2004/02 Prom and the Wedding - Melbourne |
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Some of these paragraphs and pictures are only available via the family's userids and passwords |
John and Edna were kind enough to meet us at the airport, but were surprised at how much stuff we’d brought with us, and we filled their car to capacity. We spent the rest of the day lying around jet-lagged, being fed, and catching up on news. We also had to get re-acquainted with our vehicle, remembering what we had and how it all worked, and where we stored things.
Thursday February 5th
We had a few administrative things to do. We took the train into Melbourne to visit our bank, and find out why some services weren’t working for us. A very helpful young lady ended up changing our account so that’s it cheaper for us, and fixed up some other problems, so we could now use our bank card in their “EFTPOS” capability, much better than using an American credit card and racking up exchange charges.
Melbourne’s a pretty city, with lots of arcades and places to eat, and we wandered 
around Federation Square, down by the Yarra River. This new development is mostly unpopular, as it was very expensive and doesn’t fit well with the surrounding buildings. Perhaps it is Melbourne’s architectural answer to Sydney’s Opera House.
We couldn’t stay long, though, as we also had to get across town to Vic Roads before it closed, so that we could change our LandCruiser’s registration from New South Wales to Victoria. John had tried to do this for us, but it would have meant sending our driving licenses and passports to Australia to do it. We arrived in time with all our identification, but found that we also needed a letter from John testifying that we kept the vehicle at his house and that we stayed there when we were in Australia.
Friday February 6th
So we were back at Vic Roads again next morning with our letter from John and this time it all went through. The people were helpful but the whole process seems overly complicated. We would still have to work with New South Wales Road Traffic Authority to get a refund of our unused time on that registration.
From there we went across to Mozzie’s Cozzies to pick out our costumes for the wedding. Sandie picked out a Lady in Waiting sort of costume. I was horrified at how heavy they all were so I asked for the lightest mediaeval costume they had, expecting to get something tiny, but I ended up with a monk’s costume. At least it was only one layer.
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