Christmas comes to Melbourne

Ever since coming back to live in Melbourne 7 years ago we have never tired of the Christmas displays in town.  This year the City has excelled once more and the light display on the Melbourne Town Hall just has to be seen to be believed.  Of course the Myer Christmas Windows remain the No 1 attraction but the Town Hall display is giving it a real nudge for the top spot.

Just as the Christmas chaos started to fill the streets of Melbourne we had a visit from Sandra and Vicki who had come over from Perth for 4 days.  Now these girls are real 'Christmas-a-holics' and both of them were in their element exploring Melbourne's Christmas events.  They even found a booklet at the Information office in the Mall detailing where all the events were.  Even I hadn't discovered that!  And so began 4 days of following the Christmas trail.

It was great to see the girls and spend a few days with them and really lovely to see someone really enjoying the wonderful effort the City of Melbourne goes too each year.  While we love it I guess we get used to it and it takes the smiles of a visitor to remind us how special it is.

We had dinner 'Downstairs' with the girls and then we walked over to see the Crown Christmas show which has been changed this year.  It is still very christmassy but no longer would I call it a Christmas Spectacular.  It is a much more gentle display though still enjoyable.  It was as we were walking the girls back to their hotel in the city that we saw the lights on the Town Hall.  Sandra had said it was happening but I imagined a laser light display and a few flashes.  How wrong was I.

We were mesmerised by what we saw and Sandra and I sat in the gutter and watched the show run through a couple of times.  Bill and Vicki watched from the footpath behind us.  It is a light show running for about 10 mins and is projected on to the whole front of the Town Hall building including the Clock Tower.  It runs each night from 8.30-11.30 and by Christmas night many thousands of people will have been amazed and entertained by it.  These pictures here while lovely do not do it justice.  It is certainly worth a visit to Melbourne at Christmas just to see this.  I can't imagine they will not do it again next year.

The following night we had dinner with the girls at our favourite little French Restaurant in Carlton before heading home for a reasonably early night.  On Saturday with a scorching day forecast of 39 we decided that we would walk over to the MCG and do the tour before it got too hot and then have a look at the Sports Museum afterwards.  We did this and had a great time.  It is certainly one of the 'must do' activities this city has to offer. Just the memorabilia on the walls in the cafe is worth the visit to see.   It is almost eerie being in the MCG with not a soul in the stands.  After seeing it with with 98,000 people on Grand Final Day it was an amazing sight to see it empty.  We sat on the interchange benches where the footy players sit.  We went up and sat on the seats that the Cricketers use while waiting to come out and bat.  We visited the away teams change rooms and while all this was happening we watched the ground keeper mowing the grass around the pitches ready for the upcoming Test match - and yes he was using a Victor Mower.

We were even walked through the Members Room of the Melbourne Cricket Club.  How the other half live!  It was in one door and out the other and we were not allowed to stop, sit on the leather seats or touch any other items in the room.  Still it was an event in itself and great fun to do.  Our tour finished here and we then spent a couple of hours in the Sports Museum.  This was excellent with so much to see from all areas of sports.  I think another visit will be required to really appreciate it all.

Coming out later in the afternoon Melbourne's weather had stayed true to form and from 39 deg when we went in it had dropped 15 deg and was feeling much cooler.  We jumped on a tram and went in search of some shoes at DFO Southwharf.  We did find some and the only man among us came out with the most shopping bags.  Who says it's only women who shop a lot!  At this point we decided we were much too tired to shop anymore or even go out to eat so we stopped at Coles and picked up the ingredients for dinner at home.  The good old faithful Salmon with Avocado and  Mango Salsa followed by a cheese platter put together by the girls kept us entertained and we had a wonderful night chatting, eating, drinking and laughing.

On Sunday Bill and I left the girls to their own devices while we attended the 80th birthday party of Bill's Auntie Allison.  It was a wonderful afternoon at the home of one of her Grandsons and it was lovely to catch up with so many cousins and now a new generation.  About 10 little people from babies to 6 years old were there and two of the girls were about to give birth in the next week or two.  In fact one was a week late and we were hoping that she would make it through the day.  She did and has since had a little boy.   Such a nice day.

Leaving the party we drove back to town and joined the girls at Eureka Tower where Sandra wanted to go up and see 'The Edge'.  Vicki who is even more terrified of heights than Bill opted to stay downstairs and wait for us.  We all went up but only Sandra went out in 'the box'.  She loved it and as always we enjoyed the view from the 88th floor of the building.  And now there is a taller tower being planned.  We are almost hoping it doesn't get the go ahead but I guess that won't happen.  Not sure that I'll ever post a letter from here though.

Once back on Terra firma we joined Vicki and walked around the corner to have dinner at The Blue Train in Southgate.   From there we went into the Mall to see the Myer windows and the story this year is Russell's Christmas Magic.  I had never heard of Russell the Sheep before but love it to bits now.  The queues here each day attest to how popular it is and watching the kids faces is so much fun.   Even at 9.00pm on Sunday night there was a bit of a queue but not enough to stop you from waiting.

We said goodbye to the girls here as they were heading back to Perth the next day.  It had been a short visit but they packed a lot in and we enjoyed our time with them and look forward to seeing them back again one day.  We returned to work the next day and I watched the city streets grow more frenetic each day as it got closer to Christmas.  On Wednesday night Bill and  I came back in to the Town Hall after dark and spent an hour or so watching the lights as he took some photo's.  It is a truly spectacular sight and one you just don't get tired of.

With only 2 weekends until Christmas we decided that we would escape the rat race for one of them and so visited our favourite little cottage in Jamieson last weekend.  It was a very wet weekend but we stayed dry and relaxed and had a look around Mansfield, Howes Creek and Tolmie.  We didn't even go out for dinner as the rain came down but had a great night in with a loaf of crusty bread, cheese and Red Wine.  Very French and just what we needed after a few weeks of hectic activity in both our workplaces.  We rather reluctantly said goodbye to Daffodil Cottage on Sunday afternoon and headed back to the big smoke stopping for lunch at Yea.

This week we have had dinner 'Downstairs' on Wednesday night with our friends Amber and Matt and then dropped in again on Thursday night for pizza with Faye, Rem and Ethan before we all went into the city to show Ethan the lights and the windows.  It was such a lovely night and so good to see it all with a child again.  Arriving at 8.45pm the queue stretched almost half way along the mall but with so much going on time passed quickly and soon we were enjoying watching Russell the sheep and Santa.

The Bourke St Mall looks very festive with coloured bells that change colour all night.  Very pretty.  From here we found a front row spot in the gutter opposite the Town Hall and enjoyed watching Ethan marvel at the light show.  After we left the lights we walked over the road to the City Square which is now Christmas Square for the moment and here we saw the lights on the very large, live, Christmas Tree.  There is a hedge maze where you hunt for reindeer and Ethan found 5 while I only found four.   At 10.00pm the security guard was fighting a losing battle as he tried to round all the people up and out so he could close up.  He was still trying when we left at 10.15pm.

And so now we just have one more weekend to finish up the shopping, wrap those last pressies and put the final touch on the Christmas preparations before the man in the red suit visits in just 4 more sleeps.

I hope that you all have a truly wonderful Christmas with your families and friends.  Enjoy all the festivities, stay safe and there will be one more episode from me before we say goodbye to 2012.

until then.......