The Colour Grey

This is where Vegan Chickie is right now ...

Remind you of Grey's Anatomy? Haha!

Her train ride took her right past the forest where Twilight was filmed!

Here is the bubble gum wall ...

... and that's your little taste of Vegan Chickie's travels so far.

We are having a quiet day today, which is kind of strange, because it's probably the quietest day of all in Melbourne City and it would be to our advantage to be out and about with so few people around!

We've watched an educational video and now 'Puss in Boots' is the movie of choice.

We've talked to Mama on the phone, as well as Poppy B. We've battled in the lounge room with our Pokemon miniatures, we've done some school work - practising the letters K, L, P and Q, as well as some work with numbers and addition.

Tomorrow Chicklet wants to show me her most favourite parts of Melbourne, which should be interesting .. the odds are pretty good that we will get lost .. her sense of direction is as appalling as mine .. must be genetic! Even Google maps struggles to get us out of trouble!

Our neighbouring coffee shop was closed this morning, so we walked further up the street and got coffee from a charming gentleman, whose establishment is usually (and obviously) a bar. He had a very long queue of people waiting for his coffee, which I must say is the best coffee that I've had in Melbourne so far.

He asked me if I wanted a small or medium coffee. I told him that I needed the biggest coffee that he could provide! So he got his secret stash of jumbo cups out. I told him that they were a much more appropriate size for carers of small children! He laughed and then hoped that his coffee did the trick. It did!

It's only mid afternoon and we are about to have some 'quiet time'. I've completed this blog post in spits and spurts throughout the day, hoping that I might get to watch some football this evening on Foxtel Go. It's Super Saturday!

Chicklet required some assistance during the night to find her blankets that had fallen on the floor and then later in the night she pleaded for cuddles. However much I enjoy Chicklet cuddles, I may require a short Nana nap this afternoon to make up for broken sleep.

I hope you all have a fabulous Sunday.

Nite all.

City Life

To each his own, but the city life is NOT for me.

It's busy, dirty, fast and loud.

I see the smog hanging in the air as I look out over the horizon. I hear the constant howl of sirens. I feel the impersonal rush of people in suits in a hurry. My attention is grabbed every time I hear an impatient driver blast his car horn. I am shocked at how many people toss their litter on the ground in front of them. I am saddened by the number of homeless people sitting on the ground with explanatory signs in front of them. I am astonished at the number of people wearing ear pieces and staring at their phones.

I am, however, heartened by the vast number of nationalities living in this city, in harmony. I am warmed by the friendly welcome of shops owners and workers when I enter their establishment. I am amused at the giggles and grins when people look at Chicklet in her weird and wonderful outfits every day. I love the variety of inexpensive cafes and restaurants that cater to my dietary requirements.

BUT ... I will leave here with a renewed love and respect for my little town and it's quiet streets, friendly community, clean river and beaches, slow lifestyle and old people who have smart phones but don't stare at them all day (because most don't even know how to use them!).

Today, was an interesting day.

Chicklet kindly 'allowed' me to sleep in.

She sleeps in the same room as me, but in her own bed and she has a clock that tells her when she's allowed to wake the adult and make morning noises, which is 7.30am. She gave me an extra 30 mins this morning and woke me with the message "I gave you some extra time this morning Bozzy Wozzy".

I was very grateful for that, because I was sleeping soundly at 7.30am.

We had breakfast and instead of heading next door to the coffee shop, Chicklet asked if we could visit Erin. Erin works at another coffee shop up the road and around a few corners. It took a little while to find it because google maps tricked me a bit.

Even when we were close, Chicklet was insistent that we were on the wrong street!

We eventually found Erin and the cafe called 'Larder Section'.

The coffee was wonderful! Chicklet ordered her usual apple juice, but as I went to leave, she gave me a horrified look and said "We NEVER leave Erin this soon! We can't leave yet!"

So I ordered two more drinks and then decided to have an early lunch of a GF Pulled Pork toastie with the house barbecue sauce and coleslaw. It was absolutely delicious but way too big for my belly!

Erin was a delight and gave Chicklet lots of time and attention.

During this morning adventure, we also caught lots of Pokemon! This street was particularly fruitful for us!

It was about 1pm by the time we arrived home and I made some lunch for Chicklet (who didn't want to eat at the cafe) and we made happy hands over lunch ...

