Melbs 2.0

A fab weekend in Melbourne, officially my favourite city in the world, to see some old friends and generally be as hip as possible.

View of the snowy mountains from the plane…

Eating a ludicrously hip (but delicious) brunch at a hipster place in the grounds of a decommissioned prison. Obvs.

My poached egg and avocado on toast combo was designed by the restaurant’s in-house activist… Need I say more?

Catching up with my lovely cuz and his girlfriend

This beetroot smoked salmon came under a glass cloche filled with what appeared to be dry ice smoke… But it did both look and taste amazing. And in case you were wondering, that is “olive soil” scattered over the top…

Sadly my blue hair faded very fast to a greenish-gray, so my dear friend Cee-cee helped me to dye it a new colour!

Close-up of my new purple hair…. and of my rather uneven teeth, and total lack of eyebrows…

Obligatory purple-hair selfies… (wonky teeth hidden and eyebrows now drawn on correctly…)

Ready to hit the town!

At the very cool Gin Palace in the city centre. It’s very dark inside, and feels rather like a speakeasy, but they do make an excellent gin…

This cocktail was called “Star Wizard, Eviscerator of the Universe”. It was all sparkly and swirly like a universe, and had things like “Aperol foam” in it.

Then I had dinner with these awesome people! Such fun to catch up with some wonderful people (hint, two of them worked with me in Iraq and the UK, and one of them worked with me in the Philippines and the UK)

Then we went to the “Traditional British Pub” to see if they have successfully replicated the atmosphere of a Wetherspoons. Spoiler alert, they have.

Took a photo of this specially for my friends working in the financial sector – why don’t we celebrate this as a thing in the UK?

Then we moved on to the very cool and hip and groovy Berlin Bar, which has a secret door, and a “West side” – full of opulent furniture, and lavish cocktails, and and “East Side”, full of pallet-tables, benches, camouflage nets and beer…