Melbourne - Day 4 (12th Jan) - MCG tour and shopping

Sadly for Captain Flash, I absent-mindedly left him guarding the wine on Sunday evening and forgot to take him to the T20 game. To make it up to him, on Monday morning I headed back to the MCG to take him on a ground tour. The tour was very thorough, taking us to:

• The members' area, including the long room and other fancy parts
• Onto the ground itself (where Captain Flash got me to take a photo of him taking a nap)
• Into the players' viewing area: we got to stand at the spot where the Safs all celebrated upon winning the test series
• Down into the players' changerooms, where we got to see the ice baths, the regular baths (interestingly labelled "not nude" and "nude or don't care"), the fridge (interesting for the list of players and how they like their beverages written there in black marker) and other miscellaneous things
• To see the nets, where some Bushrangers were training as we went past
• The media centre, including the interview room (press-type interview, not police-type interview, although I believe the ground has one of those too) and the broadcast boxes
• The viewing deck, which looks out the the back of the ground towards Melbourne
• To different stands so we could see the ground from different levels

The tour took a little over an hour, and apart from the obnoxious children was pretty worthwhile. After the tour, I took a wander through the national sports museum. A really good collection with interesting exhibits, including a holographic Warne talking about his career. Sadly the interactive portion of the museum was closed, but I enjoyed my visit nonetheless.

After I finished at the MCG, I decided to go shopping down Bridge Rd - a hazardous idea since last time I went there (with Karen) we had to catch a taxi back we had so many bags. I lunched first at Richmond Hill Cafe and Larder, which offers very tasty food. It's owned and managed by Stephanie Alexander, who is one of those famous chef-type people. I then continued on down the main shopping strip. At the end of the day, I came away with another pair of boots (black this time, also only $30), a black cardigan and a light summer dress (white with blue polka dots, to continue my polka dot bias).