Melbourne - Simply the best

For those of you who watched the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games 2006 on Sunday night, you will recall these words above spoken by Mike Fennell, the games international boss. As fairly new residents of Melbourne we have been thrilled that we have been able to be part of this wonderful event. Last week I told you all about our adventures on the river for the opening of the games. Last week we continued to enjoy ourselves by taking advantage of all that was on offer. We started the week with a great night at the Athletics. The MCG was a great venue as I'm sure you could all see during the telecast. Some of the highlights of the evening were watching Australia win Gold in the Women's Hammer Throw. Scott 'Ballerina' Martin winning Bronze with the Shotput. We saw heats for all sorts of races and saw Craig Mottram win Silver in the Mens 5000m.

On Tuesday night I headed to Federation Square to see a Festival Act and got there in time to see the presentation of the Gold Medal (on the big screen) to the four girls who won the 4 x 100 Medley Relay. When the flag was raised and Advance Australia Fair started almost all of the people in Federation Square started to sing. There was quite a few hundred people there and it was just awesome. After that I did see the festival act I went to see - 5 Angry Men, The Bells. It was very funny and worth going over for. Debs & JT had arrived the night before and spent the day at the Basketball. On the way home I had a brainwave, maybe it would be a good idea to catch up for drink before they headed home to thier hotel in Little Bourke St, so a phone call to Bill and one to JT to set the time & place and bingo we were meeting our intrepid sports fans at JB O'Reillys for a nightcap before retiring for the night. They had had a good day at the Multi Purpose Venue (Vodafone Arena - when Telstra is not the Major sponsor of the event being held there). It was good to catch up with all the news of the West and hear of their adventures at the Basketball.

Debs, JT & I spent Wednesday playing tourist after first having lunch with Adam's (Debs son) girlfriend & 2 of her friends. We checked out the view from the Rialto building for an overview of the city. We hopped on & off trams all day, had a drink at Happy Hour in a Docklands bar. During our travels round the city that day the strangest thing we saw was another Festival feature - novelty coffins. Yep, we had a Nokia mobile phone. a big lizard, a shark, a Nike shoe and a prawn or lobster. At this point the thought uppermost in our minds was What the!!!!! We finished the day with dinner in Lygon St and then a drink at the Croft Institute - a bar that has to be seen to be believed. Deb & JT headed back to Perth the following day after their brief taste of CG Melb 2006.

We had a quiet couple of days, apart from work, and the on Sat we headed back to the MCG where we saw the final night of Athletics. Another great night with some amazing events and medals. Disaster seemed to go hand in hand with the track events, the mens relay was heartbreaking as was Craig Mottrams fall. John Steffensen and the boys were wonderful, Jana Pitman and the girls great (even before they had the Gold). Scott Martin's ballet lessons really paid off with Gold for the discus. The mens long jump and Javelin events were nailbiting occasions as was the women's polevault. The battle for Gold between Tatiana and Kym Howe was excellent.

Sunday we watched both the women & men cycling, from home (the start & finish). We decided to stay home and watch the closing ceremony on TV and also see the fireworks at the MCG from here. They were amazing, Bill took some photos of them but to see the real thing was great. So as they say 'And now the end is near, and as I face the final curtain'...Melbourne said farewell to the most amazing 2 weeks I have ever seen. The city was alive, the volunteers the most cheerful group of people you could ask for...I really miss see the sea of aqua blue in town each day now.

But wait, there's more. This is Melbourne and the next big sporting event is just around the corner. The Grand Prix has arrived and the city is all ready to go. Also next week is the Davis Cup at Kooyong and of course the Football starts again with the 1st game of the season kicking off tomorrow. You gotta luv it.

So once again I leave you this time not with a sculpture but an Icon, the MCG as we saw it from home on Sunday night.

Until next time..........