
Monday was all about a second birthday cake pour moi at work. Much needed on a Monday afternoon.
We enjoyed some wonderful courses - some very simple like a grilled fillet of King George whiting, perfectly cooked and perfectly seasoned served with a lemon wedge. Others were more complicated including a snow crab dish with eleven different types of basil leaves all grown in the kitchen garden.
Dessert was pretty memorable too simply called Honey and Lemon but there was pumpkin, freeze dried apple, fennel, fresh raspberries, honeycomb crispy bits...

Australia Day is a public holiday and fell on a Thursday. The sun continued to shine as it has done all week hitting temperatures of 34 at time.
We had a relaxed day and ventured into St Kilda and met up with Karly, Cam, Chris and Tanya for a leisurely lunch.

During our little jaunts out I saw this dog. Unfortunatel it scuttle by quite quickly that I couldn't get a better picture but look how long its fur is and its in dreadlocks...weird!

We also spotted this bikini clad biker who obviously attracted a lot of attention whilst stopped at the traffic lights on Australia Day. Note the occasion themed bikini!

On Saturday we took a walk (in very hot temps) towards South Melbourne where we stopped for lunch.
We then continued to Port Melbourne where we enjoyed the hospitality of Andy and Stacey in their apartment before heading to Princes Pier for the inaugural Two Piers Festival.
Before I go into the festival in more detail, let me mention the picture here. We walked past this on the side of a bus stop. Press the button and a fine spray of cold water comes out. Pretty cool! Unfortunately the wind meant the spray went upwards and away but we managed to enjoy some refreshment.
The Melbourne SKA orchestra then came on with lots of brass and steel drum rhythms and continued the entertainment until it was fireworks team. Their musical tones and the Summer evening certainly got people toe tapping and it was pretty fun for the short while we were there.

We walked through the Chinese New Year festivities again on our way home and saw all the pretty lanterns and lights.

Beers and bare foot bowls - apparently a great Aussie tradition so we indulged. We had wanted to do this on Australia Day but the bowls club was just far too busy so we made up for it today.