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Just before I went out for a late-afternoon round of sightseeing on Thursday, Steven called me and asked if I’d like to go out for a ride to one of the heavily-Greek suburbs called Doncaster.  He had a customer out there he had to visit for about twenty minutes, and then he’d be free for the rest of the day.   Doncaster is a pleasant upper-middle class bedroom community about 17 km ENE of downtown, and the drive starts to take you into some light foothills.   I sat and chatted with the residents while Steven fixed the equipment, and after some obligatory beverages, we were off.  We went to the house of Steven’s sister Helen and her husband Nick and their two children, and eventually all moved on as a group to their parents’ (my dad’s cousin’s) house where I met Uncle Niko and Aunt Chrissoula.  The grandparents eventually kept the kids while the rest of us went out for dinner and chatted until almost midnight.   We also made plans to resume the next day at about 4:30pm.

Friday, I had originally planned to do a day trip, but with the high again being expected to be 102 I had decided against it.   Instead, I combined a few sights I had missed the first day.  I got up very early, and at 8am I bought a one-day tram pass and travelled about 25 minutes south to the seaside town of St. Kilda.   I pretty much had the town to myself, and I got off before the actual beach.  It was not as much as some of the tour guides crack it up to be, but the 8:30am Friday quiet certainly had something to do with it.  It was a pleasant streetscape, I got some coffee in me, and it was a good way to kill some time.   By 10, I was back downtown at the Rialto Center, at 53 stories one of the largest office buildings in Australia.   I spent about 45 minutes at their Observation Center, taking in the views in all directions and wishing I had a better optical zoom on my little 6mp digital camera like I used to have on my 35mm point-and-shoot.   Then it was off to the Aquarium, specifically to see the sharks and stingrays exhibit.  The Aquarium is smaller than I thought it would be, mostly because I’m used to the fantastic Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, but the sharks and especially the sting-rays were neat.

At this point, I was starving and it was 100 degrees, so I walked over to where I had to pick up my laundry and stopped in a Greek restaurant across the street.  I realized that I’ve only been picking at food most of this trip, between feeling dodgy and being hot.  I ordered a lamb souvlaki plate with extra meat and sat in the cool for about an hour.

When I emerged, it was very cool outside.  As in maybe 78.  When I got back to the hotel with my laundry, I checked online.  Sure enough, the temperature fell almost 20 degrees in an hour.   The stiffle was gone, replaced by a beautiful sunny day.   I spent the next couple of hours doing shopping for gifts and postcards, and the only thing I did not accomplish was to visit the Queen Victoria Market (which I’m going to try to do today).  Then by 3 I was back at the hotel for good to catch up on communications, restock the medications, and get ready to go out with family.

Steven’s wife Betty came by and collected me, and we took the subway for about 20 minutes and then walked a little over a mile to Nick and Helen’s house where everybody was congregating for dinner.

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