I apologize for not finishing all my blogs. I became sick last Sunday whilst visiting The Cake Bake & Sweet Show in between very busy days at work and my blog constantly crashing. With bush fires raging around NSW and Queensland, last Tuesday the smoke made my allergies and cold/flu worse.
Damn this blog site it is crashing more and more!!!!! I will never finish my blogs.
Friday 15th November 2019
I have recovered enough to be able to make it down to Melbourne for the annual Strawberry and Cherry Festival which is an event over 3 days. It was a very last minute thing but sometimes if you are lucky last minute pays off.
In a matter of hours on Friday in between work I managed to buy a first class discovery pass, book myself a return ticket on the overnight XPT from Sydney to Melbourne for tonight and an overnight stay (Sat) at the YHA Melbourne Central in a 6 share female dorm. Although I could only get an Economy seat on my return Melbourne to Sydney overnight train trip, it is better then nothing. I will try my luck asking if there is any chance of an upgrade at the NSW Trainlink ticket office before departure Sydney tonight and also after departing Broadmeadow on Sunday night back to Sydney in case there are any no shows.
Saturday 16th November 2019
Things always happen on the Sydney to Melbourne overnight XPT train and this trip was no exception. The train was only 10 minutes late arriving into Southern Cross Station this morning at 7.40 am. Prior to arriving at Broadmeadow Station, an anouncement is made, I see a woman struggle with her suitcase and practically stragger via an internal automatic sliding door to the nearest exit doors ahead in Car C. She waits in the area near the exit doors but appears to make no attempt to open the door to exit the train when it stops at Broadmeadow. The train starts to depart Broadmeadow after a brief stop to let passengers alight and board and the woman is furious that she missed her stop. She complains several times to train officers on board who question her as to whether she was waiting at the exit doors as the announcement was made prior to arriving at Broadmeadows and whether she pressed the button and lifted the handle to release the door when the light turned green. I could clearly see she wasn't at the exit in time therefore there were no train officers there to assist her with her exiting the train at Broadmeadows. I also clearly saw she made no attempt to manually open the doors which are not automatic. She was advised that she would have to continue onto Southern Cross Station and catch a suburban train back to Broadmeadows. She said she was being picked up by her daughter at Broadmeadows , she had to ring her daughter about missing her stop and in the end her daughter was going to pick her up at Southern Cross Station. Upon arrival at Southern Cross Station, I stood in the area near the exit doors in Car C along with another passenger and that lady in advance. I quietly advised her to watch how the passenger in front opens the exit door as soon as the train stops at Southern Cross Station and the light turns green. She says to me how she was unaware that the door was a manual one and how she doesn't travel on trains.
As soon as I arrive at Southern Cross it was a toliet stop followed by a top up on my myki card of $10 - apparently I still had a balance on my card and the return fare to Bacchus Marsh was around $6.50. Then it was straight to Melbourne YHA to have a shower and store my luggage in one of the pay lockers. I only needed a small one this time round - I hope I packed enough clothes it sure was much cooler in Melbourne then in Sydney. The card I was given by reception to access the shower on the 1st floor failed to work on the first floor- I could access the lift and the door to the first floor but had to knock on the bathroom door for someone to let me in as it failed to unlock it and I didn't want to run all the way back down to reception to get it reactivated.
Shower done and a quick recharge of my phone it was time to make my way back to Southern Cross station to catch the rail replacement coach to Bacchus Marsh. There were several rail replacement coaches for the Ballerat line which is closed due to ongoing trackwork, station upgrades, contruction of new additional stations and major overpass constructions spanding several months.
I tap on at the coach terminal just in front of the coach parked at the Southern Cross Coach Terminal heading for Bacchus Marsh and Ballan ( pronounced nasally as BAR - LAN - think of the pronounciation of the word BLAND - just awful!)
About an hour later the coach arrives in front of Bacchus Marsh Station around 10.15 am. I did not tap off as I could not see a Myki card reader and assumed you did not have to as it was a rail replacement coach.
