Adventures with John 2025_1

John Mahoney arrived on Monday 27 Jan  2025  for his third visit to Australia. His first two days included Jerry meeting him at the airport in Sydney for the train trip to Newcastle, landing at 47 King St Stockton in the early afternoon, dinner at our place with Anna, Kate and granddaughter Bénédicte (with a fab Shiraz from Anna and a  beautiful Pavlova made by Benne), surviving a blistering hot Monday by laying low, sharing a pub dinner  with Josh’s family at the Gates Hotel and then experiencing a full a southerly buster as only Australia can deliver.  A southerly buster  is when it is so hot you think it just cannot get any hotter and then a storm arrives with wind and rain and often lightening and the temperature drops in minutes. This was a challenging beginning but the fun was only just starting. 

We have planned two “road trips” during John's stay and the first was flying to Melbourne on Wednesday.   We DID get to Melbourne on the designated day. However, there were several curve balls and hurdles. Here is a snapshot of the many challenges we encountered and survived just getting to Melbourne. 

All of us were out walking by 6am, with  Jerry and John aspiring to walk to Stockton Bridge. They got within sight of their destination but phones and watches dictated the destination was a bridge too far. Once back at 47 King st, John’s hearing aids decided to play Hearing-aids Hide and Seek.  His phone app indicated that they were ‘near” but although we turned all of  John’s belongings upside down and inside out, they could not be found. Stress levels were climbing when Jerry suggested we stop and pack for departure and then resume the search. At this juncture Jx2 decided to take the bed apart. The hearing aids were found between the sheets at the bottom of the bed. The question of how they got there  was left for another day.

Transport from Airport to Melbourne hotel involved  include the very convenient SkyBus and the Tram system in the Melbourne CBD. All trams and trains use a loadable travel card called MYKI. We found a Myki Card machine but we were painfully slow in getting it to work and other customers were soon waiting behind us. John said it was remarkable to see that people remained patient and courteous. 

For SkyBus I had purchased return tickets on my phone at Newcastle airport and although I could see the payment on my credit card, the tickets had not shown up in my email. Luckily we encountered the SkyBus Angel. She was determined to help us find our tickets and while we had to watch two buses come and go,  find them we did. During all of that John realised he had only one of his two bags and rushed back to look for it. There it was sitting quietly in front of the Myki machine. Once in Melbourne the Bourke Street Tram took us within a short walk to our two bedroom apt on Exhibition St, arriving just short of 5.30. 

Coda Heaven/Our dinner reservation was for 6.30 at Coda on Flinders Lane, an easy walk from our hotel. This is where Melbourne Day One delivers  our reward for surviving all of the days challenges. I won't spend too much time on the restaurant creds, just to say this restaurant has provided wonderful food experiences for many of us, including some visiting friends, over the last 10 years.

There were 2 menus, their current one and a special short menu newly introduced on this very day for Lunar New Year. My dinner buddies did not immediately bond with either menu so I offered to be the menu selector for the night and they said yes. 

I used the Lunar menu for all our choices, see stars on the menu photo. We had two waiters, both wonderful, welcoming and attentive. Number 2 was Roberto from Piemonte, Italy, he has been here 15 years. It was great to watch J+J be charmed as each dish arrived. Flavours were just wonderful. Lots of laughs, especially over all the challenges the day had delivered. We all agreed that our SkyBus Angel was the star of the day.