Taking the Metlink to Town

Didn't do a lot today cos hubby was laid up with flu. Guess we're still acclimatizing to Spring! The temp range is 7-14 deg. Brr.

Our day [only] started at 4 pm, when we drove to Macleod Station, parked our car and bought 3 2-hour tickets for Zone 1+2 to Melbourne Central to meet my cousins for dinner.

The train ride was a comfortable 30 minutes whizzing past suburbs that were slightly familiar from the Metlink map: Rosanna, Heidelberg, Eaglemont, Ivanhoe, Darebin, Alphington, Fairfield, Dennis, Westgarth, Clifton Hill. After that, it was express all the way to Jolimont, Parliament, then Melbourne Central.

Noticed a vast difference between the suburbs and town. The former had one common feature: walls and fences facing the train line were graffiti-sprayed, some quite artistically. :) The stations were also tinier. Once we headed into town, the landscape changed to well laid out parks, stately old buildings and huge stations with food kiosks, billboards, cafes underground and much more.

Melbourne Central is fantastic for meeting friends for a meal or to go shopping. There is a veritable feast for the eyes (and stomach!), with rows of cafes, food stalls, gift shops and even a Coles supermart just outside the turnstiles. Upstairs: more levels of shopping and eating.

Another observation: the astonishing number of Asians compared to the suburbs! This is obviously a fave haunt for int'l students as the Uni of Melb and RMIT (amongst others) are nearby.

We checked out a Vietnamese restaurant on Lygon St that my cousin Sean frequents for its reasonable prices and generous portions. $6.50 gets you a "small" bowl of noodles, and $7.00 a plate of "broken rice" with grilled pork chop, vege, a sunny side up and shredded pork with what looks like noodles but is more likely the innards of some animal. Mei chose the very moment I forked in the first spoonful to announce this interesting fact. As a result, I left the "noodles" untouched!

Notwithstanding the cold, we decided to look in on this gelati place that Sean raves about. Given our navigational skills, we probably won't be able to find it on our own after this....The place was full of Asians (again!) queuing to choose their fave flavours. For $3.90, you get a single cone/cup with 2 flavours. Beth and Mummy shared a chocolate and cookie combi. It's amazing how that one cup felt like two; it took quite a while to finish it - there's value for money!

Got home at almost midnight (thanks for the ride home, Mei!) and was so glad that our Internet connection is up again. The proxy server, which taps on the La Trobe Uni network, was down the whole day, which is really frustrating for a Net addict (not saying who!). Better still, our pals Cat & Sam Skyped us, fixed up their webcam and we were able to call PC to PC AND see them! Now, if we could just locate our webcam. To think we bought it specially for this purpose and now we can't find it - it could be still in our S'pore flat, given my organizational skills. Sigh.

Tomorrow, we're visiting Sean's church, Lygon Street Christian Chapel. Service is at 11 am, which means we need to get ready to leave by 9, with a buffer for exigencies.

Interestingly, 2 people said the same thing tonight: that we migrated at the right time (spring officially started on 1 Sep), cos the weather's getting warmer and it should be easier to adjust (as opposed to arriving in winter).

All I can say is - it's God's timing. We certainly couldn't have planned it down to such detail. Thank you Lord :)