Melbourne

Last week youngest son and I travelled to Melbourne to watch his eldest brother compete in the Australian Gymnastics Championships. Unfortunately Hugo injured his knee on the fourth apparatus during the first competition and was pulled out. His team won gold on the day and thankfully he could join them on the podium, crutches and all!



He had an MRI the next day which showed that his ACL was torn. Bad news, as this means he will need surgical reconstruction followed by 9-12 months of recovery. He's taken it in his stride however, and has signed up for a judging course, so he can still go with his clubmates to the State Club Championships at the end of June, and judge instead of compete. He also hopes to do some coaching this year. The brilliant photo below was taken by one of the photographers of WinkiPop Media minutes before his injury, high-fiving his coach after a succesfull rings routine:



Hugo's injury understandably put a damper on our stay in Melbourne, but Robert and I did get to do some sightseeing and met our Dutch friends for dinner, which was lovely. It was Robert's first time in Melbourne and he loved seeing the autum colours - something we don't have here in Queensland! (more Melbourne pics on my photo blog here)



I took him to Hosier Lane to see the street art, but he wasn't very impressed - he called it Stinky Street!



We did like this painting (more street art photos on the photo blog here):



Here is another kind of street art - an art deco mosaic constructed in 1933 by Napier Waller on the facade of Newspaper House in Collins Street (more art deco photos on the photo blog here, and some art nouveau photos here):



We really liked the cubes in Flinders Street:



There was even a crocheted one!



I had brought a ball of yarn and a hook but didn't do any crocheting. We did visit my favourite shop in Melbourne, Morris and Sons:



I bought some yarn as a souvenir ;-)



Love the warning on the label!!



All in all we did have a good time, but were happy to go home on Sunday (Hugo flew home on the same day with the Queensland team). Robert hopes to go back to Melbourne in December for the ballroom dancing championships!