Melbourne is fabulous – a really lovely city. Lots of beautiful cityscape, where old and modern sits nicely side by side. The quaint trams and little alleys with coffee shops give it a more European feel than Sydney and the locals are friendly. Phil and I have mingled – Phil more than me ;-) We even ended up with a dinner invitation which we took up last night and enjoyed a lovely meal and company in a very swish 12th Floor apartment in the city centre (thanks Scott and Gregg!)

Friday was the opening night of the Midsumma GLBTI Festival (gosh the keep adding letters to these things – “I” apparently means “Intrasexual” or hermaphrodite and as you will see from the photos there may well have been one or two there. There was a concert and various side shows/cabaret/performance and people milled about in the (slightly garish modern) Federation Square opposite Flinders Street station (oldest Metropolitan station in Australia).

Sunday was the parade in the seaside bit called St Kilda (think Brighton but smaller). The parade was fun as hopefully the photos I will upload will show, but it rained on the party in the park afterwards. We took shelter in a café called “Mash” and several bottles of wine later we were friendly with just about everyone in the café! There was even someone who used to live in Brixton - testament to what a small world it is.

Done museums (Old Melbourne Gaol, Immigration Museum both good), lots of walking, lots of bar hopping, fed nuts to possums in a leather bar, saw pole dancing drag queens, people line dancing for beer and tonight we are going to see (Dame) Edna Everage aka Barry Humphreys performing in his home town of Melbourne – fabulous darlings!

Enjoy the photos!