Latest Update:

Still in Melbourne doing lots of walking and seeing the sights. Went to the Dandenong Hills for lunch on Sunday. It is still as nice as I remember it from my last visit with Pete and Christine Moriarty. Sassafras is a cute little place with antique shops and nice restaurants. We then toured the district and found a hilltop restaurant/function center which had lots of walks in public gardens, a maze, an English garden and a secret garden. Cathie and I exchanged rings at Christmas as a sign of our commitment to each other, and wanted to do it again with family in Australia present, so that's what we did in the secret garden. It was a nice spot and a nice moment for us to reaffirm our relationship to each other. No, not an engagement .... just a .... well, you know. :)

That evening Cathie, Adrian, Eleni and some friends went to see 'The Life of Pi' at the movies. I couldn't go as it was in 3D and I am no good with that stuff, being monocular and all. I think it is discrimination against one-eyed people! Anyhow I had a pleasant few hours walking around the St Kilda Festival. It is an annual event attended by between 200 and 400 thousand people. The reserve over the road was packed right up to the main shopping streets of St Kilda about 1.5km away. Lots of bands playing on different stages on the beachfront promenade with mosh-pits full of gyrating bodies. It was interesting to watch the different dance styles of an eclectic mix of random people. Lots of gays, lesbians, well dressed, under-dressed, bogans, geeks, street kids and lots in some sort of fancy dress with no common theme.
The sideshows, massive thrill-rides and stalls selling everything from t-shirts to massages kept me entertained while I people-watched until the sun went down.
 The time went really quickly and I got home just before the rest. I encouraged Cathie to join me and we went back to the festival until it closed. It was so well run and organized with lots of security and as we walked home all of the trucks arrived in convoy to remove the stalls and equipment once they were disassembled. We hung around the food stalls just in case they had food left that they wanted to give away. No luck, but not for lack of trying. (on Cathies part ) We did score a huge grilled corn cob earlier in the evening which we shared as we walked along. Two young lads had bought more than they could handle so offered us one.
Next morning, after lots of noise during the night (as it was literally just over the road), there was no evidence of there being thousands of people wandering round the night before. The roads were opened up and there was no rubbish. The beach was full of kite-surfers and youngsters with their personal trainers going through their routines. This is such a nice place to have an apartment. Close to St Kilda shopping, and 90mins walk to Melbourne town center ....... well it took us 2.5hours 'cause I wrongly thought Victoria Market was at the other end of Victoria Street and GPSed us the long way round. Finally got there after a beautiful, authentic, cheap Thai lunch only to find the market was closed on Mondays! Nice lunch though. Not sure how hot it was, but we walked all the way home again by a more direct route and hardly had the energy to climb the stairs to the apartment. Feet hurt, legs sore, and my back went into spasm but it was a great day. Oh yes, we also called by the Thai Embassy on the way and picked up our passports with the new visas..... 2 entries both for 60 days stay. Not sure why we need that long but we needed the two entries so we can go to Burma or Laos and get back in to Thailand. It also means we can now go overland into the country instead of flying as usually you only get 15 days by going in at the land border. Job done!
Not sticking to our budget very well. Spending more than we should at this stage of the game but I am sure we will save when we get to Malaysia and Thailand.
Fly to Brisbane next Tuesday, but it has been great spending time with Cathies son Adrian and his partner Eleni.