Partying

Jim's daughter Jeanette and her husband Matt were in town last week. Matt was here for work reasons. Jeanette had come along Just Because. They were staying in a hotel by the Flagstaff Gardens, not far from my place.

I met her after lunch on Friday and we wandered up to the Carlton Gardens and through to the museum. A nice cup of tea and a potter around the ground floor and then we wandered back to my place for a bit of a sit down, before heading to Moon Dog Doglands for dinner.

Moon Dog Doglands' main space is only available for private functions or when there are events at the stadium. The Jungle Room is available at other times but I had completely failed to take into account that it was a Friday night and that the Work Christmas Party Season is now underway. Fortunately we managed to snag a table for two and equally fortunately the limited menu that was available to walk-ins had vegetarian/vegan options available for Jeanette.

At some point, earlier this year, Freyja pointed out that upon reaching both our 2025 birthdays we would jointly have attained the Grand Old Age of 110 years old. We should have a party to celebrate.

So we did.

We hired one of the meeting/event rooms at the Queen Victoria Women's Centre, where Freyja works. We invited friends and relations. We organised catering through the Asylum Centre Resource Centre.  I organised cakes through Smith and Deli in Collingwood. Lindsey went and collected them. She and I visited Dan Murphy and the supermarkets. I bought Flowers. Visitors came, including Jeanette and Matt who had reorganised their weekend so they could stay in Melbourne for the party.

The food was lovely. We had ordered the ASRC canapés from lots of different countries' cuisines so there was food from Palestine, Syria, Kenya, Eritrea, Afghanistan amongst other places. Lindsey brought party pies and pastries. I brought sushi. We had lots of alcoholic, non-alcoholic and soft drinks, plus tea and coffee.

It was a lovely afternoon.

It was unfortunate that we had chosen the Saturday of the Black Friday weekend, but that is not an event that interests either Freyja or me so it hadn't crossed our minds. It didn't really matter, except that Chris, who had come from Macedon by car, ran up against lots of traffic, pedestrians and delivery drivers behaving wildly. And the trams were very busy. It was also unfortunate that it rained on and off during the day, so we couldn't use the top floor room that we had intended to use, with the wrap around balcony. We moved down one level and used the larger meeting room instead.  But apart from that, everything seemed to go well.

Freyja, Simon and me, on the top level after everyone else had gone home:

There will be more partying next weekend. Saturday will see the RMG Christmas party and Sunday is my actual birthday.

🚋🚊🚉🚅🚎🚂🚃🚄🚇🚆🚂🚃🚉🚈🚋

Public Transport is free across Victoria at weekends, starting yesterday when the new metro tunnel opened, until the end of January. Lots and lots of people, including Freyja and Simon, took the opportunity to go and admire the new stations. Lots of other people took advantage of the free trams, trains and buses to go out and about. I took the train to Alphington to go to the Sunday market but I do that on many Sundays - public transport is free at weekends in Melbourne anyway, for people with a senior's Myki card. The trains were busier than they usually are on Sunday mornings. I met Freyja and Simon at the market, before they went off on their Metro Tunnel adventure. I now have lots of delicious late spring / early summer vegetables ready for the week ahead.

Today is the first day of Official Summer in my part of the world. It is, of course, cold, wet and very windy

Tram Challenge (and half of the 96 route)

There are seven tram routes which terminate around where I live. Two down by the library on Collins Street, three at The District and two at the La Trobe Street intersection. I vaguely wondered where they went to at the other end. One I know, because it's the route that takes me to work; I get off close to the end of the route. Others I travel along bits of from time to time.

There are 25 tram routes in Melbourne. I decided that it might be fun to travel each of them, to check out the routes and to explore bits of Melbourne that I am not familiar with.

So one day, after work, I took the 86 to the end of the route, out by Bundoora RMIT, then rode it back to The District. Route 86 collected. I went to visit my podiatrist in North Fitzroy, then took the tram to the end of that route and then came back to the library. Route 11 collected.

I was telling Freyja and Simon that I had been surprised how much further the route 11 tram went beyond North Fitzroy, and by how leafy West Preston is. They said that when they travel the train lines they try to find out things about that line that they didn't know or which were of interest (such as how leafy West Preston is). A colleague at work asked me about the shops at the end of route 11. I hadn't noticed. I had just turned around and come back.