 
We also made some Minecraft sticker pictures until 'quiet time'. Following 'quiet time' we went in search of the 7-11 shop to buy a Kinder Surprise, but we couldn't find it, so we walked to Coles instead.

Friday afternoon is crazy busy in Melbourne and I felt quite stressed by the time we returned home!

Dinner time, bath time, story time and bed time.

What a day.

I have the windows open and the city sounds full of life tonight.

My bed is calling me.

Nite all.
    

Footy Fail

Oh the temptation was there!

I am training Chicklet to get excited about the football.

She is "voting for" (as she calls it) the Sharks ... because she LOVES sharks.

Last weekend, she made me change my footy tips from Eels to Dragons (because, YES, she loves dragons) .. needless to say, I dropped two points in my tipping because of it.

She asked if there were any teams called the T-Rexers? Because YES she loves dinosaurs, and in particular, her favourite dinosaur, the T-Rex.

So, despite her Mama trying to convince her to "vote for" the Melbourne Storm, because they live in Melbourne, she has her top three teams in this order ... Sharks  Broncos  Storm.

She is also keen for Tigers, Panthers and Dragons to win.

Truth be told, she doesn't even know what football/NRL is and probably imagines a school of sharks attacking other animals or something. There is no TV in this house, so she would never even see an ad for football.

Yesterday, we discussed attending the football tonight, because Storm and Broncos are playing. She was very keen and her eyes lit up. After some thought, I decided that it might not be a good idea, for a number of reasons.

Her bed time is 7.30pm and the game doesn't even start until after 8pm .. a break in her routine could have disastrous results.

We would be wandering the streets of Melbourne at 10.30pm or later with a bunch of either happy drunks because their team won, or angry drunks because their team lost.

From experience, the language and behaviour of footy fans can leave a lot to be desired and I didn't want to be the one to expose her to that. Not at this tender age.

So I told her a little white lie. I told her that the tickets were all sold out. Sorry Chicklet :) I'm sure there will be opportunities in the future to experience a footy match!

Etihad Stadium is just a 10 minute walk from here. *sigh*

It was a pretty hairy night here, as far as weather goes. 40kph winds and driving rains ... all against the wall of windows of this apartment. The wind whistled through the windows and made loud cracking noises during the night and this morning I woke to the sound of Niagara Falls against the windows.

I honestly thought we were flooding and that a pipe had burst somewhere! What a relief to see the rain pouring down the 'outside' of the windows!

So we made the decision not to leave the house today, except to get coffee mid morning. We enjoyed the usual morning welcome of hugs and delighted laughter. A coffee and an apple juice later, we were snug inside our apartment playing with lego again.

This afternoon, we decided to go searching for a newsagent to stock up on some craft resources. Google told me that the nearest newsagent was about half a kilometre away, but as we walked out of the front door of the building, there, in giant letters across the road, was a NEWSAGENT!

They didn't have a lot on offer, but we got some sticky tape, a glue stick, a sheet of cardboard, some crayon/pens, some Minecraft stickers and a magazine to cut pictures out of, oh and a Kinder Surprise.

Our list of achievements today are ...

• We designed some ads for our magazine that we are going to create.

• We wrote a list of reasons why we love each other

• We started to draw some happy hands.

We have big plans for tomorrow in the way of activities, so I'd best get some sleep!

Nite all.

  

Easy Peasy

Chicklet has owned her Pikachu costume for 36 hours and she has worn it for 35.5 of those hours!

She takes it off to shower.

This morning, when we visited next door for coffee and apple juice, she was very excited to parade her new Pikachu outfit for Kula and Marina (I hope the spelling is correct for those names). They pretended that they didn't recognise her at first and Chicklet giggled crazily when they suddenly realised it was her.

She spun around and danced in her outfit singing Pikachu! Pikachu! Pikachu!

I love sitting at the back of the shop watching the customers come in to get their regular orders and listening to their animated conversations with Kula and Marina. There is Indian music playing in the background and the ambience is warm and welcoming.

We didn't go anywhere else today.

I drew some more Pokemon characters and we coloured in.

We made a lego house for some miniature toys and played in that imaginary world for quite some time.

We watched Pokemon videos on youtube.

