March 10, Labour Day

What a Glorious day to go for a walk along the Yarra river on our way to the Moomba festival. We took the train from Berwick and got off at South Yarra station. We found our way to the river and decided to find our way into town on foot.  I couldn't keep up with Norm.  As in driving, when walking in Australia, you have to keep to the left to allow others to pass you the right. Many cyclists passed us with gentle warnings. We must have walked 10 km in total today. Our destination today was the festival and after discovering the lovely trail along the river, we decided we need to return on another day to explore the botanical gardens.
We arrived to the main wakeboarding competition area as a Canadian girl, Whitney Mc...... was competing. At that point she was in the lead. We need to follow up to see if she stayed there. I was surprised that there wasn't a bigger crowd watching. I realized later that everyone was at the parade which we purposely avoided. Our only regret was that we didn't see a concert or performance. My new favourite song, that I've enjoyed with my Australian students, is 'Happy' which Pharrell Williams performed last night at one of the venues. We will always think of Australia every time we hear that song.
After wandering around the festival area, we headed to Chinatown for lunch. Evelyn, who hosted our first weekend here had given us a list of their favourite restaurants. I had left the list and we randomly chose a perfect, popular, inexpensive Korean bbq restaurant. I had bulgogi, one of my favourite Korean dishes and Norm had spicy pork. The side dishes made me crave Kimchi.  We found an Asian grocery store and bought some. At that point, we realized, that we are running out of money with an abrupt rejection at the bank machine and the debit machine. (We didn't transfer money on time ...and we are definitely running low...3 major trips and weekend jaunts are taking their toll on our bank account) )That ended our day and we headed back home to watch our new Australian addictive shows....MKR (My Kitchen Rules) and THE Block! Guess I'll be working past my retirement date to pay off this dream year! :-)...having been revitalized with this new teaching experience, I will certainly be happy to continue teaching for a few more years..today, I'm not ready to retire! :-)
Ok...don't quote me on that.
This reminds me... one of my wonderful students (from Canada); will be coming for a visit this(Australian) winter  after she goes to Ethiopia, South Africa, Nepal and Bali. Her parents are giving her THE best education!!