Three days in Melbourne

Top: MSGM
Pants: Pierucci
Heels: Bally
Bag: Chloe

Right at this moment, I'm sitting in Qantas club at Melbourne airport waiting for my flight back to Brisbane. In the spirit of free wifi, I thought I'd post this while I'm waiting.

I haven't been switched on with this blog recently. It's like I've hit the beginning of the year and while life is taking off, blogging is falling by the wayside. Maybe that's what happens? Irrespective, it's not how I want things to be - this is an important creative outlet for me. I like writing, I enjoy creating a post and trying to put together visual highlights to go with it. Time is just getting eaten up by so many things at the moment - work, wedding prep, social life, family commitments, exercise, housekeeping. Blah, I know. It's boring me, I can imagine it's incredibly boring to anyone else.

So, if you've suffered this far, I apologise for the lack of organisation and priority on my blog. It needs a more focussed direction and I am going to do my absolute best to get it there :)

Back to my trip: I had to go to Melbourne for a conference on Friday and thought I'd stay until Sunday and hopefully see a few sights, have some relaxed time to myself and a little light socialising.  I haven't actually had a short work trip in a while and it was fun to bust out my carry-on case and plan a 'hand-luggage only' weekend away:

One particularly exciting aspect of this weekend is I tried on my official favourite pair of black trousers ever, a wool-silk blend wide leg pair by Pierucci AND THEY FIT! I haven't been able to wear these pants for about 5 years (actually probably longer than that if I think about it...) I can't describe how strongly I feel about these trousers - how I've carefully stored them and brought them with me for every house-move despite not fitting into them, thinking one day, one day - and it's happened! I feel so affirmed that all the healthy lifestyle changes M and I have brought into our lives over the past 8 months are really working - the weight loss is real, I feel better and I look better. What more can a girl ask for?

When packing for a short trip and particularly when not checking luggage, everything has to work well with everything else. I tend to rely heavily on slim trousers/jeans and 2 neat light tops for day, with usually one cocktail dress for going out. No matter what, you always need at least two pairs of shoes and I generally take three: a pair of work pumps that I will usually wear on the flight down as I'll head straight to the conference or meeting, a pair of smart flats for city sight-seeing and the flight home and a pair of dressy sandals for evenings. I don't waste precious space on sneakers/trainers - I take a pair of flip flops/thongs to pad around the hotel room/visit pool/head down to a yoga class and that's it.

One of the funniest things I find about travel/packing articles etc is the emphasis people put on dressing like a tourist. Sure, if you're off backpacking for 8 weeks, a money-belt, wash and wear fabrics and a strict 'flat shoes only' policy makes perfect sense. But for city breaks? Relax! I don't know about anyone else, but I spend plenty of my working days walking in heels with no problems. I don't wear 4-inch nightmares, certainly, but I don't wear ballet flats like a perpetual intern either.

If I sit on your stuff, you can't leave...

It's fair to say that fat dog knows when a suitcase comes out, something's up. He doesn't like either of his humans going away and does his best to trick us into staying. It's sweet and slightly unnerving at the same time...

I flew into Melbourne and headed to the Sofitel on Collins. After getting the work stuff out of the way, I spent Saturday afternoon and Sunday doing lots of walking around the city and particularly Fitzroy Gardens where I tried to get into Cook's Cottage but was a little too late :( Next time maybe.

This is a Bill Henson photograph at the Westin hotel on Collins St. I love Bill Henson pieces and always pop into the Westin for a quick peek when I'm in town.

Then it was on to food, natch:

I went to Collins Kitchen for a lovely luxe dinner on Saturday night and had seafood linguini and beautifully crisp crunchy chips. I also got a spot of sauce on my beautiful new top from MSGM, so that was a little less of what I was going for. Spilling food on myself is a bit of a personal trademark, so I've become a dab hand at laundering in hotel room sinks :)

Breakfast at the hotel was included in my booking and it was really lovely both days. I indulged with poached eggs and smoked salmon on Saturday and this morning elected for a slightly less calorific option with fresh fruit and a sweet little bircher muesli pot. Sidebar: how cute are these mini jar/pot things??! I want some immediately. Not exactly sure what for, but they're too awesome not to own some.

Overall, while I did have to travel for work, I really enjoyed the extra day spending some time doing nothing in particular. I wandered around some gardens and felt still and quiet in my thinking for the first time in a while. I was impressed with how well my hand-luggage packing skills have held up despite not doing a short trip in a while.

I hope everyone is having a relaxed Sunday, either lounging at home or heading that way :) xo