Better than never

OK, so this post is a little late, but please refer to the title before getting too critical. Anyway, as regular readers of this blog would know (there must be a few out there), I love life in London. The last year has been one of the best in my life, though it seems to have raced by. When I first arrived in London I was too excited to feel homesick, though I expected that would soon wear off and I would start to miss my home town a lot. Wrong. I have to confess that I generally haven't missed Melbourne that much at all, despite starting most of my stories at work with "Well, that's OK I guess, but in Melbourne we do things much better". I miss my friends and family of course, but I address issue that by encouraging them to come over and visit me here. So, well, come on, where the bloody hell are you?! Anyway, given the lack of strings tugging at my heart, I was actually quite surprised by how much I enjoyed my two week break in Melbourne back in September. I headed back primarily to attend the wedding of Brian and Dilshani, two of my best friends. The bucks night on the first Saturday (which I won't blog about for fear of doing harm to what is still a very new marriage) and the wedding on the second Saturday were the only events I planned ahead of time. So I had heaps and heaps of spare time on my hands to just hang out and enjoy Melbourne. As it turns out, I managed to fill pretty much every day with visits to see old friends and rediscover old haunts. I caught up with a bunch of people from high school and was happy to see them all doing well. I went into town to catch up with some work mates and was happy to find that we didn't waste much time talking about work. I cruised around the south-eastern suburbs and bought a milkshake from Donut King in Dandenong Plaza and lunch at the food court at Knox City. I saw lots of babies, and one toddler with a great memory for dinosaur names. I did some bar hopping in China town and ate salt and pepper fried squid and stuffed tofu at the Supper Inn. Basically, I just had an awesome time. And the weather cooperated too - we had a series of glorious sunny days. Melbourne in spring time is a sight to behold. Driving down St Kilda road, in the middle of the city but surrounded by trees - brilliant. Oh, and I dropped by the Ian Potter gallery in Federation Square too - the collection of aboriginal art on the ground floor is stunning and a must-do if you're in Melbourne. So, yeah, this is turning into a pointless post. Or, technically, it was a pointless post from the start and hasn't gotten any better since then. I promise to finish soon. And I'll finish with the wedding. A truly picture perfect day as far as the weather was concerned, the ceremony and reception were both held up at Tatra Hut in the Dandenongs, in a stunning garden setting. The ceremony was fantastic and memorable, with an amusing speech by the pastor "If your wife is hungry, you must feed her." (I should have taken notes), tears shed by the groom (I pocketed 10 bucks as a result) and two long and sober vows that made a realistic forecast of what married life would be like (it won't be a fairy tale and bad words may be used). A magnificent day all round. It certainly reminded me what an awesome place Melbourne is ... but it wasn't quite enough to make me want to return. Not just yet anyway.