A slim Slimm reunion

Eloise and I landed in a very cold Melbourne on Thursday night. Luckily I had packed jumpers for the air-conditioned plane. Josie (my cousin), John & Ros (my aunt & uncle) met us from the airport. John & Ros are out visiting Josie and it seemed too good an opportunity to miss not to get together. Josie's young man, Adam, had to work the next day so sensibly put earplugs in so he wouldn't hear us crashing around constructing the pod and nattering into the small hours. Josie and I did some hard core catching up that evening and went off to bed about 4am. Luckily, Eloise slept until about 10am.

After breakfast we caught the tram from Kew East into the cultural centre called the Southbank. By the time we got there Eloise was flagging and we were all starving. Luckily, Adam's parents are grandparents and are equipped with spare car seats and buggies. We found a lovely restaurant and had a massive lunch. As Eloise was so tired we thought a river cruise would be a good way to have a slow afternoon. The cruise was about a large boat which was arranged with normal chairs in rows. There was a certain aroma in the vessel that no one could quite put their finger upon. Then the tourist commentary began... the captain said he was experimenting with a recorded version. Basically it was a recored version of the day before complete with coughs and engine noises. It was incredibly tacky and I was crying at one point. After persevering for 10 minutes he returned to his own voice. Then my memory bank of smells recognised the odour. It was the smell of a pub or nightclub the morning after. That is why they were normal chairs as the boat was sightseeing at its finest by day and partying by night with very little cleaning in between the two.

Finally after, and I don't think I am exaggerating, three years I finally met Adam. Eloise went strsight up to him and introduced him to Josie telling him it was her house and her bedroom. Later on that evening in the bath she was washing her face to make herself look pretty, then her arms and her legs. Then she said she needed to wash her hair to look pretty for Adam! By the next day she was calling him Madam or more accurately M'Adam.

On Saturday we went to visit Adam's parents for a family barbeque. Adam's sister, Megan, has a son called Harrison who is 4 years and and a daughter called Charlotte who is 2. Eloise had a wonderful day. I thought Eloise would love all the meat on the barbeque but just ate bread with half a tub of butter for lunch much to everyone's amusement.

This morning we had a massive cooked breakfast and then toddled off to the airport in good time. It was lovely to take my big jumper off when we landed and feel the Brisbane sunshine again.