Melbourne!

We were in Melbourne last weekend for three days which was great fun.  I've lived in Melbourne when I was in high school, so things are vaguely familiar, but since hanging out on the steps at Flinders Street Station, finding pubs that won't ask for ID, and wearing bananas in pyjamas t-shirts aren't so high on my priority list any more, I don't really have a compass for the things I want.

We did a Wotif mystery deal and stayed at the Grand Hyatt.  It's just had a huge reno, and the lobby is beautiful and cavernous and muted and rich looking.  In the rooms, they've obviously left some things, while updating others which leaves a bit of an inconsistent vibe to everything - i.e. beautiful marble tiles on the wall in the bathroom, but taps that have been there since 1970.

I've recently discovered that in hotels, when you nicely ask for upgrades/complain about something wrong with your room, you usually get one.  We checked into a room on a lower floor, and then I asked for a higher room, and five minutes later, we were in one.  This was the view:

So Friday I shopped while Jamie worked.  I was in the mood to s.p.e.n.d. so naturally, I couldn't find anything I wanted.  Except for a top.  And a jacket. 

On Saturday we shopped for Jamie in the morning and then had lunch with two couples from Perth who are journos and are now in Melbourne.  We had a really fun lunch, and it was so great to catch up with Julie-Anne, Rebecca, Paul and Ben (Rebecca and Paul just got engaged - Yay!).  After lunch, we went to the pub and became a gener cliche - boys watching the footy with beers, girls yapping away in the corner with bubbles.  Any lunch that wraps up at six thirty, and only then because everyone has dinner plans, is a good one in my mind.  Here's the girls.  This photo captures the only two seconds we stopped talking in the entire afternoon.

Our friends Blake and Ros have a share in a bar called Lily Blacks, which we went to visit the previous night.  Julie-Anne had  this set of cards with little Melbourne bars on each one, and while we didn't take a photo at Lily Blacks, here is a photo of the card about it (resting against my Campari).

After our loooong lunch, we had a dinner booking at the restaurant just next to our hotel - MoMo.  It's facny middle eastern food (i.e. not kebabs).  It was FAN-TASTIC.  The sort of flavours we never cook at home, and things that are just way too hard to do - as if I can be bothered de-boning a quail and stuffing it with chorizo and fetta.  I can certainly be bothered eating it though.