I went straight towards a mini shuttle bus that had just pulled in running for the 3 days of the Strawberry and Cherry Festival into town ( you could walk but it will take you around 15 - 20 minutes into town). The shuttle takes you into Main Street which is closed off to traffic for the markets and various festival activities in the parks and side streets of Main Street. If you want to go strawberry and cherry picking you need to cross the street and wait in the side street next to the library for another mini shuttle bus which will take you down to the orchards along The Avenue of Honours. There are about 3 event stops along the Avenue of Honours which the shuttle bus operates on a loop route.
Because the pick your own orchards are all cash based first stop was to find an ATM to withdraw some cash before walking back to board the mini shuttle. I could have walked and should have walked to my intended destination Pynes Orchards as it was only about 10 - 15 minutes walk down the Avenue of Honours.
I was the only person on the mini bus shuttle to visit the orchards to pick strawberries and cherries ( most people were already there). I needed to get off at Jeff Jones and walk next door to Paynes Orchards to the pick your own cherries. The driver let me off across the road from Jeff Jones so I didn't have to stay on the bus and go all the way down to Naturipe and back up in the opposite direction back into town (the shuttles do continuous loops up until 5 pm).
I cross the road and find there is already a full car park outside Paynes Orchards as well as a long queue of people waiting to get into the orchards to "pick your own cherries". The sign on the outside indicates there is an approximately 25 minute wait as the orchards are at full capacity.
So what did I do? , I did what I did last year (when the gates were closed as I arrived due to the train being 3 hours late and I would have come all the way out to Paynes Orchard only to miss out completely on cherry picking) told my little bus buddy to wait in the queue and I walked right up to the ticketing tent to ask if there was any way of letting me in as I had just travelled all the way from Sydney just to get here for my birthday and to go cherry picking. This time they recognised me when I approached them unfortunately no fast track entries for the couple behind me ( it worked out by the time I was allowed in they would have already made their way in). It took a little longer to fast track my way in this year as they had to radio and wait for authorisation from the manager. I had sent a comment on Facebook but not a pm and I was eventually allowed in. This time my entry was processed in the weigh shed so no one in the queue would see my queue jumping. I was given a big bucket and a VIP card and off I went. I was the last person to leave the line of cherry trees allocated to a certain number of people cherry picking. The cherries were not as good this year due to the cold and wet conditions and I probably got the last few semi ripe ones left on the trees after everyone had left but they opened a new line of cherry trees for the next allocated number of cherry pickers therefore I got to pick some better bigger ones. Poor cherry trees they were picked naked of their cherries !
After what seemed hours walking up and down and hopping on and off ladders I ended up picking just 900g or so of cherries. I am a very bad fruit and vegetable picker but I was being considerate leaving some for others to pick and not being greedy like quite a few cherry pickers who probably ate quite a few while they picked their multiple full to the brim buckets of cherries! Entry was I think $5 and cherries were around $15/Kg.
So much fun and it did start to get quite hot during midday into the afternoon. By 1 pm yet again the gates to Paynes Orchards closed for the day - the cherry trees had been picked bare. Maybe they will reopen for a short time tomorrow ie the final day of the Strawberry and Cherry Festival in Bacchus Marsh. People that missed out at picking their own cherries were advised that they could buy prepackaged cherries next door at Jeff Jones or in town at the market stalls on Main Street.
Time to walk next door to Jeff Jones and wait for the mini shuttlebus back into town to see the rest of the festival activities. The shuttle took forever to arrive - should not have been so lazy and walked back into town. I spoted a tractor train ride outside of Jeff Jones run by the Lions Club for $2 a ride. There wasn't much of a queue so decided why not. Whilst waiting for another family to board the tractor train I met old Jeff Jones and joked about the VIP card I just received from Paynes Orchards. The tractor train ride took us through Jeff Jones orchards along the way I spotted a camel ride - no time to go on a camel ride this trip as I was dying to see the rest of the Strawberry and Cherry Festival in town and have a very busy schedule tomorrow back in Melbourne.
