Melbourne (then off to Shep) – Well here we are in Shepparton and thanks to Val and Mr H we have internet access HUZZAAHH!! The only real problem is we weren’t writing too much along the way, so this may be a little higgledy pigledy.
Evanescence…
Well what can we say, especially for our chum Thumbthug and Mom, we’re linking to a a couple of clips of Amy Lee singing her heart out. We did film some of the concert, but you’re not allowed to upload them on youtube (odd given the sheer amount on there, but we’re not going to chance it).
Evanescence – The concert was in the Vodaphone Arena in Melbourne and it was great. They were only on for an hour and 15 mins, which was the only sucky bit. As usual the crowd there was very diverse, ranging from the very young to the older person, always cool when you go to Evanescence and see everyone from child to granny loving it.
Leaving Melbourne…
We set off Sunday morning for Ballarat. We were meant to go to Ballarat on Friday, but Liz put us off the idea as she said it would take 4 hours to get there. We decided to go there on the way to Shepparton, but after speaking to Val we realised two very important factors: 1. You really needed a full day there to get the most out of Soveriegn Hill (link HERE for those interested) and 2. Mr H had made home made pavlova for us… well there was really no choice, we headed off the highway at the next available opportunity, rejigged the sat-nav and set off towards Shep. One can’t help but feel that we just weren’t meant to go panning for gold this trip, but as we always say ‘everything happens for a reason’.
Shep…
Ahh yes, place of Angela’s teens. We headed in and straight through town to Angela’s old house (pic of it in photos) and my didn’t the entire area look different!! What was once a lovely tranquil new street, now looked a little scary shall we say. To top it off the International Village, which was almost opposite the house street is gone and in its place is something that can only be described as a big mess! For those not in the know (ok that being most of you) the International Village was a beautiful village that was lush, green and housed many different themed buildings from around the world (ie the Aboriginal keeping place, the Dutch windmill, Japanese zen garden and house etc etc). You could go into each of these places, learn about that country / people and also sample foods and other goods. You could also have BBQ’s in the grounds which were fairly vast and the waterways that ran through it could be used for canoeing and things or fun days for associations like the scouting movement. Now it’s going to be a housing development. Nice.
After that letdown we drove straight to Vals house WOOT! It was GREAT to see Val and Mr H again, some things change over such a long period of time and some things remain true.. they’re the latter. Ahhhh and relax, we were made extremely welcome and instantly felt relaxed and happy. We can’t really explain the joy of watching Mr H play golf on the Wii, or Val kicking butt at the tennis, but it was brilliant. Add to this, conversation with great value and mucking around on the computers… brill. Today Val took us into town to see how much it had changed and grown. It’s weird, some of it as is new to Angela as it is to me. Some things haven’t changed though. You can check out the town HERE if you really want to. This afternoon we’re off to meet Ged (another of Angela’s old friends) for lunch.