Melbourne

They do say that Melbourne has its own micro climate. And so it proves. Its rained, blown a gale and been very hot all in the space of 3 days.

Melbourne was excellent. Tennis on Monday was really really good. I am always in awe watching top class athletes playing individual sports. I managed to see Anna Ivanovic, Venus Williams and Roger Federer on the main court - Rod Laver Arena. Amazing to see how hard they hit the ball, and in Federers case , how much time he seems to have to hit the ball. I also managed to wander around some of the outside courts to watch a variety of doubles and 'legends' games - people like Wilander, Villas, Jaime Murray. Even watching the warm ups is impressive. And female tennis players legs are surely the best in the world - long, lithe and tanned. Wonderful. I could and did watch them for hours... But as you say the company wasn't as good this time, the end result not the same so it has to rank below Wimbledon! You would have enjoyed it.

Tuesday and Wednesday I did the Melbourne tourist thing. Melbourne is a big city but had its heyday in the late 19th century. It was the main British colonial town for both the goldrush ( a valuable commodity) and the Victorian sheep farmers (a very valuable commodity in the 19th century). So it has a number of magnificent Victorian buildings all contained in 'its marvellous mile (which is 2 miles long?'. However, a note of caution - if you are thinking of coming to Melbourne just to see these buildings, don't bother coming all this way, many English cities have better ones and many more of them!

I visted the imigration museum - and have had enough of them now having been in my 4th. They all tell the same story, which is not surprising I suppose. Did you know that of the 6 billion people living on the planet today 192 million of them live in a country NOT of their birth. When I read this I didn't know what to think. More than I thought? less? No idea?

Also visited the Melbourne Exhibition building for the 'great exhibition of 1880'. This was spectacular. It was along the lines of Crystal Palace (except its still standing). It was huge and very expensive - but what impressed me more was this fact. Melbourne was first settled in 1835 by a Tasmanian farmer who started sheep farming. Less than 50 years later they had built an enormous city and had the power to hold an international festival with exhibits from the whole world - it was the event. Its like building a city from sctratch in Africa starting now and having the Olympics there in 40 years.

And you know what makes me even prouder. It was the British that did it. We were the driving force for the development of this whole continent and to visit the museums and see the cities really brings home the ewnormous power that Great Britain had in the 19th century.

Final place of note I visited was the MCG. They have conducted tours for 2 hours. It really is the most impressive sports stadia I have ever visited. It holds 102,000 people mainly to watch cricket (but also Aussie Rules). It is a 3 tiered ground all the way around which has just finished being built. The members area, although new, is set out in an old victorian style with loads of plush dark woods, and memorabilia going back to 1850. And the cricket museum? Well I wish Dunc had been there - he would have been much more impressed than me - and I thought it was excellent. Do you know the MCC (thats the Meblourne Cricket Club) had 56000 members and 180,000 on the waiting list. If I lived here I would be on that list. It is fantastic. Dunc you would have loved it!

Right. Its Thursday morning and I'm now off to Philip Island. Which before I came I knew for its GP circuit but its also famous for Koalas and Penguids (and its quiet too)

see you all later. Goodness knows what Liverpoool are doing at the moment. They seem to be stumbling into a brick wall.