The day we left started well, we got up on time, after that not so well. We left our house 15 minutes late and after ten minutes drove straight into heavy traffic. Looking at Google maps it still seemed ok, but then it just kept adding on minute after minute. After not moving for 30 minutes, we decided to turn at the next break in the road and try another way. For reasons only known to my dear hubby he didn’t do as Lady Google suggested but went his own way. We could only turn back if we drove up the kerb and over the grass divider which he did! I thought we had lost the bumper at the very least or an oil leak with the noise the car made bumping back onto the road.
Finally getting to the airport carpark with 30 minutes to spare before the flight, we still had to wait for the bus to terminal. When we got to the counter we found that the flight was delayed, yay! so the check in clerk put our bags on the belt and they almost made it, but not quite. Apparently our seats had been given to someone else! We were outside of the required check in time. We were offered another flight at midnight getting in at 5 am, but really 3 am Perth time. What would we do all day? We had booked a carpark for five days, I couldn’t cope with such a late flight.
In the end I booked another flight for the afternoon, at great cost but saving time, Anthony would have gone on the midnight flight at no cost and having hours to kill.
What would you do? Are you Team Ali or Team Anthony?
I can’t believe we missed the flight, the reason – being complacent with my dear hubby and not giving him stress to hurry himself along.
The flight we took was delayed for over an hour, so we didn’t end up getting to our apartment until 10pm.
On landing the first thing I did was check my messages, as luckily Elena Damian and the kids had all made their flight. Oh my! the photos she sent of the apartment! She refused to sleep there that night as it was truly appalling. Absolutely filthy dirty throughout, although the beds did have clean bedding. There was a family already there – of cockroaches! Our apartment was better but the smell of smoke was awful.
I am now having an ongoing dispute with Booking.Com about receiving some compensation.
Anyway I’ll end this diatribe now and just say in the end we had a fabulous family time. It’s been over six months since we were altogether.
The first two days for us were spent getting to know Melbourne again. Elena and Damian visited the aquarium and zoo where the kids had the best time.
Melbourne is such an easy city to get around, there are tram and bus stops everywhere and the train routes are excellent. We bought a Myki card which enables you to tap on and off, there is also a free zone in the middle of the city.
St Patrick’s Cathedral 
Colourful trams 
Lunch on the Yarra 
A busking Darth Vadar 
Dusk from our balcony 
Stacked container building 
Waiting for a tram 
More trams 
Melbourne Skyline
Just a few of the photos I took on the first two days.
