Day 52 - Friday 26 Feb

This morning was our wedding anniversary. Thirty eight years and never a cross word.
Aye right.

Nicola was determined not to let us forget our special day so she treated us to a very nice lunch at Café Di Stasio.

The weather as usual was kind enough to shine on us as we ate to our hearts content on the side walk. That sounds far better than the footpath. The food was simply made with the emphasis on flavour. Little wonder it receives the accolades it does.

A good way to see any city is to view it from the river. All great cities are built on rivers, naturally, that’s the way it is.

We decided our last portion of exploring would be thus. There wasn’t a great deal of choice, as there was a Regatta further up the River Yarra so all the boats would be sailing downstream only. No bother ducky.

Our captain, a man in his thirties and quite handsome, although maybe not as much as he seemed to think himself. Know the kind?

Well, he paraded about the riverside while waiting for his cargo of human voyeurs to board. Margaret was enjoying his company anyway; I noticed she never came aft to join me in the open part outside. The narration was down to earth and knowledgeable, and delivered with disdain towards the system. So unlike anything I would do!

The trip was interesting, about one hour out and one back. The water looked really clean to be running through a city of over five million, and a lot of them Indian. Have you seen the Ganges?

After the pleasantness on the briney, we called into a bar on Southbank. Here we met a lovely waitress from Malta of all places. We only had a beer and then on to find a bar that one of Jeanette’s friends worked in.

We found the bar but the girl was not available to comment, in fact she was slogging away in the office somewhere.

Tonight would be our last night in Australia. I never say never, but we both realised that we would not be making this trip again anyway soon. As M said, “If you didn’t have somebody there, you’d never go”. That is so true. Australia is a brilliant place to be young, energetic, and ambitious. It offers a brilliant lifestyle. Weather. Culture.

On the other hand, why do so many of its people choose to live elsewhere?