Roadtrip

One week today I arrived in Melbourne. Time really does fly. But at the same time I feel like I've been here for longer than a week. The jazz night was a big success. Janelle and I went for cocktails (pear gin fizz - pears and gin, obviously, plus lemon juice, cinnamon syrup and soda - yum) at a cool bar called Murmur. Then on to the Bluestone jazz bar/restaurant that's owned by Janelle's friend's sister. We met up with Kirsten and Josie, who I met once before in London, and Josie's sister. It was a very chilled out evening. We had a delicious Amaretto cocktail (yum again) then sat down with a bottle of Merlot and had a good natter over pizzas and listened to the jazz that was better than expected. Once again, Janelle's friends made me feel very welcome and any anxieties I had before we arrived soon evaporated. I need to live more in the moment. Maybe if I say that enough times I'll start believing it more.

On Friday I met Janelle for lunch and we sat in the sunshine in Federation Square having our sandwiches. It was a shame Janelle had to go back to work but work she must, so I took myself off on a 6k walk around a park, to the Shrine of Remembrance and into the botanic gardens then back along the Yarra river. I saw a different side of Melbourne to the hustle and bustle of the city and it was nice wandering through the greenery with my thoughts and the birds, plus the odd tourist, for company. I did a lot of thinking. I felt a bit lonely. I missed T.

The fuse had tripped so the house was in darkness when I got home. I did the dishes wearing my head torch. Be prepared. On Friday night we met up with Michaela, another of Janelle's lovely friends (she possibly has even more than me), and went to a really cool local bar called Joe's Shoe Store. It once used to be, yes, you guessed it, a shoe store. Now it's a dark, sparsely-furnished little place with eclectic staff who play eclectic music. It was a bit like Cafe Kick on Shoreditch High St for those of you who know that place. But without the table football. You order pizzas from Pizza Meine Liebe next door and they bring them in to you. It had a refreshingly easy-going, unpretentious vibe. You didn't need to be cool to be there. Just as well. Similar places in London can be a bit try-hard. My Wellington and Melbourne experiences have really made me think that we're doing something wrong in London. We have so many chains, from Nando's to Pizza Express and from All Bar One to Slug & Lettuce. Granted there are independent joints too, but between the chains and the smelly old-man's pubs, the good independent places seem few and far between. Here they are on pretty much every corner. And they all seem good. I've not been in the coffee shop in the new arcade in my home town, but it doesn't entice me in and I've not heard great reports. Why couldn't that have been a cool little cafe with comfy chairs and cushions and interesting music, serving not just good but amazing coffee and proper homemade muffins and scones? Maybe I should stop ranting and do something about it. Maybe it still can be that place.

Anyway, I digress. We set off in the 20-odd year old Colt on Saturday morning bound for the Great Ocean Road. The name says it all. It makes you want to drive it. It was all the things it promises to be. Great. Ocean. Road. The weather was good, sunshine and a few clouds. A pleasant temperature. We drove down the freeway for an hour or so before turning off and heading for the ocean. We stopped for lunch at Torquay and sat on the beach watching the surfers. There were literally hundreds of them but the waves weren't huge so I reckon they were beginners. From there we continued down the coast to Lorne, where Janelle's family used to holiday every year in their caravan. It's a lovely little town and feels very unspoiled compared to some of the UK's seaside resorts. In Lorne there were a few trampolines for the kids, maybe even mini golf, but no amusement arcades and no stalls serving hot dogs and candy-floss. We stopped for a chai latte in a random op-shop that was serving hot drinks and had a balcony overlooking the sea. I've never had chai latte before but it was good. I might be having more of them. 

Then it was on to Colac, home of Janelle's lovely dad. He was really pleased to see us and we were welcomed into the family home with open arms. We had delicious roast lamb and were regaled with stories of his past, some of which even Janelle had never heard before. Colac is a smallish town and from what Janelle tells me, growing up there wasn't dissimilar to where I grew up. There's one nightclub for example, called Hush, where you wouldn't really go. Everyone knows everyone. Sometimes a good thing. Sometimes not. We slept in twin beds in Janelle's room. Like visiting Laura's childhood home, it was good to see where Janelle had grown up and to meet her dad. I think it was slightly surreal for Janelle to have a relatively recent friend from the other side of the world sleeping over in her childhood bedroom. Instead of chatting on and eating Mars Bars at midnight, we both popped our seven Chinese Ted tablets and went to sleep. How times change.

