A Change of Scene

So after what has been three very full days in Sydney with lots of sightseeing, good food, nice people and more steps on my fit bit than I think is healthy, today we head to Melbourne.

Packing is always an arduous chore, so thats hwy we have kept the Air B and B apartment for the whole time we are here. Today is no business class seat, but a hop on internal flight with one case and an extra leg room seat on jet star airways.

It’s also our Twenty Third anniversary today. Good job the local supermarket does cards I thought last night. Present was sorted, but the card had been omitted so from an extensive range of two i managed to pick something covered with glitter to brighten Mr H’s breakfast.

When we return from Melbourne, we are due to head up to the Blue Mountains in a hire car for a few days before the New Year, but the terrible bush fire situation is not looking good up there, so it may be a change of plan. Mercifully we have lots of good advice here in Oz, and we will certainly be picking up the hire car and finding somewhere to explore for a couple of days.

In the mean time, its a flight to Melbourne, an anniversary theatre trip tonight, and Christmas by the beach in St Kilda. In a hotel. With a bath!!!!!!!

Hurrah.

We have breakfast in the little alleyway by the apartment which has a great choice of cafes and this morning our eggs and muffins are joined by a very chatty parrot with his owner who share a slice of bread and peanut butter. The parrot is chattier than the owner and I cant help worrying about all those horrible diseases that you are supposed to get from parrots, particularly by sharing your peanut butter toast with them. But the bird is a beauty and it’s nice to have someone to chat to on our anniversary morning.

Twenty three years ago today Richard and I got together. You can make of that what you will, and it’s so good to wake up still together on this day, two and a half decades later. Still learning about each other, still exploring together, and still loving and admiring each other.

A short train journey brings us to what is known as the domestic terminal of Sydney airport, but on this day looks more like the departure point for the census in Nazareth. Families, couples, gangs of people checking in luggage and all heading home to Christmas.

We are flying Jetstar to Melbourne. Their livery has touches of orange so we feel easy and at home and land in Melbourne mid afternoon. A rather eccentric expat is our driver and with his life story safely in our

memory banks, we arrive at the Rydges Hotel St Kilda. We chose St kilda as its by the beach. For the full review of the hotel see my Trip advisor account, but basically its obviously where they shot the Australian remake of “Danish Dentist On The Job”, that well known porn feature. Supposedly its the best hotel in St Kilda, which doesn’t say much. We have a premier spa suite, which means one chair, a sloping bathroom shelf, and a dearth of plug sockets. I fall out with a receptionist from the General Pinochet school of Charm, and get into the spa bath.

Heading out, it’s a trip to the Southbank theatre to see Australian musical theatre star Caroline O’Connor in a new production of “Kiss of The Spiderwoman”. I saw this Tony award winning musical in London in the nineties, and love the music. This production is slightly harder to get excited about. The central love story of the two prisoners in a Brazilian jail still works, but instead of haunting the stage like the screen goddess and gay icon she should be, Miss O’Connor potters around like a favourite auntie, handing out the kiss of death in an outfit that makes her look like the Queen Mary, and I don’t mean the ship!

But it’s always good to sit in a packed house to see a show, and dinner in the theatre restaurant afterwards makes up for the longeurs of the show.

We hurry back to find the receptionist proffering extra towels and a small pack of Ferrero Rocher - always a sign of contrition at this time of year, though one thing I can guarantee. No ambassador has ever stayed here, chocolates or no chocolates.