[Mick]

For those who have not read our intro, me the wife the kids and all sundry are moving to Tas around September (ish) can anyone help me out and answer a few silly questions for me (:

1 Steamed dim sims - not as stupid as it sounds, I have traveled all round Aus and its a Victorian thing, and the odd town in NSW on the border, every other state does not sell them as a rule, can you get them there ?

2 Big M's - Once again, every state has there own flavored milk brand, when I used to travel, one of the first things I'd do is when I went back to Vic is buy a Big M, can you buy Big M's in Tas ?


3 Natasha belling (however it is spelt) - Channel 10 news reader who does the late news here, Ive had a crush on her for 10 years, am I going have to say my goodbyes to her on the telly ?

Thats all I can think of for now, I am sure I have more but I cannot think of them at the moment and I got work I have to do but I will add some more later, and Bec is not home I'm sure she has a few. (:

[Mystic]

A person has to feed their addictions. I spent a few years living in Adelaide once and it took ages to find a place that sold devon (which I love).

Steamed dim sims, I think I have seen in some places, will check out a couple of take aways in Queenie when I am down there next week and get back to you. However, you can find recipes for them on the interweb.

Big M is another maybe, but tassie milks are better anyway.

What is this channel 10 you speak of? Not that big on TV myself so have not worried about going digital yet, though do recall reading comments about digital cards for PC's where someone from Queenie once mentioned they could not get digital reception there. Am thinking about buying one over the next couple of months, so can get back to you on that. TV stations here are Win, Southern Cross (a hybrid of 10 & 7) & ABC. Don't think Southern Cross has a late night news.

If you are moving to Queenie, you can also forget the golden arches, KFC, pizza hut (or any chain type take away), woolies, coles, department stores, traffic lights etc Those things can be found in Burnie & Hobart.

[Tessc]

Steamed dim sims yes.

Big M's yes.

Not sure about the newsreader as we don't often watch 10 late news lol. I'll keep an eye out but you can watch her here http://ten.com.au/ten-news.htm if you really need a fix.

[Mick]

Haha I hear you on the Devon, metwurst or something they called it and from memory I didn't like it. I lived in the Riverland for a while, the butchers there sold meat ends - 4 or 5 different ends off small goods rolls in paper and you sort of had a lucky dip.

@Tessc - Thanks for that info, I have steamed my own dim sims but there not the same ): Ive been having a read of your blog, have not delved too far in as I been busy but its interesting so far.

[becs83]

Ok I have a couple of silly questions to add. I can't believe you didn't ask Mick lol, do Tasmanian Devils hang around the west coast?, and also does Queenstown see snow in the winter? I and the children have not seen snow so it would be lovely to see it.

[Mystic]

Not really silly questions at all Bec. Devils do "hang around" the west coast, but they are very shy critters. I have only seen one in the wild once. Snow you will get, and possibly at any time of year, even summer. Though, it generally does not fall at town level, mainly on the peaks. It can come down very low at times.

[Mick]

Im a country boy, I hate cities and have not been to Melbourne since I was 14 with a mate from school, and if was born in the 1800's I'd get lost going to the outdoor dunny, keeping that in mind is this as tricky as it looks to get to the ferry. (we even had to google where the ferry was when we first thought of Tassie)

(According to google maps)
Continue onto Goulburn Valley Fwy
Take the exit towards Hume Fwy
Keep right at the fork to continue towards Hume Fwy and merge onto Hume Fwy
Take the exit onto Northern Ring Rd
Continue onto Western Ring Rd
Take the exit onto Tullamarine Fwy
Continue onto Citylink
Take the exit onto West Gate Fwy on ramp
Take the exit onto West Gate Fwy
Take the exit towards Plummer St
Turn left at Plummer St
Continue onto Prohasky St
Turn left at Williamstown Rd
Turn right at Graham St
Turn left at Bay St

The Goulburn Valley Fwy is the first one I get onto so thats easy enough, basically how much of a hassle is it to get to the Ferry ??

[Mystic]

No real hassle at all to get to the ferry once you are in Melbourne. basically follow the sign to Port Melbourne. It is pretty easy to get there.

Word of warning as we have been caught out by this. One of those inner city freeways, I think it is the one that goes over the bridge has a toll.. no problems, except you don't realise you can't pay with cash until AFTER you past the last exit that would have allowed that. You can pay later through newsagents or some such thing, or you can just tell them it is a stupid setup after they hassle you about it, then ignore it, we did and never heard anything about it again. (Probably not the best course of action though).

