Maybe Melbourne

Today we decide would be a good day to head out of Mornington Peninsula and up into Melbourne.  We thought about it yesterday but as it was the AFL Grand Final in Melbourne we decided against it.

So we drive into StKilda and park up next to Luna Park, which for all you Neighbours fans was the theme park of choice for Ramsey St residents in the 90’s.

From here we wander through the Sunday market, stop for a cuppa and some cake, then hop on the tram into the city.

Once in town we take a wander round, grab some lunch and then head to the Ian Potter Centre at Federation Square, where we see some contemporary Australian art as well as some great Aboriginal art. 

Mrs M and myself developed a love for Aboriginal art when we were in the Northern Territories on honeymoon a few years ago and particularly like the dot painting.  One particular piece caught my eye and I spent a while looking at it as I couldn’t quite work out if it looked like some seismic data with a crazy colour scale or one of Prof Birrell’s jumpers…

We then jump on the free circle line tram for a spin round then city centre and head back to the car and home.

Very impressed with Melbourne.

Mr M

 

The Lemon Slice

As you will probably have gathered from earlier blogs Mrs M and myself are not shy from the occasional cup of tea or two, and in Oz these have often been taken in nice cafes or cake shops.  Now it would seem rude if you are in a nice café or cake shop to only have tea so we have felt compelled to sample some cake with our tea.

Queue a small tangent -

Many of you will know that I met Mrs M at St. Andrews University where we did the same Geology degree, and we went back nine years later to get married there.  We like to get back to St. Andrews as often as we can to visit some old haunts, one of which is a pub called the Whey Pat and the other is a tearoom called MacGregors. 

When at MacGregors we will always have a lemon slice, which has a biscuit base covered with a lemon and coconut fondant toping covered in desiccated coconut.

Imagine our continued surprise when in almost every café we have been in in Victoria (from Castlemaine to Codrington) we see almost identical lemon slices for sale. 

As far as I am aware the lemon slice is particular to St. Andrews, so we are unsure whether this delight is a UK-Oz export or an Oz-UK import, but either way it has been a nice surprise for us with a cuppa.

Addendum - when researching the links for this post I have come across some disturbing news. It turns out that MacGregors has been replaced by a Sainsburys earlier on this summer.    

Mr M