Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Melbourne 2017

I have been absent for a little while - there has been no quilting going on here whatsoever! One of the sweet ladies on my Saturday tennis team and I went for a week to Melbourne, we wanted to catch all the action at the Australian Open Tennis.

Here are some happy snaps:


We flew in last Sunday, and because we the tennis didn't start until Monday we had some time to ourselves. The main thing on both our lists was to visit Adriano Zumbo's Patisserie in South Yarra - he's famed from Australian Masterchef, and I've been simply dying to visit, and lucky for me, so had Judy!

I don't mind confessing that we made complete pigs of ourselves. A couple of macarons each, a lemon meringue tart, and also a couple of macarons for the road. We genuinely wanted to visit again, but ran out of time :-( ... there is always next year!

 A long walk along the river before we settled on a restaurant for dinner ... so many pictures, so difficult to decide what to share! This snap looking back toward the MCG - and the tennis centre is nearby.

 Loved these horses and carriages not far from Federation Square.


And then it was time for the big show - the real reason for our visit - the tennis! We saw great games over the week that we spent there. Each day we had tickets for Margaret Court Arena, and each evening for Rod Laver Arena. I can't even tell you how thrilled I was that on the first night we were able to watch my hero in action - Roger Federer. It has been on my bucket list to see him play before he retires. We were not disappointed - he had a big win. And in subsequent days and evenings we saw so many stars - Murray, Nadal, Wavrinka, Raonic, Williams, Radwanska ... as well as so many Aussies, and so many other names ...

 Loved the garden square and all the things to do and see. I may have laid down a few dollars on some merchandise - can't prove anything :-)

And one of the most exciting things for the week is that my coaches son Bradley made it into the main round of doubles with another local boy Alex, and they won through three rounds to the quarter finals. It was so exciting being courtside cheering them on with a huge contingent from our club. Just amazing, and we're all so very proud!


All too quickly Saturday arrived and it was time to head home, after we checked out of our hotel we walked a little again. I love to see the old buildings around Melbourne - and they sit so nicely with the modern ones. It was almost sad to gather our baggage and head to the airport.

Silly me I had to buy some new shoes at the airport - I had checked in my bag and forgot that I couldn't wear rubber thongs in the Qantas lounge ... but I'm sure you all know that wasn't a hardship for me, there's always a good reason for new shoes!

Well, that's all for my tiny snapshot of what I've done this past week. I'm having another adventure again soon, so I'll share that with you as I get the chance.

Before I go, I received a message on an old post about my Singer treadle machine. The person asking the question doesn't have email enabled on their comment so I wasn't able to reply personally. The question was whether a White treadle machine will fit into a singer cabinet. I personally don't know the answer to this as I only collect old Singer machines, but if anyone knows the answer, maybe they could post some details in the comments - thank you so much!

I'm way behind on emails again, hopefully I will catch up soon. I discovered that I hadn't lost the messages I thought I had, I just haven't set up filters on the new laptop yet so they weren't where I thought they'd be.

Well, that's enough rambling from me ... chatter soon! xox

10 comments:

Janet said...

Hi Tazzie,
What a wonderful trip. I used to watch tennis on TV all of time but I've gotten away from it. I guess I just don't have the patience any more. I know that's not anywhere close to seeing it in person. Had to be exciting. The pictures were beautiful. Loved the river. With all your walking I'm sure the sweets didn't stay with you very long.
Thank you for sharing.

Katjaquilt said...

What a wonderful week you had. :-)
AusOpen is one of my favourite turnaments. With 10 hrs behind you in Germany I can watch the nights sessions in the mornings with my kids at school. And I can see your warm weather when we have minus degrees here.
I am a big fan of Roger and I'm very happy that he did so well so far and maybe he can beat Stan in semifinals.
Hugs
Katja

Tired Teacher said...

Thanks for sharing the photos of your adventure. I love seeing other parts of the world with my morning tea.

Missy Shay said...

I don't have a white sewing machine, I had one in a cabinet, I sold it, kept the cabinet and put my singer handcrank in it. The Singer does not fit very (it is not a treadle cabinet), I need to have my husband make the hole bigger. I also know that my Singer does not fit in my Franklin treadle cabinet. Here is a good article for her.
http://www.treadleon.net/sewingmachineshop/treadles/selectingtreadle.html

Kyle said...

Thanks for sharing some of your fun snaps. It's great that you had the opportunity to see Roger in action as well, as other tennis stars. I can see why your first stop was the patisserie. Those macaroons look like an edible rainbow.

Penny said...

Tennis does not interest me expect for the odd social game but I am glad you enjoyed your week. Your photos do Melbourne justice. I live about a ninety minute drive from the city centre and in the sixteen years we have lived here, orginally from N.S.W., I have been in about ten times. I prefer country life, less crowds and traffic. Thank you for the advice on hoop size and the photo of your setup. What a lovely gift from your friend.

Florida Farm Girl said...

Hello Tazzie -- Teresa at Fabric Therapy just insisted that I hop over to visit and I'm glad I did. Have you looked at her latest project?! Hand quilting seems to be beyond my skill and patience level. Anyway, love your stuff and I'm jealous of going to the Open. Haven't played tennis in years and the players now are a whole different group. However, I'd have been right there with you with my head bobbing back and forth.

Linda in NC said...

What a great week you had! Looks like the weather was great too.

Perhaps the person with the White machine and a Singer treadle cabinet would find Tim Latimer of timquilts.com helpful as he collects many brands of old machines and installs/uninstalls them in a treadle base.

Jill said...

Nice trip! Worth setting aside your quilting for a bit. Another blogger who is an expert on old sewing machines is CherylsTeapots2Quilting. Looking forward to your next adventure.

Jill said...

Nice trip! Worth setting aside your quilting for a bit. Another blogger who is an expert on old sewing machines is CherylsTeapots2Quilting. Looking forward to your next adventure.

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