A Big Adventure

The Mature Gap Year Continues in Australia With Alan in One Direction and Sofia and the Kids in the Other

Friday March 27^th 2009 – Melbourne

Geelong Cats Vs Hawthorn Hawks at the MCG - A Brilliant First Time Experience

Alan’s Tale

So up early for the walk into St Kilda where I stopped at a Café called Devonolis for breakfast (very nice) and then caught a tram to the track. The weather was looking dark and foreboding and I was pleased I had brought a warm top with me. Within a couple of hours the weather had broken into hot bright sunshine and my warm top was  of course very surplus and annoying to carry around.

I enjoyed watching the supporting formula but the highlight of the day was the first sight of the F1 cars and especially Jensen Button driving past in the new Brawn GP car. As much as I love Lewis Hamilton, Jensen has been a favorite of mine since he burst onto the scene and the chance to see him in a car that could be a real challenger is very exciting.

It’s easy to see that Brawn GP is a real surprise to have made it to this GP, unlike all the other teams there are no items available for team supporters, no T-shirts, caps, stickers or even key rings.

Seeing an F1 car for the first time in the flesh so to speak was very exciting, I have been an F1 fan for ever, yet I have never witnessed a real race. I have seen Drag Racing, Nascar and Champ Car but never F1.

Around 4:00pm I left the circuit and headed into the city centre to get some food, I enjoyed a nice Beef Teppanyaki with a cold Sapporo beer.

I guess the sun must have been amazingly strong as my head looks like a big red balloon with white panda eyes, I must wear some sun screen tomorrow.

After a short walk around town I set off for the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) to watch my first ever live Aussie Rules Football (AFL) Hawthorne Vs Geelong.

The stadium is stunning and although there were some 60,000 people in there it still looked only three quarters full.

The game itself was very exciting with lots of ebb and flow, I had chosen to support Hawthorn and it looked my usual bad choice as Geelong were faster to all the loose balls, better at moving it around.

I mentioned to the guy next to me (a Hawks supporter) that the choice of picking Hawks to support was a bad choice for me, he explained in a very passionate way that they had six players missing and he also told me watch out for the come back, two or three goals in a row and the game could turn, I nodded and agreed with him yet really I doubted it. The team were not as good and not as strong and I did not believe the Hawks had a chance.

So of course the Hawks scored like mad things cutting a near 50 point lead to within a few points. The atmosphere was excellent and although the Hawks ran out of time, I did feel that they could walk off of the field with their heads held up.

I followed a mass of humanity back to the town to catch a tram and then went back to St Kilda and eventually bed for the night.

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Sofia’a Tale (King’s Point, Ulladulla)

Another Deserted Aussie Beach

Grey drizzly day, Glen (Nickies husband) went to find out which beaches had good surf, he decided Mollymook Beach was the place to surf so he headed off. Lockie   (Nicky’s Son) went off with his mate while we went in our car and followed Glen. Basty’s body board has a puncture but all of the children had a really good time in the surf. Glen, Nicky and I had coffee and watched the children frolic in the rain and waves.

On the way back we sent the children out in one car and we hit the car accessory shop to get a roof rack and basket cover , cargo net and some windscreen wiper blades for our car so that we can move some of the items out of the car while we travel. It all came to rather a lot of money and took quite a while to fit it all onto the car, although we had paid the shop to fit the stuff, by the end everyone was having a go, Glen had to take charge as the young lad who had been paid to do it was not the brightest spark.

When we finally got back to the house, the children were all on the sofa with duvets and were totally exhausted, so Nicky and I snuck off to Milton on our own, while Glen went to get his Mummy out of hospital, she has recently had her knees done.

Milton is a nice quaint little place with some good and some not so good (oh alright some bad) art galleries, some cool boutiques and bric a brac shops which we had a really good poke around. Nicky got Sasha a felt Elephant from a shop for orphans in Nepal. The Coast Gallery had some excellent stuff, a real mixture of things, ceramics, wood, 3D, contemporary and more traditional and also jewelry.

We did another supper shop getting kebabs, cheese and ice cream for the kids, I found figs and got some more wine.

We did a Body Shop drop for one of Nicky’s clients then back to get the supper on, while Sasha and Charlotte were making chocolate cakes, by the time we got back Charolotte was out at a Church event, Sasha was having a sleep.

The boys kept us very entertained and when Glen got back from his Mums we had supper, we destroyed the big pile of kebabs and we did major damage to the cheese. We stayed up late gassing.

[mappress]