Basically in getting down there, once you are on the Hume Highway, follow the signs to Melbourne (slight zig zag through Albury/Wodonga) then follow the signs to Port Melbourne.

Big red boat, you can't miss it.

[Shane V]

Got some info about the toll road thingy in Melbourne...have a look at this web page. Hopefully that helps for that part of the journey.
As Anna said the ferry is pretty easy to find...just follow the signs.

[Mick]

Hahahaha, Ive read ppl whinging in the paper about Citylink, and the moment I clicked on your link - We are experiencing some difficulties at the moment. Please try again at a later time.

So I just follow the Port Melbourne sign cool, even I can do that. I am paranoid about missing the boat (god haven't I done that enough in life already) We want to take the kids to the zoo and museum before we leave vic, so we are going to find the ferry terminal while were at it.

note to self - will try very hard not to ask every little stupid question I keep coming up with

[Mystic]

Once you find the ferry terminal, you would probably be better off using trams (across the road) to run around Melbourne.

They run about every 20 minutes from Port into the City. From there you can get another tram to the zoo or walk to the museum.

Questions are fine, nothing wrong with them, and I bet at least 100 other people who look around here are wondering similar things and too shy to ask.

[Shane V]

As they say...the only stupid question is the one that isn't asked.

[Mystic]

Checked out two take away places in Queenie today and neither of them had steamed dim sims. Will take a look at the others next week.

[Tessc]

One other thing, there is virtually no free parking near the ferry. We usually park along the foreshore there and one stays in the car while the other gets food or whatever.

You can ask google to avoid tolls by clicking the show options just below where your destination is typed.

[Mystic]

One other thing, there is virtually no free parking near the ferry. We usually park along the foreshore there and one stays in the car while the other gets food or whatever.

We discovered this as well and wanted to leave the car for most of the day. Just past the ferry is a roundabout (might have to turn right about 100 metres up the road to get to it, was a long time ago) By going out the left side of the roundabout you will find yourself in a residential street with no parking restrictions. It is only about a 5 minute walk down to the ferry and wharf or tram from here.

[Mick]

For some reason there is no cursor showing up here, nor is cut/copy/paste in the mouse button so I will try to get this to make sense lol.

Thanks for the info on the parking, we plan to get there early so its good to know cos I tend to get my self in a panic if I think I don't have enough time, so yeah we will have to find somewhere to park (with a trailer) I'm sure I wont be the only one. Hopefuly I spot a Tassie numberplate and I will follow him hehehehe

Big thanks to the dimsim hunters, I may have open Micks Steamed Dimsims

Now for the silly question, and yes this silly. I phoned the ferry this morning instead of waiting for bec to do it cos I wanted to aks a couple of things. Because we are unable to book it right now I didnt bother to ask her anything about prices as its incedental to us, but I did mean to ask are the prices given on the website one way or two way ?? If its bothways, can you get only one way ??

[Mystic]

The fares on the spirit website are one way...I hear you gulping from here, as I think they are a touch rich, but it is almost a 12 hour trip and the bar prices are reasonable.

Mick's Steamed Dim Sims sounds good, but folk around this way are quite accommodating and if you ask at the take aways, I am fairly certain you might just convince someone to prepare them the way you like them. (Had a look at a few others today while I was shopping and did not see them listed anywhere).

If you can find the street we parked in, there should be no problem parking with a trailer, it was a great find and saved us a fortune in parking costs. Melbourne must be the most expensive place to park in Australia. Once you get down here, the major cities (Launceston & Hobart) have council parking centres and they generally cost about 60 cents an hour.

[Mick]

I have found out, steamed dimsims originated at the footy hence the Victorian with them

Anna - there used to be an ad on telly here, cant remeber what it was about, but the scene in it, a bloke drives his car to the city, takes it to a pawn broker and pawns it for 500 bucks and tells him he only needs it over night and will be back tomorrow to pick the car up, the pawnbroker says that will cost 50 bucks, as he walked out he said to his mate, thats how you park in melbourne for $50.

I thought as much with the fares, hence why we are coming over Tassie or bust style, as I dont want to spend 800 odd dollars just to say "wow its nice" spend another $800 to come home, just to spend $800 to go back

ps - I can see my typo's as I excell at doing them, but I cant click anywhere to fix them, is it my puter being retarded ??

[Mystic]

Remember the ad, and yes, that is what it is like parking in Melbourne. I remember going there once, and had to repay money I had borrowed overnight from a friend, parking near the bank cost $20 for 15 minutes.

Re your typos, there should be an "edit" button at the bottom of your post - maybe I have had too much of the pleasure of the company of one Mr Jack Daniels but you seem to have fixed them to me