Day 1 - Monday 13th March

Drove there. Left home about 6.45am, had to stop and fill up with petrol. From there it was a gentle drive, with hardly any traffic which made it a fairly easy drive. First stop was at Bordertown, for a drink and toilet stop. Decided to take the Dimboola turn off to go through Donald and Charlton to get to Bendigo and meet up with Mum, Dad was also in Bendigo but he was there for some more training at the actual venue that he is supervising.

Arrived at there about 2:30ish, got Subway for lunch, Dad finally finished training and we caught up with him at a park for a drink. After that we headed to Kyneton where we were staying. Unpacked the car once we got there (about a 45min drive) and relaxed for the rest of the night. Given the name of the resort - Kyneton Bushland Resort, it is as it says, it is a resort with detached units situated amongst Bushland. Given the location there are a number of animals which live in and around the resort. The 3 main ones are possums, kangaroos, and magpies along with a few crows. These animals whilst aren’t tame they are quite game and come quite close to try and get food from you. Out the front of out unit is a small ledge built with pine sleepers, that we put some food on and the birds come down and pick through it, they mostly take meat scraps and bread. At night the possums come down and they will eat any fruit or vegetables that we put out. Managed to get quite a few photos, the possum is a lot more timid than the birds that is for sure. I have yet to see any kangaroos but Mum and Dad saw some over the weekend, they are generally only around at dawn and dusk, but Mum and Dad saw them about 8:30am. Hopefully I’ll get to see them before I go home.

Day 2 - Tuesday 14th March

Dad had to go into his Technical Officials village in Melbourne (Mecure Hotel in Little Bourke St); we decided to take him down to Watergardens Train Station (Sydenham) which is just under an hours drive. We stopped in at Sunbury to fill the car; it was just as I remembered from 2000 when I worked installing the PA system in the new Safeway store - except Safeway and the surrounding shops are finally finished. After Sunbury we were looking for a turn off the Sydenham, we were following my GPS Navigation software on my iPaq, but we missed it, the Navigation software was having a bit of a problem, and anyway the actual turnoff we were looking for, has just been closed. Because of that we made the crazy decision to drive into Melbourne another 40kms. We got off the Calder Hwy at Bell St (I think) and decided to stop for lunch. After that I drove, we had to go down Sydney Road (Hume Hwy) into Melbourne, it was very busy indeed, Melbourne was even busier, we dropped him off luckily I had looked at the street directory before we left and I knew my way out, but it was hectic to say the least. We went back the same way and actually got the Watergardens stations, and found where we could park if we decided to drive there and catch the train from there rather than Kyneton. We then headed back to Kyneton and did a bit of shopping and went to tourist information to get some maps of the area. After that just went back to the resort and relaxed for the rest of day - it was 1700 by then.

Day 3 - Wednesday 15th March

The Opening Ceremony
Dad didn’t manage to get us any tickets to the MCG, but Mum and I headed to the edge of the Yarra on the south bank side near the Alexander Gardens live site. They had the fish in front of us - I think it was the Belize fish, and on the other side of the river there was a big screen so we could see what was happening in the MCG. It was quite spectacular from where we were, there were fantastic fireworks from the building and the fish. Whilst I was disappointed not to get into the MCG, I was glad we went into the city to watch from there. Didn’t get home till about 1am, so was pretty tired on the way home in the train.

Day 4 - Thursday 16th March

Went to Bendigo early to give dad stuff and get my camera back, and then went to basketball

Day 5 - Friday 17th March

Got up at 6 to make sure mum was alright, she was heading into the swimming heats this morning then gymnastics this afternoon. I am going to Bendigo again for the basketball.

Day 6 - Saturday 18th March

Watched the triathlon on TV, it was just too much to get into to St Kilda and back again and then get to Bendigo in time for the basketball at night. With the Opals playing I made sure I was there within plenty of time to get a good seat.

Day 7 - Sunday 19th March

Went to Bendigo to see dad in the Athlete’s village, spoke to the Boomer’s trainer for a little while, was talking about how bad NZ are and how they beat the Boomer’s the other year, and he said the difference was the coach, I had to hold my tongue and control my self from hitting him. Saw Sam MacKinnon on the phone as we were leaving, but I know the rest of the team were there, but I think they were warming up somewhere. After leaving there, had to find a petrol station - can’t believe how big Bendigo is. Then it was off to the basketball to get in the queue again. Had A tickets today so I sat in the 3rd row, I’ll sit 1 row back tomorrow. The Boomers v Nigeria game was tight for the first quarter and a bit, but then in a matter of a minute the Boomers blew the game out to a 10point lead and they were never headed, ended up winning very convincingly. After the game I hung around and got a yellow Australia hat autographed by all the players. Couldn’t find Mackinnon, Ronaldson and Newley but they were outside the court area to talking to family. Newl’s and his family were talking to a scout from the Denver Nuggets. Got home pretty late, so I decided against going to go into the city to watch the walk the next day.

