Scott.



Unfortunately, Batman is John Batman and not the Dark Knight of Gotham City. He was one of the first settlers in Melbourne and allegedly tried to form an agreement with the indiginous Aboriginal people. And he didn't wear a cape. Or a cowel. And I am not sure that he used a bat-o-rang.

The MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground). It is massive and apparantly, during some of the big tests series, when the play is at its most critical and exciting, the sound of the thousands of cricket fans sleeping can be heard upto 3 metres away.

Captain Cooks cottage. If you look closely, just under the upstairs window you can see the stamp that they used to post it.

The model tudor village.

This is the sign that explains that the kind and appreciative people of Lambeth sent the tudor village to the people of Melbourne as a "thank you!" for the food that the Melburians sent in the aftermath of WWII. I bet the Aussies were over the moon to get it. I bet they were as excited as I was when someone sent me a travel alarm clock as a Christmas present that still had the raffle ticket on the box. The people have melbourne have never sent food to Lambeth again. Don't blame them. They don't want to risk a model Alpine scene landing on their doorstep. Bloody Cock-er-neys ay?

Melbourne is supposed to be the fashion capital of Australia, but I think they are taking things too far if they are putting corsets on trees to stop them getting fat.

Sorry Fenners, but I just happened to be walking past the fire station. But just look at the picture on the wall! Beats the weather worn North Yorkshire badge at York Fire Station!

Half of the Victoria Parliament building. The other half looked very similar. If you want to you could get a mirror and put it on the right hand side of the picture to recreate the whole building.

Wednesday 20th September 2006.

Information Technology Update.

I went for a mooch around Fitzroy Gardens today, after a lie. I intended to have an early night but stayed up watching an old film about a bloke who was going blind and not taking part in the war effort. He didn't tell his new squeeze about it and she didn't mention that she was going to die in three months time. I watched it, not because it was a tragic love story, nor because of its cinematograhic importance and use of the moving picture to catch the mood and emotions of the moments, I watched it because I wasn't sure if it was a modern mickey taking reproducton of stereotypical 1930's "Gone With The Wind" films. I am still not totally sure but it was brilliant! Very funny. There was a Yorkshire character who was so over the top that I was convinced that it had to be a piss take.

"Kip, I haven't told you until now, and for that I am so sorry, but I am going to die!"
"You silly thing, how can someone with eyes so beautiful ever die. We will find a way, you see if we won't"
"Oh Kip, Tom Tanner said you would make the world a happy place again."

With dialogue like that, how could anyone sleep?

So, I came back from Fitzroy Gardens and the little paper sign telling guests that the internet had gone for a burton was gone. I asked for more info and I am now comfortably sat in my dark hotel room and Skyping my Dad. Just as well as the trip to Starbucks was a rip off. I bought a coffee and a panini (I had two of the stickers already but there was a Wimbledon shiney badge one......got, got, got, got, NEED!, got, NEED!) and then paid to access the internet through Telstra. $8 for 30 minutes. Thats about £3 or £4! Bloody rip off! I was halfway through downloading the latest Ricky Gervais podcast when it ran out so I had to buy another half an hour! Rip off or what?

So after my crap film marathon last night, I had a long lie in today. When I dragged my weary carcass from the bed I went to Fitzroy Gardens for a wander. It isn't that big but was pleasant enough. There were a couple of nice fountains and I visited Captain Cooks house. Not a house that he kept for holidays in Australia, mind you. It is the house from Great Ayton in Cleveland! How appropriate that The house came from Great Ay(!)ton! His parents built it in 1755. In 1933, Sir Russell Grimwade (Fab name) bought the house, much to the chagrin of the locals. They had to amend the sale conditions from " To remain in England" to "remain in the British Empire". The cottage was dismantled and shipped to Melbourne in 249 crates and 40 barrels and reconstructed in Fitzroy Gardens. Despite this being a very interesting historical part of my blog, there is an underlying purpose to its telling. If the 1930's post office can manage to send a house through the post to Australia, then you are all being too shy on the "Gift Aid" to Danno front. I suppose the Latte's that you all owe will be cold when they get, but I do accept cold, hard cash as a replacement.

On my way back from the Fitzroy, I mooched along Flinders street again and in the distance I got a look ate the Rod Laver tennis stadium and the Vodaphone stadium next door. They were in the distance and I will have to find out what goes on at the Vodaphone stadium. Both were impressive but completely dwarfed by the masive and imaginatively named Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) It looked enourmous and even dwarfed the Telstra Dome, as far as I can see. You would think that with so much effort going into the design and construction of such a huge and impressive venue, that they would have put a touch more effort into thinking of a suitably grand name, other than "cricket ground".

Bowel check = Rumbunctious.

Late breaking story....just talking on Skype to Scott and he was coming to terms that if you write a website on MSN it automatically makes a link that you can click on. Scott typed a bunch of apparantly random words with www. at the front to try it out. www.youmustbef***ingjoking.com was his "random" choice and when I clicked on it to see if there really was a site there it brought up a list of other websites, mainly based around sexual acts involving the rectum. Random indeed. Me thinks he might be a regular visitor to these arenas.