We watched Pokemon Minecraft videos on youtube!

We played Minecraft and Plants vs Zombies.

We read books.

It was a nice quiet uneventful day.

I have some ideas in my head for tomorrow, but we'll see how the day pans out.

I slept like a log last night! I hope to repeat that tonight!

Nite all.

Park and the Markets

Well, last night was an epic fail on the sleep front!

I slept from about 11.30pm until 2.30am and suddenly, for reasons unknown to me, I was wide awake. There were no thoughts running through my head, but I couldn't find a sleepy cell anywhere in my body onto which I could latch and wind down.

So I came out to the lounge room and watched the world go by from the wall of windows. I watched the cleaners in the office block across from us. I watched the vehicles in the distance as their headlights weaved between the amber street lights. I listened to sirens blaring from all directions .. mostly ambulances. I heard people calling out to each other in the street below.

I don't believe there is ever silence in the city.

Chicklet staggered out of bed at 7.45am and still I had not slept. I definitely required a caffeine hit to kick start my day.

After a shower to freshen up, we visited the coffee shop next door, where Chicklet was greeted with warm happy and friendly hugs from the girls behind the counter who appeared to be super excited to see her!

We ordered an apple juice and a latte and sat at the back of the shop for a little while.  Chicklet guzzled down her juice, had some more conversations with the girls about dragon tails and danced wildly on the floor space in front of the counter until it was time to return home.

We had some serious colouring in time before we decided to head to the park. It was a miserable walk directly into the sun, so after about 30 minutes playing in the park, swinging, seesawing, climbing and running, we took the short walk to the Vic Markets.

First on the list, was a hat for Chicklet. She informed me that all of her hats were still with Dadu in QLD (this may or may not be true), so we bought a blue hat with a stretching brim that can be tightened or stretched to suit the size head that is wearing it.

We then found the fruit and veg section where I bought some tomatoes and onions. Across the road was the deli section where I found some coconut yoghurt and some fresh seafood. I bought some king tiger prawns and some salmon steaks. A Pikachu costume was a 'must' as we traced our footsteps back to where we entered and a beautiful big bunch of fresh sunflowers for $9.

Our hands were very full and we had to stop for a short break on the way home, but we finally made it without incident.

According to my watch, I've only walked 7kms so that gives you an indication of how close everything is to the apartment.

We made some lunch, coloured in some more and then it was 'quiet time'.

Chicklet watched dvds in the bedroom, while I curled up on the couch and napped for over an hour. It was so nice with the sun on my feet and the air conditioner blowing on the rest of my body.

We played Plants VS Zombies all afternoon until it was time to cook dinner. We chatted with Mama, who had finally landed in Vancouver after one cancelled flight and a delayed flight. I chatted with Adoring Husband as I watched the big storm approaching our home on the BOM.

Dinner time, bath time, story time and bed time ... smooth sailing as always.

I'm not sure if I should attempt an early bed time or not. I think I'll wait until I'm feeling sleepy.

Come to think of it, I am feeling a little weary now.

Nite all.

Monday Holiday

Vegan Chickie left for her world adventure at 7am ... and so MY adventure begins with Chicklet.

Today is Labour Day in Victoria, which means of course, it's a public holiday.

The excitement of having a coffee shop right next door to this building soon waned when we got to the front door and saw the "closed" sign.

Chicklet said "Don't worry Bozzy Wozzy, there is one across the road!"

Also closed.

She dragged me to six more shops on the street, all closed due to the public holiday.

We finally found an open coffee shop two blocks away and around the corner, but so did a lot of other people! We were about 6th in the queue and had to wait about fifteen minutes for coffee. I didn't mind the wait, but Chicklet wasn't very happy about it.

I'd only had three mouthfuls of coffee in the last 48 hours and I am by no means addicted to caffeine these days, so it wasn't such a bother.

Chicklet and I spent the morning being Arty Farty ...

I drew the Pokemons and she coloured them in.

When she got bored with colouring in, she decided to make the miniature lego style T-Rex that I'd brought with me yesterday. I have to say that she did make a solid attempt, but eventually decided that I should do it!

Me! Of all people!

The instructions were painful and I definitely required reading glasses to see the diagrams properly!

