A day at the Seaside

Visited a younger branch of the family yesterday in a suburb in Mount Waverley (mountain not spotted). A fairly affluent part of Melbourne and house prices on the up. In general as a Brit might imagine, bungalows with air conditioners attached but increasing these being replaced by 2 storey houses and large new blocks beginning to resemble the British approach of cram in as many as possible.
Lawn mower enthusiasts weep - the whole area is heavily treed, mainly conifers, giving shade and cooling and that plus ultra dry ground means that at this time of the year not much else grows. Obviously at the right time it does as I ate some of the veg grown and saw the home made jam stocks.

We drove to the Mornington Peninsular that forms the East of Melbourne Harbour and ended at the town of Sorrento. I presume Italian immgrants settked here and judging from the shops and restaurants there is still a strong Italian population. Delightful lunch and beach walk followed, of course by ice cream. From there to a viewpoint at Arthur's Seat (that is something to sit on and not somebody's car) and the vast area of Melbourne Harbour with the skyscrapers of the city just visible though the heat haze was before us.

I had said that I wanted proper Barramundi and I and the now further extended family ate wild
Barramundi, a hunchback looking fish salmon sized, cooked with an Indonesian slant and steamed in a steamer that I claimed was less a steamer and more a supertanker given its size.

A delightful friendly, laughing family day