Back on the shuttle bus from Jeff Jones into town it is around 1 pm and I'm hungry - time for some lunch but not before I fully charge my phone at the local library which by now was down below 20%. No time to collect stamps or view the photographic exhibition on at the gallery next to the library. First thing I ate was a sausage and onion bun with lots of sauce from the RSL's sausage sizzle stall - I love a good sausage sizzle to support local charities. I scoffed this down very quickly - cherry picking sure works up an appetite! Next a walk around the main park full of food drink and nik nak stalls and of course the carnival rides. I must have walked around this park 4 times unable to decide what to eat and drink - so much good food! I settled on a glow in the dark very orangey red paella. It was $16 for a mixed seafood paella and $12 for a chicken one - I requested a half half but was charged $16 shouldn't I have been charged $14?
After charging my phone it was also a visit to the local RSL hall to see what was going on inside then to the Community Hall for more market stalls which were not as good as previous years.
So much more to see and do - I continue walking up the main street of town and stop in the side streets and smaller parks ensuring I see as much as possible and all the market stalls before a quick bathroom stop at the village shopping centre and some snacks and drinks from the Coles before walking back to the shuttle bus stop and waiting for it to take me back to Bacchus Marsh Station. I was a lityle early for the next rail replacement coach back to Melbourne and just as well I was early, as I tried to tap on after finding the Myki reader, it would not allow me to so I asked the station officer in the ticket office why and found I had been charged $33 for the trip from Southern Cross to Bacchus Marsh because I had not tapped off.
Sorry no photos to be uploaded refer my Facebook page
and
( refer Youtube for my fun tractor train ride around Jeff Jones Orchards)
I have been trying to finish this blog for weeks and it keeps crashing almost everytime I write a few paragraphs or upload a few photos. It is now 1st December and I am in Melbourne again and still have not finished this blog or previous blogs about Goat Island or the previous Cake Bake & Sweet Show in Sydney.
I am about to give up as my audience has dropped from 600 readers per month to just 300 readers per month therefore it is no longer worth my effort to blog . There is still my Facebook page with mainly photos and my Youtube Channel if I have video content to share. Apologies to everyone reading my blogs but this blog site is crashing far to often to continue blogging in full.
Sunday 17th November 2019
I had a few things planned for today while I was still down in Melbourne.
First stop was to see the Myer Melbourne Christmas Windows Bourke Street Mall as mentioned in my previous blog due to the Myer AGM this being in Sydney I was unable to do so after the meeting therefore had to wait until my next trip down to Melbourne.
This year's theme was May Gibbs Gumnut Babies. Myer must have had a good year as it was one of the best Christmas windows I have seen. I queued up at whast I thought was the end of the queue until someone told me the end of the queue was actually down the mall. Wow about a 15 minute wait just to see the Myer windows. They didn't diappoint and the gum nut them continued throughout the interior floors of the Myer Melbourne store with gum leaves hanging above awnings outside and ceilings inside as well as a giant gum nuts and leaves display suspended down the centre of the Myer store between the spiral of esculators connecting each floor.
( photos uploaded onto my facebook page).
Next it was onto Myer Melbourne's Harry Potter store in the basement. Despite all the hype about the queues on Saturday to see it, I thought it was rather small and very disappointing. If you are a Harry Potter buff go see it. There was a short queue for a selfie at platform 9 3/4 which to me was s very disappointing cardboard cutout. There were wands for around $70 each or you could buy mystery wands and with a little luck you could end up with the wand you want at around half the price. There also various chocolates and candy which I have seen a section of elsewhere.
Next stop was to take the lift or esculators up to the 6th floor of Myer Melbourne store where the Giftorium is located. Wow I love visiting this level every year before Christmas so much to look at. This is where you can find unique gifts for Christmas , parents can have their kids photos taken with Santa then go for a ride on the virtual reality Christmas train ( refer previous blog - I love this train although I didn't ride it again this year). There are plenty of interactive kids Christmas selfie props around eg the hot air balloon selfie prop, the 2 giant inflatable Gumnut Babies, and the below symbols which I was a little unsure about scattered around the floor on the 6th floor Giftorium.