I obviously need to be more mindful about this challenge. No point doing it just for the sake of it. I decided that I would take photos of the end points of the tram lines and actually take the time to look around. 

Yesterday Lindsey and I took the 96 to St Kilda and had lunch in Acland Street. We caught it from Batman Park, which I wasn't aware of and which is rather cute. I must go down and have a proper look at it. There's a helipad and it's by the Yarra River

It's not the terminus - it's about half way along the route. That's ok. I'll do the other half another day. It's not feasible to do all 25 routes end to end in one go and this is supposed to be primarily a fun activity and not an endurance test.

Anyway. We went out to Acland Street, which is the terminus of the 96. It's a very long time since I have been to St Kilda and even longer since I've been to Acland Street. There are lots of cake shops (it used to be famous for its cake shops), there's a branch of Readings (book shop), lots of cafes and restaurants and plenty of shops. It's also by the bay.

We had lunch in the Abbey Road cafe, had a wander around and came home on the #16 tram

Sunday Brunch

Julia, Travis, Young Henry, Baby Theo, Freyja and Simon came for brunch on Sunday morning.

Everyone gathered at 10:30 at my place.

10:30 is breakfast for many people on a Sunday morning.

What to serve????

Potato gems. Breakfast sausages.  Chicken tenders. Avocado and asparagus. Corn chips and salsa. Summer fruit platter. Toasted ciabatta. Non-alcoholic mimosas (I called them bucks fizz - I think they're effectively the same thing).

It was quite a lot more relaxed, for me, than a full three course Sunday lunch, mainly because I didn't do any real cooking.  All I had to do was grill potato gems,  sausages and chicken tenders in the air fryer, simmer the asparagus, prep the fruit and make toast.  We did manage to burn the last round of toast which set off the smoke detector. Fortunately no smoke got out into the corridor and we all managed to turn the alarm off without incident.

It was a lovely thing, Sunday brunch. Good company. Happy chatter. Mostly finger food. Then everyone went away to do afternoon things.

I went over to the District on Saturday afternoon to get the non-alcoholic prosecco for Sunday. There's a flower stall outside Dan Murphy's which had bunches of sunflowers available. I like sunflowers a lot and always think of Stella when I see them. They were her favourite summer flowers. So I bought a bunch for her. They are making my living room very summery

Brandy has discovered that the new, low shelving in the sunset strip offers an excellent view of the happenings on Harbour Esplanade

The verdant green of early summer along the harbour promenade:

Brandy and Whiskey have settled well into the apartment. We've been here three months now and they seem to have adapted to life as Flat Cats. My concern has been that they don't get the amount of exercise that they got in Mount Helen, either in my place or Lindsey's. (I, conversely, am getting lots more!) Whiskey is chunking on the weight. So I bought them a cat treadmill

Whiskey is treating it with exactly the same suspicion, derision and contempt that I would treat a treadmill, should anyone ever buy me one 😂  Brandy is largely ignoring it. I have it locked at the moment so it won't rotate. The guidance is to entice them onto it with cat treats - but they won't eat cat treats. I might try little bowls of grated cheese or even milk. If I can encourage them to view it as stable and safe - then I will unlock it 😈

Christmas has arrived at Victoria Point:

Thursday

I had arranged to meet Lindsey at 12:00 on Thursday. I jokingly suggested that we should meet "Under the Clocks". I knew she would know what I meant. I think every Melburnian knows what that means. But Flinders Street Station is a bit out of the way for both of us, so we arranged to meet on the steps of the State Library instead.

It was raining when I got there, and I was a bit early, so I retreated into Melbourne Central and had a little potter around while I was waiting

We took the tram out to Carlton and had lunch in Lygon Street. I haven't been to Lygon Street for ages, which is a bit odd because I like Lygon Street and it is not at all difficult to get there from my place.  Then back into town for a wander around Melbourne Central and The Emporium. And back to my place for a cup of tea.

🎄🎄 🎄 🎄 🎄 🎄

I am beginning to think that some sort of festival is approaching. I am not sure quite what gives me this impression:

Guarding the Bourke Street Mall

In the Spencer Street Food Hall

Guarding the Library at the Dock

At the sunset lookout on Harbour Esplanade

Also at the sunset lookout.
It looks like a purple Dalek from my
lounge room window!

