23 April: beer, genuinely good for you…

And so I safely reached the southern hemisphere after a remarkably uneventful journey. The plane landed at Sydney to the strains of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ in rather dark skies leaden with the promise of rain. Me, I was in Sydney solely to get wet and, fortunately, the shower in the business class lounge was free so that I could freshen up before my journey onwards to Melbourne.

So, what does an Englishman do in this city? Obviously, beer should be involved, so I set off for a tour of the Abbotsford Brewery in Carlton, the headquarters of the Fosters Group. They make plenty of decent beer, and the tour is a nice way to ease gently into the city, involving as it does a tram ride to get there (yes, more trams… this trip is going wonderfully well in terms of quirky transport thus far).

I’ve got an excellent picture of myself for another manifesto - who knows what I’ll run for this time… but I include a picture of Ros, whose job it is to show tourists around the brewery and then ply them with free drink afterwards. She’ll even allow you to try pulling a beer for yourself and try not to laugh when you screw up.

And now the sun is setting on my hotel, and I can sit here typing this blog entry watching the glow on the Yarra (right below my window), and Port Philip Bay in the distance.