It was wet and very windy when we woke up on Sunday but Janelle and I set off for the Twelve Apostles anyway. I'm glad we did as the weather improved and we managed to stay dry every time we got out the car. We drove through the countryside, some of it not dissimilar to Northumberland, back to the coast at Port Campbell. The wind was blowing off the sea and the waves were pretty spectacular. It wasn't a good hair day. And I had to borrow a big kind of donkey jacket from Janelle's dad to keep the wind out, so I maybe wasn't looking my best. Still, as my mother would say, it wasn't a fashion show and at least I was warm. 

The coastline down there is spectacular. The erosion of the limestone is incredible and the tops of the cliffs are covered in green, scrubby bush. The sand is a lovely warm yellow colour and limestone cliffs and eroded stacks glow the same warm yellow when the sun catches them. It's a rugged coastline, very exposed to the elements. While it's nothing like Ireland or Scotland, the coastline has a similar wildness about it. We stopped at Loch Ard Gorge and walked to a blow hole and the Loch Ard Gorge. Here in 1878, the Loch Ard clipper, transporting immigrants from England, hit a reef and capsized, taking all but two of the 53 passengers with her. The two survivors found each other washed into the gorge and were rescued. Imagine coming all that way, sailing for endless days, only to hit a reef just off shore and drown. That really is the worst kind of luck.

There aren't actually twelve Apostles at the Twelve Apostles. Only eight. The ninth collapsed in 2005. (On a slightly different note, there's another place along the coast called London Bridge. It used to look like a bridge but the arch collapsed in 1990 leaving two people stranded on one side. They had to be rescued by helicopter. How scary must that have been? And how lucky that they weren't on the arch when it collapsed.) You view the Twelve Apostles from a cliff-top walkway and it was very very windy up there. The waves were really impressive and the sun kept coming out from the clouds to light up the sea and the stacks. The current stacks will eventually collapse too but by then new stacks will be formed as the coastline is further eroded so while there may never be Twelve Apostles, I reckon there will always be Apostles.

We had fish and chips in Port Campbell before making our way back to Colac. After a guided tour of the new house Janelle's dad is building for himself and loading the car up with veggies from the veggie patch we were back on the road again, this time Melbourne-bound. Janelle's dad really wanted me to stay for longer so he could show me some of the area's other sights before putting me back on the train to Melbourne, but we had a dinner appointment with Janelle's brother that evening so unfortunately I couldn't take him up on his offer. An invite to visit Colac was even extended to my family if they were ever over this way. He's such a kind and generous man. And, Anna H, if you're reading this then he would love to meet you too - he was asking after you and I think he misses your Corporate Edge chats! Sunday evening was spent with some more of Janelle's family - her brother, his wife and their two daughters. Once again I was made to feel very welcome and it was a relaxed and enjoyable evening with good food and good company.

I feel like I've gained a few pounds in the past two days. It's been a bit of an eating frenzy, so this morning I took myself out for another run. I was only out for half an hour or so but it was good to get some exercise and burn off some of the calories I've consumed. I also need to start thinking about some more serious training for the Great North Run that will no doubt be here before I know it. Quite how I'm going to manage 13 miles I don't know at this stage, but I will do it and I will do it for T. I saw in my diary that there was a Clapham Common 10k yesterday. I'm not sure if anyone from ICAP or any of my friends were doing it, but if you did then I hope it went well. I would really like to do the rest of them when I'm back (I think I miss two while I'm away) so will come and keep you company.

The weather is much cooler today and a bit blustery but it's meant to warm up later in the week. I'm meant to be going to Brunswick Street today - a cute little part of town with nice-looking shops but I'm sorry to say that I've got my old internet addiction back so I haven't yet gone. It's not that I'm addicted to the internet per se, more to keeping in touch with people. I only really use a handful of sites - hotmail, facebook, internet banking, the BBC (for NUFC and MotoGP updates) and my blog - so it's not that I spend hours doing random surfing but I constantly check my emails for messages. I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm waiting for an email from T. Right, well maybe admitting that is part of the battle so on that note I'll sign off, have some Vegemite on toast and make a move. It's about a 4k walk so at least I'll get some more fresh air and exercise. That will mean I'll be entitled to a nice cuppa when I get there. And I'll maybe sneak some homemade chocolate banana bread into my bag and have that too...