Bound For The Murray

 Our January adventure this year was a cruise in a riverboat from Renmark to Murray Bridge over a period of seven days. We drove to Murray Bridge staying overnight at Keith on the way.

The cars were then placed in (rather unprepossessing) locked storage.

We met up with the Inchleys who had flown over to Adelaide then boarded a coach for a four hour trip to Renmark to board our riverboat.

Covid Strikes (Again)

 After our house guests left I felt a little off and took the Rapid Antigen Test that proved I had Covid.

A day or so later Claire followed my fine example and went down with it too.  This time round, we had a day or two of feeling flat with flu like symptoms and absolutely no energy but soon started to improve.  Vaccinations and antivirals clearly did their job but it is a sobering thought to see the cost to the community of these drugs - for both of us - over $2200.

National Gallery

Our final day was spent at the National Gallery of Victoria where there is always something weird going on.

The most interesting part is reading the artist statements and rationale for the works.  They manage to sequence strings of normal words together that make the sentences and the contained meaning utterly unintelligible. However, we were not there for the art, we went to sample their High Tea.

It was interesting, uninspiring and expensive so next time we will go to the Windsor! Then back home on the train after a good few days.

Lume - Connection

 We had tickets to see "Connection"at the Lume in Melbourne.  This was a projected display of Aboriginal art from across Australia showing the variety of depictions of the different landscapes. I found the presentation absorbing and fascinating.

Then lunch in one of the Melbourne laneways, in this case, the Block Arcade.

Then it was back to the hotel taking in the sights of Southbank, including the residents,

Australia's tallest building - Australia 108,

And the Crown complex.

Dinner

 We had an evening meal at PJ O'Briens Irish Pub on Southbank and it decided to rain on us for the walk! It was a great Pub with an Irish folk singer entertaining.

The whole Southbank precinct is an easy and attractive night walk.

Visiting Melbourne

 This New Year our mini-holiday was to be in Melbourne so we headed in by train.

We stayed at the Crown Promenade Hotel in Southbank that was central to the activities we had planned.

Local Exploration

 The builders next door are keen, they were constructing the frames in early January.

Our local walk was around Blackburn Lake near Terry and Tricia's apartment.

New Year's Eve

 We had booked a banquet at Qilin Restaurant for New Year's Eve.  We had been there in previous years and really enjoyed their food.  During the day we took the Inchleys to visit Terry and Tricia in their new apartment.

One of the facilities they are unlikely to use is the gym, but Terry likes to dream.

The dinner lived up to expectations.