It's a girl, three kinds of fish, sunset

 Funny little car on Puckle Street, Moonee Ponds

I'm still playing blog catch-up, but at least I'm only a few days behind now. Luke's sister had her third baby on Friday - a little girl after two boys. Yay! We visited on Saturday afternoon. So tiny and cute and not at all happy about being woken up to have a bath. Luke has an adorably funny picture of her reaction, which he will no doubt bring out for her 21st birthday.

Luke wore his Planet Terror t-shirt on Saturday, which was April 6.  When we were in the lift going up to the maternity ward I noticed the date at the bottom of the print. 

After we left the hospital, we visited Middle Brighton Beach. It was a warm, sunny day. Our Indian summer isn't quite over yet. 

 Brighton's famous bathing boxes

 They're a popular backdrop for wedding photos

Look at all these little fish!

There were thousands - probably tens of thousands - of them swimming in the shallows  around the Middle Brighton Pier, flashing silver in the sun. They were mesmerising. 

Jellyfish!

Starfish! 

This starfish is far more laid back than Sassy Starfish. 

 

The hazy city

The clouds rolled in, but it didn't rain where we were

After Brighton, we stopped in St Kilda, just before the sun set. It was a pearler. 

 

Puffy cloud on the horizon opposite the sun

We had dinner on Acland Street, and then gelato...well, had gelato; Luke didn't because his belly was full with the giant chicken parmagiana he had for dinner. I had the coconut meringue and the caramel popcorn flavoured gelato from 7 Apples (yes, it actually had bits of popccorn in it). The popcorn was OK and the coconut was pleasant. My heart/stomach still belongs to Fritz Gelato.  

The rest of Saturday's glee

Heading back over the Westgate on our way to St Kilda

St Kilda's lovely old Palais Theatre

A different side to Luna Park's Mr Moon entrance

Melbourne's Luna Park is 100 years old next month

Luna Park's beautiful carousel. As we took photos, 

a group of 60-something couples saddled up. 

You're never too old for a merry-go-round

We're midgets! Oh, how we laughed

 Early evening, St Kilda Pier

When I looked at this photo of a skydiver over

 St Kilda on my PC, I realised I'd also taken a photo 

of two rainbow lorikeets sitting in a tree

After St Kilda, we drove to Richmond for a burger and Fritz Gelato. Before we decided to go to Williamstown, Luke asked me what I wanted to do with the day and my only plan was to have the blood orange gelati at Fritz Gelato. I had to resist the lure of all the icecream shops in Willamstown to hold out for Fritz, and it was worth the wait. I had the blood orange, passionfruit and lemon. They were all zesty and tangy and delicious.

 Finally, here's all the old signs from Saturday and a couple from Sunday.

McWilliams Cream Sherry, on the derelict 

Britannia Hotel in Williamstown (below)

I can't tell what this one says. When I got out of the

 car to take this photo...

I saw this one on the side of another pub in Williamstown

The best sign find of the day (thanks to Luke)

There's several signs on this old grocery store on Melbourne Road, Williamstown. Some are too faint to make out, but some  are clear enough to read. 

 Berger Master paint - keeps on keeping on. It looks 

like there might be another old sign underneath

 Kem-Tone?

McAlpins

Cheap cash grocer

 Nestle's Chocolate, Burnley Street, Richmond

 (taken Sunday)

Fancy a counter lunch at the Grand Hotel? 

Turns out pubs are quite a good source of

 old signs. Also on Burnley Street 

This isn't an old sign, but it amuses me. I guess it turned

 out Keith was way better at pasties than pies

J and Jayne's long weekend

Me and J at Coles late Saturday night. Do I know how to

 show a foreigner a good time, or what?

My US friend J has been and gone and it was fun. I enjoyed showing off my town to him and since the long weekend was all about packing in fun stuff (and none of the usual boring stuff that has to be done on weekends), it was like a little holiday for me too.  I felt like I'd been away from work longer than three days.

On Saturday we watched half of the AFL Grand Final (Mark I) with the masses at Fed Square and the end of the game at the the Eureka Tower Sky Deck, which was almost deserted. A good time to go! We could see the crowd at the MCG and hear the roar of the crowd at Fed Square from 88 floors up.

Although the drawn game was anti-climactic, at least J can say he was in Melbourne for the historic 2010 drawn Grand Final.

