Bits and Pieces of This and That

We were supposed to be going bushwalking tomorrow, we're not anymore -

(its been raining for hours!)

Part of me thinks this is awesome, another feels that perhaps it's a bit wastefu. Your thoughts?

Came across this morning, very tempted to print it, frame it and hang it on my wall!

found here

 

and lastly, because no Friday is complete without sharing at least one photo of one of our pets -

All together now ... awwwww

Oh Melbourne,

how can I possibly stay mad with you when you send a day like this to break the cold and the wet ...

Yesterday

all my troubles seemed so far away ... Wait, no that's not where I was going with that thought. Yesterday morning it started raining right as I was about to get on the bus (good timing Ms BusDriver, thank you). It cleared quickly and as I walked the train platform I noticed (and photographed more importantly) a rainbow that stretched from here -

all the way over

to here -

Last Night ...

... I had trouble capturing this well ...

... partly because it was too dark ...

... and partly because I was trying to use my phone ...

... also, Nutmeg kept moving ...

... and then once Samson had curled himself up comfortable like ...

... I could only get two faces and a butt ...

... or a squishy face and not much else ...

... plus there's lots of furniture in the way of getting the right angle ...

... still, I had to try 'coz it was awesomely cute.

In what may become a series

I've been mulling over this idea for roughly eleven months now. Not because it's greatly groundbreaking or earth shattering or even worthy of the time that's been spent on it in my mind so far but because I'm not sure if I can commit to it.

It came about as I was talking to friends over the Queens Birthday long weekend last year, they were about to depart to spend an indefinite amount of time in London and I commented how I would like to get away from Melbourne myself. When they asked where to my response was along the lines of 'anywhere but here'. It was at that point, as those words came out of my mouth, that I realised I had spent almost exactly twenty years not liking living in Melbourne. Twenty years!

I decided then and there that it was time to do something about it. You see, my choice to not like Melbourne was exactly that - a choice. When I first moved here with my family I was determined that I would be leaving again just as soon as I turned eighteen and so I chose not to settle, chose not to get attached and chose to hold onto my absolute hatred of city/suburban life.

Obviously the strength of those feelings didn't last long - I made friends, I enjoyed my life and I met The Sparky (the one and only reason I didn't run away at eighteen). I no longer hated living here but at the same time I still held on to the negativity I associated with living here.

Over the last eleven months I have made a more conscious effort to acknowledge the things that I do actually like about Melbourne, always with the thought in the back of my mind that I should start blogging about them.

And so I give you the first post in what may become a series of posts  ... 'I like Melbourne'. Not 'I love Melbourne' because that is too strong, not 'I <3 Melbourne' because that is to cutesy, just 'I like Melbourne'.

What was it that caused this thought to finally come flying out of my mind and onto the page you ask? The scene I saw outside of my office window earlier today -

I don't know what it's for but they did at least ten takes just while we watched - the lady in blue walking from the carriage, up the steps and into the door again and again and again.

A little slowness in the hustle and bustle of the city, artistic creativity, leave slowly turning autumny and beautiful historic buildings - just some of the things that I like about Melbourne.

Cupcakes and Macarons

Two days back at work and my brain already feels like this ...

I dropped this little dude off at the vet this morning and as a consequence I'm having trouble focusing on ... whatever it is I'm supposed to be focusing on ...

For some unexplainable reason Blogger does not want to play fair today and so this is the only photo I have of Pisa, it's not enough to say what I wanted to say so yet again Travelday will have to be delayed ...

For a fun finish to a wonderful week off, I highly recommend a cupcake and macaron decorating course. If nothing else I have walked away with some very nice new recipes (and a slightly dodgy photo, I hadn't actually planned on blogging this) ...

Green Banana Peanut Butter Smoothie

Hiya. Just touching base from my phone so I'm not sure what the formatting is going to do. I'm at home this week (yay!) but have no internet access for the first couple of days (boo). It feels a little strange not being able to catch up with what's going on with you all ... is that weird? Have big plans for this week (including proper breakfasts) so I look forward to being back in contact soon.

Travelday - Cinque Terre

Staying two nights in Riomaggiore, the southernmost of the five towns that make up the Cinque Terre, meant that we had one full day in the middle in which to explore the area. As previously mentioned, we spent our first part day fairly close to home as we were hot and tired. We got up early the next morning in the hopes of avoiding hiking during the hottest part of the day. Our aim being to at least walk from Vernazza to Monterosso, the longest and most difficult section of hiking between the towns.

Having already walked the Via Dell'Amore from Riomaggiore to Manarola we knew it was flat and easy and so decided to walk that section again too, this time in the daylight.

I probably wouldn't have even noticed but The Sparky pointed out to me that the archways at the top here are where we walked along the pathway, the archways below them ... that's where the train goes through!

As you can see, this section is pretty easy.

The path from Manarola to Corniglia was closed due to a landslide that had occurred. There were still some pretty nice views though along the portion that was still open ...

The view back towards Manarola.

I believe this is the view towards Corniglia from where we were stopped. If you know better please feel free to correct me ...

The Sparky was quite taken by the state of repair of the station (and perhaps a little bored waiting for the train).

As this portion of travel had taken a little longer than anticipated - we had expected the trains to run through more regularly than they did - we decided not to get off the train at Corniglia and went straight through to Vernazza.

If our photos are anything to go by Vernazza was definitely the favourite of the day! Certainly we both decided that if we ever return to the are then Vernazza is where we will stay. I think I've mentioned it here before but this stuck me as the type of place I'd love to return to when I'm ready to slow down and 'holiday' rather than 'travel'. It would be a lovely place to rent an apartment for a few weeks (or months ...) and just slow down. Close enough to public transport that you could do day trips to other major Italian sites but nice enough to spend your whole holiday in if you didn't feel like moving.

10:55, the day was already getting away from us.

At this point we almost had a drastic change of plans and hired a boat to explore with instead.

The climb has already started ...

The start of the walk is basically straight up!

For roughly the next three hours we walked (and walked and walked) up and down the steep, narrow path between Vernazza and Monterosso. It was hard. It was fun. It was an achievement. The scenery was gorgeous. The path was steep. On several occasions it was almost too narrow to pass those coming in the other direction.

As we went along two things became obvious to us. The first being that, despite our unplanned delays, we had started our day a lot earlier than most. The second was that we were going in the opposite direction to the norm. Not many photos were taken until we got close to the end, for a lot of the time we were simply paying too much attention to where we were putting our feet.

Still a fair way to go at this point.

Eventually, we arrived ...

I have to admit that aside from a nice lunch, an okay gelati and some slightly unusual pieces of architecture I was fairly underwhelmed by Monterosso. It was a lot more of a seaside holiday town than the other towns are and not my style at all. That said we were both very pleased with having achieved the walk, almost before the heat of the day hit.

After another evening of wandering and taking some more night time photos we were up early the next morning and on our way to our next destination ...

... after taking a scenic windy drive in the wrong direction to get some final photos of the area.