Neighbours...everybody needs good neighbours!!

We spent the run up to Christmas back with the Robsons, who live in Hampton - nice suburb by the beach in Melbs, where apparently lots of celbs, like Eric Bana and Shane Warne reside! Well probably not anymore for Warney.... This was our time to mooch around after our fast paced few months of travelling - it was lush! Days were spent doing clothes-washing, lots of lie-ins and you won't believe it...a couple of gyms sessions (because New Zealand makes people fat FYI!) and far too much time was spent on this tossing website uploading just these few pictures for your viewing pleasure - hence why we have since not updated this for yonks, due to the traumatic memories! Think yourself lucky people!!!

But don't worry, we made sure that we explored lots of Melbourne too! In particular one rainy day was spent on a hop on hop off sightseeing bus, that we couldn't be bothered to get off, so happily went around all the main sights and looked at them all from a distance!!! At a later time, we did go and look a bit closer up, for example the Art Gallery and Botanical Gardens.

Our main Melbourne tour-guide was Alain (please make sure you say this in a french accent) who is Coops' English friend who has shacked up with an aussie sheila so that he can stay here forever (Bastard!) He took us to all the cool places, like all of the amazing 'laneways' which are filled with super cool little cafes, shops and bars.

He also introduced us to the wonderous place known as Max Brenner's, where we had delicious real chocolate frappucinos (and to this day Alain won't let Coops forget the fact that she asked for her mocha to be de-caff! The waiter was very confused and just replied "erm...it's just syrup!") We have also since had the hot chocolate version, which is just as amazing!

Alain also took us to his place of work - the Queen Victoria Markets. Imagine Borough market, but on a much bigger scale. In the daytimes it sells all kinds of fresh food, from cheese and ham, to vegetables, meat, bread and pastries.

But come Wednesday night, it changes into more of a Greenwich style market, with a whole load of clothes and accessories as well as cooked food stalls, for your munching pleasure! It was quite a military operation on our first visitation, to make sure that we made an informed decision on what to eat! After walking the entire length of the available stall options, only then could we decide what we would have! You may be interested to know Coops went for an African Style curry and Bets had some delicious noodles out of a giant wok! Coops made a rash decision on the dessert front, with a homemade cupcake, only to get food envy when Bets rolled up with her crepe filled with banana, icecream and chocolate sauce! So naturally, she thought 'to hell with it' and got one too! (Mixed berries, icecream and chocolate!) Again, she has not quite lived down Alain's abuse about her being a fat pie!

We were also very pleased that some of our New Zealand homies (Gemma, Mara and Kriss) were in Australia at this time as well...so we made sure that we met up with all of them for fun times! Gemma's b'day was the highlight with us all going to the market and then a fun night out on the tiles!

There were more investigations of other cool areas around Melbourne. Like Richmond, where Claire (on our second night in Australia) kindly took us on a night out with some her friends and she introduced us to the delights of crust pizza!! (It's like Fire&Stone in London). Brunswick street was another cool area, where we wandered around some of the charity shops by day and then picked up a bottle of wine from the 'liquor store' to drink it at the bar next door, by night. And unknowingly, an aussie celeb was sat next to us with her friends, who we later found out was Ruby Rose, a 'celesbian!' (Celebrity lesbian, obviously!)

St kilda is very popular with the backpackers, so we went for a mosey around the shops and the beach side market, where we both bought new rings made of cutlery! And on a windy walk out along the pier we discovered a little pinguino! There are also some nice restaurants, which we sampled a couple of and wandered through the nearby streets with Alain, checking out the cute little terraced houses, wondering which one we could live in! We tapped some amazing cake places for dessert too!

Chapel street is the place to be seen, with half cool little 'op shops' and the other some pretty swanky places like Louis Vuitton! (Sadly our budget restricted us to one end!) We had a nice, sunny, shopping day here helping Gems look for a pretty dress for her bday!

Also, whilst living it up in our cushty suburban lifestyle, we took to going for strolls along the nearby beach (because apparently we're retired?!?!) But it was lovely and we liked the multi-coloured Brighton beach huts a lot! (Brighton is the next suburb just along from Hampton).

It was on one of these occasions that Letty spotted a blowfish that had been washed up onto the beach and attempted to rescue it, by tentatively kicking it back it into the sea! Sadly, it did not pull through and Coops still claims that Bets killed it! We also saw a hilarious game of football on the beach by 3 santas!

As Christmas quickly approached, we decided we needed to make some preparations to get ourselves into the Christmas mood (due to the lack of festive spirit in Australia...unimpressed!) We decided to go to the largest shopping centre in the southern hemisphere, Chadstone, for our secret santas! We had a 'supermarket sweep' style dash around after we had set a budget and wished each other good luck (amongst the heaving crowds!) We also indulged ourselves in a cheeky mince pie! We then keenly wrapped up our goodies and put them under the tree....aka, Laura's backpack!

It really didn't feel like Christmas, particularly because of the hot weather and being away from home, so needless to say it was interesting! Especially when Christmas dinner consisted of a huge seafood platter instead of turkey! We were brave enough to try an oyster for the first time, but...let's just say it didn't go down well!

Christmas went past very quickly and we were soon frantically making arrangements for our long awaited New Year's in Sydney! We couldn't wait!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS everybody!!! (It's only 5 months late!!!)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

written by

coopsandbets on May 7, 2011 from Melbourne, Australia

from the travel blog: We are off to find the wizard!

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Great to see these posts, and all the fun stuff you been doing. Doesnt matter if its a bit late!!
Love the pics tooxx

written by Linda on May 12, 2011

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