31st March 2011
Barry has had his operation and since had stitches and dressings removed and is feeling fine but still has to rest for a couple more weeks. He actually drove the car today but didn’t wander around the shops, and didn’t do any harm, however we will not be doing cruising around the highlights and delights of Melbourne. Once Barry is fully fit we will be heading for Warburton in order to visit the Healsville area, which means there will be a shortage of information for a while. Meanwhile Barry has fitted a tilt bracket to the outside of the van to mount a second TV for watching whilst in the annex in warmer temperatures. This was done in short spells so he is on his feet for short spells only.
3rd April 2011
Garon and Sue brought a picnic lunch round to the caravan park and spent a very pleasant afternoon with us which may be the last time we see them for some time as Garon is heading off on another business trip to America and Sue will be heading for Sydney, and we may have moved on before they return, subject to Barry’s recovery. Whilst they were here with us Garon helped Barry change one of the gas struts on the caravan boot lid using a silastic cartridge gun to compress it. The gun broke trying to change the second one but Barry managed it with a new different type of clamp the next day.
5th April 2011
Barry, like the weather, is much improved now, and drove Merry to Mentone railway station where she caught the train into Melbourne to visit Parliament house which turned out to be slightly disappointing as they only showed her the chambers and the library and not the rest of the building, so the visit didn’t last very long. After lunch she moved on to Fitzroy Gardens and Cook’s cottage which was transported many years ago from UK in pieces and rebuilt. Barry was phoned as her train passed Caulfield which gave him time to drive to Mentone station to collect her.
11th April 2011
Barry’s rest period of three weeks is nearly over so he has started taking gentle short walks to get mobile gradually and now does some of the easy household chores to break his current boring lifestyle. So far he has listened to over 700 tunes via his iPod.
12th April 2011
In the night Melbourne and surrounds received 47mm of rain and another 10mm the next day which combined equalled their average rainfall for April and caused some flooding of railway stations and roads, including our local shopping area of Dingley Village.
In the afternoon we walked with Foxy to the local shops and back which amounted to a half hour walk which is further than he Barry has walked previously with no problems. On the way we discovered a chestnut tree on the nature strip with nuts lying all around it, so helped the local council clear some of the mess up.
13th April 2011
We took a longer walk around the perimeter fence of the local golf club which provided a three quarter hour walk. On the way we spotted a turn off that appeared to lead to a park which might be explored soon if the weather allows.
14th April 2011
The weather wasn’t too good but we did manage a walk to the local shops which allowed the collection of some more chestnuts.
15th April 2011
We took the golf course walk with the inclusion of checking out the park, which turned out to be woodlands rather than a park, but added about 10 minutes to the walk.
17th April 2011
The weather forecast promised fine sunny weather so despite the dubious looking start to the day we drove 130kms for a look at Ballarat, which turned out to warrant a more in-depth look than we could manage in one day.
We walk most of the length of the main street as it had numerous statues on the wide median strip that gave some insight to the history and war effort attributed to the city. 
We then headed out to Wendouree Lake where we parked and had lunch on the pubs alfresco strip where Foxy could enjoy the meal with us, and then drove round to the other side of the lake to the points of interest.
This included a tram museum, botanical gardens with the Prime minister walk which has busts of all of our previous PMs (interestingly one of them only had a reign of terror for about 2 weeks. Pity it didn’t apply to the present ginger dictator.).
An indoor Begonia display as a result of a recent competition, the Australian ex-prisoner of war memorial listing all Aussies ex-prisoner of war personnel and the Olympic Games rowing section of the lake. 
This was all included in the afternoon walk in very pleasant surrounds with plenty of shade for a day such this one that lived up to the forecast. After our mandatory cuppa in the carpark we headed back home using the tunnel to avoid the city rather than driving through it, as on the outward trip.
