Melbourne

Love this place! The people are so nice they I told them they could be honourary Canadians.

I wish I had more time to explore... so hard to do in such a brief stay.

I must return - I do so love the accents LOL though they keep saying I have one... LOL

Some expressions of note - mail goes to the post, when you are stunned you are gobsmacked, (my friends from London also use this one). And if you order black coffee - they call it long black. Now this coffee thing was worth noting... long black is really what we call expresso - leaves you wired for sound.

I made the time to get a massage... figured I had to see what this country's massage was like... it was like massage in North America - ahhh relaxing to say the least... and boy did I need it....

Not sure if I had mentioned but Jim has a cousin Susan, in Melbourne (actually just outside in a place called Sunshine-how nice is that).

Jim arranged for us to have dinner. She and her husband Danny and their daughter Chelsea met me at the hotel. We walked about 5 blocks to this little restaurant the concierge recommended. Danny is Australian started his own printing company (shopping bags, promo material and the like) currently running it out of his garage (pronounced GARage) LOL with hopes of expanding in the next year. Sus is an english teacher and Chelsea is set to graduate from high school next year. After an hour or so I felt like I knew them all my life, what a nice break from work. Dinner lasted almost 4 hours and I think we could have kept gabbing all night - but it was time to go.

I assured them if (when) I returned to Australia, I would be in touch.. did give them the blog address as they seemed genuinely interested in 'my world'. (See you guys LOL you are now a part of it)

The hotel has asked that I remain for another day - this is of course my option - I said sure, they have all been so kind how could i say no... besides it gives me a wonderful opportunity to hear those accents for another day.