My Melbourne

I have loved living in many places, but for the moment we call Melbourne home! 

Somewhere along the journey of life
 I morphed from a country lass 
growing up in the UK,
into an Aussie city girl.

I imagined that moving to Australia 

would involve spacious living with huge gardens.
Wrong! 
Well maybe for some people, but not for us...

A typical house in our neighbourhood

Instead I live squashed in, 
in prime real estate in the leafy suburbs.
Our area is one of weatherboard houses and cottage gardens.
I'm not complaining.

Melbourne's reputation as one of the 
world's most liveable city is well deserved.

I love the convenience of city living.

Most things I need are within a ten minute drive

school - kids sports - yoga - writing class

My son's school sports fields

Somethings are on my doorstep

shops - post office - parks. 

A decent coffee 
is always just around the corner.
Melbourne's cafe culture 
is part of the fabric of life here.
'Let's meet for a coffee'

City trains run every 10-20 minutes

I can walk five minutes to two train stations
and the tram is a ten minute walk.

Trams are part of the fabric of Melbourne's transport system

If I walk one way out of my front gate I get to a park

If I walk the other way I get to another park 
and a bike track into the city.
(there are 670 Km's of bike tracks in Melbourne)

In fact walk in any direction 
and you will generally find a park in Melbourne
with kids playgrounds, sports fields and tennis courts!

Melbourne is renown for it's parks

We are a twenty minute drive into Melbourne's CDB

It's easy if we want a foodie's night in town.
Melbourne is so multi-cultural you are spoiled for culinary choice.

Or a visit to the theatre, 
or perhaps have a laugh at the Melbourne Comedy Festival

or even attend a concert, all the big Pop stars come here.

Grace Min in action at the Aussie Open January 2014

If sports your thing, as it is for us, then it's non stop action
 when it comes to big sporting events.

Melbourne is home of the Australian Open Tennis in January
we can hear the dim roar of the Formula One racing cars 
racing around Albert Park 
for the Australian Grand Prix in March,
and so the year goes on...

We can support Australia and sometimes England

 playing cricket at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The Boxing Day test match is a Melbourne must do.
The MCG can fit a cheering crowd of over 100,000 people 

Cheering Australia on at the MCG January 2014

Of course the first thing you need is a footy team to barrack for
We cheer on our favourite AFL Footy Team, Hawthorn.

They don't call Melbourne the Sporting capital of Australia for nothing!

We've got - Rugby - Soccer
 Basketball - Swimming - Hockey - Golf etc etc
Or if horse racing takes your fancy,
then the Spring Racing Carnival and Melbourne Cup Festival is a must.

A day at the races for Spring Racing Carnival is a not-to-be-missed event

There are so many festivals:
Moomba, Food and Wine

You need never be bored in Melbourne.

And don't get us started on the shopping...

Melbourne Central shopping

If its art and architecture that you love 

you'll find plenty to admire here.

Our street art is on every corner and all around.

If you fancy beach life we have that covered too!

The palm-lined bay beaches of trendy St Kilda

We have the choice of city beaches and
coastal beaches all within an hours drive
of home.

Rye ocean beach on the Mornington Peninsula

We don't perhaps have the WOW factor of Sydney 

with the Opera house and beautiful harbour

but boy is it an easy city to live in

with plenty to see and do.

Voted the friendliest and classiest place on earth

in the 2014 Conde Nast Traveler readers awards

They say 
'When you don't have a harbour 
you need to rely on personality!'

My Melbourne has plenty of personality.
Come visit and see!

Linking with Blue Monday
Thank you Sally!

Linking with Alphabe Thursday
Thanks to Jenny Matlock
M is for My Melbourne