I wanted to get in one more quick entry before we leave Melbourne for a few days. When we come back there will be tonnes to blog about around Christmas and our travels and I wanted to get caught up with all of the things we have done before the big day.
The kids finished school on the 19th and we exchanged some nice pleasantries with several families we have gotten to know. Promises of calls for play dates and getting together over the break made us feel good about our growing acceptance within the school community. We received a very nice invitation for afternoon "tea" for the coming Sunday and went home packed with books, bags, artwork and everything else you could possibly imagine two boys might create over two terms of school. Before heading for home however we hit the Carlton Baths Pool Party for a romp in the pool on the giant, inflatable jumping castle and a little face painting. This was a great way to cool off and celebrate the end of the school year.
The boys report cards, that we had received earlier in the week, were very good though the Australian grading system is quite different from the Canadian one and we were a bit shocked to see both boys with mostly "Cs". Apparently that is the norm and both teachers assured us they were doing well and should move on. We are actually having them do the second part of the year they were in so that they stay level with their grades back home - we haven't quite figured out how to break it to Allie that he's not going on to grade two.
Anyway, that's an issue for another day. On Saturday I had been invited into Melbourne to watch a week-old hockey game by the husband of a couple we met a few months ago. It seems there are a few underground hockey fan clubs in the city who gather every week in a pub somewhere downtown, don their old hockey jerseys, and watch and talk hockey. So I walked downtown and met the guys at the Charles Dickens Tavern where we watched the Leafs beat the Sabres 2-1. It was fun to be out and talking hockey and I met a couple of good guys that I would gladly grab pints with again.
While I was out carousing, Lint and the boys made their way down to the Docklands area of the city. We had decided to check out the grand opening of the Southern Star - the third highest ferris wheel in the world and modelled after London's Eye. Apparently, thi ferris wheel has been six years in the making and was originally scheduled to open when Melbourne hosted the Commonwealth games in 2006. Obviously a tad overdue, we just happened to know it was opening on this particular day through a fluky check of their website. Suddenly we had a plan for the day!
After saying goodbye to the boys at the pub, I wandered over to the docklands and met up with Lint and the kids. Had I known it would take me 40 minutes to walk there I might have taken a cab, but nevertheless it was a gorgeous day and I wanted to see a new part of the city. Before the stuff hit the fan with this ugly economy the docklands was an enormous development mega-project where developers were turning an area equiavalent to the size of Toronto's own waterfront/docklands into condos, stores, restaurants and more. The Southern Star is supposed to be the magnet that draws the tourists in.
After meeting up we managed to stumble upon a cool tramp/trapeze thing that the kids just had to try. Mom and dad did not. We then settled for a simply awful and greasy dinner courtesy of the Red Rooster. Brutal! We ran screaming from the meal back to the Southern Star having decided that if we could, we would ride the thing mere hours after its grand opening! We giggled to ourselves as we bought our tickets and waited to board. Leave it to us to beat the majority of Australia to the next big attraction. The press had barely exited the pods and we were clambering back on, eager for a peak and to see what all the hub-bub was about.
It was a great ride - primarily for the fact that the kids were thrilled. It is a very cool feat of engineering and though we've been higher and faster - the sense of climbing 120 metres (about 40 stories) slowly in this glass fishbowl the size of a decent kitchen is still quite thrilling. Of course I was thinking that we were going to plunge to our deaths at any minute having blindly boarded the thing like the dutiful guinea pigs we were. I spent most of the 30 minute trip glued to the bench in the middle of the pod trying to fend off the vertigo that so wanted to mess with my brain. The kids on the other hand were glued to the glass as if we were mere feet from terra firma - oh, the bravado and bravery of youth!
Having survived the oh-so-close brush with death, we managed to avoid buying the picture taken at the top and anything else in the gift shop. That, in itself, is a miraculous feat. We then spent the next hour waiting for the fireworks that were scheduled to celebrate and punctuate the grand opening. We had fun watching the buskers and dancers hired to entertain the crowds and the kids waited wonderfully for the big show to start. Despite a lame light show the fireworks did not disappoint and were a fitting salute to the end of a big day, big week, big month and big term. Once we found a taxi, it was a blissful and very quiet ride home.
Anyway, that's an issue for another day. On Saturday I had been invited into Melbourne to watch a week-old hockey game by the husband of a couple we met a few months ago. It seems there are a few underground hockey fan clubs in the city who gather every week in a pub somewhere downtown, don their old hockey jerseys, and watch and talk hockey. So I walked downtown and met the guys at the Charles Dickens Tavern where we watched the Leafs beat the Sabres 2-1. It was fun to be out and talking hockey and I met a couple of good guys that I would gladly grab pints with again.
While I was out carousing, Lint and the boys made their way down to the Docklands area of the city. We had decided to check out the grand opening of the Southern Star - the third highest ferris wheel in the world and modelled after London's Eye. Apparently, thi ferris wheel has been six years in the making and was originally scheduled to open when Melbourne hosted the Commonwealth games in 2006. Obviously a tad overdue, we just happened to know it was opening on this particular day through a fluky check of their website. Suddenly we had a plan for the day!
After saying goodbye to the boys at the pub, I wandered over to the docklands and met up with Lint and the kids. Had I known it would take me 40 minutes to walk there I might have taken a cab, but nevertheless it was a gorgeous day and I wanted to see a new part of the city. Before the stuff hit the fan with this ugly economy the docklands was an enormous development mega-project where developers were turning an area equiavalent to the size of Toronto's own waterfront/docklands into condos, stores, restaurants and more. The Southern Star is supposed to be the magnet that draws the tourists in.
After meeting up we managed to stumble upon a cool tramp/trapeze thing that the kids just had to try. Mom and dad did not. We then settled for a simply awful and greasy dinner courtesy of the Red Rooster. Brutal! We ran screaming from the meal back to the Southern Star having decided that if we could, we would ride the thing mere hours after its grand opening! We giggled to ourselves as we bought our tickets and waited to board. Leave it to us to beat the majority of Australia to the next big attraction. The press had barely exited the pods and we were clambering back on, eager for a peak and to see what all the hub-bub was about.
It was a great ride - primarily for the fact that the kids were thrilled. It is a very cool feat of engineering and though we've been higher and faster - the sense of climbing 120 metres (about 40 stories) slowly in this glass fishbowl the size of a decent kitchen is still quite thrilling. Of course I was thinking that we were going to plunge to our deaths at any minute having blindly boarded the thing like the dutiful guinea pigs we were. I spent most of the 30 minute trip glued to the bench in the middle of the pod trying to fend off the vertigo that so wanted to mess with my brain. The kids on the other hand were glued to the glass as if we were mere feet from terra firma - oh, the bravado and bravery of youth!
Having survived the oh-so-close brush with death, we managed to avoid buying the picture taken at the top and anything else in the gift shop. That, in itself, is a miraculous feat. We then spent the next hour waiting for the fireworks that were scheduled to celebrate and punctuate the grand opening. We had fun watching the buskers and dancers hired to entertain the crowds and the kids waited wonderfully for the big show to start. Despite a lame light show the fireworks did not disappoint and were a fitting salute to the end of a big day, big week, big month and big term. Once we found a taxi, it was a blissful and very quiet ride home.
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