Melbourne is very big on major events, and one very long established one is Moomba which takes place every year on Labour Day weekend. In case you were wondering, Moomba is an Aboriginal word meaning "Let's get together and have fun" so that pretty much sums it up. There are various activities, mainly based around the Yarra River which runs through the city, and we wandered along to see the Birdman Rally. This is basically an excuse for people to dress up in silly costumes and jump into the river on the pretence that they are actually trying to fly...
Admittedly some did give the flying idea their best shot, whilst others clearly just felt like jumping in the river! It was fun to watch and was carefully judged from a boat by Lord Mayor John So amongst others. Incidentally, not sure if anyone in the UK will have heard of John So, but he has recently been voted the world's most popular mayor, and certainly got a far louder cheer from the crowd than anyone else that day.
Here are some photos for you:
A very pretty but not especially useful flying machine
At least this one tried - I think his flight of a few metres was enough to make him the winner
Birdman website: http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/info.cfm?top=243&pa=3421&pg=3431
Moomba site: http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/info.cfm?top=243&pg=1832
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Werribee Open Range Zoo - 2nd March
As a wedding present, one of Andrew's friends bought us a ticket for 3 zoos in the area - Melbourne, Healesville Sanctuary and Werribee Open Range Zoo. Here are some pictures from Werribee...
the web address is: http://www.zoo.org.au/vorz/
the web address is: http://www.zoo.org.au/vorz/
We're still here!
I have made several promises in recent weeks to update the blog, so here goes...
As was probably always going to happen, many things have got in the way of trips around Australia in recent months, but we've been enjoying our life here so as time has gone on we've made spending time with friends and family our main priority. Also we've both been working pretty hard recently which inevitably eats into time! I think it's fair to say that we're not in especially stressful work situations for the most part, so even though we're doing more hours now - 3 days and extra bits here and there for me, and pretty much full time for Andrew - we actually enjoy it most of the time. I get on very well with the people I work with and the organisation is doing some great work, so I will take away lots of happy memories and also some great experience when I finish at the end of June.
Yes, that's next month! Unbelievably, we're leaving Melbourne to head back to the UK in about 8 weeks - finalising travel details at the moment. We're very much looking forward to the next step, and to catching up with everyone in England but of course the other side of it is waving goodbye to the Aussie crowd. As you can imagine we have a sociable few weeks ahead (any excuse!) and we also have some more things we want to see before we go. That said, we will of course be back so there'll be plenty of chances in the future to be Aussie tourists again. Who knows, I might even persuade Andrew to do the Neighbours tour with me!
That's all for now, but I'm about to put up a collection of short posts about some of the things we've been up to in the past few months so keep reading...
As was probably always going to happen, many things have got in the way of trips around Australia in recent months, but we've been enjoying our life here so as time has gone on we've made spending time with friends and family our main priority. Also we've both been working pretty hard recently which inevitably eats into time! I think it's fair to say that we're not in especially stressful work situations for the most part, so even though we're doing more hours now - 3 days and extra bits here and there for me, and pretty much full time for Andrew - we actually enjoy it most of the time. I get on very well with the people I work with and the organisation is doing some great work, so I will take away lots of happy memories and also some great experience when I finish at the end of June.
Yes, that's next month! Unbelievably, we're leaving Melbourne to head back to the UK in about 8 weeks - finalising travel details at the moment. We're very much looking forward to the next step, and to catching up with everyone in England but of course the other side of it is waving goodbye to the Aussie crowd. As you can imagine we have a sociable few weeks ahead (any excuse!) and we also have some more things we want to see before we go. That said, we will of course be back so there'll be plenty of chances in the future to be Aussie tourists again. Who knows, I might even persuade Andrew to do the Neighbours tour with me!
That's all for now, but I'm about to put up a collection of short posts about some of the things we've been up to in the past few months so keep reading...
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