Myki card in hand, I caught the 10:54 metro train on the Hurstbridge line into the city. I arrived at Flinder's street station a little unsure of the way to the visitor centre in Federation Square, and what do you do when you don't know where to go? Follow everybody else! Well I got out onto the street expecting to see the glass building my Godmother had told me housed the visitor information, only to find opaque buildings that were definitely not what I was looking for. With no bearing at all I took a 50/50 chance that if I turned left, I would end up where I was supposed to. Of course with anything like this, one always chooses the wrong direction to go and so yes, I ended up having to take three more left turns and a kilometre's walk to arrive at the spot that, if I had just turned right instead of left, would have been right in front of me...

Anyway, instead I took a rather lovely stroll down underneath the train station and back along the riverside, across Southbank footbridge, through Southbank back up to Flinder's street to Federation Square. I proceeded to enter the visitor centre that looked remarkably empty from the outside, only to find that the information was all downstairs, underground. Well, it was a magnificent place, so well organised it would make you cry. I picked up about 101 leaflets/pamphlets/brochures, took a glance around the mini souvenir shop and headed back up to the sunlight. By this point, the clouds had started to clear and although the wind gave a chill, the temperature was rising into the mid 20s.

The familiar stomach grumble then indicated I had better find come lunch. Back down to Southbank and into the food court I went: deciding I couldn't face all the foreign food stalls as I was worried I wouldn't understand them and they wouldn't understand me and awkwardly I would end up with something I didn't want to eat (as is the case with me and ordering food) I didn't venture far. Just inside the doors there was a burger joint called 'grilld healthy burgers' and just reading the menu was making my mouth water so of course I didn't really think twice. Well when my burger was brought over to me I knew I had made the right decision although the techincality of getting my mouth round the whole thing probably required more thought and preparation than I had first realised... Layered on my bun was a of piece grilled chicken that fell out the edges of the bread, on top were two huge slices of pickled beetroot, a pile of grated carrot and lettuce that also wanted to escape the bun, with a generous spread of sweet chilli salsa. After I carefully peeled off the humungous slices of tomato, I used the thick cut chips covered in herbs to mop up the salsa juice that ran down my wrist and onto my plate every time I took a bite. I was glad for the serviette to wipe my hands and face with and after a quick check in my iPod screen to ensure all remnants of my burger had successfully been cleared from around my mouth, I walked very slowly back to Fed Square where I sat for a little while in the sunshine to let my burger go down.

So having already decided to go visit the ACMI (Australian Centre for Moving Image), I followed the signs to the entrance. I went up to the cinema floor and flicked through this season's booklet. It took me a few movies in to realise that the Melbourne Queer Film Festival was not about odd and strange films, but rather films all about homosexuality. It did seem a little peculiar that every storyline of the 30 odd films being showcased contained a character that was gay until it clicked, oops, silly me. Anyway I managed to find my way right downstairs to the exhibition galleries. I spent about an hour and a half walking round the 'Screen Worlds: The story of film, television and digital culture' permanant exhibition. The child inside me made me stop to play with all the interactive dsplays: creating my own film soundtrack, playing guess the section from the film still and pressing most buttons available to push.

With my unfit body not happy with the quantity of walking I had made it do, I went back out to Fed Square for another sit down. But of course, with so much to see and do I wasn't sat down long before I headed off to the shops for a mooch and a wander. I had, by this point, familiarised myself with the road crossings in Melbourne (which unusually are the same as in Ireland) with their extreme width of roads to cross as one has to walk over the tram lines also. I then found Dymocks for booklovers. Well as many of you know, I would definitely class myself as a 'booklover' so of course I had to have a look and with a smile I went in. As soon as I realised you had to get an escalator down into the shop, I knew it had one over on Waterstones as you had this magnificent view of all the bookshelves upon entry, enticing you to search this maze for the books you want. I hunted out a book I had been meaning to read for a few months and also bought a book for my Godmother and her husband. Realising I had little time to get back to the Square to meet my Godmother's son as I had planned earlier that day, I sadly had to leave this beautiful shop and wait until next week to return.

I was back in perfect time to meet Edward and have a milkshake in Central park before he went off to meet some friends. And so after some deliberation if I should go and see another gallery, I decided I had better just get the next train back to Diamond Creek. The journey takes an hour so I caught the 5:46 train out of Flinder's street and made a start on my new book.

The night is still young but after watching another beautiful australian sunset from my bedroom window, I may just have some food, a shower and get off to bed.