Okay, last Melbourne post

Hi everyone! Turns out I am able to do one more blog post before leaving Melbourne. I head out tomorrow afternoon to fly into Christchurch, landing around 9pm.

I left off writing about the men's final and it didn't disappoint. The last set between Federer and Murray was a roller coaster ride - a tie break that ended 13-11!! What a match! The biggest treat was still yet to come - our web team got to go and stand down on centre court to get a photo taken of us, and I brought my camera along for the ride. It was so surreal standing on centre court where Federe had JUST played, winning the Australian Open. See the first pic in the previous blog post - that's the writing on the ground where Federer stood to accept his trophy. So cool!
(Pic to the right is Hewitt practicing --- haha mmmm, nice! It's an older pic but just wanted to throw it in there for you.)

Sunday evening was also the bigger staff party for all those involved in putting on the Open. It was held in the player cafe, so after taking photos on centre court, a group of us went over to get our 3 free drinks and mingle. When we arrived, we heard that Federer had just been there to the player cafe to say thank you to the staff - d'oh, missed him again, polkaroo!! I didn't stay too long, and got a ride home with Kim, the head of the Web Team.

Yesterday was relaxed. I went for a nice, long run, and came home to do laundry and clean up. That evening, Tom had plans to take the Trengove family clan out for dinner at France Soir, a very exclusive, swanky place downtown. The Williams' sisters apparently love going there and Henri Leconte had been recently during the two week Open. Did anyone see/hear Leconte's commentary? Amazing! He was very funny and down to earth, it was a popular topic here.

So, I drove to the restaurant with Philip and we met Meg there while the others arrived separately. It was me, Philip and Megan, Deborah, Joan, Alan and Tom. What a cute group! I had a steak poivre, which I thought was too spicy, and some apple pie, which I thought was too bitter. The wine was delicious and the atmosphere was great, so I'm not complaing about a free dinner. Tom was very generous to treat all of us.

Then, I had a second party to go to (ha!), the web team part at Post Office Hotel. Tom and Philip drove me and stopped inside for a beer as well. It was so great to see everyone and you could tell we'd all gotten along really well over the tennis. I've added most of the team to Facebook to stay in touch! (Pic above: part of web team crew, celebrating a great two weeks!)

Right now, I am in an internet cafe in Richmond, a neighbourhood right near the tennis, and afterwards I'm going to look around for a gift for the Davey's. I'm also in charge of picking up dinner ingredients - tacos, so nothing too hard to make - and I'll pick up vino for the last night here in Melbourne. So this time, I can safely say I'll be writing to you next from NZ where I already have plans to meet up with new friends (Mike Steere, a tennis friend from Christchurch).

We'll see where that leads but I reckon it will be a lot of fun!!