Still feeling pretty tired from all the excitement and very late night after the tennis we had a couple of slow and easy days. However we also needed to do some training for the Nepal hike so we filled our Osprey trekking bags with cans of dog food, dumbbells and books, Dave’s pack came in at 19kg for some serious workout weight! We walked to Glen Waverley and back again with a few hills thrown in for good measure in total around 7Km. During the evening we caught up with our hosts Jane and John who kindly offered to cook us an evening meal which was lovely. After a few glasses of wine and tales of being hosts and travelling the world we retired to bed.

More exploring of Melbourne was required therefore we headed into town and proceeded on foot. We visited Fitzroy Gardens, walked around the outside of the Melbourne Museum, found some nice bookshops and a funky bathroom warehouse. Eventually we arrived at Brunswick Street which has lots of cool shops (Helen was on the look out for a new floaty skirt) and cafe’s to keep you busy. As it was a Wednesday we decided to head to the Victoria night market with Jo and Ellie, to be joined later by Vic and Dave.

The Victoria night market starts at 5pm and it is definitely worth getting there early as it quickly fills up and any chance of a table and chairs vanishes. Food ranging from Nepalese to Spanish and Fish & Chips to Kangaroo burgers is on offer all around the $10AUS dollar mark. Yellow Tail wines were also offering free tasting samples so we did the right thing and tried each one, some of us more than once, just for good measure of course! We finished the evening in a great pub called Prudence just up the road from the night market. It has a good little atmosphere as well as rear outdoor seating and a cosy upstairs section. All in all a great day with Aussie, adopted Aussie’s and UK friends.

The 2nd Feb was to be our last day in Melbourne as we were due to fly to Perth on the 3rd. Therefore we headed for the National Gallery of Victoria which has an eclectic collection as well as interesting spaces inside and outside gardens. The Melbourne Botanical gardens offered some peace and quiet in an outdoors environment and is worth a visit. As it was our last night in the City we enjoyed food at one of the many popular restaurants in Federation Square and later on we organised to meet with Vic and Dave one last time in the awesome bar Section 8 which is tucked away down a side alley. A hip crowd gathers in this old car park nightly and it is a real gem of a place. We had a drink and then said our goodbyes to Vic and Dave. Good-luck to them in their new lives in Oz.

Next stop Perth to see Dave’s sister and boyfriend for a week before continuing with our Eastern travels in Bali.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, 18mm f4, 90mm Tele-Elmarit f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

We started our day with a trip to the Golden Gate Park by taking a bus to the part of the park that houses the Botanical Gardens. The gardens are a bit of paradise away from the busy streets of the city. We enjoyed exploring the succulent plants, flowers and plants from the Andes and the Ancient garden, although at different times of year other parts of the gardens will flourish more.

We communicated with Dave’s friends and planned to meet them in Cows Hollow as we knew there were some good places around there to eat. We took bus number 42 all the way there after a long walk from one end of the park and eventually arrived with them just after 1pm.

A little tip for those using public transport… the boys bought a travel pass for $21 each which permitted them to travel on all public transport methods for 3 days including the cable cars! Another little tip is if you’re not really planning on using the cable cars (which are $6 one way) then a bus pass is also valid on the Muni underground rail, and the street cars. One bus ticked costs $2 and lasts for 4 hours! Good stuff!

Anyway we met the boys at a nice bar called The Brixton and it was really good to see them. This is the first time we’ve had people come and join us for our trip so it’s just been great having the company and seeing such lovely familiar faces! (he he) We enjoyed a good catch up, drinks and food before making our way back up to Lombard street to the zig zag street. We were doing the touristy things again but it didn’t matter. We followed this with a trip to Coit Tower, although we decided to stay at the bottom and chill out whilst the boys enjoyed a little trip up to the top to take in the views. We took the cable car down to Powell Street as we hadn’t been on one yet, and we checked out their hotel before heading back to Mission to enjoy a lovely fish and seafood dinner with our hosts Heather and Jamie at The Anchor on Castro Street. This was our first introduction to the Gay district of San Fran.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

31 today!! Eek!! A far cry from last years fancy dress vintage themed party with all my best mates at Holyrood!! Still being in Beijing was pretty special and we made the effort to go and see some sights for the day. Dave bought me a lovely notebook from the Frank Gehry exhibition shop, I’m always jotting and sketching down thoughts, plans and ideas so it was very warmly received! A Porridge and banana special for breakfast and we were on our way.

We set out for the Beijing Botanical Gardens, inspired by the success of our bus journey a few days ago we attempted to tube and bus it to the site. The lonely Planet were not entirely accurate in providing information as to which bus to get so we ended up on the wrong path. A quick turn around for a taxi and we arrived at our destination. It isn’t perhaps the best time of year to visit the Botanical Gardens as not much is in flower, but we did find some lovely paths out towards a temple and icey lakes to throw stones on. There was a fair amount of ice on the lake and some gorgeous frosty views. Its well out of the city so you do feel far away from the business of central Beijing.

The tropical greenhouse (much larger than your average garden greenhouse!) was a nice place to get warm and enjoy some cactus growing plants alongside more brides and grooms to be having their pre-wedding photographs taken amongst the orchid garden.

On our way back we stopped off for a quick birthday bite at Japanese fast food chain Yoshinoya. A place that didn’t really entice us whilst we were in Japan but is definitely projected as being a more upmarket food chain over in China, interesting! They even had vegetables on the menu! We went back to the apartment and decided to get ready for our night out.

We had very good intentions of going for a massage at Dragonfly, our favourite and slightly self-indulgent massage parlour in Beijing! What stopped us in our tracks however was an hour delay at Xinjeikou metro station, this was so far our favourite stop as there were never as many people using it and it was well located! So we changed plans and head straight for Gouladjie which was only a few stops away, there was a Malaysian restaurant recommended to us around that way that we wanted to go to. We found Cafe Sambal on the left hand side a couple of streets down from the tube stop set in a Hutong area. It’s a little hidden away behind some wooden doors but inside was a very nicely lit ambient bar and restaurant which was packed to the ceiling with locals and westerners…good so far! At the bar we waited for a table and drank mojitos. We love it that you can buy mojitos over here for around £3, I’m pretty sure we’ve had one for as low as £2! The food was very good, although they could do with upping their portions a little! The room was a little chilly where we sat, but having said that the atmosphere was lovely and as far as birthday settings go this was again pretty frickin’ sweet!

After dinner we went for a walk along the street and came across a very cosy little desert cafe. This was enough to entice us in and we sat with our ginger teas, apple cake and chocolate truffles whilst watching the world go by.

Thank you Dave for a lovely day! I think the 30 year plus grumps came across me when I realised I am now past the tender year of 30, which has been a blooming marvellous year so far!

All my love and thanks for all the birthday messages on Facebook.

Helen x

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)