Michelle and Eric arrived a few weeks ago. They both know Scott through working at Manhattan and just recently engaged, decided to start their life together, in Australia. Eric had to return to the US for a bit, leaving Michelle behind to find an apartment and furniture. Knowing how hard it is to get all settled in, I decided Michelle needed a nice dinner on the town - and we decided upon Cookie. Situated in a multi-level building, Cookie is one of the 3 restaurants, taking up an entire floor of a building with one slightly hidden entrance. The other floors of the buildings are other restaurants, boutiques, pubs, and a rooftop terrace that plays movies during the summer. Cookie is a Thai inspired restaurant (we order savory and crunchy cabbage rolls to start, then a white fish curry to share - which we both sweat through, so were happy when the waiter brought us cucumbers to cool down our mouths). The bill came to us, not in a traditional waiter book, but in a Little Golden Book! Just another quirky Melbourne discovery.
Leaving my apartment this past weekend, our garden was all abloom, so I am happy I captured this moment before the heat of summer set in and all the gorgeous flowers wilted.
Onto the CBD for the Christmas tour around the city:
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| Town Hall |
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| The Famous Gingerbread Town |
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| Australia Post HAS to deliver to Santa too |
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| Entering Federation Square - turned Christmas Land |
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| Bourke Street |
Myer is the large department store I mentioned in my Horse Race blog. At Christmas, they hire a team to create entire scenes in the store windows (think NYC Macy's). Mid-November, the windows are revealed. This year the theme is "Santa Clause is Coming to Town" - The Nativity Scene takes up one window, then all the others are different scenes of Santa with his elves.
The weekend ended with a 12 Pubs of Christmas crawl. A group of us, dressed from head to toe in Christmas attire made our rounds to different locations in Fitzroy, spreading Christmas cheer! (My hat may or may not have sung and danced - it was pretty much the life of the party).
One more week to go of feeling like a cross between an Oompa Loompa and a Christmas Elf (all I have been doing the last 3 weeks is packing Corporate Christmas orders and eating chocolate for lunch because I do not have time to stop to eat a real meal). By this time next week, I will be making my way to Perth for 2 weeks on the beach, celebrating Christmas and New Years, with a trip to Margaret River and Monkey Mia in between.
I will miss home, family, friends and traditions terribly - too much so that I try not to think about it. But all in all, I am happy to start my own memories of the holidays and cannot wait to share them with you!
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