Disaster Strikes

I got up this morning and began my weekly ritual of charging the ipod and camera when I realized that my camera charger was nowhere to be found. After tearing apart my bedroom and backpack, I have come to the conclusion that I left the dang device in the mountains. This is not looking good.

In an effort to retain normalcy after this disaster, Stephen and I headed out to Chapel Street to see what all the hubbub was about. Chapel Street is always one of the things that people tick off as they go through the list of things to see in Melbourne. It boasts lots of shops and restaurants and little parking, the perfect place to fling your tourists!

It was actually pretty packed for a cloudy Saturday morning and we zeroed in on our first "shop", the Prahran Market. Stephen is appalled at the lack of good cheese in this city and we scoped out at least one dealer of cheeses other than "Tasty". (Tasty cheese is actually something like cheddar. It's white and comes in tasty and extra tasty (i.e. sharp) varieties. It is almost the only cheese you can purchase in the grocery store.) Pleased that his French wife will be able to provide for the family cheese habit, we returned to the street to find him some jeans. This effort was quickly abandoned when he found that all jeans cost over twice what they do in France (even the weird off-brands), and the justification for the family trip back to Europe every year was born. (For clothes buying, you see. Just in case that wasn't clear.)

Now that we had exhausted our list of shopping goals, Stephen, in typical male fashion, became bored with window shopping and we ducked into Bridie O'Reilly's, an Irish Pub (betcha couldn't of guessed that!) so he could test the myth that Guinness does not travel well. (And could you get any further from Ireland? I think not.)Turns out that they brew the Guinness here in Australia and they have "chemically altered the water to be the same as that in Ireland." Supposedly the only difference in taste should be the ambiance of the pub. Stephen's official opinion: crap. Too watery. There you go, straight from the Scot's mouth.

After our lunches and beer (I had fish and chips and Stephen had bangers and mash- how Irish can you get?), we hit the afternoon "wall". Time for naps and regrouping, and here I am, about to start my online quest for a new camera charger. Wish me luck.