Henry left at 8.00 to travel up to Skydive Nagambie (approx 2 Hours drive) whilst Debby and I went for a coffee on her way to work. Debby works on the 18th floor which has fabulous views of the city.
Today I planned to visit some very good friends of Bev's (Cilla, Pete and Sue) for the evening and stay overnight. I dropped off my overnight bag with Debby to collect at 4.00 pm so I would be hands free.
First stop Tourist Information at Federation Square. Armed with a city map I hopped on the free city bus for an hour and a half trip round the city to get my bearings, it's great, with 13 stops in all. When I returned to Federation Square at lunchtime I decided to walk to the Botanic Gardens, it was a very hot day, 33 degrees. Even armed with a map I managed to get lost, so I asked a lovely young man for directions, luckily he was off to the Botanical Gardens, so we chatted, he had studied I.T. at Glasgow University, loved it, got a job out here and was getting married in New Zealand in January. In no time at all we were at the entrance and I was sorry to leave him just as his life story was becoming interesting.
I walked around the Asian Garden and then onto the information centre to book myself onto the free spring tour round the gardens and have lunch. I was desperate for water having left my water bottle in the car with Henry! Cold water, what joy.
Due to the heat, only four volunteered for the tour and the guide decided she would concentrate on the cooler sections of the Botanic Garden. Two interesting facts I can remember. One the difference between Botanic and Botanical Garden is a Botanic Garden has a Herbarium. This is basically a seed library to help ensure tree and plant species are protected from extinction. The second fact was in 1984 Queen Elizabeth planted a 'bottle brush' tree in the garden to commemorate her visit, the organisers felt the tree was too common and asked the Queen if she would like to choose something less common to Australia. The Queen asked, is it useful? The reply was yes the wood was used to make furniture. She said that was fine. The story goes that when Princess Margaret visited, she planted a rather prickly fir tree, some of the staff said it was most apt as at the time of planting, she was in a particularly bad mood!
I caught the bus back, collected my overnight bag and went on the train to meet Cilla at Box Hill Station. Cilla picked me up just as it started to pour down, a storm was brewing. The car was absolutely full of rubbish after a clear out of her Melbourne flat. Fortunately for Cilla, the council as a collection of 'hard' rubbish twice a year and interestingly all along the streets were anything from BBQs to nicknacks. Cilla off-loaded the rubbish onto the kerb whilst I chatted to Sue and Pete. On arrival the lightening had caused a power cut. Sue was really disappointed as she had everything prepared for supper. Believe me, I was disappointed too particularly when your host is a trained chef. So we cracked open a bottle of sparkling wine, then another, then as we started our third the electric came back on. Sue then proceeded to produce a delicious smoked salmon and rainbow trout rissotto followed by home made chocolate brownies with white chocolate in them. We all talked a lot and slept really well. A memorable evening.