Last days of summer?

Autumn in coming! Ok, it's actually already here. The mornings are getting colder, only 10 degrees in the morning earlier this week! But we are still having some lovely sunny and warm afternoons. We took advantage of what could be our last hot weekend and went to the beach on Saturday with Adam and Charlotte. They took us to Mills Beach on the Mornington Peninsula which was both stunning and empty. It was about an hour drive out of Melbourne, but totally worth it to avoid the crowds in St. Kilda, Elwood or Brighton. 

Mills Beach, Mornington Peninsula

On the way there we introduced them to the Serial podcast, which I mentioned in my last post, and Andy and I are both hooked on. They are also now hooked, to the point where when we arrived we had about 6 minutes left of episode 1 and we had to sit in the car and wait until it was finished before getting out and going to the beach. Podcasts are like my new favourite thing, they are making my commute to work much more interesting!

The beach was great, like I said there were not many people there, and it was lined with those pretty painted beach houses. We saw an older couple outside of theirs, with their table and chairs and newspaper, basically just living the life! A very peaceful and stress free way to pass the afternoon. 

Sunday we woke up and it was absolutely freezing! The temperature said 14, but it was super windy and felt a lot colder. They never give you a "windchill factor" temperature here which I feel is misleading! I trekked out to Flemington Racecourse on public transport (never again! There is no direct train if there is no race on so its a pain to get too) to a Baby and Kids Market. Stalls and stalls of people selling new and used baby and kids clothes, toys, furniture, etc. We have bought nothing for the baby yet so I thought old go along and see what was on offer. Lucky Andy was coaching soccer that morning, as I don't think he would have enjoyed it! It was very packed with parents and kids and prams, but there were some excellent deals. I ended up buying some second hand clothes, all in great condition and at a fraction of what they would cost new. Going there made me think I never want to buy new baby clothes when you can go to things like this and buy them so much cheaper!

Andy spent the day at the Grand Prix, for the 3rd year in a row. This time he splashed out and bought James Boags VIP tickets, a special reserved area on one of the turns, with its own bar and seating. I think he had a pretty good day - although he always says his favourite part is seeing the fighter jets fly overhead. We can see that from our apartment (for free!) so... the point of going to the actual event is beyond me, but I suppose atmosphere and all that has something to do with it! I have zero interest in going, I went once, in our first year here, and that was enough for me.

This is our second last week of term until Easter Holidays, hurray! This term has actually gone by quite quickly, but I am definitely looking forward to the break and our trip to Vietnam!