09.06 The 10km Stroll

Day 1 of the Queens birthday weekend: Someone came up with the bright idea of walking to Williamstown from Docklands on Saturday, so this is the picture story of our little winter adventure!

This is the very start of our walk to Williamstown from Docklands. As you can see Joanna is very excited at the whole prospect. Lets see how long it can last...

Web Bridge connects Docklands Park to Yarra's Edge. The design is said to be inspired by a spiders web - so says the voice-over man on the City Circle tram.

This is a view back to the City from Yarra's Edge. This area is similar to Docklands but, strangely enough, is on the edge of the Yarra River. In the centre of the picture you can see the Rialto Towers and to the far right is Eureka Tower - the city's newest viewing vantage point!

After a very long walk through the industrial area of Port Melbourne we arrived at the Jetty to pick up the Westgate Punt. For $3 each it took us to Scienceworks on the other side of the river so we could continue our journey.

Joanna on the Punt ready to go!

The Port of Melbourne attracts some very large ships to carry whatever is being imported or exported. This beaten up old thing looked like it was carrying aggregates. Fortunately we let this one pass before we set off, I'm not sure that we would have been able to out run it!

A little flower in the Riverside Park.

Colourful boats in Williamstown Marina.

Ferguson Street Pier.

Views of the City from the end of Ferguson Street Pier.

Mast in the Marina.

Williamstown's coffee strip. There are some lovely old buildings here, and plenty of choice on where to eat and drink too! Always a bonus!!

Nathan sitting on Quay with the City in the background.

Joanna waiting for the Ferry home. With the sunsetting the temperature is starting to drop slightly too!

The Seaplane heads out into the bay for takeoff.

Trick shot of the Castlemaine!

In comes our transport home. This cost us $11 dollars to get us back to Yarra's Edge, so slightly better value than the Punt!

The Seaplane arrives back from its scenic flight around the bay. There are a number of different flights you can do; around the bay, to the Dandenong Ranges and down to Sorento too. Perhaps we might treat ourselves in the future!

Sea dog Nathan surveys the horizon for potential development plots, with the aim of producing is own version, Vezlands, of dock-side living.

Newport Power Station, as the sun sets behind it.

Shags roosting for the night on the shipping lane signals.

Port Melbourne is a hive of activity as container ships are loaded with goods! I heard boomerangs and stuffed Koalas & kangroos are in this one!

Almost home! Right in front is Testra Dome & Docklands.

Bolte Bridge at sunset from the Yarra River.

This was the view from Loft 50 on Yarra's Edge, as we decided that we needed a little warming up after our boat ride, so we headed in and got ourselves some warm beverages!

Found the nightscape mode on the camera and managed to take this photo of Bolte Bridge all lit up and reflecting - it does that a lot! Expect some more camera trickery again soon!!

After getting home at 6.30 we managed to find some string and trace our little walk, we then discovered that we had covered 10km on the way to Williamstown!

09.06 WANTED: Marmite

Actually this request is a lie as we have now found a reputable dealer for Marmite, although it has been renamed to 'Our Mate'. That almost threw us I can tell you! We have also received a couple of 'official' jars from the very generous Lynn!

09.06 General Update

Well its been a while since we've added anything of note so we thought that we'd give you a general round up of what's been happening around here for the last few weeks.

Social Front
We done a couple of meet ups around docklands, one for 'meet your neighbours' and another was about environmental awareness for residents. The 'meet your neighbours' was a little disappointing as was really an over 50's club in disguise! The environmental meet was similar but more interesting, and the people were friendlier! There are plans for more social events, Joanna has a knitting group meet (no sniggering from the back!) next week and I'm still doing my screen printing course. Plus, there is also the Melbourne 30's club to revisit. We did have dinner with some people and met someone who was an actress on Neighbours for 26 episodes!

Shopping Trips
Have been spending far too much time in the local DFO! Helen photos will come very soon! A trip was also taken to Bridge Road (factory outlet stores), in fact its very convenient as the tram takes us from our apartment straight there! We have also been doing some veg shopping in the Victoria Market too! A lot of trips always coincide with some form of replenishment. In fact, one trip to Ackland Street took us to a cake shop and we saw Rosie from Neighbours in there!

Cultural Events
We had a recent visit to National Gallery of Victoria to see the History of Sneakers. Took me back to the days of Air Max trainers - they had a few examples of these too! We also saw the View ('I've had the same jeans on for four days now' fame) the other evening in one of the many venues here! It was quite a good show, just a shame that we couldn't understand what they were saying, it wasn't just that they were from Dundee but it was too loud! Did I just type that?! It wasn't just us, there was also a Scottish bloke behind us and he couldn't understand them either!

We also saw 'The Holidays' from Sydney, these were the supporting act. In fact this was the second time we had seen them, as they also played with Jamie T (they've only played twice in Melbourne!). They were so good we got their CD! Can't find any links to them though. There was plenty of stage diving at the end and a couple of people had to be ejected during the show too! We also headed out for food before the gig where we managed to get two meals and drinks for $20! Yes it is possible, but we've found only from noodlie-doodlie bars (v. nice though!).

Work
Joanna continues to do temp work for VCAT, she has just been extended until the end of the month. She's still applying for proper jobs. I on the other hand am slightly unemployed at the moment, but am also applying for proper jobs too. One job is designing semi-trailers (lorry trailers), looks interesting though. Have spent some of the week taking photos for screen printing ideas - blog to follow on progress in this area, and have also redesigned 'vesma.net' so take a look!

We're currently within a long weekend, as its the queen's birthday! She's coming round to ours for afternoon tea! We've had an excellent day out today, a blog will also follow on this with plenty of photos!!

Love to all,
Nathan.

01.06 First Day of Winter

As the title suggests it's the first day of winter here and we are certainly feeling it! It's gone down to a chilly 15 degrees with a COLD wind off the water which makes it feel baltic! It's still a balmy 25-30 degrees 'up north' why oh why did we choose Melbourne?!?

Everyone is 'rugged up' as they say here and hats and scarves are in the shops. It really does feel cold here and at home we probably would have thought that 15 degs was quite warm oh how we've changed!

We've had to buy a blanket (thank goodness for Ikea) and Nathan has finally allowed the heating on! We're off shopping this weekend for jumpers, hats and slippers!

Bye for now!

Joanna x