In the middle of my construction, Chicklet had a face time lunch date with her Dadu, so I set her up at my laptop and she chatted away while I completed the T-Rex.

I was quite proud of myself for my persistence and the blossoming of this hidden talent!

Once that job was done, and Chicklet finished her call with Dadu, we put our shoes on and went for a walk to Coles, which is only about 5 minutes away. Chicklet was annoyed that I wanted to walk the 5 minutes to Coles, instead of the 2 minutes to the 7-11, but she soon got over it.

What a busy little supermarket that one is! The Asian supermarket directly across the walkway just adds the congestion. It only has four assisted checkouts, the remainder are self serve. I stood in a queue for an assisted checkout, when a young lady came up to me and asked me to follow her to her checkout, which was all the way at the other end of the shop!

I got some unhappy glances from other shoppers who were also waiting in line. I don't know why she singled me out. Maybe it was because I had the only child within a 15 km radius???? She had a lovely conversation with Chicklet as she served us, so perhaps that really was the attraction.

We returned home and munched on some chippies while we did some more sticker pictures, planned our Tuesday and then decided it was time to play Minions in the bedroom. Minions were soon followed by Minecraft until, thank goodness, the batteries went flat on my devices!

By now it was dinner time and bath time and book time and bed time.

Now I sit here at Vegan Chickie's desk, at 10pm, watching people STILL working in the office block across the road and feeling like a fish in a fish bowl. Yes, there are curtains to close, but when everything is shut, I must admit to feeling a little claustrophobic.

When the blinds are open, in the day time, I feel like I'm flying, or floating ... or something. I love that one wall is completely covered with glass. There is so much light! It's long way down from the 22nd floor.

Now I'm off to bed. We have another big day planned for tomorrow.

Nite all.

Happy Landings

I had a fabulous night's sleep in the motel.

I set the air conditioner on 22C AND I turned the fan on low, pulled the doona up to my chin and settled in for a deliciously cozy night.

After about 7 hours of solid sleep, I lazed in bed with my iPad for an hour before preparing for my long day of travel. It was a pretty cruisy start to the day.

When I was ready, the motel manager drove me to the airport, which was a bonus I wasn't expecting!

Sunshine Coast Airport was surprisingly busy. I browsed the shops and saw lots of things that I wanted, but I didn't buy any of it. I think some of my "Journey" work in Byron Bay, may have had a positive effect on my spending.

The plane was pretty packed, and unfortunately, there were a LOT of children ranging in ages from about 6 months to about 12 years. Most of them were loud and cranky for the entire trip.

I tried to drown out their noise by opening the Virgin entertainment app, but it told me that entertainment was not available on this flight .. ugh!

My other dilemma was that my seat was 3 seats from the back of the plane, where the toilet was, so for the entire trip, I had a queue of people standing beside me as they waited their turn to use the dunny. The continual flushing was most off putting.

It was a smooth flight all the way until it was time to land. The pilot warned that the winds were in excess of 25knots, but oh what a ride it was til we hit the ground! I looked along the aisle and saw that at least ten men had their hands firmly grasping the back of the seat in front of them, and the closest three to me, gave an audible sigh of relief when we touched down safely.

While I waited for my luggage to appear on the carousel, I downloaded the Starbus app and ordered a bus that would take me directly to Vegan Chickie's front door. $18 for the 20km trip was definitely good value, even though my anorexic Indian bus driver spent most of the drive looking at his phone or talking on it. I felt less safe in the bus than I did on the plane during our hairy landing!

Vegan Chickie didn't tell Chicklet that I was here and as the lift doors opened and she saw me, I got the best greeting EVER! She yelled "BOZZY WOZZY!!!!" and ran into my arms. What an emotional moment for me!

We had about 90 minutes catching up before we walked to a nearby Vietnamese restaurant and ate the most delicious bowl of noodle soup with chicken and beef. So much flavour! Chilli oil on the table and fresh herbs in pots to cut and add to our bowls. So yummy and only $10!

Chicklet and I had a bedtime story and then Vegan Chickie and I sat up talking until 10.30pm. She has to be off early in the morning for her flight, so it's time to sleep now.

I love their little cuddle house. Very small and compact, but has everything they need and there is lots of light and windows and fresh air here on the 22nd floor. I think I'm going to be very comfortable here for the next week or so.

Nite all.