Back in Melbourne

We’re back in the land of Oz after a long, but still too short, visit to the States. It was wonderful to catch up with friends and family – regrettably we couldn’t spend nearly as much time with everyone as we wanted and some people we didn’t get to see at all. Highlights for us were the O’Toole family reunion at Green Lake and our annual trip to Vegas (which included multiple deposits into various casinos but sadly no withdrawals). Marlys, who was on holiday, got to spend a long weekend with her college friends as well as few days in northern WI with her folks. She is not scheduled to be back in the US for a long while, so it was a much needed and much loved time with her posse.

The trip back was actually pretty relaxing. We had a nice long layover in LA and got to go out for a last ‘true’ Mexican meal with Anne. This has gotten to be a regular routine with Anne and, in fact, we think we could qualify as frequent diners at the Hacienda. The minute the plane left the ground, Matt fell asleep for 7-8 hours, and Marlys did manage a few hours of sleep as well. Qantas has individual movie screens so you’ve got your choice of nearly 30 films and lots of (Aussie and US) TV Shows. Movies viewed by Matt: The Bank Job and Cactus (Australian thriller, never to be seen in the US). Movies viewed by Marlys: Leatherheads, What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas, and Iron Man. Plus magazines, newspapers, watching the flight path and the little plane showing how far you have left, a video game or two. Amazing what you can do in 15 hours.

The first couple days back meant getting back to work, getting back on the right time zone (and learning there’s not a lot of good TV at 3 AM in Australia), buying groceries, and doing all the other things you need to do after the house has been closed up for a month. After that we did have a marvelous Melbourne weekend. The weather was “spring like”, which means 60 and sunny. Matt went for a hike in one of his favorite parks (time to see the roos), we took naps each day, church at St Johns, we had a pint at one of our new favorite pubs and watched the footy, and we hit an awesome Art Deco exhibit at the NGV.

This Saturday we’re off to the mountains for dinner at a Swiss restaurant with friends (what is Swiss cuisine, anyway?) and Sunday we have tickets to the footy playoffs. St Kilda (Marlys’ team) made a late season charge and qualified. Unfortunately, they drew Geelong Cats – the defending champions who’ve only lost one game all season. But we’ll still cheer loudly for the red, white and black!

OK, one funny story. Matt was driving the other day and came upon a very sooty, muddy delivery van. Someone had written a message into the van’s abundant dust, but instead of the usual “wash me”, the cheeky wit wrote, “I wish my wife was this dirty”. Ahh, the Australian humo(u)r.