Didn't we all enjoy the fabulous Excellence Assembly! An hour or so about how wonderful we all are - unfortunately drowned out by the cheers of the junior school swimming carnival.

However, before that me, heidi, vicki, leila and caitlyn had a fun filled night (and day) at Leila's wonderful inner city apartment at 99 Spring Street (or rather her grandma's - still not sure if we should have been there...) Me, heidi and caitlyn caught the train in on tuesday afternoon to Parliament station. There we stood on the corner of Collins Street and Spring Street and saw a sign saying "2 Collins Street". We all agreed that we would have to walk for ages to find Leila's apartment when suddenly... POP! A short man with a moustache, a walking can, a top hat and a bow-tie appeared out of nowhere and asked us mysteriously "Are you looking for 99 Spring Street?", "Why, yes...actually" we replied feeling rather suprised. '" It's that red building there" he said, pointing, "And there is another entrance off Little Collins Street"... then POP! he went and suddenly disappeared again. It was so random, it was like something out of a musical or film when the hero/heroine is in trouble and mysterious help arrives. We decided later that we should all have a directions-giving guardian angel who pops out when you're lost then diappears again.

After a minor complication of not knowing which of the 26 or so floors the apartment was on we finally arrived...and stood amazed. The apartment wasso big with great furniture and jaw dropping views of parliament house, the old treasury building and gardens, the Princess Theatre and the MCG. WOW! I think we kept saying wow and being generally really impressed and envious for at least an hour. Later that afternoon (when Leila and Vicki returned from their hard days work) we went to Flinders Street to buy some provisions - it was so crazy doing grocery shopping in the city then carrying bags and bottles of juice back on the tram. For dinner we (well, mainly caitlyn) cooked v. yummmy spaghetti bolognaise - and Vicki took our orders in true waitress fashion (at one point demanding "Kate! what do you want?"). Brendan arrived rather lonesome as lots of people hadn't turned up and soon we were dressed and ready to go out. We went to a bar that Caitlyn knows called Cookie (on Swanston Street - see left) - it was v. cool, with random murals (and Alice in Wonderland) as well as quite good music. We all shared a massive Strawberry Daiquiri - to the amusmant of many onlookers as all 5 of us (except brendan) drank it at the same time (through straws).

Back to the apartment (contemplated a late night swim - yes the apartment building has a pool too!) and had a little more Bacardi before sleeping with the view of the city. (Left is me dressed up to go out to Cookie). The next morning Heidi, me and Caitlyn went all the way to the Vic Market only to discover that it was closed! noooo... we bought some random asian foods then did some shopping at melbourne central. We caught a train back home with Vicki later that afternoon. Unfortunately Vicki had Leila's yearly ticket and had to sprint barefoot through Parliament Station in an attempt to make it for the next hurstbridge train. But just as she ran down the escalator the train left... So we had 20 minutes of waiting before we finally got on a train and got home.