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We took another leisurely Sunday journey into the city of Melbourne. A feast of Gnocchi at the Veggie Bar for lunch, a stroll around the city, a visit to the library to witness Ned Kelly’s armour and a chocolate fix at Max Brenner. After getting our buzz of chocolate goodness, we went to achieve today’s objective, taking off into the virtual skies on a flight simulator. After a briefing in the main room, the instructor took us into a replicated cockpit of a Boeing 737-800, running just like you would see if you look in before you take your seat on the plane. The instructor sat me in and explained the main controls of the aircraft. We were placed at JFK International Airport, lined up on the main runway. We set up the aircraft for takeoff and pushed the throttle forward, a pull back of the stick put us into the sky of many pixels. The flight took us over pleasant views of a virtual New York City, circling around the city we lined up to land at LaGuardia Airport. We lined up with the runway and eased the wheels onto the Tarmac. With the instructor happy with the skills, he put me on an airport in Aspen, Colorado, USA, which is notorious for its challenging terrain through mountains and dense weather. Set up for take off again, we virtually took off as hard as possible to lift up over the nearby mountains. Clearing the mountain peaks, we leveled out and flew over the well-known Colorado terrain. After a few turns we were lined up with the runway and had to descend steeply over a large nearby mountain. After the mountain, we straightened up the nose again with the middle of the runway and hit the tarmac nice and firmly. We taxied back to the terminal and shut the engine down, the fasten seatbelt sign is switched off which meant we made it to our destination. I had a ton of fun taking to the virtual skies with an amazing instructor who got me in the air and back on the ground. A massive thank you to Gumby for making this special moment happen, love you babe xxxx
 
Otway Fly
Californian Redwood Forest
Hopetoun Falls
Sheep farming began in Geelong in 1835 and in 1868 the first woollen mill was opened. Geelong was known for many years as the 'wool centre of the world' and in 1988 the first wool museum in Australia was opened in Geelong in an iconic 1872 bluestone wool store on Moorabool Street near Geelong's waterfront. The museum takes you through the wool harvest, an interactive and hands on display from fleece to fabric, learning the techniques of scouring, combing, spinning and weaving. There is also a Reminiscence Cottage; rooms in the design of the way a home may have been between the decades from 1930s to 1950s, this is a multi-award winning sensory experience for people that may have difficulty communicating. We also enjoyed viewing the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition.
At its time of construction in 1923, this former woollen mill was hailed as the most progressive and modern mill in Australia. Known as the Valley Worsted Mills the buildings, which had laid relatively abandoned since the 1970's were purchased in 2011 and with an estimated cost of $70m transformed into a brewery producing delicious craft beer, called Little Creatures.
 stencil art on a shipping container by the amazing Jae @myheadsajungle  Originally established in Fremantle, Western Australia in 2000 the Little Creatures team, which has since been purchased by Lion Nathan, a subsidiary of Kirin produces a variety of ales and lagers, including an American style Pale Ale and Roger's Amber Ale. The Little Creatures beers are marketed as craft beer meaning the only ingredients used in the beer making process are Malt, Hops, Yeast and Water. Apparently, the water is a key ingredient to the overall taste of the beer. Shovel and I took a tour of the Little Creatures Brewery in South Geelong, their second brewery, which begun brewing in 2013 to provide a fresher product to the East Coast of Australia. We were told during the tour that the water in Fremantle is hard, whereas the water in Geelong is soft, therefore they process the water to re-create the same level of hardness in the water prior to using it in their beer to ensure the flavours are consistent. The brewery is also co2 emission free and is a leader in water conservation, hygiene and although the hop does have natural preservative properties, they do not add any preservatives to any of the beer products, making for not only a great tasting beer, but an environmental conscious one that doesn't leave you feel super sick. We also learnt surprisingly that beer from a can keeps better, retaining its flavour as glass is a poor insulator from heat and light and that you should always, I mean always pour beer out. Meaning don't ever drink it from the vessel as the beer is sealed with the gas at the top, therefore your first mouthful will be all gas, making you feel bloated... fascinating. Shovel and I enjoyed a brewed on-site beer and a lovely meal of brisket, pumpkin pizza and zucchini salad. "It's good to be a little different"
 A worthy contender for our most standout adventure, not because we actually saw ghosts, we didn't, although we both believe to have felt something around our ankles in the kitchen, but for the impressive theatrical story telling by our guide. The tour lead as to many different sections of the bluestone build, that was opened in 1853, housing 150 inmates and even outside into the grounds where Shovel was given a demonstration of the 'cat of nine tails' a lashing apparatus, a knotted whip if you will, often embedded with broken glass or scrap tin to apply the most brutal trauma to a convict or prisoner's back, in the form of scratches like a cat claw might elicit. A tripod whipping post was erected on the grounds of the gaol near a side entrance. The gate was then opened for passes by to witness the inexplicable flogging. One notorious resident of the gaol was Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read who was a prisoner of the maximum security, HM Prison Geelong, now referred to as the Old Geelong Gaol, in the mid to late 1980's before its closure in 1991. Chopper has said on several occasions prior to his death in 2013 that Geelong Gaol would be the last place he would like to return back to. Even during his tenure living conditions within the gaol were crude and harsh with open air windows, no heating and minimal electricity. There was also Frederick "Josh" Clark who is said to still haunt the gaol to this day. Josh was an infamous criminal that spent the majority of his 74 years in one gaol or another. He died whilst severing yet another sentence at Geelong Gaol in 1904, this ending the career of one of Victoria's most "decorated" criminals. The mate of notorious gangster "Squizzy" Taylor, Angus Murray escaped from HM Prison Geelong in 1923, by climbing down the side of the building using knotted sheets to a waiting car where he was reuniting with his gangster mate back in Melbourne, before going onto shot a Mr Berriman in a Glenferrie bank that same year. Interesting to note, Squizzy's wife, Ida 'Babe' Pender, later became a patient of the Beechworth Lunatic Asylum, which we have also visited. The architecture of the Gaol is impressive and well worth a visit just to admire the brilliance of the artisan stonemasons and convicts that painstakingly carved each block of basalt and to see the gaol in its original glory before it is redeveloped. The Geelong Gaol was purchased in mid 2018, have a read of this news article for more details.
Geelong was transformed into a whirl of colour, visual effects, sound and performance as hordes of people descended into the city centre to be part of Geelong After Dark. Shovel and I ventured through the streets, watching musicians and performance artists, then headed into the Geelong Art Gallery to view art whilst being serenaded by a two local djs. We had a blast!
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