Every Friday for 8 weeks we attended wonderful training sessions to become a Waterfront Welcomer, so on the 27th October we were ready to welcome our first of many visitors to our wonderful City of Port Melbourne.
 After setting up our banners and brochures we waited for the passengers to disembark the Noordam.  For about 3 hours we engaged with many International and Australian visitors needing assistance with many and varied requests, and for those who had no real plans a free rickshaw ride to Bay Street for some retail therapy and a bite to eat was a great success.
 Overall, judging by the feedback from some returning visitors the information and advice given by us was well received, also they were pleasantly surprised that this was a voluntary service as they have not experienced this in any other port.
 I had lots of fun and I am looking forward to my next shift. "
Debbie O'Farrell

Aagaman – 271 Bay Street Port Melbourne                                                                     
SHIP Social Club had a great night at Aagaman in Bay Street on Saturday night. It was my first taste of Nepalese cuisine and it was only bettered by the company. I’ll definitely be back.
The mains were very reasonable at $16.18 and meat lovers and vegetarians both seem well catered for. I snared a couple of bowls of steamed rice (thanks Dani) which made for a really tasty hearty meal.
I had the gamely lamb, tender diced lamb roasted with potatoes and Nepalese spices and finished with spinach and cashews – Yum!! Dani’s eggplant dish reminded me why I love eggplant and Rochelle’s spicy chicken was HUGE. I didn’t hear any complaints about the food or service.
It was also nice to meet some new Waterfront Welcomers in Sue, Ben and his wife Cora. I could go on espousing the virtues of Aagaman, but the main thing is our resident restaurant connoisseur, Lulu has given it the thumbs up, we’ll be back. √ Tick!
By Tom