Weekend in Monbulk

Last weekend I went out to Monbulk and stayed with my friend Lizzie. I had a wonderful time relaxing in the hills, watching movies, going for walks, talking to birds, and playing robots with her son.

There's been a lot of rain out in Monbulk lately, and as we drove up to Lizzie's house, we spotted a beautiful rainbow.

Lizzie's property was very green, with a lush garden full of beautiful plants and colourful flowers.

On Friday evening, Lucius and I had a great time playing robots together and working on a dinosaur puzzle. Then he was off to bed and the grown-ups had dinner and watched a movie.

Saturday afternoon Lizzie and I drove down to some of the neighbouring towns and had the most devine vanilla slice in Victoria at Cooks Corner Cafe in Kallista. It was amazing! Afterwards, since the rain had stopped, we decided to go on the Lyrebird walk, which goes through the beautiful forest and ends up at a bird sanctuary...though we didn't see any lyre birds.

The birds were great! We didn't buy any seed, but they still came up and checked us out. I picked up some of the seeds on the ground and managed to get a couple of cockatoos to come over and eat from my hand...which then resulted in them chewing on my fingers.

The rest of the weekend we spent lounging around at Lizzie's place, watching movies, cooking and chatting. On Sunday we had a wonder around the property, which is on a hill. Lucius came with us and was our adverturous protector.

We had to leave quite early (for me) on Monday morning to get Lucius to school and Andrew to work. I shocked a view people at uni when I showed up before 10am. But, before I said goodbye to Monbulk, I had breakfast with a king parrot.

When Bad Things Happen to Good Plans

Life is an adventure, and sometimes, no matter how much we plan, things go off course. When this happens, it's what we make of it that matter most.

Last night I met up with a friend for drinks and a movie. We went to see Ponyo, which was quite lovely and just a touch bizzare. We saw it at the Nova, which is on Lygon St. I frequently meet up with friends on Lygon St, so I was not concerned about how I would get home after the movie. I figured I'd take the tram up to Moreland Rd and catch a bus the rest of the way home. The other option was to take a tram back into the city, and catch my regular tram home.

We had a couple of beers before the movie, and, thinking it would be a pretty quick commute home, I decided I could live without hitting up the bathroom before I caught my tram. I'd just missed the tram I needed, so it was a bit of a wait for the next one. I got to my stop at 9:20pm and looked at the bus schedule to see how long I'd have to wait. The next bus wouldn't be coming until Saturday morning! It was at this point that I started to regret my decision not to use the bathroom at the theatre.

I was about 3km away from my house, which is a walk I'm quite used to, but isn't exactly a desirable distance to walk when you have to pee. I called Marshall to see if by some miracle he was home on a Friday night. He was not. My friend Gillian lives very near to where I had found myself stranded, and I thought about calling her, or just turning up on her doorstep, but decided against it. I didn't think it would be fair to ask her to drive me home, so I forged on without contacting her. This turned out to be a smart move, I'll get to that in a moment.

Now I'm certainly not opposed to finding a good bush to relieve myself in, but the street I was walking down was too open and well lit for that. Faced with the option of wandering down side streets trying to find a dark place to pee or continuing on and hoping for the best, I decided to hope for the best. The 3km I had to walk is on a hill, and let me tell you, was I ever glad it was downhill all the way home! I made it, and was humbly reminded of the life rule to never pass a toilet by.

This morning, I got a very unexpected call from my friend Gillian. It turns out the previous evening she had gone to a friend's house for dinner, and when she went to leave she realized she'd left her keys at uni. She ended up spending the night at her friend's place, and borrowing her friend's car today so she could get a spare key from her landlord. She wanted to go to the office to pick up her keys, but her keys to the office were IN the office... So, Gillian came by my place and we headed into the city and were able to successfully retrieve her keys from our office.

It seems to just be one of those weekends where things go pair shaped. But, it hasn't stopped us from having a good time.