Then there was St Ali

Jen and I had a mad day of Melbourne-ness. Some highlights…

Crepes for breaky. I had the mushrooms. Jen had lemon and sugar.


Brother Baba Budan for the chairs… and the coffee.


Basement Discs for Miles.


The Narrows for John Warwicker's roses.

Seven Seeds for Helen… and the coffee.


Metropolis for books.

Quist to see La Victoria Arduino #22 of 100 in the world; but it was in for a service :(


Then there was St Ali. I loved St Ali. Everything was right. Syphon Kenyan. Double rist on the Slayer. But BW wasn't happy with it, so he made one on the Synesso; it was better. St Ali was really the only cafe of the day to properly nail the syrupy double rist the way I like it (and the way my fave Sydney cafes do it every time).

To Melbourne

The drive was pretty epic. About 900kms. Praise God, we made it in one piece. The car didn't even hiccup. I was very thankful to have Jen for company, and air con for happiness.

Some things:
Nelson wished us well at about 6:45am.


Caffeine break at Yass. (I'll always be drawn to Yass, Chris.)


Lunch at the Green Zebra, Albury.


There were two tense traffic-moments on the road, one in the wet in Sydney, one at 100km/h on a freeway in Melbourne. Yuck.

But we made it. Happy days.

One Last Dance with Sydney

My last days in Sydney were filled with friends and faves. Here are a few that I loved:

A double rist from Mecca


Egg & Bacon Roll from Urban Bites


IPA from Red Oak


Kebab from Rowda Ya-Habibi


A Farewell from Barry Webb,

"God bless you guys. Send some more up."

The Newtown I've grown to love.

Some Sad Farewells

Over the last week or so there have been lots of goodbyes. Different people say their goodbyes differently. Some cry, some try to slink away quietly. I think I'm a "celebrate, say nice things, then don't look back" kinda guy.

I've felt really loved and supported by so many friends up here as we've undertaken our move home. Suds devoted an afternoon to hanging with me yesterday. A raft of people shared breakfast with me this morning. The Wrights have said "Yes" to every single favour we've asked of them and more. I think Sparky probably holds the most-hugged award, although Pete's a close second. The boys at Shenkin were their usual exuberant selves as they wished us well.



So many good memories.

These Didn't Make It

It turns out I was pretty optimistic in estimating how much our little car can hold.

These guys didn't make the grade.


I kinda consider it a victory that only so few things have to be left behind. The process of packing the car was like a massive game of tetris; and once I was confident that I could fit all of the important stuff, it even became pretty fun. Laugh out loud fun, in fact. Or maybe I'm just tired and silly.

Please pray that our heavily laden little vehicle makes it all the way to Hobart without a fight. Jen arrives tomorrow night. The journey begins early on Wednesday morning.

The Last Box

Here's the last, lonely box. And now it, along with all it's friends, have departed our little house forever.


I think I felt a greater sense of relief and finality as the removalists' truck drove away than when I finished my last exam. How odd. I suppose even as I finished exams I knew the grueling task of packing-up our things was ever present.

Not any more. Now we're pretty tired. We're cleaning. And saying a last few goodbyes before Hobart life resumes.

Finished.

At 5:15pm today I finished all the academic requirements for my BTh.

Woohoo!

(For no particular reason, here's a picture of Robert Doyle, one of the members of faculty. Spot the smiling Masters in the background).


There was a dinner for all exiting students afterwards.

I'm going to bed now.