Day 20 – St Kilda and Pimms.

Shruthi and I had arranged to go to St Kilda today as she had majority of the day off. The last time I went there (3 Years ago) was after the neighbours tour and it was raining... Obviously that meant when I woke up this morning it was too! 

I caught the free tram round to Spring street where we caught the 96 straight there. On arrival the rain had mostly stopped and we found somewhere to grab a bite to eat. By this point it was about midday so we stopped in a place called 'Leo's'.

After lunch we walked down to Luna Park fun fair, this has just gone past it's 100th birthday. This fun fair was clever in design as the rollercoaster goes around the outside creating the wall to the park. We walked to the seafront and walked along a harbour bridge

Fitzroy and Acland are the two main streets in St Kilda. I was very good and didn't spend any more money on clothes and things. We jumped back on the tram to Federation Square and went to a bar that overlooked the Yarra River. Surprisingly they have named this place ‘Riverland Bar’. We bought some dinner and a jug of Pimms, I have now had the perfect tennis experience.

Day 18 – Gym, More Shopping, Big Screen.

For some reason last night it took me ages to get to sleep. I had arranged with Heather to meet up about midday so I decided that I would actually go and use the gym seeing as I have to walk past it everyday to get to my room.

After the gym I met Heather on the roof where the views are just amazing! I hadn’t been up there yet and it was bigger than I expected. It’s covered in astroturf with a hot tub and quite a few sun loungers. We left the hostel and walked down to the shopping outlet I went in yesterday. The things I wasn’t so sure about yesterday I may or may not have picked up today… I got 5 items for about £35 quid which is alright and 1 of them is a jumper and another is a light jacket which make up for the hoody I lost on day 5! We decided to stop in a little café to chill in the sun and grab a much needed refreshment.

We were still on a mission to find Heather a hat but we weren’t having much luck. We made our way down Bourke Street, which has a lot of big shops on it. After looking in a fair few, a girl suggested we tried Sportsgirl and we were in luck! It may have been slightly higher in price than she wanted but we finally find a hat! Success! We made our way back to the hostel to cook dinner. I decided to have the same as last night as I still had plenty left over.

After dinner we made our way down to Federation Square to watch the Murray V Federer match. I text Lucy, the other girl I met last night, to tell her where we were and to join us too, which she did. It was an agonising match and at the beginning of the 4^th set we made our way back to the hostel to catch the end in the warmth. Fed Square can get pretty windy and the temperature drops quite a bit in the evening. Unfortunately he lost but other than that, it had been a pretty good day!

Day 16 – Rod Laver.

Day 2 of the tennis and as soon as I woke up I didn’t want the day to end. Unfortunately Murray was playing on Hisense today… if only my tickets were the other way around! I can’t be too annoyed though as I have seen him before and I get to see Nadal who I haven’t.

MATCH 1 - Cibulkova V Sharapova

I can’t quite remember if this is the same pairing my dad and I saw a few years ago at Wimbledon, either way it was quite an interesting game. Obviously I was routing for the underdog Cibulkova who is seeded 20^th compared to Sharapova who is seeded 3^rd. My luck paid off and Cibulkova won!

MATCH 2 - Stephens V Azarenka

Azarenka pretty much thrashed Stephens in a pretty dull match where I found my kindle slightly more interesting. Talking of books, I finished the first Hunger Games book today (I know I’m late to the party) and thoroughly enjoyed it which I didn’t think I would, onto the next!

MATCH 3 - Nadal V Nishikori

This match I wasn’t really routing for either, in a way I was thinking Nishikori because it might be easier for Murray, also like earlier I enjoy seeing the underdog win and what a good fight he put up! He did not make it an easy and clean fight for Rafael Nadal to win!

Two sets were tie breaks and the other was 7-5, at one point Rafa fell over and snapped his shoe laces, they both had medical treatment and it lasted for just over 3 hours with Nishikori looking like he might steal a set with quite a few break points.

Day 15 – Hisense Arena.

Today was the day! My first day and my first Grand Slam tournament of the year! I think I bought my tickets back in August, so I’ve been excited for quite a while. To spread my tennis experience out I bought tickets for Hisense arena today and for Rod Laver tomorrow. I got to see 4 different matches today and first up was mens doubles.

MATCH 1 - Bahrami/Pioline V Cash/Wilander

Putting it straight out there as the best doubles match I have ever seen. I guess it was more like watching a pantomime or something like that but they pleased the crowd, had fun but still played some damn good tennis. Pat Cash is Australian so there were a lot of people in the crowd for him but as well as that he won Wimbledon back in 1987 and held 5 other titles.

At one point Cash gave up and handed his racket to a ball boy, so they traded places. After winning a point Wilander then did this as well so it was 2 ball boys vs Bahrami and Pioline.

MATCH 2 - Li V Makarova

Li Na or Na Li? My dad and I prefer to call her Na Li as ‘she’s radical duuuuude!’ (also quite fitting as I’m in Australia and they love surfing and stuff…)

MATCH 3 - Mayer V Ferrer

Mayer won the first set which I was quite surprised by but he was playing the better tennis. Ferrer then won the next one so I decided as the sun was now directly on me to watch the next set inside on a screen to recover from the sun and fill up my water as this set wasn’t going to change anything. I’ve seen Ferrer before and part of me wanted Mayer to win because I think it’ll be easier for Murray but you never know these days. In the end Ferrer won and we shall see what happens!

MATCH 4 - Errani/Vinci V Adamczak/Rogowska

Not a lot to say really, I stayed and watched the first set and a half but that was enough sun for one day and they weren’t exactly thrilling to watch!

I soon left the grounds and made my way to Federation Square to wait for Shurani to finish work, she is a friend of Hannah’s who is working at the open so she exchanged our details. We made our way to Chinatown and went to the Little Dragon for dinner. We ate some chilli prawns and rice which was delicious and exactly what I wanted after such a long day.

I’ve just sorted myself out and shall head to bed ready for another exciting day at the tennis tomorrow, COME ON ANDY!