Well, as from last Wednesday, October 15th, the Dazzling Duo have become the Terrible Trio as we have been joined by Mrs Mary Buckley (otherwise known to some of you as either Mary, Mum, Gran, Nan, Nana etc.) We eased her into the Australian time zone the next day by taking a stroll down the seafront from Elwood along to St Kilda Beach. We took a stroll along the picture postcard pier and then sat for awhile on the little jetty at the end, which seemed to be the domain of a group of about five senior locals, all tanned to a deep mahogany
brown and wearing speedos(!) who, from what we could see, spent their time fishing from the jetty, drinking wine (out of glasses that they had in their cool box!), leafing through girlie magazines and, in the case of one of them, laying the law down loudly to anyone who dared to try to dock their boat a foot or two from where he thought it should be! (Think it was more of a case that it was interfering with his fishing but it made for quite an interesting afternoon!) On Friday we went for a whistle-stop tour around Melbourne on the free tourist tram before taking a trip
on the Yarra River to Williamstown. There we just had time for a quick scoot around the town and a slap up lunch where Mary had her first taste of the famous Barramundi fish (a whole baby one!) A glass of red wine finished off the meal nicely before we headed back up the river to Melbourne! At dusk that evening we went back to the jetty to watch some little penguins waddle out of the sea to their burrows amongst the rocks! (They only come out after dark at St Kilda
so we weren't allowed to photograph them as the flash would frighten them, so the photo is from a similar scene we saw in Cape Town, South Africa, where they were wandering about during the day!) Yesterday we met up with some friends that we had met in Alice Springs and Judy took us up to her father's farm way up high in the hills a couple of hours away from Melbourne. Her father was an energetic 85 year old who still chopped wood every day for exercise! He did a bit of wood turning in his spare time and showed us a cupboard full of bowls, cups, trinket boxes and such like that he had made. He was also a great storyteller, entertaining us with stories of his antics during the war years! We had to leave in a bit of a rush to get the train home but I wish I had taken a photo of him to show you! At 85 he still had the most piercing blue eyes you have ever seen! And he still lived by himself in the original old farmhouse high up on the hills - complete with rickety floorb
oards and original features! A wonderful old man with real character and such an inspiration! I think all that fresh countryside air must have tired us out though because on the train journey home I seemed to have two very sleepy travel companions! Zzzzzz!
(JK for the K Team)
Well, as from last Wednesday, October 15th, the Dazzling Duo have become the Terrible Trio as we have been joined by Mrs Mary Buckley (otherwise known to some of you as either Mary, Mum, Gran, Nan, Nana etc.) We eased her into the Australian time zone the next day by taking a stroll down the seafront from Elwood along to St Kilda Beach. We took a stroll along the picture postcard pier and then sat for awhile on the little jetty at the end, which seemed to be the domain of a group of about five senior locals, all tanned to a deep mahogany 
brown and wearing speedos(!) who, from what we could see, spent their time fishing from the jetty, drinking wine (out of glasses that they had in their cool box!), leafing through girlie magazines and, in the case of one of them, laying the law down loudly to anyone who dared to try to dock their boat a foot or two from where he thought it should be! (Think it was more of a case that it was interfering with his fishing but it made for quite an interesting afternoon!) On Friday we went for a whistle-stop tour around Melbourne on the free tourist tram before taking a trip
on the Yarra River to Williamstown. There we just had time for a quick scoot around the town and a slap up lunch where Mary had her first taste of the famous Barramundi fish (a whole baby one!) A glass of red wine finished off the meal nicely before we headed back up the river to Melbourne! At dusk that evening we went back to the jetty to watch some little penguins waddle out of the sea to their burrows amongst the rocks! (They only come out after dark at St Kilda
so we weren't allowed to photograph them as the flash would frighten them, so the photo is from a similar scene we saw in Cape Town, South Africa, where they were wandering about during the day!) Yesterday we met up with some friends that we had met in Alice Springs and Judy took us up to her father's farm way up high in the hills a couple of hours away from Melbourne. Her father was an energetic 85 year old who still chopped wood every day for exercise! He did a bit of wood turning in his spare time and showed us a cupboard full of bowls, cups, trinket boxes and such like that he had made. He was also a great storyteller, entertaining us with stories of his antics during the war years! We had to leave in a bit of a rush to get the train home but I wish I had taken a photo of him to show you! At 85 he still had the most piercing blue eyes you have ever seen! And he still lived by himself in the original old farmhouse high up on the hills - complete with rickety floorb
oards and original features! A wonderful old man with real character and such an inspiration! I think all that fresh countryside air must have tired us out though because on the train journey home I seemed to have two very sleepy travel companions! Zzzzzz! (JK for the K Team)
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