365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 171 (Sunday 20 June 2010) : St Kilda Be Praised!

We were up bright and early this morning.

Well early-ish.....

We'd arranged to have my gorgeous guy's lovely sister, Carolyn, collect us at 9.30 just hear our hotel, and managed to wake up, snuggle, pack, and get checked out and down to the corner of Little Collins Street in time. Unlike Saturday, which had been cold but clear, today was overcast with rain coming down in spit and spurts. Unfortunately it was also the day that we'd arranged to go to St Kilda to check out the outdoor markets on The Esplanade and have brunch. We momentarily thought about heading for the markets at Southbank instead which are under cover but figured we'd try our luck with the weather and see if we'd couldn't get it to stay fine just long enough for some market perousing.

We arrived in St Kilda just in time for a torrential-ish downpour but refusing to let me glass hlaf-full be sullied by mere precipitation, we headed into St Kilda, stopped briefly outside The Esplanade Hotel where Rockwiz is filmed, then we walked along Acland Street (some great art on the shop awnings - see above) - with its fabulous bakeries, all of which I managed to avoid buying something at; a fortuitous decision given what happened to me later that night back in Sydney (more of that later) - to the corner of Barkly Street and came upon a cool cafe called Big Mouth (right up there with Gutz that we saw the night before on Brunswick Street) where the waiter was in shorts, tie and vest with a wickedly long goatee, and the food was d-d-d-d-delish! YUM! I had a maple stack of pancakes with quite possibly an entire pig's worth of bacon on it - yes maple syrup and bacon go together fabulously as any Canadian worth their salt will tell you! - while my gorgeous guy and Carolyn stuck to a good ol' BLT.

Filled with vittels once again, we headed to the Markets, where I bought nothing - a sign of the apocalypse mark my word! - but Carolyn got a great bag with very clever artwork on it. My homage to St Kilda complete, we headed to East Kew where my guy's brother Darren lives with his wife Melissa and their two kids in a beautifully restored Californain bungalow, stopping on the way to collect a chocolate & raspberry cheesecake in Kew.

Melissa, the only member of the family I hadn't met, was just delightful, plying me with wine and food, asking all my family, life etc while we waited for my guy's mum and Dad, and other sibling Brian to arrive with his family. The conversation flowed smoothly with everyone, I admired the wonderful artwork hanging on the walls that Darren had done himself, ate far too much (the rissoles, sausages and hot beans were yummo!), drank lots and had such a wonderful time with everyone - did I mention how absolutely wonderful they all are! Yes I believe I am in love with my guy's family too - that we left 1/2 hour late for the airport, arriving 5 minutes before boarding time with no pre check in done (we made it just but had to sit in separate middle seats in row 11 alas; I ended next to an arrogrant jerk who refused to switched his mobile phone off initially and ignored instructions from the flight attendantcs).

Melissa, Carolyn, Darren, Kath & Ken (Mum and Dad), my gorgeous guy

The loveliest part of a stratospherically lovely day was when I was leaving the house for the airport. Melissa leaned in close and said "They are really a lovely family aren't they?" I absolutely agreed and loved the fact that Melissa and Sue, the two other 'outsiders' were so supportive and understanding of what I was going through. I had nothing less than the most wonderful time with every single last member of the family - including his delightful nieces and nephews - and even as I lay in bed that night with my guy beside me feeling sick from far too much gloriously good food and wine, the glow of happiness from becoming part of my guy's family was not even slightly diminished and I find myself more in love with him than ever.

It's going to be a wonderful life with him.....