16/1/2012

So the next leg of my journey to New Zealand was my flight from Dubai to Melbourne at  3am, which took sixteen hours. We had to change planes at Kuala Lumpur, so had an hour to wait here. I was sitting beside this elderly Arabian woman on the plane and when the food came, I looked over at one point and saw that she was eating her sauce covered tagliatelle with her fingers and she was squishing the beans in between her fingers. I thought “Oh my God. Should I tell her that her knife and fork were on her tray?” But maybe she ate like that all the time, so I didn’t. What was worse though, was the fact that I saw her picking her nose afterwards. It put me right off my food!

I was go glad to get off the damned plane, with everybody coughing and sneezing! It was great to stretch the legs and I was delighted to see my friend Debby there waiting for me. I hadn’t seen Debby since 2008 and I was looking forward to catching up with her for the next six days. We gave each other a huge hug and headed off towards the car. It was 2.30am by this stage and all I wanted to do was get horizontal.

Well we packed in a lot in the week I was there and a lot of drinking was done too, including cocktails! Debby’s parents were visiting for a month and it was great to see them too. I’d met them once or twice before and they’re both lovely people. Debby and her husband, Piers, live in an area called Port Melbourne, a very short distance outside of the city.

To orient myself with Melbourne, Debs drove me around the local area. It was my first time being in Australia and I was curious to see what it would be like. It was thirty four degrees outside, with a cool wind, thankfully, which made the heat more bearable. First impressions of the place were good, I liked it. We headed into town and after a walk around, we decided to go for a quick drink at a bar, called Pony Fish Island, which is located under the Yarra River Pedestrian Footbridge. I love this bar, it’s one of my favourites now in Melbourne because of it’s location. It’s right in the middle of the river, with great views of the city on either side.