To Melbourne and Back... Part 3...continued

This is my new bag - I was very excited that everyone liked it because I ummmed and aaahhhed a few times over it... and I totally did a great job talking the price down!

My last but best buy for the day was this coat - its great I love it!

I found this little 'hair dresser set' for Leilani in Toys R us, she thinks it's great and it was half price!

A pair of jeans for Leilani because I had to take her last pair back because they were too big and she has none, but doesn't really like wearing them anyway so this could have been a waste of money... turns out she loves them and thinks the special red spotty belt is very cool!

And that's me done! I am pretty happy with myself too as you can see... oh and don't worry that wasn't everything I purchased just everything I had photos of! Sorry!

mmm... I think Angela went next!

Oh and here is the photo Lisa told us we had to take when we got home of all our stuff!! 

To Melbourne and Back... Part 3...continued

This is Ange, sporting her very cool and new hat! I love it Ange. Oh and that's a new top she has on too!

And here we have new boots to go with the new hat! You look VERY happy Ange. And not to forget the new BAG!

A new cardi or two... swing this way... swing that way... gee I look good she's thinking!

And that might just about be it... 

Oh no wait... another BAG! I like this one Ange and am very jealous!

TaDa! Ange with her pile of goodies! Yes that's right there is lot more there then I just showed you, but again, we would be here all night if I had photos of everything!

Next up....Melinda!

To Melbourne and Back... Part 3...continued

We were all very impressed with Lin, she just about got something for everyone back home! (unlike me...sorry about that family!) This is a cute little suit for Brady!

An awesome buy for Linnie - a very cool Jumper. Lisa is eyeing it off and checking the size to see if it will fit her I think!

While Lin is busy pulling stuff out of her many bags, Lisa gives us a smile!

There it is! You can't go home without a little suit that says "When I grow up I want to be just like my Dad" So cute... except that Brady's Dad is DEAN!

A few more of those 'great buy' tops and we're done! Oh you can see on the side of the couch there all the gifts for her little nieces and nephews!

And last but certainly not least.... our Co-trip organiser JACLYN!

To Melbourne and Back... Part 3...continued

We will start with a pair of boots will we!? These were a very good buy from the DFO! Jaclyn is very proud of these ones!

A very fashionable Cardi...

and a vest... nice modeling there Jac!

This is my favourite picture.... if you click on it and enlarge it (sorry Jac) you will see her awesome face expression! I'm not sure what she is pulling out of that bag but it doesn't look good... maybe she just saw her credit card balance!!!! lol

The new wallet! Cause she 'really' needed one!

And a jumper for Will. Very nice buy again!

WHAT... you stopped for Burger Rings?? I don't believe it! 

Jac sitting amongst all her goodies!

And there you have it... sadly show and tell is over! It was MUCH more exciting for us obviously because we were there and got to see EVERYTHING! But as you can see from all the empty bags and things laying around... YOU didn't even see half of it!!

To Melbourne and Back... Part 2

So we called for another Maxi Taxi to take us from the DFO to our hotel 'Quest on Bourke' which all seemed to be understood quite well by our taxi driver, however things started going bad when I spotted him with the map out! I did a few hand signals back to the others to let them know that he had the map out and that we might be lost! Jaclyn was on to it though, she had him pull over in no time and we were out of there! So Jaclyn thinks she saved the day, but really I think it was me spelling out MAP and LOST with my fingers that got us out of trouble - but I'll just let Jac think that she was the hero!!! My trusty Melbourne Map then came out and we were on our way. I really wanted to get IN the map at this point but the others wouldn't let me, so Jaclyn just did all the work here and guided us to our deluxe apartment at the Quest on Bourke. Check in here is a whole new story. What a crack up! Apparently when checking in these days all that needs to be said from the front office chick is: "Name?" and  "Credit Card" and oh that's right, that's it! No hello how are you or your room number is 507 and you are on level 5, no information about breakfast or dinner, no nothing. But anyway we got over that until we got in the lift to find that it wouldn't go anywhere until our friendly front office chick 'Angela' magically appears pressing a few buttons and we are on our way! Very strange experience in deed - but hey if it was all normal and nice I wouldn't have anything to tell you! Even though the customer service here was pretty poor we couldn't really complain about our room, it was a great location and had plenty of space for the 5 of us, not to mention the 2 bathrooms! But we were out of there in no time - off to spend the rest of our money! So we casually headed down the streets of Melbourne to find our train to take us to our bus which would then take us to Chadstone Shopping Centre.  