The Myer Christmas windows are made of Lego this year and are very cute:

The Christmas Eve Myer Music Bowl
carols by candlelight the left
The Boxing Day test at the MCG on the right

This cat was in all the windows

This is not all of the windows. If you can get to Melbourne at a quiet time, they are worth a look

I bought a second shelf unit to put on the one I bought for the TV. The TV is a bit too low for my comfort but the second unit made it too high. It was almost as tall as the bookcase it replaced. So the TV is raised up on towers of books until I can get a shelf at an appropriate height, or have the TV fixed to the wall. I didn't want to waste the new shelf unit though, so on Thursday evening I put it into what I now call the Sunset Strip, for want of a better name

And while I was doing that, The Enterprize (sic) came into view for a brief visit

Thursday was quite a busy day in the end.

This was my early morning view on Friday, as I was getting ready for work:

Happy to report that the Marina Towers
were not on fire!

An Unusually Quiet Week

If you were to ask me, I would have said that the past week had been fairly quiet. And it is true that there have been some days when I haven't ventured out of the building. Monday, I didn't leave my flat. Today, I haven't left the building, although I have been down to the rubbish area and to the reception desk to pick up a package.

Even given that, I have been fairly -- if not busy then at least purpose-filled. I have embarked on a decluttering project, which I wouldn't ordinarily do a mere 3 months after I have moved in to a new place. But I am sorting through cupboards, moving furniture around, buying odd bits of furniture, reorganising things. I am also aware that I have brought some things with me that I don't need or don't want in my new space, and some things that I don't have that I would quite like. 

New TV shelf

The bookcase moved to the other side of the room:

I should perhaps have tidied
the chair blanket before taking 
the photo!

The flat is beginning to look a bit cosier.

You may remember my considerable dislike of the carpet in Eilish Court, largely based on the fact that cat fur stuck to it and was almost impossible to remove. The disadvantage of my hard flooring is that cat fur doesn't stick to it and blows around the flat. I move a suitcase yesterday which has been in its place for less than three months and cat fur blew all over the place. I moved everything out of the "balcony" on Saturday and thoroughly cleaned and cleared it. I moved a couple of things around on there today so I could put a new shelving unit in - and cat fur blew up from a floor that was fur-free on Saturday afternoon.

I am not going to carpet the flat but I am considering buying a rug for the living area. I have put a blanket on the floor in the bedroom to see how that goes. It seems to be going ok:

Whiskey likes it

I went to work on Wednesday and Friday as usual. Lindsey is now back from Canada and on Thursday she and I met with Freyja and went to look at the rooftop meeting room. Freyja and I jointly turn 110 this year and we decided to have a party to celebrate that milestone. Freyja manages the rooms at the Queen Victoria Women's Centre and suggested we use this room as the venue. And it's lovely, with a wrap around balcony and beautiful windows.

It will make a great party room.

The stadium entrance to the building is looking very summery

The hydrangeas at the street level entrance
aren't growing as well
and aren't flowering yet

And this was my morning view during the week, on a day when it wasn't raining:

It's Raining. Again! (Or perhaps "Still!")

I know that Melbourne's weather has a (well deserved) reputation for being changeable but the late spring changeability can be particularly taxing.

The Building's temperature control has been changed from warming to cooling, which was convenient when The Sunday Lunchers were here and the outside temperature was in the mid-30s. It is less convenient today when the top temperature is expected to be 14d. I have dug out a thicker jumper and my proper slippers. I am still a bit on the chilly side.

It rained all day on Saturday, which didn't help my ambition to close my activity rings every day. I didn't leave the flat, let alone the building and I think my step count for the day was less than 2500. I did make a good start on my late spring tidying/organising/decluttering project. I know I have only just moved in and I had a massive declutter before that, but there are things that already aren't earning their place here or that I look at and think I just don't want them. This, alas, is true of a couple of things that I bought specifically for the new flat. I rather wish I hadn't bought the sofa bed from Ikea. I should have just bought a sofa or even a couple of bucket chairs. I won't get rid of it just yet but if I am still unhappy with it in 6 months time I will rethink its future.

It had stopped raining by mid-morning on Sunday and I not only left the flat and the building but I actually left Docklands! I met Freyja and Simon at the Alphington market, where I acquired vegetables, milk, yoghurt, more vegetables,  cherries, lemons, cheese, butter. Then we went for lunch.

