Sept 28, Friday & Sept 29, Saturday

Sept 28, Friday   &   Sept 29, Saturday

I spent two days in bed, resting and trying to get rid of this bad cold.  Saturday night I needed to meet Melissa for dinner and had been debating with myself all day about taking the metro or the car to get there.  I finally opted for the car since I did not feel like walking around in a strange city at night.  All week they had been talking about a missing Melbourne woman and showing some footage of her walking down the street near her home. The media was asking anyone who had been in the vicinity to come forward with any information.  They finally found her body and arrested the killer.  Another reason I decided to take the car.   I had mapped out the route I needed to take to get to the restaurant in the Yarra District, but I still managed to take a wrong turn somewhere and had to stop to ask for directions. Turns out I was only one block away from the street I was looking for.  Observation:  Most city streets in the Australian cities I have been in do not indicate the names of the streets you are driving on; they only identify the cross streets.  It makes things a little confusing, especially since their streets also have a tendency to change names a few times along their length.

Anyway….. I got to the destination and after a few tries found an indoor parking spot to leave the car.  I had left early so that I would get to my destination while there was daylight, but it meant that I was about 1 hour early before I would meet Mel at 7 pm.  It started raining as I walked around trying to find the restaurant. 

 My first look at downtown Melbourne, from the South Yarra District

Storm clouds came in and it started raining

After locating it and walking around some more I decided to go in early and ask if I could have the table early if I ordered a coffee while I waited.  No problem; the waiter could hear by my voice that I had a bad cold, and I was shivering.  

I had a nice chat with Mel as we caught up and she treated me to supper, although I had wanted to treat her.  So nice to see a familiar face!  It’s at times like this that I realize that I am getting lonely after over 1 year on the road.  Mel and I parted ways at 10 pm and I got back in the car for the drive back to the hotel.  Again managed to take a wrong turn somewhere because I could not make a right turn onto St. Kilda Road.  I got turned around with the detours but after recognizing one of the street names I was able to turn and find my way back.  Thank God for giving me a good sense of direction.

I took a nice long hot shower when I got back to my room and loaded the bed with blankets to try to stop the shivers.