The Australian Welcoming Committee and Part of My Heart Gets on a Plane Today

We are well into our second full week down under and things continue to move slooowly but surely ahead.  C2 has been been travelling for about a week now but J and I have been managing.  We took the tram from our high street up to Glenferrie Road about a kilometre away to wander it's busy high street.  Another day, we took the tram all the way downtown and spent a couple of hours at the magnificent Melbourne Aquarium and then wandered a bit around downtown before stopping for coffee in one of Melbourne's famous laneways, Degreves St., for a coffee and lemon tart.  Don't call a tart a pie or you'll get something of the savoury variety.  Pie is savoury, tart is sweet.

We've also visited the beach a couple of times, and today spent the day with Kellie, the sister of Sheila's great friend Gina, at the Prahan market, a wonderful fruit and veg destination and a Melbourne landmark.  Then she made me drive around our end of town, practicing right turns and pointing out furniture and appliance stores.

It has been HOT!!! to put an emphasis on it.  Hovering around 40+ degrees for the last several days.  We've largely been immune to it at the beach or in the car, or at the mall (getting hair cuts and school shoes) but upon returning to Kel's today, my car thermostat was stuck solidly at 40c.  J insisted on going to the park in front of her house,  I limped over beside his quivering little body and posited myself on a bench while J played like it was no big deal.  At precisely 2:34pm, however, I perked up to feel a cool breeze pass over me, and a very very brisk wind.  And just like that, the temperature plummeted to a civilized 26c.  Melbourne is apparently like that.

I had been warned about the spiders and snakes in Australia.  We know to be particularly watchful for the redback spider, and in general to give all of them a wide berth.  Poor J exited his bath this morning, reached for his towel, dropped it and hollered for me.  This is the fellow we trapped and carefully tossed from our balcony watching him gracefully spin his web down to the ground.  To provide some idea of size, Spidezilla was the full size of my hand.  J made sure he was dressed properly for Spidezilla's forced removal from the bathroom.

All good thoughts, wishes, prayers or whatever positive energy you can muster would be appreciated over the course of the next 48 hours.  Murphy gets on a plane today from Geneva bound for Melbourne via Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur.  I am resigned to live with what will be but a big part of my heart is getting on that plane today.  Watch this space.