Adventures in Australia: Slow Weekend...and start to the week

Saturday was probably my most relaxing day yet especially since we were exhausted and sore from clipping the horses. James had a Footy game and i went along to spectate. However, i ended up reading 90 pages in my Sookie Stackhouse book instead...Yes, i have succumbed to reading the series after everyone raved and ranted about how good they were! (I've just finished Book 1). In the evening James had to go to work and i attended the family dinner at James' grandparents house. They live on the same property as James' parents...so convenient! Walking into James' grandparents house is like walking into the 60's. The house is complete with white shag carpet, retro orb lamps suspended from the ceiling and even corkboard walls. In addition they are very musically inclined and love to sing but also have a Pianola, an authentic Gramaphone and a Grand Piano. It's really incredible. In addition they have so much history in their house from pictures of their ancestors to historic australia, it's just incredible to be in their house and see the history.
For dinner we had a traditional meal of lamb and pork along with sides of Silver beet (green leafy stuff), potatos and carrots. Im not a big fan of lamb or pork, but loved all the other stuff.

At the end of James' street (Maddens Lane) there is this HUGE hill and at the top is the above amazing view of vineyards and Valley. The way down felt like a crazy rollercoaster ride...almost made me car sick!

On Sunday, James had a meeting at Brads house near the city and i tagged along just to see the area, not to mention Brad's house....he lives on a block where every house is about 10 mill. So yeah, really wanted to see what 10 mill would get you in Melbourne.

James driving us to Brads house....
First impressions? Not very much land, but a beautiful rock garden infront of the house. The house itself looked modern/contemporary, white/cream colored stone with big windows....The inside was HUGE. There are seating areas everywhere with a very large kitchen and everything was white or wood. His mom is an interior decorator and they buy a lot of propertys and decorate/flip them so his mom has tons of experience...
So while the boys had their meeting i watched "Failure to Launch" in the private cinema....yup you read that right...PRIVATE CINEMA....as in 7 cinema recliner chairs facing an entire wall of movie screen and a surround sound system, dimming lights, stadium seating...whole nine yards. Only thing missing was the buttered popcorn smell. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon i must say!

Monday i convinced James to take me to Healesville which is a town about 15 min away from the house.

Healesville doesn't look like much but it's actually very cute!

We spent a few hours walking around looking at the shops and antique stores. I saw these incredible retro sketches at one of the antique stores that would be so cool in a bathroom. They were images of 1950 pin ups in a bathroom setting...not lewd but definitely retro and very interesting. unfortunately they were priced at 195$ a piece which is like 150 US dollars....perhaps i will make the lady at the shop an offer because im still thinking about them and that means that they really did catch my eye!
Browsing the shops sparked our appetites and so i got my first taste of Aussie grub in a veggie pastie. phonetically pahstee.... Yeah i know it looks sorta gross but it really was very good with ketchup added....

James opted for a meat pie....basically pastry filled with ground beef...or minced meat like they call it here.
Lunch was eaten at the local park where i was able to photograph some of the birds indigenous to Australia....