On the fourth day of Christmas ...

... I hit the highway (specifically: CityLink, the Westgate Freeway, the Western Ring Road and the Western Highway) and after a quite relaxing drive through the green and pleasant land that is Victoria this year, arrived in the sunny and majestic city of Ballarat.

Ballarat in my childhood was the city that broke up the journey between Geelong and Ararat and, later, Melbourne and Ararat. We may have stopped for petrol or a loaf of bread, but never to stroll around the streets and admire the magnificent Victorian architecture or to marvel at the picturesque railway crossing with its signal box (now rather decrepit) and impressive signal gantry.

We certainly never stopped for a Ballarat Bitter at Craig's Royal Hotel, even in the cricket season. And we could never have contemplated sitting on a couch in the bar at that hotel, writing a blog post on an iPad while watching Mr Cricket steer Australia through to stumps.