Melbourne ... at last!

Ah yes - it's been a long time coming this post! I actually did make it home to Melbourne in February for a visit and I had a lovely time catching up with everyone. It was brilliant to see Dom, and Matt and Caro, who managed to come home from Japan and Singapore too - back in the old house at Burke Road which managed to keep us all contained.

I spent most of my time just mooching with the boys, and catching up with other family members, all the kidlets are growing up so fast! I arrived just in time to see Lizby before the arrival of baby Sophie, a little sister for Chloe (although it was a bit of a shock because Liz and Miles had been told to expect bubba Jock)! Lovely to be back for that event.

And then of course there were the rounds to do. Yes, I dropped by to see Sammy and Ian at the wine bar, and pick up a bottle of the Bress Rosé whilst enjoying a new drop and catching up on everyone's news. And yes, I made a couple of visits to Bar Louriñha, the only downside to that was that Matt and Jo were busy in Spain gathering new ideas at the time - the food and the staff still absolutely fantastic though.

And Steph took me out to a fabulous new place called Gill's Diner in the city - we ate far, far, far too much - but enjoyed every mouthful. And I ate breakfast out as often as possible - and with apologies to Marcus due to an unfortunate incident at the Syama kitchen one Sunday, it may be hard for him to admire the ...


French toast with berries and cinnamon crème fraîche

that I chose at Ici when I had brekky with ...


Nicky!

I also joined Grace at Replete in Hawthorn, and the food was as awesome there as the queue to get in - who would have thought, in Hawthorn! We ate everything so quickly we forgot to take pictures - hopeless! I think I did well on that front because I'd had a preview with Monica a couple of days earlier for lunch, when I actually chose breakfast food again - their corn fritters are NOT to be missed!

And one of the things I had been really, really looking forward to doing was visiting Aireys again, and I couldn't have asked for better weather - just look at this!


Steppy beach and the lighthouse

I tried my hand again in my favourite kitchen in the world, and Sharon and Andrew joined me and we all enjoyed the results of my rather experimental ...


Fig tart

... with figs fresh off their tree in Geelong - perfect! Unfortunately, although it tasted fantastic, it turned out rather looking like a pizza, oh well.

And then for a night of completely insane, total indulgence, and with the perfect excuse of having Monica's 40th birthday to celebrate, I took her to Ezard and we went full tilt! We had the 8 course vegetarian degustation menu, which was truly sublime - I know that I made inappropriate noises while dining! The chefs took us to that happy place ... and no total indulgence would ever be complete without the ...


Ezard dessert platter

We did it!! The staff were impressed with us.

And of course something very exciting has happened, that's right Terri and Chris are having a baby too! It was a real highlight hearing that news and seeing them relaxed and entertaining like professionals in their lovely new home - how terrific to have all the girls together again - there's nothing else quite like catching up with the people who have known you for so long and through so many adventures!


The girls! (and Chris, and kids!)

A lesson in air travel

Before I launch into the wondrous musings of my journey back home, and given that you all know about my privations at Syama, and what I like to do best on holiday ...

... here is a demonstration of how crushing the 60 hours of travel time between Mali and Melbourne can be.


Fantasy


Reality

Take heed.

Hobart holiday snaps

Don't you hate it when the IT man takes down the internet server on your scheduled blogging night? So sorry for the delay in proceedings with this post.

In actual fact, I started my homecoming experience with a trip down to Tassie for Carrrmen's wedding - it's just so lovely down there and I did feel a special little zing as I wandered down to Salamanca Place on market day - think it may have been my first trip back since 2001, far too long in between.


Market Day

The wedding was delightful, and Carmen and Marcus were obviously very happy and relaxed on the day, everything went off without a hitch. Although I must say that the dancefloor was -as usual- over-populated by women, whilst elbow-space at the bar was over-populated by men. I tried to do my bit, but come on you Aussie boys - lift your game already! I even managed to con Carmen's brother into being a stand-in date (well, at least for the photo) ...


My wedding date

... and the three girls from the College (of Surgeons) were reunited again.


General Surgery and the SuperUser

I spent the rest of my time in Hobart catching up with as many people as I could, Stuie and Kylie and Suzanne and I managed a night out at Marque IV, and we decided the tonka bean crème brulée had to be sampled ... especially since we spent most of the '90s eating crème brulées at various Hobart establishments (thankyou, thankyou, thankyou Syrup!).


Tonka bean brulée - get this Doyley!

I did an impromptu departmental drop in - sat in the tearoom for an hour or so catching up on the gossip. And happily I ran into Dr Duffett whose news I haven't heard for years - once I caught up with the important stuff (kids, Catherine, the life of an academic geophysicist), he did tell me the most important thing of all - the Kia Sportage is still going strong although all those years in the Territory have faded it's once lustrous shiny black - who'd have thought!?! And Nilar - freshly arrived back in the department, hit me up for Paris tips and shoe stories - yep, kindred spirits she and I.

I only had a short time unfortunately, and many of the people I would have liked to have said hello to were off teaching field trips or resting up before the onslaught of students - but I did see a few familiar faces at least, and that was very cool indeed!

I had some time to play tourist again, so I drove up the mountain with Clare and Bella, it's so stunning it's hard to imagine why you'd want to be anywhere else really.


Mount Wellington summit rocks

And of course, I did my obligatoire pilgrimage to my favourite bakery ...


Jackman and McRoss

... it's nice that some things don't change - isn't it!

MIA Report : Ali found in southern Mali

Hello my friends ...

So sorry to have been all quiet on the blog front - this is just a lightning update to assure you that I am still alive, and back in Mali for another season of Syama 90210.

I arrived back on Saturday after a fabulous, although exhausting, trip home to Australia - I even managed a quick Aireys sojourn!

My first week back onsite has been full-on - Saturday night, following our 7-hr drive back to site, Marcus arranged for a party in Fourou to help us shake out our spines again. After a terrible night's sleep (I dreamt my tonsils went to war with each other and started a punch on) I woke up on Sunday morning with a full blown - and I might add - uninspiring cold (courtesy of Air France). And in 40+ degree heat we all know how much fun that is! Everyone else has been dropping like flies too - we've been two men down most of the week, with bugs requiring heavy duty care from la clinique - so I've been a bit of a meals-on-wheels chick as well.

I also discovered that I managed to leave my download cable behind at Burke Road, so I've been searching for an SD card reader for the last few days in order to share some holiday snaps with you. Fortunately Chris has been able to oblige me today ... so gear up ... I plan to commence my Sunday Syama updates again from this week forward - Melbourne round-up will be hitting the pages first up.

Yours in tissues, Ali de Mali