Freyja suggested we try Moon Dog World in Preston. I had never heard of it but am willing to give most places a try. It's inside a large warehouse and has a brewery attached. At which point I remembered that I had heard of Moon Dog brews. It was busy with parties and gatherings and fun things. But it is a large warehouse and there was plenty of room for us

It was a lot of fun. I would go there again. But there's also one on the other side of the Docklands Stadium which I would be happy to try. Freyja points out that it doesn't have a lagoon but it does have a small harbour outside so a lagoon might not be an absolute requirement.

It's been raining intermittently since Sunday lunchtime. It wasn't raining yesterday afternoon when Lindsey, who has returned from Canada, came to visit. We walked to the library where I returned my book and enjoyed a bit of sunshine. It was drizzling when we left to meet Freyja and Simon in Westgarth. We had dinner in a new to me Japanese restaurant which I rather enjoyed. It was raining with enthusiasm when Lindsey drove me home. She has borrowed Ziggy for a couple of days because her car key has gone on a little jaunt to NSW. Nobody was intending to drive Ziggy this week so it made sense for her to have it until her key returns home.

It is not actively raining at the moment and I do have things to do. I must make sure I leave the building at some point. I have restarted my "close the activity rings every day" project and so far today I am nowhere near accomplishing it. But it's only mid-morning. There is still time for today's rings.

I have finally finished converting the last  box of photos  into a digital format. I couldn't see any point in having photos in boxes which nobody ever looked at or thought about. I started this project some time ago and was painstakingly scanning them. Scanning photos is a mind numbing task which was made all the more problematic by my scanner's software. I don't have a scanner anymore so I finished the task using my phone's camera which was quicker, much more effective and made it significantly easier to edit them. I do still have some hard copy photos but none of them are in boxes

My next project, I think, will be to sort out the pantry and the closet. This won't be a very onerous project.  I've only been here for not quite three months so they're not full of rubbish. But they do need organising and the pantry could do with another couple of shelves. I need to go to Bunnings at some point.

(PS It's raining again. And the wind is whistling through the trees)

Another Sunday Lunch

I might have been a bit hasty when I said that I had finished the "Come and see my new flat" Sunday lunches. The Sunday Lunchers hadn't been - although I was thinking of them more as "It's my turn to host lunch, which happens to be in my new flat". There is a small number of other people who also haven't been. 

I carry on with the Sunday lunches.

The Sunday lunchers came yesterday. I had planned to make a beef and mushroom pie. The forecast was for hot and sunny, a top of 31d. Not really pie weather. But I carried on anyway and on Saturday made the filling, bought pastry and vegetables. Acquired fruit and ice cream.

Yesterday I made little frittatas, with asparagus and broad beans for the starter. I organised mango, raspberries and blueberries for the central part of the dessert. I had chocolate ice cream mochi and some Lindt chocolate thins to accompany them. I began to assemble the pie. I tasted the filling. It tasted -- um, odd. I added some extra bits and pieces and tasted it again. It still tasted odd. I am not serving an odd tasting pie to visitors. At 8:15 I headed to the local Woolworths. By 8:45 I was back with two chickens for roasting and some extra milk. There are advantages to having a supermarket a 7 minute walk away!

So the main course segued into lemon roast chicken, roast potatoes, snow peas, green beans and gravy. 

Right. Where are my visitors? If they were on the trains I expected them to be on, they should be here by now. But no sign of them. Hmm. I looked out the window and saw Chris and John wandering around Harbour Esplanade. Even from five floors up I thought they looked a bit lost. I rang Chris to let her know I was coming down. It turns out that she and John had turned right at the stadium instead of going straight on and had done a circumnavigation of Marvel. I am not sure how they got down to the Esplanade. Irene and Gillie had walked up Collins Street for some reason, instead of coming over the footbridge. So all four of my visitors were wandering around the Esplanade in a lost and confused way.

But all was well, after they had had glasses of cold water to revive themselves, followed by glasses of wine and plates of food. I think they will come again. They seemed to like my flat, as well as enjoying the food. And when it was time for them to go home I took them to the Level 4 exit and showed them how to get to the station across the footbridge. Much quicker than wandering all around the stadium or, indeed, coming up Collins Street. And they will know for next time.