After the game we strolled along Southbank as the sun set. It rained a little, but then there was a rainbow over the city.

Saturday night we ate a quick dinner in North Melbourne before seeing Dave Callan's Fringe Festival show, Woman. Back in the city,  J loaded up on Tim Tams at Coles. He couldn't get enough of the chocolatey Tim Tam goodness.

On Sunday we went to St Kilda and ate breakfast outside at The Espy in perfect spring sunshine. The weather could not have been better. We meandered the length of the Esplanade market where J bought presents for himself and friends, and then along Acland Street, which was thronged with people enjoying the warm weather.

 

From St Kilda Pier

That evening we went to a threatresports show at Theatreworks on Acland Street, which was the first time I'd seen theatresports live. On Monday we hired a car and travelled the Great Ocean Road to Port Campbell. The weather wasn't as good as the day before, but it was still mostly sunny and we didn't get rained on.

 

At Sheoak Falls

It was beautiful as always, especially the lush green pastures glowing in the late afternoon sun. I think I almost like the rural parts of the GOR more than the seaside bits.

Another rainbow, near Port Campbell

Us and some of the remaining 12 Apostles

We ate dinner at a pub in Colac and then hit the highway for home.

On Tuesday it was back to work for me, but I met J after work for Philip Escoffey's Six More Impossible Things Before Dinner, which was very entertaining (regardless of whether you think he's a con man or a mind reader).

And then J was gone! Four days really isn't long enough to see Melbourne...

Miserable but good

I went to St Kilda beach to take photos today. It seems every time I decide I want to go there, the weather is cold and wet. It was miserable, but I liked it, even though the rain made it hard to take photos and the gale force wind on the pier wrecked my umbrella.

I think photos of gloomy weather are so much more interesting than those with sunshine and blue skies anyway.  I was happy with how my shots turned out, especially given the trying conditions. (You can see them here.)  

Before heading home, I had a yummy hot chocolate on Acland Street to thaw out. It was thick enough to eat with a spoon. 

Grumpily gleeful

I confess I have been glumpy* since yesterday and I don't really know why. Yup, it's true. I'm not always dancing happy jigs and clapping my hands with glee. Sometimes I am a moody cow, and occasionally I am a moody cow for no good reason.

But rather than sitting at home sulking today, I went out and managed to have as gleeful a day as you can when you've got your cranky pants wedged up your clacker.

I felt like a change of scenery so I donned my doonaparka and walked to St Kilda beach. It started to rain with determination just as I arrived and I was very damp by the time I sat down to a hot chocolate and (very sub-standard) fruit toast on Acland Street. I got some nice photos of raindrops on purdy flowers on the way to the cafe though.

Thankfully the rain stopped by the time I finished brunch, and I headed to the beach. I like the beach in winter and today the grey clouds and almost deserted beachfront suited my mood.

Visiting St Kilda brings back a lot of memories, happy ones and less happy. One of the happy memories is of a really fun (and somewhat alcohol-fuelled) date I had on Grand Final night a couple of years back which involved my date risking death to rescue a blue-ringed octopus that some callous fisherman had left on the pier. It also featured dodgem cars at Luna Park, a pub crawl and pashing** at some underground bar. Sighs....

After taking photos of the boats and clouds, I walked back up to Acland Street for cake and then jumped on the No 96 tram to the other side of town where I went to the Rose Street Artists Market. I've been meaning to go there for ages, and today I finally did. I bought myself an awesome Cybertart bag, which temporarily lifted my flagging spirits (I got the Grrrr one on the bottom left. Of course). Some of their bags have a clever zip-off, interchangeable flap/pocket feature so you can have several bags in one. You can also customise some of their products with your own photo. Hmm...*thinks* what an excellent gift idea....

Returning home to discover I'd won a book from Readings bookshop also lifted my spirits. I won a copy of Literary Melbourne just for sharing (on Twitter) my favourite place in Melbourne to read a book (I said on my couch, with the winter sun streaming in the window). Sweeeet.

I walked nearly 15kms today. Tonight I'm going to put my pyjamas on, eat cheese and Vegemite toasties and watch Clerks on DVD. I think I'm slowly emerging from my grump...

My photos...

Is this the fiercest merry-go-round seat in the world or what? It's at Luna Park

Luna Park is pretty much craptacular, but its merry-go-round is stupendous

* glum + grumpy = glumpy

** tongue kissing, for you non-Aussies