No place like home!
We’ve been on a short holiday to Melbourne to see family friends. Will update with more details later.
So, the aim of our trip was to surprise some family friends who live on the other side of Melbourne. I haven’t been there for about 7 years, but I have seen them when they’ve come here on occasion. My parents were friends with these people and still miss them dearly. N has a photo of Mum in her purse still.
When we finally got there, they were out doing some last minute shopping, but one of their sons was at home. He rang his Dad to tell them to come straight home and his Dad thought that he’d done something wrong! When they finally pulled up, they weren’t sure whose car was in their driveway with the South Australian rego plates. It was worth driving all the way just to see their faces when they realised I was there with A and the kids.
They weren’t really prepared for us, but we’d brought some snacky type food and drinks. It was great to catch up with them and find out what had been happening in each other’s lives. Unfortunately the kids were ratty, so we ended up leaving at about 10.30pm. By the time we decided to go, a massive thunderstorm had started after a hot day. As I drove us back to The Motel That Time Forgot, steam was rising from the road, giving an eerie effect.
We saw them again for breakfast, then drove to Melbourne. A programmed the GPS to take us to the area he lived in – Prahran. He didn’t really enjoy his time living in Melbourne and as we headed out towards Geelong he said he’d be happy not to go back for another 10 years. He remembered it being a grimy city and that hadn’t changed.
Driving over we’d cut through the middle of Victoria, but found that route quite boring. On the way home I wanted to go via Colac for something different. We had lunch there but didn’t stop long. It was still a long drive, but at least this way was slightly more interesting. On the way we got caught up in some of the traffic from the Falls Festival. We stopped at my aunt’s house in Portland for a quick coffee. She had a crayfish for my Poppa, so we picked that up and set off again.
For dinner we stopped at the Fasta Pasta in Mount Gambier. A’s father used to own the Shell next door and he told us about how his father would take him to the park on the other side and kick the footy with him. Willow seemed unimpressed with this.
It’s interesting looking at Google Maps and the directions we took. For some reason I thought Colac was on the coast, but it is on the shores of Lake Colac.
