{"id":1359,"date":"2017-04-09T13:14:38","date_gmt":"2017-04-09T03:14:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/?p=1359"},"modified":"2017-04-09T13:14:38","modified_gmt":"2017-04-09T03:14:38","slug":"long-time-no-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/?p=1359","title":{"rendered":"Long time, no blog"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jeez &#8211; we are slacking here down under. Over 2 months since we&#8217;ve posted anything. We haven&#8217;t really done anything that on its own would be considered &#8220;blog worthy&#8221;, but we have compiled quite a few smaller adventures that when combined reach that lofty threshold.<\/p>\n<p>So, here&#8217;s what we&#8217;ve been up to since our road trip to South Australia.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Beach Day<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We whinge quite a bit about the &#8220;summer&#8221; weather here in Melbourne.\u00a0 But finally we came across a day (February 4th to be specific) where the Melbourne weather was suitable for a trip to the beach.\u00a0 So, we packed up the Esky, strapped our backpack chairs on and headed to the train station.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1362\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1362\" style=\"width: 348px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/train.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1362\" src=\"http:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/train-687x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"348\" height=\"519\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/train-687x1024.jpg 687w, https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/train-201x300.jpg 201w, https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/train-768x1146.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/train.jpg 1544w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 348px) 100vw, 348px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1362\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Public transport to the beach!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It was easy to find a spot on the beach and just relax.\u00a0 Getting in the water was even enjoyable. We even observed someone using a wooden spoon to put suntan lotion on their own back, so we&#8217;ve got that going for us, which is nice.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/beach.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-1363\" src=\"http:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/beach-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"604\" height=\"340\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/beach-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/beach-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/beach-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 604px) 100vw, 604px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>On our way back home we decided to stop and see the famed &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.brightonbathingbox.org.au\/\">Brighton Beach Boxes<\/a>&#8221; &#8211; that people pay upwards of $300K for.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/boxes.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-1364\" src=\"http:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/boxes-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"604\" height=\"340\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/boxes-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/boxes-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/boxes-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 604px) 100vw, 604px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>They are neat to look at, and probably wonderful to have, but probably not worth that amount of money on a beach that has (in my humble opinion) maybe 10-15 good beach days a year.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>International T20 Cricket @ the MCG<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>I think we&#8217;ve mentioned before that the T20 version of cricket is our favorite &#8211; since it fits into our 3 hour attention spans.\u00a0 The other versions are &#8220;one day&#8221; which lasts about 8 hours and &#8220;test cricket&#8221; which played over 5 days.\u00a0 No thanks!\u00a0 We&#8217;ve been to a few KFC Big Bash League (what a name!) T20 games, but never to a proper international match.\u00a0 So, when the Aussie international T20 team was going to play against Sri Lanka in Melbourne we wrangled up some mates and headed down to the &#8216;G.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/cricket.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1366\" src=\"http:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/cricket.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/cricket.jpg 960w, https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/cricket-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/cricket-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Ultimately the Australian team <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cricket.com.au\/news\/match-report\/australia-sri-lanka-t20-series-twenty20-video-highlights-live-coverage-mcg\/2017-02-17\">lost<\/a> on the last ball, which was sad, but very exciting to watch.\u00a0 Of course, this being Melbourne, just a short time after our beach day it was practically a winter day once the sun went down and the wind tunnel effect of the &#8216;G picked up.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>White Night<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>An annual event in Melbourne is <a href=\"https:\/\/whitenightmelbourne.com.au\/\">White Night<\/a>.\u00a0 They light up all sorts of buildings with art and it is pretty neat.\u00a0 Note we are wearing fleeces in the summer. It runs from sunset to sunrise, but being a couple of oldsters we made it out and back home before midnight.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/whitenight2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1369\" src=\"http:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/whitenight2-576x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"468\" height=\"832\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/whitenight2-576x1024.jpg 576w, https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/whitenight2-169x300.jpg 169w, https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/whitenight2-768x1365.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/whitenight2.jpg 1404w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/whitenight1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-1370\" src=\"http:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/whitenight1-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"604\" height=\"340\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/whitenight1-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/whitenight1-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/whitenight1-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 604px) 100vw, 604px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Yarra Valley Beer Tour<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>For my birthday, friends of mine gave me a voucher for a beer tour.\u00a0 Did you know we like beer?!\u00a0 We met a small bus near the main Melbourne train station at 10am and headed about an hour to the northeast of Melbourne to the Yarra Valley.\u00a0 Us and 9 new friends headed to various breweries and cideries to try all sorts of beers for the next 6 hours.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Ashlee&#8217;s 40th<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Our friend Ashlee celebrated her 40th birthday in style by throwing an 80s themed birthday bash at a bar.\u00a0 We&#8217;ve mentioned before how Aussies take their dress up parties seriously.\u00a0 This was no exception.\u00a0\u00a0 It was a blast and I had an excuse to wear my fluoro.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/fluoro.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-1368\" src=\"http:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/fluoro-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"604\" height=\"805\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/fluoro-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/fluoro-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/fluoro.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 604px) 100vw, 604px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Formula 1 Grand Prix<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Every year, the Formula One season kicks off with a race in Melbourne.\u00a0 We&#8217;ve never been to any sort of car race before and this one was a 15 minute walk from our house, so we went!\u00a0 The cars are fast and loud.\u00a0 We saw the F1 cars do practice laps and the V8 Supercars in a race.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1373\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1373\" style=\"width: 604px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/f1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1373\" src=\"http:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/f1-1024x435.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"604\" height=\"257\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/f1-1024x435.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/f1-300x127.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/f1-768x326.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 604px) 100vw, 604px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1373\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">F1 Car<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1374\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1374\" style=\"width: 604px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/supercar.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1374\" src=\"http:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/supercar-1024x558.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"604\" height=\"329\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/supercar-1024x558.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/supercar-300x163.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/supercar-768x418.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/supercar.jpg 1933w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 604px) 100vw, 604px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1374\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">V8 Supercar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>That should about catch you up what we&#8217;ve been up to for the last few months.\u00a0 I promise the next few months will be much more rewarding for blog lovers.\u00a0 Our friend Jen is popping in for a visit so we&#8217;re meeting her on arrival in Sydney (in less than a week!) before she makes her way to Melbourne (via Cairns) just as I&#8217;m leaving to go to the US to visit family and play golf. Stay tuned!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jeez &#8211; we are slacking here down under. Over 2 months since we&#8217;ve posted anything. We haven&#8217;t really done anything that on its own would be considered &#8220;blog worthy&#8221;, but we have compiled quite a few smaller adventures that when combined reach that lofty threshold. So, here&#8217;s what we&#8217;ve been up to since our road &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/?p=1359\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Long time, no blog<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1359"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1377,"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359\/revisions\/1377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.handelblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}