We’ve been meaning to go to Melbourne for quite some time now, to visit family and friends and generally have a fun time. So last Friday we drove up to spend the weekend! We were staying at the Quality Downtoner on Lygon which I am thrilled to say is a beautiful hotel. We could park there and the hotel itself was fantastic. Not posh, but roomy and full of everything we needed.
On Friday evening we had dinner with the lovely Violet le Beaux and Jimmy America – two folk who I am happy to call my friends. James knows the Aquabats you guys. Violet loves Weird Al. BFF. (Big Friends Forever). We had some awesome Korean food and then got some bubble tea which I totally couldn’t finish.
Saturday was our first full day in town, and we filled it right up with stuff. First we headed down to Michael’s camera shop where Charles wanted to buy some fixer so he can develop his own black and white film. Then I went to Myers to visit the makeup counters. I wanted some new undereye concealer, but totally failed to buy any.
Then we drove out to see my great-aunt (my dad’s aunt), and her sons (my dad’s cousins). It was so lovely to have lunch with them! They live in an old beautiful house with gorgeous detailed ceilings and a big garden full of fruit trees.
Once we got back to the city it was around 3:30pm. We then walked all the way from our hotel down to ACCA, which is an artspace where our friend Benjamin had an exhibition. It was great! We haven’t seen Ben since our wedding since he lives in Perth (and he wasn’t at his exhibition), but weirdly one of Ben’s artworks had one of Charles’ lamps in it which he’d bought for a previous shared project. He wondered where that had gone!
Then we walked all the way back up to our hotel, via some cute shops. After a brief pizza, we were ready to go out to see Barry Morgan! For those of you who don’t know, Barry Morgan plays the organ and is amazing. We had a great time! It was part of the Melbourne Comedy Festival. As such, we laughed so much my face hurt by the end! We even got a photo together. He is so rad.
On Sunday we got up and took a tram to Violet and James’ place where we met the lovely Lottie! Seriously, no photos or videos can convey what a little bundle of joy she is! Lottie took to us immediately which I was really happy about. She licked us one billion times and had us throw her toy for her in turns.
Violet curled my hair 🙂
We went and got lunch together and then went our separate ways. At this point I was amazingly tired from the past two days of too much walking and excitement. So that’s why I look so drooby in the photos!
Charles and I then went back to our hotel to change into our… Collingwood gear! We took the train out to the MCG and went to the footy! My team lost… by a lot… but we still had heaps of fun! Charles even said “I would go again”!
At this point I was so tired I thought I was going to die, so when we got back to the hotel I needed a little lie down before I could muster up the energy to go and get dinner. We walked around Lygon st for a while and got some more pizza. Why not, when I’m on a street famous for its Italian restaurants!
Monday morning we went to visit my uncle and aunt, and then we drove home. The drive home was super boring and uneventful, but we were really happy to get home. It was such a fun trip! We want to go to Melbourne more often now to see our friends (there were heaps of friends we were too busy to see this time) and do more stuff.
At the Dog on the Tuckerbox, Gundagai
Christina Hopgood 