Sunday, May 20, 2007

Our Melbourne Trip

A quick report on our short holiday in Melbourne....
We had a 4AM start from home to check in for our 6:10 JetStar flight out of Williamtown Airport. It was just a little foggy driving out there, but by "boarding time" the fog had rolled in big time!

The "announcement" advised that visibility was 400m and the pilot needed 800m for take off. When the sun started to rise there was promising evidence it was going to be burnt off, but cloud cover soon stopped that!....The boys (thankfully) handled the delay quite well and four hours after our scheduled time, we took to the skies. It was a smooth flight and we arrived in Melbourne at 11:15. From the airport we caught the Skybus to the city and a train to South Yarra where we stayed.

By the way, the fog delay wasn't our only transport dilemma . . . .

...whilst touring around the city on the Tourist Shuttle bus we came to a complete standstill at one of the stops due to the automatic doors malfunctioning! After the driver radioed for assistance / advice, to no avail, we abandoned ship and waited for the next shuttle to carry us on our way.

AND, whilst on our return journey on Puffing Billy, we came to a sudden screeching halt!...on sticking my head out the window I realised why....The Engine had disconnected from the carriages and was coming to a stop further up the track!! (According to our Conductor it hasn't happened before!...yeah sure! we believe you)


Some of the places we visited and things we did were:

Cooks Cottage / Garden (Mike recently studied Captain Cook at school and was keen to go here)Brighton Beach Huts ( I've always wanted to see these . . and yes that is hut no. 47 in EELS colours and all!)

Lots of Tram Rides, Old ones and New ones (James was keen on this)

Puffing Billy (we all enjoyed this)

Rialto Tower Observation Deck - - - - - - >

The Great Wall Exhibition at the Museum

Queen Victoria Markets

Federation Square

Our accommodation at Darling Towers was a bit substandard, (Modeled on Basils establishment?) a bit run down, with a few things not working properly like the burners on the gas stove and the clothes dryer didn't heat the air, and some of the electrical outlets/switches were very dodgy...AND for a non smoking appartment it just reeked of cigarettes!!...live and learn.... although on a positive note.. it was large enough for all of us with 2 bedrooms, kitchen and lounge room, 2 TV's with some Foxtel channels as well as free to air TV, and was only 1/2 a block from the station.

Melbourne did turn on its renowned poor weather, but we didn't let this ruin a good holiday, and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay...

Cecil

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

ADSL2 exchange info

Here is an interesting site for anyone interested in going to ADSL2+....(in Oz)