Catherine’s Blog

A Swede on a stump

Originally uploaded by LPM

Well, it has almost a month and what a month. I am sure the reason is obvious. Rikard.
The weekend in Ballarat was finished off with cake, lots of cake, for breakfast and then a trip up the mist wreathed Mt Buninyong. It was very pretty and a little eerie.

We dropped Joyce off before Arnie drove us out to a spot where the Black Saturday fires had been. There is something joyous and sad about a blackened forest recovering from such a devastating fire. Leaving the area we even managed to see some Eastern Grey kangaroos in the wild!
We drove back to Melbourne and settled in for a week of working. Rikard doing stuff on the computer and me at the LRC. The end of the week was rounded off to a trip to the MCG. We did all the traditional things, had a pot at Young and Jackson’s and a tram ride to the G. Rikard was impressed with the crowds behaviour and the fact the fans sit together and it rarely gets physical. Rikard enjoyed himself and felt he had a better understanding of the game. He lined up for drinks and was surprised by a stranger talking to him in the queue. Rikard managed not to freak out too much!


The next day was filled with party preparation. It was my birthday on the Monday so I was having a party. I made cake and Rikard made Swedish meatballs. We also mulled four types of booze. This proved to be a hit with most people. Mulled wine is quite rare in Australia and it is never done at Christmas, so it was a grand way to celebrate my wintery birthday.

The Sunday morning we dragged out sorry bodies out of bed and headed to Melton to pick up a small child. We were going to take both Fergus and Ewan out but Fergus had a cold so it was just Ewan. We went to the Scienceworks and met up with cousin Sandra, Dave and their boys Dillon and Travis. We had a great time. There was a transport section and Rikard help Ewan load a container ship and I was amazed to discover how high the ships are stacked. The cool bit was coming out of Scienceworks to see a ship coming past, loaded high. We stopped to watch is power by and Ewan enamoured a fisherman enough to be taught how to cast a line.
We headed back to Melton to have dinner with all the family as Rikard had missed meeting Michael earlier. There was plenty of food and Natalie produced a lovely pork roast.
Michael educated Rikard about spiders by finding a medium sized huntsman and Rikard trying not run screaming out the house.
We got home late and fell into bed ignoring the dishes from the party.
My birthday was lazy and wonderful. Rikard made me French toast in bed with proper maple syrup. There was reading and napping and vague plan for afternoon tea in the hills but that was a mad when we were only ready to leave the house a 3pm. We drove via citilink and east link to the Mount Dandenong. We drove up, admired the Mountain Ashes and then went to check out Melbourne from on high. You forget how big it is until you see it laid out. We drove over to Monbulk and came back to Olinda for dinner.
We went Kelly’s Kitchen, we thought it could be a little dodgy and were prepared to find somewhere else. We were pleasantly surprised. The service was warm and the food was really very good. There was an open fire and friendly staff. We had a lovely trio of dips, the red capsicum was very red and yummy. Rikard had for types of lamb for main and I had a brie stuffed chicken breast. For sweets I had a warm hot pot of chocolate heaven and Rikard had something that had espresso and ice cream and he seemed to be in heaven. It was a touch expensive but there was interesting beer on tap and the owner was a Gin fiend so we chatted about his new gin! An Australian gin!

The rest of the week was work and going out. Wednesday night we went out Melton and had dinner with Catherine and Kelvin and Rikard got to meet one of my oldest friends. We went to Galli which was very pleasant.
Thursday night was a birthday party, we went on the citilink, through the tunnel and out to Mount Waverly. There we helped Jack celebrate his 11th birthday! ELEVEN. Goodness. Rikard got beaten badly play on the PS2, soccer or something.

The first weekend of July was catching up with the vibe of Melbourne. Rikard found a jazz club and off we went, a small club tucked up at the end of an alley. The music was cool, I am more fond of jazz than blues. We had one drink at the end of the show and we stopped to buy an album and got chatting with the singer. It came out that Rikard was from Sweden and the singer proceeded to speak very good Swedish. We found out that there is a large Swedish church in Toorak and there is a Swedish community here in Melbourne. It was a very pleasant surprise, and we chatted for ages.
After that we went out to the docks to take photos, it was freezing but the results were lovely. Rikard was very informative about what was happening. It took the security guard 30 minutes before telling us to move on, we were cold so did not argue.

Saturday we slept in and then headed out to the Great Britian to join the Melbourne Flickr group. We had a ball and in the end there was only Natasha and us left and we were hungry. So in the interest of giving the tourist another slice of Melbourne life, Victoria St for Vietnamese. Rikard had an enormous omelette, bigger than his head. We caught the train home.

Sunday, hmmmm, I forget besides we tried to chat Rikard’s mother but there was there technical issues. We pottered around, that’s it!
Monday Tudor went to the vet to have her teeth cleaned. She was not at all impressed when I went to pick her up. She had been a little frisky with the staff.

Wednesday we had guests over for dinner, Ruth, Adam and Renee. I have proved I can do a simple dinner party in my tiny house!!!
Thursday was a catch up with Flo and Alex. My god, Flo cooks the most divine Indian food, it was just astounding! Alex and Rikard chatted in German and Flo and I caught up with life in general.
Friday night we were going to go out but instead we stayed in a drank a large amount of white wine! It was very relaxing and good preparation for the long weekend of driving coming up!