melbourne: it's getting hot in here

so on friday, in the raging sun, jamie and i went to meet erin for lunch at the galleon cafe, a st kilda landmark i hear,  and a little stroll around luna park which is this amusement park in st kilda which i just thought was really beautiful in a kitschy sort of way. i love this entrance. if you really squint on this photo then you can just about make out jamie and erin on the left hand side of the mouth!

after we'd been to luna park we strolled along the packed beach and had a little paddle in the sea - looking like the most english people there with the palest legs and more clothes on than anyone else there! the beach was actually way busier than it looks in this photo - everyone must have scarpered when they saw the camera come out. 

acland street in st kilda is renowned for it's excellent cake shops and bakeries so naturally we had to stop by there at some point.

we didn't actually stop at that cake shop (other than to gaze at the cakes!) but we went to monarch which the oldest one there. jam had a marzipan stick and i had the (famous!) chocolate kugelhopf which i actually saw spelt three different times in the shop so there is no guarantee that this spelling is correct. it was warm and delicious and went great with my flat white. that evening we went for dinner at this thai restaurant on chapel street and desperately tried to keep cool in the heat - thai food and beer really helped! i must say the food in melbourne is pretty excellent.

saturday was cooler and jamie, jurgen and i headed out towards chapel street - first up for jurgen to show jamie and i his studio, and then to run some errands. errands run we had a walk down greville street popping into some art galleries and to a little record shop. saturday night we went into the city first up to have a couple of drinks in a very unusual place! the bar is on an island under a bridge on the river and closely resembles a boat. i'm not sure this photo of auntie jo really gives a good representation of the bar but if you look into the distance you can see the river, plus it's just a really nice photo of her.

this picture of jon and jurgen, sharing the biggest bottle of ale i've ever seen, might give you another angle of the bar. or maybe not but you can see a big bottle of ale. 

we had a lovely dinner in an italian restaurant overlooking the river and finished the meal off with a round of my most favourite drinks in the whole wide world - espresso martinis. OH YES THAT IS WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT.

from the restaurant we walked along the river, well we dashed along the river, to make the 10pm flames! they were pretty impressive these huge roars of flames coming out of these tall steely pillars. i tried to take some photos but it was pretty tricky with the timings, still this should give you the idea!

then we went to the the casino where jamie lost all the money for the rest of our travels so we are going to have to come home tomorrow :(

only joking! he did lose a few bucks actually (on the roulette wheel) but not much at all and it was really fun to walk about and see what was going on. now it's midday on sunday and, with last night's wine & espresso martini still ringing in my ears, we have just taken my brother jon to the airport  where he is just about to embark on a 26 hour flight back to the UK! he's got his woolly hat and fleece packed in his rucksack and is ready to dive back into the british winter. it seemed funny taking him to the airport with jo & jurgen and then not getting out of the car and going to departures. jamie & i are going to have a quick stroll around albert park (that's the melbourne grand prix circuit dontcha know) before lunch and heading to the 1930's astor cinema this evening to watch metropolis on the big screen. i'm pretty excited about that! then tomorrow we head of sydney with 10 days worth of clothes packed into hand luggage. 

good job i'm such a light packer.