I really don't know what was so funny - all I did was scoot around a few tourists, climbed a tree and hung upside down so I could get this shot of my little friends here. Why they had to laugh I'll never know!

I felt quite excited to be amongst the big protest that was taking place right out side Flinders Street Station. I let out a few chants on cue and felt right at home...

Ange on the other hand didn't like it at all, I found out that she doesn't actually like people! She likes to have her space and this many people all together totally freaked her out. I think I was a good comfort to her though - I explained that I knew all sorts of Karate, and TaeKwondo and other oriental WORDS!!!! So Ange felt a little saver on the train - good luck in the States Ange!

After arriving at Chadstone Shopping Centre - The Fashion Capital, we split up again - every man for himself - and hit the shops alone! And the next time we saw each other we knew it could be very bad!! I couldn't get any photos of us shopping because 

a. You're not aloud to take photos in the shops

b. I would just look like and idiot trying to take a photo of myself shopping and 

c. There was no time to waste on that, this is serious shopping time! (We didn't even stop to eat!) 

At 5.30pm we gathered again to catch our rides back to the hotel. And yes there were quite a few more bags this time! So that's part 2 over, I'll now go and start on part 3... 'Show and Tell' Now this is what you have all been waiting for! But I have lots of photos for that so it may take me a while!  

To Melbourne and Back... Part 1

I knew this was going to be a great trip as soon as I got in the car at 6.30am when Angela, Jaclyn, Lisa and Melinda picked me up. For those of you who haven't caught on yet - Last Wednesday we took off to Melbourne for the night leaving everything behind - I mean everything - our kids, husbands, mothers, worries, clothes, hair spray - for some even deodorant! Well the laughter started at 6.31am when I sat in the car and they all asked where my hand bag was (laughing at me of course!) - I explained that I had to put something in my flam'in suitcase as I wasn't aloud to take anything else (for more information see Jaclyns Blog). Well from that moment on it was all laughs and lots of fun! Here we are boarding the plane - for all those who may have forgotten what that looks like!

And here we are sitting on our Jet Star Flight all looking pretty happy because we still have money in the bank at this stage! Sorry about the blurriness!



Yes, these are our bags at Melbourne airport - Looking quite empty! (well just pretend you can tell that they are empty cause believe me - they are!)

And now, this is exactly 3 hours later - who can spot the full bag that wasn't with us before? At this point, yes I know it looks like we are sitting around waiting for our Maxi Taxi but we are actually checking our wallets to see if we have already blown the budget our husbands set for us! Oh and on another note... what was spent on the trip stays on the trip... so don't ask us!!!! You may be able to work it out though - when you see 'show and tell' that it was A LOT!

So as you can see our first stop was the DFO - which it appeared the taxi driver wasn't too happy about - I tell you, what is some peoples problem! You call a cab they ask "where to?" to which you reply with "The Essendon DFO please" and they say in a grumpy old voice "Oh, is that all?" At this point I felt like saying, "No mate, just joking, we really want to go to Mt Isa... ya drop kick!" But anyway, of course I didn't say any of that but instead smiled and looked out the window! And we got there safely so that's all that matters! So the DFO was great - well, maybe not as good as previous years we were told but I still got some pretty good bargains. My best being a $45.00 top from Espirit for just $4.95 - that's right Mickey $4.95!!! What a beauty!! I was also quite excited when I saw this shop at the DFO - I was a little worried about leaving my blog behind for 2 days, but when I saw that Joe was here doing some Blogging, I felt so much better! Thanks Joe! Oh I forgot to ask Joe what else he does other then Blog!

Stay tuned for 'To Melbourne and Back... Part 2" It should be a beauty! Well, only if you want to