A day with Fizz.

On Saturday James was busy working all day so he arranged for me to spend the day with Felicity, a friend of his from University. I met her while she was in NY for Christmas and was very excited to spend some time with her over here in her home town. I spent most of the morning posting to my blog and then Jill suggested that I could get on a horse which was a great plan....however, i still have absolutely no concept of time and when i asked what time it was she said 20 to 1! Fizz was picking me up in 20 minutes! James had told me that we were going to a horseshow (which was the original plan), so i got dressed in warm clothes and was planning on wearing rainboots because it was pouring rain out. Then Jill thought that maybe we should call Fizz just to see what her plans for our day were and she said that there had been a change of plans due to the weather and that we were going to have Devonshire tea and a day of girly things. So i had to change my clothes again to something more appropriate. When Fizz arrived, her first plan was to take me out to Lunch and Jill suggested that we head over to a local winery (Medhurst Wines) with a cafe called The Red Shed. http://www.medhurstwines.com.au
She opted to accompany us since she was very friendly with the owners and wanted to introduce us to them. To the left is a picture of the cafe area. It was windows all around and a lovely intimate atmosphere with a gorgeous view of the valley and vineyards. Over wine and BLT sandwiches we caught eachother up on what has been going on in our lives for the past 6 months.


This picture doesn't do the view justice, but was taken right outside The Red Shed


Next up on our list of things to do was to visit Mt. Dandenong. This was about a 35 minute drive from where we had lunch and is supposed to have spectacular views of the city of Melbourne. However, it was extremely foggy and so we couldn't see a thing past the immediate valley. To the left is the view from one of the lookout spots. There are also numerous gardens to see and walks that one can do or a restored steam train called Puffing Billy that one can take a ride on. The summt is at 633m.
















We stopped in a little town near the top of the mountain called Sassafras. Apparently this area is a bit of a hippy area so Fizz warned me not to be surprised in case we ran into some weird looking people. We were going to try and have our tea at a Tea Room called Miss Marples which was inspired by Agatha Christie's character, but the place was full of Asian Tourists, so we opted to go next door to another cafe (whose name escapes me at the moment). Both of us were still full from our recent lunch but coffee was just perfect as i was still a bit jet lagged and could definitely use the caffeine. The place we were in also served amazing hot chocolates, which had i
known that before i ordered the coffee, i definitely wouldve gotten. LINDT HOT CHOCOLATE (Dark, Milk or White) YUMM. After tea, we walked around the town and visited the shops for a bit. One shop in particular was a bit interesting. It was all about witchcraft and spells and tarot readings etc etc. So if anyone needs some dragon blood, i know where to get it! Oh and most interesting were the Ethiopian Cross's that were for sale. Before i left the states, my mom, aunt and i went to see the Lucy Exhibit in NY Times Square which also included the history of Ethiopian Christianity. Similar crosses were on display at the exhibit, so it was a bit odd to see them for sale at the shop.
After Sassafras we headed back down the mountain to meet Fizz's boyfriend Ash and to see her new puppy Bella. Then we went out to dinner at a place in Healesville called "Giant Steps" www.innocentbystander.com.au At Giant Steps we met up with Jade and her Husband Looker, and a few other friends of Fizz's. We shared a yummy thin crust pizza and more wine and then Fizz dropped me back home. As we were talking in the entry way to james's house, we noticed two birds sleeping in the bush next to the door.


Thats Felicity :) We are going to do some Pilates together :)