Day 8 - Monday 20th March

Got up about 10.30 so I didn’t go into to town for the walk, got up just in time to watch the end of the women’s walk on TV. After that I got ready to head up to Bendigo again for the final night of basketball in Bendigo. It was another excellent night, the first game was the men’s game of Nigeria v Scotland with Nigeria favorites but Scotland being in touch for most of the game, the Scottish fans were getting pretty excited which added to the atmosphere of the night. In the women’s game the Kiwi’s were too strong for the Nigerian’s with the Nigerian coach very animated, he was almost as exciting as the game, NZ won by 30 points in the end.

Day 9 – Tuesday 21st March

Went into Melbourne for the athletics today. There was stuff going on everywhere, we saw hurdles - 400m and 110m, high jump, long jump, pole vault and discus. These were for numerous events including stand alone preliminary rounds as well as men’s heptathlon and women’s pentathlon. We also saw 800m EAD heats, which are amazing on there own. We decided to leave before the men’s pole vault ended; it was taken about 5-10 minutes between each jump, with them adjusting things, so it was getting boring we decided to leave. Got a number of skyline shots including a great panorama. Was a long day by the time we got back to Kyneton after the train ride and then 45min drive.

Day 10 - Wednesday 22nd March

Packed, watched TV all day and that was about all we did today, I didn’t have that much to pack, so I mainly watched TV - also went into Kyneton, tried to get the commonwealth games stamps, but they didn’t have them all, so I canned that idea for a later date.

Day 11 - Thursday 23rd March

Left Kyneton for Uncle David’s, stopped at Mt Macedon on the way got a few photos but it was too hazy to get any decent ones, got a few of the memorial cross and a half reasonable panorama. Went to Alfred’s for tea, it was a buffet style meal, but when we arrived about 6:15 there was no one else there it was a weird feeling luckily others turned up later, it was a nice meal. We went back to home & watched the games on TV after that, including the women’s gold medal basketball game & Jana Pitman 400m hurdles gold medal run.

Day 12 - Friday 24th March

Caught a train to town (Southern Cross Station) then went down to docklands for the men’s 50km walk. The Aussie in second who got disqualified with a lap to go was right in front of us it was pretty devastating. I saw Natalie Saville & Cathy Webb who came 2nd & 3rd in the women’s 20km walk and had them sign my Aussie flag. Went down to see the replica Endeavor then wandered around town for a while, then very tiredly caught the train back home, watched the men’s basketball gold medal game, had a minor coronary watching it - I thought we were going to loose, but luckily we won.

Day 13 - Saturday 25th March

Went into Vic Markets couldn’t get what I wanted - a rubber mobile phone cover, so I wandered the fresh produce area for a little while then went back home, bummed around there for a little while then at about 7:30 drove into town with, mum, Auntie Lynette, Caitlyn & Emily to meet up with dad and see the fish on the river, got there in time for the 9:00 show - was good to get some photos with my good camera, also got some night skyline photos that I was quite impressed with, even if I do say so myself headed home with the masses, got home late and went straight to bed.

Day 14 - Sunday 26th March

Got up about 9, caught the train at 10 for the cycle road race and then the closing ceremony. Was pretty hot in the city for the race, couldn’t really see the finish line and couldn’t really see the women’s medal presentation so that was a bit disappointing. For the men’s I sort of got to see the start, then I wandered down to the Shrine of Remembrance to get some photos, then went down to Alexander Gardens to watch from a different spot, caught up with mum, so eventually we went to see dad via some souvenir shops to get some cheap M2006 memorabilia. Went up to dad’s hotel room, had tea and emptied memory card ready for closing ceremony.

Closing Ceremony
Our seats were in the bottom section of the MCC members enclosure (on the wing for footy games, but they were undercover, which was bad news for fireworks. It was an excellent show, Grinspoon were awesome - hope they come to Adelaide again some time, Ben Lee was good, and so was John Farnham, but Casey Donovan and Sarah Blasko weren’t too good. The only good thing about Sarah Blasko was the snow that was falling. They somehow had small shreds of paper falling and it looked like snow. Scared Weird Little Guys were the pre-show entertainment and they did an excellent job.

PA System and Lighting was awesome. The whole show was excellent colourful and spectacular.

During the pre-show entertainment we were told that Dame Edna was coming out and when she had finished there was going to be fireworks, so once she came out - well actually came onto the big screen, I head down a bit lower so that the fireworks were more visible and I could get photos of them. Was well worth it.

I am glad I went, afterwards of course was fun trying to get to the train station and get on the right train, but we got home safely by about 12:30 so that wasn’t too bad.

Day 15 - Monday 27th March

Got up late, packed and drove home.