Another day, another early morning flight, as it was time to head back to Australia. It was a very pleasant flight, and I got to watch the movie, “A Good Year”, starring Russell Crowe and Albert Finney. It will surprise a number of my friends to hear that I enjoy romantic comedies but underneath this bureaucratic exterior there is a hopeless romantic.
My hotel room wasn’t perfect, with very weak cold water for the sink and a toilet that wouldn’t stop flushing - a real problem in a city with a grade 3A water shortage alert. So I reported both problems and went out for the afternoon.
My first stop was Moonee Ponds, a quiet suburb north of the city, most famous for being the apocryphal home of Australia’s housewife megastar, Dame Edna Everage, who made her first appearance in 1956. Moonee Ponds is a fairly typical Melbourne suburb, with streets full of single-storey homes, charming little cafes and restaurants and a remarkable number of bakeries. Next stop, Brunswick Street via Royal Park and a stroll through a suburban shopping mall before heading back to the hotel.
Nothing had happened regarding the room problems but I wasn’t that worried. Within half an hour, a maintenance man had turned up to fix things, or not, as the case might be, and it was decided that I would need to be moved to a new room. My new room turned out to be a corner suite, with a separate sitting room and a bottle of wine, intended for a Mr Chandler. So I rang front desk again and it was agreed that I should keep and enjoy it.
Time for dinner, and I headed to Prahran for Polish food at a restaurant called Borsch, Vodka and Tears. The restaurant has a huge choice of vodkas, and I picked a wild cranberry infused one to accompany my chicken meatball soup, which was excellent. Next, I tried their pierogi, which were slightly oilier than I would normally choose, but pretty good nonetheless.
Then back to the hotel for some sleep in my palatial home…
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