Friday 12/01
By Ludivine:
On Friday we worked in the morning like every day in Melbourne and the afternoon mom and dad went out while us kids stayed in and I went to the gym to run few miles and Florence and Jules stayed in and watched tv. A day like today was really necessary and felt so good. We had time to do whatever we wanted and it was nice to be responsible of whatever you want to do for example staying in all day or going to the gym or swimming.
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The kids stay at home this morning. The weather is not great.
Isabelle and I go to the Queen Victoria Market. It is much more than the city’s fresh-food shopping mecca; it’s a historic landmark, a tourist attraction and a Melbourne institution. Queen Victoria Market has been the heart and soul of Melbourne for more than a century. A historic landmark spread over two city blocks, it’s a vibrant and bustling inner-city market where you can shop for everything from Australian fruit and vegetables, and local and imported gourmet foods, to cosmetics, clothing and souvenirs. It is the largest open-air market in the Southern Hemisphere. We enjoy wandering through the bustling meat, fish and dairy halls.
In Melbourne, they have defined, in the centre of the city, a (rectangular) free tram zone: the tram rides are free within this area. I think it’s a good idea. It makes it easier to move around the city.
We then go to H&M for buy a skirt and short in jeans for Isabelle.
We quickly pass by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), a contemporary art gallery. There’s no permanent exhibition and the current exhibition is not really appealing to us. We don’t stay long.
We go and eat lunch (salad) at home.
Kids do homeschooling. I go and print a few documents in the communal hub nearby. We work on the files for the registration of the 2 girls in a school in Brussels for next year. Our chosen options so far are St Hubert, St André and the Assomption but no place is guaranteed for any of them so far…
Kids chill out a bit before the dinner. I cook pasta.
This Airbnb apartment (which is basically a serviced apartment) is great; we feel really good.
Isabelle starts booking the camping sites for the next 2 weeks (trip from Melbourne to Adelaide). I work until 2am.
Saturday 13/01
By Florence:
This morning we woke up and we ate. We ate cereal and fruits like almost every morning. It’s really good. When we were done, we worked and to be honest, it wasn’t the best part of the day. I did some math and some history. To be honest I really hate history but I have to learn it. When we were done we ate again but this time we ate a salad and toasts. When we were done, it was raining so Ludivine and I went to the gym and the pool while the rest of the family stayed in the apartment to have some Wi-Fi. In the gym, I went on the treadmill and did 1.5 miles at 9km/h!! I was so happy and then the best part was when we went to the pool because we were all alone. It felt sooooo nice. Then we went up and also used the Wi-Fi. It felt nice. I like having some chill afternoons once in a while. For supper, we ate sushi and it was really good. Then we went to sleep and it was a really good day. Bye.
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By me:
Kids do homeschooling in the morning. We eat a salad for lunch.
Our typical programme in a city so far… But the “extraordinary” event of today is that we do not leave the apartment at all today!!! It’s so unlike us. The weather is not great so it helps us to decide to stay home this afternoon. It feels good to stay the whole day in the apartment.
I start preparing our trip in New Zealand, in particular I order 2 guide books on Amazon (I’ll have them delivered to the agency where I rented the campers, in Auckland).
I order sushi for the kids (delivery) and Isabelle and I go to Pastuso. The restaurant is located in the hip ACDC lane. Pastuso is a modern Peruvian restaurant (with 3 different areas: grill, cevicheria and pisco bar). I booked at the ceviche bar, dedicated to making 5 kinds of ceviche (raw fish cured in citrus juices). There’s a great atmosphere and the food is excellent. We are looking forward to uncovering the wonders of the Peruvian cuisine in Peru (currently one of the world’s culinary hotspots), in a few months…
When we want to go out, there’s a shower outside. We run to the tram stop but we are drenched.
At the apartment, I exchange some WhatsApp audio messages with Toji (he was the IT engineer of Besix in KSA) to try to sort out my backup problem (OneDrive). It would be easier by phone but UAE blocks all calls through WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype…
I continue working on the blog when we come back. Posting on the blog is not as straightforward as it seems. There are different actions: write summary of the day, select the pictures (which is probably the hardest part: every day I need to choose only 10% of the (50 to 150) pictures that I take), reduce their size (with another programme), create a new post on the blog, upload the text and the pictures on the post, select the ‘title’ picture of the post, write a legend on the pictures, and finally select the categories and the tags of the post. I did more than 130 posts so far.
I work until 2:30am.
Sunday 14/01
Kids do their homeschooling while I try to find an accommodation (preferably Airbnb) in Auckland. We will be arriving in New Zealand in a bit more than 2 weeks already!
Isabelle goes shopping around 1pm (she desperately wants a hat), while I finish homeschooling with the kids.
We go to the library of the nearby communal hub where I forgot my 128G usb stick on Thursday… After a few minutes, the lady finds it. What a relief.
We go to Subway. I hadn’t appreciated how much the kids like the Subway sandwiches. We take them away and we go and eat them on Federation Square. The weather is great today; very sunny and not too warm.
The tennis Australian Open starts tomorrow. Had we known we would have probably tried to watch a match.
Isabelle joins us in the ‘Screen Worlds’ exhibition of the ACMI Museum (Australian Centre for the Moving Image), Australia’s national museum of film, TV, video games, digital culture and art. This exhibition takes us through a journey that examines the past, present and future of screen mediums and digital culture. We don’t stay long; the kids are mainly interested in playing computer games.
We go to the State Library Victoria. A Melbourne landmark and cultural icon, the State Library is a magnificent 19th-century building with some of the city’s most beautiful heritage interiors. With its majestic domed ceiling, the La Trobe Reading Room is a library highlight. We go up to the 5th floor to take nice pictures of this room.
We walk to Fitzroy district, a lively suburb with a bohemian reputation; there are many eclectic bars and restaurants. Street art covers the narrow backstreets, where small galleries sit alongside corner pubs and terrace houses. Brunswick Street is a trendy retail strip, while Gertrude Street is known for its design and art-supply stores, wine bars and buzzy eateries. Nice walk.
Florence takes an ice cream at N2, where gelati are made with liquid nitrogen
We wander a bit, entering some nice places such as Poké King and other healthy food cafes.
We end our walk in Messina ice cream where Ludivine and I take a nice ice cream..
It’s already 7pm. We take a tram to Gradi restaurant, in Crown casino complex. It’s one of the outlets of the 400Gradi restaurant, renowned for its excellent Neapolitan pizzas. We know exactly what we want when we enter: one Margherita Verace, one Napoletana and one Marinara. They are excellent. Very quick dinner: we arrive at 8pm and we finish by 9pm… We have an interesting discussion about changing gender.
I work on the posts (Sydney – Melbourne) until 2am.
