25th Jan 2012 - 27th Jan 2012 - I Still Call Australia Home
Federer vs Nadal - We were there!
What a wonderful few days Jen and I have had in Melbourne. As one of my Christmas presents, Jen and Chris gave me 2 tickets to the Men's Semi-Finals Tennis in Melbourne at the Australian Open. How lucky were we to find that the draw favoured us so well - our match was the wonderful tussle between Federer and Nadal. Extraordinary tennis and a great night out too - there is tons of entertainment around the grounds too and we wandered among the crowd while we waited for the previous game to finish. We flew down the day /night before (Jen came after work) and stayed at my favourite - the Park Hyatt. Again, we were very fortunate - we had a gorgeous room, more like a suite, with windows overlooking the Cathedral and a little balcony over the driveway to the hotel - fabulous views of the city, which was a bonus on the morning of Australia Day as hot air balloons flew by at sunrise! With our sitting area and tons of room, and those fantastic Park Hyatt spa bathrooms, we barely wanted to leave our room. But we did - just to go up to the Club level for evening canapes, which easily served as dinner or just to relax and read, do emails. We did stir out on Australia Day, after our leisurely breakfast, with Martina Navratilova also enjoying breakfast. We did some shopping in the airconditioned malls to avoid the heat and had a lovely manicure. Back to the hotel, in time for a little snooze and then the Big Game!! It was fabulous and I am really impressed with the Rod Laver arena - I don't think there would be a bad seat in the house - even in the traditional nosebleed seats, you have a great view. The game was great, of course, and a rare opportunity to see the 2 most amazing players - the shot-making was brilliant - so often we thought a point was over, only to find the sheer stamina and athleticism of those 2 guys meant that they could get to impossible balls and make amazing returns. Not a second went by without something incredible. Sadly, Jen had to leave the next morning on a 6:30am flight, but I had a bit of a sleep in, lovely breakfast, and then spent the next couple of hours catching up on emails and business before flying home in time after a wonderful, wonderful few days. We will definitely do this again next year - the best Christmas gift ever....
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| 27th Jan 2012 The Australian Open Tennis in Melbourne 2012 |
