13 September – 19 October 2017
Geelong West, Melbourne
By Gerry
On arrival into Geelong West around 6pm, we were greeted by Ziggy (our new housemate) along with his owners Roz and Colin, they had warned us that Ziggy gives a pretty good barking session when the doorbell rings so we were prepared. We fell in love with her as soon as the door opened as her tail was wagging so fast her whole backside was moving from side to side. Oh, by the way, Colin and Roz were lovely as well.
We had a good chat further getting to know each other as we had Skyped and emailed previously to our meeting. They were extremely organised for us as they had 3 or so pages of information in regards to Ziggy, the house, local restaurants and other places of interests. That night we went for dinner at their local Italian restaurant this was about 40 metres away and enjoyed a beautiful meal together with a fine bottle of Pinot Noir.
The next morning I dropped Colin and Roz at the bus depot in Geelong as they headed off on their trip to the U.S. and Canada. Colin was also attending a conference in San Diego at the end of their trip.
Well, the next step was to get to know Ziggy and settle in. Ziggy was real easy as she was so friendly and loving from the first moment. Settling in was just as easy as the house had all the mod cons and a spa pool to die for.
Ziggy with us on the back deck.
Ziggy thought that she was a lap dog. The first week we settled in was relatively easily as the maximum distance to the shops, supermarkets, restaurants, etc. was 200 metres. We also started doing some serious work on the website redevelopment. It was the first time both of us could sit down together without interruptions and make some serious inroads into what we had been dreaming of.
At the start of week 2 we got a predicted warm day which was to get up to 27C. That’s a beach day. Off we drove down to Torquay to see the Great Southern Ocean. It wasn’t quite the same temperature as Geelong was expecting but we still managed a yoga class on the beach, a bit of a sun bake, walk along the beach and a dip of the toes into the water.
We had a coffee and a vegan lunch in town that was great. I have to concur with what most people say about Melbourne and surrounding area “they make great coffee!”
Heading to Apollo Bay on the Great Ocean Road
The following Friday was a public holiday for the AFL grand final. I started to build up the event with Jacky about how exciting it was going to be and we planned to go to a local pub and take in the vibe. The streets of West Geelong were deserted by 1.00pm. Maybe it was because Geelong had been knocked out the week before but it turned out to be a bit of a fizzer. All the talk during the week was about Geelong getting Gary Ablett back from the Gold Coast. Melbourne Storm was playing in the NRL grand final and all you could find in the papers was a quarter page story while the rest was AFL. It’s a great game, I wish I had played at some point in my life (actually I told Jacky that I was going to try it with some veterans team, more like a pipe dream!).
The big event for us was getting to experience the change over to Daylight Savings Time. Ahh, light evenings!
We made up for it the next week when we headed off to the 12 Apostles as neither of us had ever been there before.
The energy and the scenery here were at a level that words could not do justice to. Where we first stopped in Lorne it was a nice day but a cool 15C. By the time we had driven across the peninsula to the Apostles the temperature had risen to 24C.
Jacky has just ascended the 150 metres of steps straight up from the ocean. Once we got down there we were amazed at the energy with the sounds of enormous waves crashing onto a yellow sand beach, 3 or 4 helicopters hovering around, plus all the tourists filing down the steps. We absorbed the atmosphere, then we decided to do the yoga class about 50 metres away from the crowd. It was pretty soft sand and sloping to the ocean, but we had to do it. At the end of class we did a pan around at the magnificence of it all and then reluctantly headed back up the steps and over to the car park which is about a 1.5km walk.
Yes, this is the same day, in fact it is in the same hour as we enjoyed our Yoga in the sand in blazing sunshine and blue skies. We turned around and this is looking South. The storm clouds gathering to add an eerie feel to the Apostles.(Jacky)
