Southern hospitality

It’s been a long time between solo travels for me, but I flew to Melbourne on Friday night to spend the weekend with my former brother and sister-in-law.

Deb and I have stayed good friends since my marriage ended, which feels like the natural way to do things.

The unnatural thing would be suddenly not see people who have been your family for decades. I think that’s a really sad part of marriage break-ups.

My ex and I were together for 24 years so my relationship with Deb goes waaaaaaay back and we’ve stayed in regular contact, but hadn’t caught up in person for ages.

The youngest dropped me to the airport a few hours early to avoid peak hour traffic and I settled into a cafe to do some work on DD’s old laptop … except I’d forgotten the pin and he was asleep in Philadelphia.

I sent a message asking for help if he happened to wake up and voila, 10 minutes later I had the precious number.

Legend!

My initial flight at 4.30pm was cancelled and I was bumped to the 5.30pm flight, which finally took off at 6pm.

I was amused to get a text message from Qantas letting me know about the delay just as the plane’s engine’s started revving … offering me the chance to cancel my flight. Yeah, somehow I doubt it …

Anyhoo I was sad not to have DD by my side and not just because it would have meant entry to the Qantas lounge.

I’m also a very anxious traveller and he’s an excellent, ultra-calm companion.

My anxiety levels started rising around 1pm on Friday, which I put down to the nerves I get every time I press send on my weekly newsletter at work. But when we pulled up at the Domestic Terminal my stomach was still in knots, so it had to be the travel that was doing it.

As for the flight, it was ever so slightly bumpy due to the clouds, which absolutely terrifies me even though I know it’s not dangerous. But, on the upside, our onboard snack was two party pies!! Awesome!!

When I landed in Melbourne I got a message telling me not to catch a bus into town because my hosts were picking me up from the airport, bless them, even though they live on the exact opposite end of town.

Damon dropped us in the city for a girls’ night out and took my suitcase back to their place.

We headed to a cool Melbourne restaurant and bar called Mamasita for the Classics tasting menu.

We feasted on Guacamole and house-made tortilla chips, sweet corn on the cob with chipotle mayo and queso, Mushroom tostadas with cashew cream, Chicken quesadilla with Oaxaca cheese and pickled carrot, and Beef brisket soft tacos with chimmichurri and pickled hibiscus.

Oh, and sipped on couple of cocktails, of course!

Then we wandered down to the QT Hotel’s Rooftop bar, which was absolutely pumping and had a DJ and fabulous city views.

It was waaaaaay past my bedtime by that point, but we partied on at a very cool bar called 1806. It is set in a building that once housed a legendary theatre restaurant Tikki and John’s Crazyhouse.

The stage has been turned into a bar, but the viewing mezzanine remains and we settled into comfy velvet armchairs for a couple of 7th Time’s a Charm cocktails – gin, limoncello, French sparkling, strawberry, lemon and orange foam. Delicious!

Then we wearily grabbed an Uber home.

The next morning I slept until the remarkable hour of 8am! Then Deb introduced me to a funky cafe that is new to their neighbourhood since I last visited, called Peach. It was a gorgeous little spot in the morning sun.

Afterwards, we drove to the Dandenong Ranges and happened upon Kallista Community Market, which was great fun, then settled into the historic Kallista Tea Rooms – built in the 1940s – for tea and scones with jam and cream. I loved the view out the window of a huge old free filled with white cockatoos.

We followed our sugary feast with a 90-minute hike through Sherbrooke Forest, a rainforest filled with spectacular Mountain Ash and stringybark trees, lush tree ferns and waterfalls.

We also visited the Alfred Nicholas Memorial Garden, which is the original garden of the historic Burnham Beeches estate, a 1930s mansion built for Alfred Nicholas, who developed Aspro Clear.

Afterwards we explored a few more of the picturesque villages in the area before heading home for dinner with my nieces.

Next morning was my nephew Nathan’s birthday and Damon cooked up the most incredible feast of poached eggs and bacon and sausages and smashed avo and hollandaise sauce and grilled mushrooms. Spectacular!

Then Deb and I headed off to the airport … via Starward Distillery.

Starward has just reopened after being given a very glamorous makeover and we settled onto a couch to admire the space while sipping on Texas Fold ‘Em’s – Two Fold whisky with green apple, thyme and soda. Yum!