It is just as well they came yesterday instead of today. It has been raining steadily since yesterday evening and the top temperature forecast for today is a mere 16d. I have come to think that Austin was right when he said that Harbour Esplanade was clearly badly designed when it flooded last weekend. I assumed it was because our drainage system isn't designed for tropical downpours. We haven't had a downpour, whether tropical or otherwise, this time, but the road is nonetheless flooded. Not as dramatically as last weekend but indisputably flooded

I do not think my visitors would have enjoyed walking about in cold, flooding rain!

Cloud above the NAB building

Friday and Saturday

I am going to have to sue Docklands for divorce on the grounds of misrepresentation. It promised me, promised I tell you, that it would be empty, bereft of people, silent as the grave, populated only by tumbleweeds and grey ghostly apparitions. It is so not true. There were people EVERYWHERE on Friday evening. It was bedlam outside. The trams were chockers. There were THREE party boats loading up with revellers. There was a concert at the stadium with some sort of British band. The Indian community was all off somewhere (the children were dressed in very cute party clothes but that is not the point). There were people milling about in fancy dress. Bedlam I tell you. 

It was entirely unacceptable 😆

I'm not sure what everyone was doing. It was, of course, Halloween. Oasis was playing at the stadium. I assume the party boats were hosting Halloween or Christmas parties. I'm don't know what the Indian community was doing but they were all dressed up in their very best party clothes and the children looked lovely. I really only noticed how busy it was because I was trying to move around on the trams and along the Esplanade. Once I got inside, I enjoyed watching it all from my windows. I couldn't hear Oasis, although some people posted on the Docklands Facebook group that they were enjoying listening from their balconies. I didn't really even notice when the concert finished and all the people went home. The online papers did have footage of hordes of excited concert goers going down the stairs to Spencer Street, singing Oasis songs, so I guess they weren't coming out on my side of the stadium. (They did yesterday evening. I was woken around 11:15 or so by LOTS of very happy concert goers pouring out of the stadium and tsunami-ing along the esplanade. That was not irritating. It was rather nice. What was irritating was the number of car drivers who appeared to think that if they relentlessly leant on their car horns, the rest of the traffic would miraculously disappear!)

Yesterday was a beautiful day. I went across the footbridge and went down those very stairs to Spencer Street to the Coles supermarket. I came back via the Lindt chocolate shop. After lunch I went for a wander along the Esplanade and the Newquay promenade, ending up in the wine shop and the Asian supermarket. I caught the tram home. It was all very sunny and warm and lovely.

I do need to get past the feeling that I am permanently on holiday, though. If nothing else, it is not good for my bank balance!

Summer holiday vibes -
Ice cream by the harbour

Looking from Newquay to Victoria dock

Brandy and Whiskey think they're on
holiday too

Wild, Windy and Very, Very Wet

They had been forecasting wet weather on Sunday for several days. There were even warnings at the tram stops, alerting us to bad weather on Sunday and to allow for delays and cancellations.

I checked the rain forecast for Sunday morning and it looked ok, so I arranged to meet Simon at the Alphington market and then to go for lunch.

It was raining very lightly when I left home. It started raining with a bit more enthusiastic while I was on the train. It was properly raining when I got to the market, and quite muddy underfoot.

I got most of the things I was after. I also got a bit wet.

There were a few people there. Simon tells me that the vegetable stall had been quite busy when he got there, although there weren't many people waiting once I arrived. 

Simon and I hopped in ?Ziggy, who had come out for its weekly adventure and went to Kissaten for lunch. It was definitely raining but they had their rain shades up and patio heaters on - most of their seating is outside

I came home on the train and decided to change out of my wet clothes into my nightshirt and dressing gown. It was only mid-afternoon but I couldn't see any point in putting new day clothes on. I pottered around for a bit, then settled down at the table and mooched around on the Internet for a bit.

It started to get quite dark. I went to see what was happening and found that it was very cloudy and very, very wet. There were fire engines dotted around, lights on. I think something was happening up at the stadium. The fireys all ran up the steps from the esplanade to the stadium concourse. And Harbour Esplanade was starting to flood.

The fire engines went away. The Vic Emergency app was enthusiastically pinging with emergency alerts.

And then, at about 4:30, this happened:

There's a road under all that!

It was all a bit dramatic. Fortunately, we didn't get flooded inside the building and the electricity held up. But it was definitely Weather!

By sunset (around 8pm) it looked like this:

I must admit that when I bought this place and saw that Docklands is in a flood zone, I assumed the danger came from the harbour and the river, not from the sky!

This morning it is still, quiet, sunny and a bit on the chilly side