Taking advantage of Qantas points and our proximity to Melbourne, we took the opportunity to shoot down to Melbourne for the opening round of the Formula 1 2019 season. Having booked our flights and Airbnb in Melbourne’s Southbank area months out, we were very shitty to learn on the Thursday before our trip that our Airbnb had been cancelled due to sewage problems.. Being the evening before the F1 weekend, we weren’t able to find another viable Airbnb or hotel option, at least not at a reasonable price, so a last minute call was made to my sister and brother in-law, Max and Scott, who very kindly put us up at their joint in the Dandenongs.
Heading to the airport on Friday afternoon for our 5:20 flight, we were surprised to find Saggers, Angela and Tracey still at the airport as they were booked on early afternoon flights. However, inclement weather in Sydney had meant their flight was cancelled and they were rescheduled to seemingly random flights later that night. Tracey in particular got a bad deal, not flying out of Canberra until 8:30pm after being at the airport from 1:30. Whilst we shouldn’t have, Jules and I teased Tracey mercilessly (which she handled in good grace, with only the occasional expletive reply).
We met up with Georgia at the airport who’d also flown in from Perth for the weekend. We opted for a $140 Uber from the airport, rather than a bus then train, out to Max’s place, joining them at their local pub for a friends birthday party.
Saturday morning started with a Scotty special brekky fry up, before Jules, George and I jumped on the train to Melbourne to buy some new F1 merchandise. Melbourne CBD was heaving, so we chilled with some lunch at Cookie Bar on Swanston St, grabbed our merch and then headed home for take-in with Max, Scott, Phil, Mel and the kids. Always great to catch up with this crew and lots of laughs ensued.
Busing back into Melbourne on Sunday morning, we then tram’d out to the track and met up with Burgo and Mark from work, before being joined by Scott, Phil and Laine. Fanboy attired in our awfully yellow Renault Sports merch, overtly supporting Daniel Ricciardo, we made our way around the track, checking out the side distractions, before finding a spot near turn 10.
We picked our spot well, as during the drivers parade, Danny Ric, jumped out for an interview directly in front of us, giving us a great view of the main man.
Unfortunately, Danny’s race ended in the first 10 seconds, when he lost his front wing on a bump at the side of the pit straight. Bottas drove really well to smash all other contenders, but overall it was a pretty dull race, with nowhere near enough close racing or over-taking action. Whilst we enjoyed the day, and George got to attend her first F1 race, we know you don’t attend the race to watch it, as the cars zip by at over 250kms and you can’t hear the commentary from the big screens. Plus, it was pretty hot and in full sun, so we were all knackered by the end of the day, and thankful to clamber back onto the train home.
We shot out to Mel’s cafe in Kalista Monday morning for another smashing brekky, before saying our goodbyes to Scott and crew and heading back into the city. Dropping our bags at the KIT Melbourne office, we did some more shopping and grabbed some Chinese food from Chinatown.
George came back up to Canberra with us and will spend the week here before returning to Perth on the 25th.