and tidied up the apartment. This included two trips to the bins in the basement, to recycle all the empty alcohol bottles. Not a bad effort everyone! And yes, Chantal did polish off the bottle of Vodka nicely that evening!

Sunday (New Year's Eve) was 'Departure Day'. Sad, but it was true: our holiday had come to an end. We both have such fond memories of St Kilda. It is a great place, and we both would have loved to have spent a bit more time there. Oh well! Hopefully there will be a next time. Who knows? The Ashes are back in Australia in 2010...

The flight home was with Pacific Blue, a subsidiary of Virgin. We both were looking forward to getting home to see our little cottage, to collect Tinkerbell and of course prepare for New Year's Eve Celebrations.