VR Santa Train on level 6 Giftorium
The giant gumnuts suspended from the roof of the Myer Melbourne store are front and centre visible from every level and a continuation of the Myer Christmas window theme.
Then there is the GPS Santa tracking Christmas stocking for purchase. Apparently not the first retailer to offer this. ( refer the Myer advertisement this year of the little girl going camping over Christmas and the question of how Santa is going to find her this Christmas)
Onto something for myself from the Myer Giftorium. Pana Chocolates - we all know about this well established brand of chocolate now. Pana chocolates have now expanded their product range into diary free icecreams. There was a small Pana icecream cart set up amongst everything in the giftorium giving out samples of their ice creams. I usually go for double and triple chocolate however as soon as I tasted it following a taste of the salted caramel, it was an instant decision to purchase a single serve tub of the salted caramel ice cream. I finished this off whilst wondering around the Giftorium.
New to the Myer Giftorium this year was an ArtVo selfie station. Don't know about ArtVo? Below is an example. I wanted to visit this 3D art gallery on my previous trips to Melbourne but it was closed for renovations. Now open again I hope to visit it on my next trip to Melbourne.
Stepping virtually " into the unknown" Frozen II.
Now let's talk about trying to get a refund on myki card. Because I didn't tap off at Bacchus Marsh as I could not see where the Myki reader was nor did I know you had to tap off on a coach replacement service, I was charged the max for the trip for the day. I think it was $33. I went to the Myki concession at Southern Cross Station which I was surprised was open on a Sunday and explained how I was not from Melbourne and did not know how their public transport rules worked.
Next stop was Spencer Street Outlet for some essential shopping since I was very near by - yep I did not pack enough clothes for this trip - it was cooler then expected therefore I purchased a pair of black leggings and a light hoodie. My bargain was however not a piece of clothing but a wheelie bag for $10 (the very last one) as I needed this as well to place my purchases in that no longer fit into my mini backpack and small shoulder weekend bag.
My last very rushed stop before departing Melbourne back to Sydney on tonight's XPT train was a visit to the Good Food Month's Night Noodle Markets Birrarungmarr Melbourne. I didn't have anything to eat here this year as it was a very rushed visit but I was determined to get to it this year. Seen one night noodle market seen them all very similar to last year's night noodle markets at same location. Interesting to note this year that the major sponsor of the night noodle markets Citibank was not as visible and 2 new players Didi ride share in their bright orange uniforms ( Urber's competitor) and Easi in their bright yellow uniforms ( Chinese answer to Uber Eats which make it also their competitor my joke in a previous blog) were present front and centre offering similar services to the Citibank VIP area ie priority seating and food and drink concierge service.
Photos below
I have lost count how many times now that I have asked if there was any chance of a spare 1st class seat and each time I have been told no. Seat G31 window end carriage economy - this is where all the riff raff are. Disgusting germy people. And I was not wrong tonight on my Melbourne to Sydney overnight XPT train trip.
I sat next to a young guy who lived in Wagga but travelled to Melbourne to study. He used to fly between Wagga snd melbourne however it was becoming a little too expensive. This young guy was willing to swap seats with me as he didn't mind a window seat however when the ticket officer came around to check our tickets we had to swap back as it was essential that everyone was in their correct seats throughout the night for wake up calls to passengers alughting at differeent stops throughout the night. If you were not at your allocated seats during the night and missed the wake up calls you risked missing your stop and not having a seat to continue on. The train was a full train yet again. The only other available seat was a sleeper on the top bunk for an extra $88 which I decided against taking.
Falling asleep I am suddenly woken up by not the mother trying to sooth her baby to slerp but a very loud rude and disrepectful woman having a full long rant about what the mother should be doing to basically "shut her baby up". After she finished her rant the mother took her baby out of tge carriage until it fell aslerp. She must have done this several times throughout the night.
No more blogs for next weekend. "Life Admin" weekend.
