As my sidebar has been reporting for a while now, I'm going to be in Melbourne from the 16th of August to the 23rd. I started toying with the idea of a bit of travel and started looking for flights online and found a good deal to Melbourne a few months ago.
I was initially going to be staying with Tully, though now she's going to be living in the suburbs away from public transport, I'm now staying in a hotel in Central Melbourne, next to the Melbourne Central Railway Station and Melbourne Central Shopping Centre. At the moment, the only two touristy items I've got on my agenda are a Great Ocean Road day tour, and a walking chocolate tour (seriously).
If there are any Melbourne bloggers who want to meet up, I'd love to meet you! I'm travelling by myself, so I need a bit of human interaction to keep my sanity. I'm certain that if I'm left by my lonesome, I'll spend my entire stay in Melbourne between the Melbourne City Baths in that pool, or in Fitness First doing Body Step. My work colleagues will be all like, "What did you do in Melbourne?", and I'll be all "Oh I did Body Jam, I did RPM, I did Body Step, I did Body Combat..." - I totally see it happening!
If any of you have recommendations of where I should go, what I should do, where to eat (and if anyone wants to join me for dinner, please do! I foresee a lot of nights in my hotel room with Subway or Sushi and the TV remote - I can do lunches in cafes by myself but dinners are something else.)
Naturally, my presence in the blogging scene will be minimal during the time that I'm in Melbourne - I'll be taking my laptop with me, but I'll try to avoid paying the extortionist hotel broadband costs as much as possible. I will hopefully have a series of posts scheduled to be published while I'm away, though I won't get a chance to respond to your comments until I get back.
That being said, I haven't had much of a presence on this blog recently - and I'm sorry about that. There are suddenly a large number of readers on C&E, and as a result of that influx of readers, some copyright issues were raised and I was forced to go back through all of my archives and edit their content. Not exactly the most exciting stuff in the world, but necessary.
With that sudden spike in the number of readers, I've had a couple of interesting experiences.
Every 3 months, Les Mills release new choreography - they go through the process of coming up with the new moves, selecting the new music, purchasing the rights to play the music in their classes, filming the choreography, and putting it onto DVD and distributing to Les Mills licensees all over the world. Every 3 months, instructors from overseas flock to Auckland to attend the filmings, and one of the readers of C&E said that she would be in Auckland for the most recent lot. After a Jam class before the filmings were to take place, she came up to me and said, "Hi, I read your blog!", which had my jaw on the floor in shock. She was a lovely Jam and Balance instructor from Perth, and I ended up in the front row with her in the Body Jam filming, then saw her again during one of my lunchtime Body Jam escapades.
That was one interesting experience.
The other one was where after a (different) Body Jam class, I was hanging around the stage to have a chat to the instructors. I felt a tap on the my shoulder and I turned around. A guy said, "Nice blog!", before promptly zooming off.
I was caught completely off guard, and my expression was not unlike this.
[Melbourne Bloggers - I will try not to make said facial expression if I ever meet you, I can promise you that!]
So I'd love to hear from any of you in Melbourne - if you want to do a group gathering then write a comment on this here post, or if that terrifies you and you'd prefer just a quick lunch or dinner, feel free to pop me an email at mmmarshmallow@gmail.com.
In the meantime, I have a somewhat shorter working week to get through. I wonder if anyone else will be tapping on my shoulder in that amount of time.
13 comments:
Sounds like a great trip, I hope you get to meet up with some people.
Hi Marshmallow!
I read your blog a lot - trying to summon up the courage and belief to engage with my body and make it a priority and you inspire me.
Melbourne - you will love it! such a great city - I would highly recommend going to the Victoria markets and checking out the amazing food stalls. lygon st is a laugh for an italian feast (great gelato!). And then there is the shopping!
Enjoy.
livvy
You've already booked the chocolate tour, so what more could you want?
The art gallery, maybe a tour out of town (Yarra Valley, Mornington Peninsular?), shopping, shopping, more shopping.... there's lots to see and do. As for where to eat - just wander up to Lygon St or down to Southbank or Docklands or Fed Square and see what you fancy.
If it's not raining, you could run around The Tan or hire a bike and ride along the Yarra banks.
I have a few things on that week, but would love to meet up.... I'll check my diary and see when I'm free. Prod me via my blog if I forget to get back to you - my brain is malfunctioning a bit at the mo'.
I so want a photo of you with that facial expression!
Enjoy Melbourne. I think its great that you're already planning on how you're going to be working out while you're there.
I'd love to meet up. If you're interested, we do go go dancing on Wednesday nights not far from your holiday. It's lots of fun and chuckles - no one takes it too seriously. Let me know if you want to come along (or do something else).
Btw if you don't get free internet at your hotel, the RMIT campus down the street has free wireless :D
Were there not cheap flight to Sydney! :(
I'd love to meet you chick - but alas, I am not a Melbourne girl. You have to go to Chapel St Bazaar! (http://www.chapelstreet.com.au/index.php?id=13&action=showid&tid=901)
Very funny :) I saw a lady whose blog I read who lives in the same city as me. I just kept glancing over at her to try to figure out if it was her. She probably thought I was hitting on her! :)
Cool, you are famous! And about to embark on a fabulous trip!
PS: Look for the meme on my blog soon. I've been on vacation. :-)
I hope you like our Blue City. I second the recomendation of Vic market. You should add Bridge Road to your shoping list to. And you should go to ACMI at Fed squear. I spend so much time there myself that i might run into you!
have a great time in Melbourne~wish i could go. !
Ooooh cant wait to hear about your Melb trip, I am going there at the end of the year and am really looking forward to it!!
So I am not from Melbourne but I do spend a bit of time there because my bf is from there...not this next week though!!
If you like cakes, the cake shops in Acland Street in St Kilda are great. St Kilda is a cool little place anyway. Also, Brunetti's on Lygon Street at Carlton has awesome biscuits, cofffee, cakes and ice cream. Koko Black is also on Lygon Street and has amazing chocolates! Fully aware these are not healthy options but it is a holiday after all!
Shopping everywhere in Melbourne is good. I quite like Bridge Road and I love the Malls too.
I am sure you will have an waesome time and I can't wait for an update on your trip!
noble pig - Me too :-) Hopefully I'll come back with loads of stories to tell :-)
Livvy - Hiya Livvy! Glad you've been enjoying the blog :-D I'll be sure to check out Lygon Street, it's on my list of things to do; and Victoria Markets are just around the corner from my hotel.
Kek - Hehheehe, I have told a number of people that I'm just going to Melbourne for the chocolate ;-) Oh man, I wish I knew how to ride a bike just so that I could ride around the Yarra Banks, dangit!
aishchai - Oh no you don't! :-P I look forward to Melbourne very much :-)
kathrynoh - Dancing sounds great! :-D I'll be in touch.
damnyourbandwagon - Aahhhh sorry! Maybe next time? I will though try to go to Chapel Street Bazaar on your behalf!
Sparky - Hah! All of the times that someone has come up to me, I totally didn't seen it coming. It was probably the same thing for the blogger you saw!
cmae - Hehehe, a weird, spooky sort of famous :-P
Gabrielle - I'll go to Fed Square just for the chance to bump into you! :-D
Kate - Thanks :-D I'm sure that it'll be fun.
Arna - Keep your eyes peeled! I'm sure you'll have an awesome time in Melbourne when you go :-D
Miss Pinky - Ooooh, cheers for the recommendations! I'll go and have a coffee and cake at Brunetti's just for you :-D (and hey, it is a holiday, ain't noone going to tell me otherwise!)