Monday 15 March 2010

A weekend in Melbourne

A couple of weekends ago I spent 4 days in Melbourne visiting with my lovely Aunt Desley and the ever energetic Uncle John, on my own, without kids or husband.  I've just been a little too busy to blog about it though.  After an early start and arrival in Melbourne we stopped in Lygon Street for a little morning tea. 


It was building up to be a hot day, but that didn't stop us from going to the Melbourne zoo to visit the new baby elephant 'Mali'.


To get a glimpse of Mali we had to stand in line for about 45 minutes so that we could see her for a brief 5 minutes.


She is so adorable, just a tiny little munchkin with a sweet little trunk and she sticks close by to mum.  It was hard to get pictures when peoples heads were in the way, but I managed to hold my camera up paparazzi style and was lucky to come out with some good pictures.  I think there is another new baby elephant in Sydney's Taronga zoo, might have to go and visit her too!  Amongst other animals at the zoo we watched the gorillas,  various monkeys and the gibbons.  Although it is yet to be decided who was watching who.




This gibbon just liked hanging around and every now and then reached down to his bottom and had a little poop snack, a little gross, but had everyone in hysterics as he innocently reached down and had a nibble (and I mean the one in the picture above not below).


The meerkats were fascinating  creatures to watch as they slept sprawled out across each other while one stayed alert on guard, then they all did a mad scramble when the guard let out a warning.  Fun little animals.

I am a big fan of the giraffes and the zebras and love to watch the giraffes at feeding time with their long sticky blue tongues as they reach for their treats.  We didn't get to see them feed this time, we were in a bit of a hurry to get in line for the baby elephant, but the zebra's were so close you could almost touch them.



It ended up being an action packed weekend that Desley had lined up for us.  We went and saw 'Jersey Boys' on Friday night, the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and how they came about.  Some fantastic singing by the cast, which kept the story flowing, I really enjoyed the performance.  On Saturday we went to a matinee of 'The Merchants of Bollywood', a highly energetic, colourful, loud, bollywood dance production that covers a little of the history of bollywood dance and movies.  


The Merchants Of Bollywood

It was wonderful, yet exhausting watching, the dancers just kept bringing on the next dance and then the next, all with lively costume changes too.  Did I mention how loud it was??  I guess being in the 4th or 5th row from the front and right next to the speakers kind of contributed to that.  I love a bit of Bollywood, it has such a joyful, energetic way of telling a story, through dance and song.  Did I mention it was energetic??  I think 'The Merchants of Bollywood' is coming to Sydney next week, if you go keep an eye on the lead male, he doesn't say anything but boy can he dance (I think it's something to do with all of those rippling muscles).

My stay in Melbourne also involved going for a few walks, lots of sleeping in between activities, the movies (Crazy Heart) and catching up with the lovely Jessica and her beautiful little Harry.




The End

(PS:  Now you can see why it took me so long to post this)

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