December 1st in History
1955: Rosa Parks, a black seamstress during segragation, refuses to give her bus seat to a white man, an event that sparked the Montgomery (Alabama) bus boycott, one of the critical events in the U.S. civil rights fight.
1959: Twelve countries sign a treaty to protect Antarctica, as a preserve for scientific research

December 1st Birthdays
1761: Madame Marie Tussaud, French waxworks modeller
1935: Woody Allen, American actor, director and producer
1945: Bette Midler, American actress and singer

December 1st, 2001: was the day that Claire and I decided we were “going steady.” So, December 1st 2006 marks our 5-year anniversary. Claire has been battling a cold for the last few days, probably caught from the Ride girls (who each stayed home at least one day from school while we were visiting), but managed to muster up the energy to come out and celebrate. We started off our day of celebration by sleeping in until 10:00ish. I then offered to make breakfast in bed, but Claire was determined to get up, have some tea, and get the day started.  Our first celebration was a trip with Joy (our lovely host, and friend from Claremont) up into the Dandendong Mountains to see the William Rickett Sanctuary. This place was a celebration of its own! The WRS (my initials! How about that!) is an incredible outdoor sculpture gallery. Okay, that didn’t do it justice. It is an outdoor sculpture gallery in which William Rickett sculpted figures of the aboriginal people and connected them to rocks and trees, making it look as though they were carved right out of the natural surroundings. Maybe the photos can do a bit more justice than I can. On this excursion Joy told me that I reminded her of my mom because I couldn’t stay awake in the car, she said that my mom (like myself) falls asleep as soon as they get onto the highway - what can I say, it’s nice sleeping in the car!

After WRS, Joy took us to have lunch at Brother Jon’s - a wedding chapel/ bar/ garden/ hilarious knickknack/lunch/restaurant? It looked like it used to be a church, because it still has nice, authentic pews and a small organ in the front area of the building. The back half was the restaurant and bar, all done up with corny Christmas decorations like a talking reindeer and 4-foot high dancing Santa. Needless to say, the place had character. We sat on the back patio and enjoyed lunch. Then we walked about the rest of Brother Jon’s property, which included a beautifully landscaped lawn and garden, and a separate house that could be rented out as a bed and breakfast or for weddings. There was also a Rolls-Royce and Mercedes parked out back. I had the fish n chips. After another nap in the car, I had a nap at home while Claire worked on our blog, making it look as pretty as it does. In the evening, we headed back out to the city to meet up with Mike and Cara for dinner. By chance we caught them just outside of Flinders Street Station and were able to ride with them to our restaurant.

INTERESTING FACT: On December 1st, 2001 in Austin, Texas - Mike and Cara also decided they were “going steady”, but we didn’t meet them until two years into our relationship. We always call them on the first of the month (or they call us) to wish us a happy first, so this year we celebrated our five years together. We also figured out that five years for us equals about 20% of our life; so 20% of my life has been spent with Claire.

We had a delightful celebration dinner with them at SOULmama Global Vegetarian Cafe in the area of St. Kilda in Melbourne. I recommend this place to anyone in Melbourne or anyone visiting Melbourne. It had a great view looking right over the ocean, a very beautiful decor, and a menu that makes you wish you could try everything (yet fills you up). We enjoyed a really nice meal with a bottle of wine, and just took in the scene. Afterwards, we went across the street to the Espy, a bar that is in what was once the Hotel Esplanade.
We hopped on a tram that took us back to the Federation Square area, where there were loads of people out. It took going to a couple bars before finding one that wasn’t extremely crowded. The Young & Jackson Hotel is where we finally found a table, and had another round while watching some cricket (which is fun yet still mysterious in many ways to us).

Then it was time to run across to the Flinders Street Station to catch our train home. The train schedules are still a bit confusing to us, so we didn’t take the most ideal route to get home.  That is, instead of taking the direct route, we had to switch trains. We got off at the right stop, but we missed our connecting train literally by seconds, and it was the last one! Our next option was to walk a few blocks to catch a tram, which wound up working fine, and probably took the same amount of time. All in all, it was a very enjoyable day. It was awesome to spend such a special day in Australia of places, and in the company of great friends.

Thanks to drew for hanging photos of us from the early years and for putting up some of the old videos…

Bashful Claire (2001)

Clog Claire (2001)