Friday, fun and freebies

Yesterday I had the most lovely, LOVELY day. I'd organised a day off work, and since I had the time available and wanted to do some shopping in the city anyway, I'd jumped at an opportunity to attend a product launch at Southbank, thanks to Nuffnang.

I took the train to the city, a bit peeved that it was rainy and miserable. But by the time I arrived, the sun had come out and it was a glorious autumn day. I was early (Ha! Of course I was), so I stopped for coffee and took in the view.

Even the muddy Yarra looks more appealing when the sun's shining.

Then I wandered down towards my destination: the massive Eureka Tower:

Southgate from Princes Bridge with the Eureka Tower behind.

The venue for the launch was what grabbed my attention in the first place. Skydeck on level 88 has now been open for six years and I have never been up there. I'm a little embarrassed that I haven't visited one of the must-see sights of my home town. *ahem* Anyway.... I was heading for the 89th floor. One floor higher than Skydeck - and for FREE. Awesome.

90 stories of Grollo glory

The lift was an unnerving experience. Super-fast (38 seconds to the top) and it kind of wobbles. A lot. I don't really love lifts at the best of times, but since 89 flights of stairs was the alternative, I sucked it up.

I'd carefully considered whether or not to take my camera and decided against. My bag is heavy and bulky enough and I planned to do some shopping in the afternoon, so my phone had to suffice. Sadly, it wasn't really up to the job. The sun was out and the glass is gold-plated, so I had major reflection issues. These were about the best two shots:

Looking east along the Yarra. Arts Centre spire in the foreground and sports precinct top right.

Looking down from the south-west side. The aquarium is the funny little building with "fins" on the north bank.

This is what the whole thing was all about... Golden Circle are launching a new fruit juice with added probiotics. It'll be in the shops on Monday, if you're interested...

The company put on a tasty brunch, with spinach omelette, avocado toast and muesli with fruit... and of course, plenty of juice laid on.

Nicole Livingstone, former Olympic swimmer and now sports commentator, was there to help promote the product and we had a great chat about healthy eating, training and setting a good example for your kids. 

Crappy photo. Should have taken the camera after all.

I'm not really a juice drinker - given that I like to eat my food, not drink it, I mainly stick to water and black tea or coffee. But the rest of my family love their fruit juice, so I was interested in this. There will be  info on Golden Circle's website (on Monday, I assume), but it contains two types of lactobacillus, which have been shown in clinical trials to support immune function. It comes in two flavours and I'm betting it will appeal especially to people who don't eat dairy products (or don't like yoghurt), but who still want the benefits of probiotics. Oh, how does it taste? Great. Don't tell the family it's good for them and they'll never guess...

Apple Mango or Breakfast (apple, orange & pineapple)

We were all given a bag to take away with a couple of 1 litre bottles of the juice and some other goodies (including a tube of anti-wrinkle revitalising serum... Oh yeah. I'm gonna be using that!).

We were also given a raffle ticket on arrival for a door prize draw. Guess whose name was first out of the box? A three-piece luggage set from Samsonite's American Tourister range? Thank you very much!

My lovely new set of Samsonite luggage.

I couldn't believe my luck. We bought new luggage to take on our holiday to Thailand last year and one suitcase only made it to Chiang Mai before the handle fell off and a hole got knocked in the front of it. We were discussing our upcoming trip to Malaysia and Vietnam in September about two weeks ago, and Bike Boy said to me "Just go out and buy a couple of Samsonite suitcases." My fairy godmother must have been listening.

Best. Day. EVER.