Queen Victoria Market Melbourne, and Met Park Point Cook.

The beach at Point Cook Met Park.
A Blue Tongue Lizard basking in the warm Winter Sunshine.
A jelly fish washed ashore with about 45,000 of his mates.. the kids thought it was cool!
The bus, a double Decker...bandaged up like the damaged patient it was!
The double Decker bus again...had to get another pic of that one!

Ok, so we all boarded the double decker bus ready to head to the Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne. I had 5 children, including my Sarah that I was to be responsible for whilst we toured the market for two hours. We had a shopping list. Four spuds and 500grams of peas. The children will be making vegetable soup tomorrow at school.
Yet..even before we left the street the school is in, the bus driver got on the speaker phone and was joking around, we thought he was funny, and that he was joking when he said he did not know where he was going. Not funny. He did not know where he was going! He tried to U-turn with a double Decker where tram lines are in the city! He then reversed back and went forwards a bit and U-turned at a set of lights and back to the market to drop us off. Just as he was pulling into the curd of the Vic Market, there was a bang and a smash and the kids up front came running back to the rear of the top of the double Decker. No one was hurt. The pictures tell a thousand words. He broke the window. The bottom of the bus was cleared, and before we could alight he took off! We were still on the bus! We made it off of the bus, split into our groups and headed off. We anticipated another bus would be sought to collect us after our two hour tour of the market.
I took my little posse to the loo..wash hands thoroughly and off to purchase morning tea. It was very cold in the city, so we bought some yummy fresh hot jam doughnuts. We then bought some lovely strawberries and bananas. Sat down to eat those, yum! Took my posse to wash their hands again..sugar doughnuts are sticky!
Ventured into the delicatessen area of the market. I said hello to my lovely Greek friend whom I have not visited in ages, she served us some crispy yummy Twiggys (cabana's), the children adored it. Munching on the sticks we kept on walking, looking at the fresh pastas, dips, olives, sun dried tomatoes, pastries and so on. I bought some tzikis dip and some Lebanese flat bread for us all to share later on at lunch time.
Stepped into the fresh fish and meat area, the children were happy, until the smell got too much for one of the little ones, and we stepped out into the fresh air on Elizabeth street. Headed around the corner and into the vegetable area to do our shopping for the vegetable soup. The sounds of the stall holders intrigued the children. Vying for out attention for business. I took to one stall that allowed the children to pick the veggies themselves, and weigh the veggies too. I gave them each some money, and they learned the cost of the items. The peas in a pod were quite expensive, yet so fresh and large, yummy!
We looked for some animals, there was only a small pet store with fish, one puppy and a menagerie of birds. Different to when I was a kid and they sold alot of live animals, ducks, chickens and so on.
At midday went to meet with the bus. It was not there. We got word the bus was at King Street..they said they could not get a park anywhere near the market. How could it be? We were standing in the bus zone which was clear. We were not going to walk these kids all that way to them. Soon the bus appeared, the same one! Patched up windows!
Board the bus and we were supposed to go to Met Park at Point Cook for lunch. Bus driver goes the wrong way! Another U-turn...takes us onto the Westgate Freeway, doesn't get over into the centre lane on the Freeway, is stuck to the left and we were going off onto the Ring Road..NOT headed for Geelong way! Argh! The bus stops dead..on the freeway. I crouched down, trucks flew past us. Yikes! With our guidance we got to Met Park. The kids were starving, so they ate well.
We went for a walk after lunch time, along the beach we got to see tons of seaweed, jelly fishes washed ashore and looking out, we could see some large ships. It was fun. A good eye on one of the boys sighted a blue tongue lizard.
Back on the bus, toured the Werribee South Vegetable gardens, which supply Victoria with 75% of the green leafy "Rabbit Food" we purchase from the markets. We made is back to school 5 minutes past the bell..intact!
All 20 students were pooped, haha! Time for a coffee when I got home. What an adventure we all had.