During a D&D session with my high school friends Tom & Emma, we spontaneously planned a trip to Melbourne. We drove down in one day in Tom’s car, taking shifts driving and resting while singing along to CDs. Emma spent a significant portion of the trip insisting that Tom & I were like brothers. I think that the highlight of her day was when a random stranger asked, with no prompting from her, if we were related :)

We were delayed getting out of Sydney thanks to car troubles so we didn’t arrive in Melbourne until about 9pm. I had Google Maps switched on my mobile the entire trip; lots of fun watching our location but also useful to find places to stop. We stayed at the Quest on Bourke, it had no view but the rooms were very nice.

We did lots of walking around the shops and I bought Christmas presents for most of my family members. Melbourne is a really well laid out city, the CBD is basically a grid with very predictable streets. It’s easy to find your way around both walking and driving. Oh, annoyingly all the car parks all seems to shut at or before midnight, this is despite being fully automated so they could easily stay open all night.

Emma had her birthday while we were down there. Julieanne and I made her breakfast and then we all wandered down to Federation Square for the day. Unfortunately since none of us are morning people it was late afternoon when we got there and the art gallery was closed. We did have lunch/dinner at a good place nearby. Tom and I ordered the same food for about the third time on this trip, adding further weight to Emma’s proposition that we’re brothers. After that we had some tasty miniature cup cakes and lazed around the gardens for an hour or so.

On another day we visited Eureka Tower – the highest observation platform in the southern hemisphere. It has stunning views of the Melbourne city and its surrounds.

Julieanne and I also met up with my cousin Adele while I was down there. She had just got married a few days before so I was very excited for her. I got to meet her husband, John, for the first time. The four of us spent a few hours in a café in St Kilda that Adele recommended. It was a good day :)

As well as all that I got a paper accepted into ADCS, a conference held in Hobart on December 8th. This happened to be during the Melbourne trip, so I flew there and back in the one day. I reused my presentation from my honours talk, the audience seemed interested and asked a few questions so I guess it went pretty well.

For the trip back home we had planned to take the longer and prettier coastal route, however we all ended up sleeping too late to be able to get back at any reasonable hour.

It was a great trip. Thanks for a fantastic time Emma, Julieanne & Tom!