The Melbourne Star

The Wheel originally opened in 2008 and almost immediately closed again, allegedly because parts of it melted in the Melbourne Heat, although I believe there were other structural issues as well as the heat. Mind you, if something made of steel melts in Melbourne's heat that would suggest some significant structural issues!

It re-opened I think in 2013 or perhaps 2014. It continued to have a chequered and troublesome history until Covid got it  in 2020 and it closed permanently in 2021. 

And closed it remained, although it did, in fact, remain  - if nothing else as a noticeable Melbourne landmark

Somebody brave bought it last year and they have spent a considerable amount of time, money and effort restoring it. You may remember that we went to watch its lights being turned on a while ago. And I have watched it slowly, slowly, slowly coming back to life from my front windows. I can see part of it from my flat:

It opened for passengers yesterday. So Lindsey and I went to have a ride. 

The industrial giraffes in the Port of Melbourne

The Docklands Film Studio

Towards the shipping container port

Looking across Victoria Harbour and the river
to the bay, with the Bolte Bridge
to the right

I live in the building in the centre
of the picture

The Banksia building and Marina Tower

The City of Melbourne

It takes 30 minutes to do a circuit and I enjoyed it a lot. It is tempting to go again in the evening to see the city lights.

After our ride we had lunch in the Urban Alley Brewery pub in The District and then went out to Johnston Street in Collingwood so Lindsey could show me how to access her post office parcel delivery facility.

As well as the excitement of the Star finally coming back to life after such a long siesta, the Melbourne Boat Show also opened yesterday There are boats and jet skis and fishing things and water related things all the way along Harbour Esplanade and down the Newquay Promenade, and people wandering around and it's all busy and bustly and boaty. The historic ships are back too, although The Wattle hasn't come this year

The filming is due to start on Bourke Street again today until mid next week. Plus there's an event in the stadium tomorrow evening. 

No room for tumbleweeds or dust bunnies in Docklands this weekend!

Sunny Weekend

They're making a film in the part of Bourke Street which is across from me. It's a police thing set in New York. You might well wonder if it's set in New York why they would be filming it in Docklands. Apparently it's because that bit of Bourke Street could pass for New York and it's cheaper to film here and - oh, I don't know. Why not?

Anyway. That part of Bourke Street is closed to traffic and pretty much to pedestrians. I had a text message from the city council late last week to remind me that there would be event noises such as gunshots, explosions and vehicle noises and I should be mindful of my pets' health and comfort. I assume they sent it to people in this part of the city who have pets registered with them. My neighbours did not get it.

As it happens, my cats weren't particularly bothered. When loud noises happened they briefly looked up from what they were doing and then paid no further attention. I watched from my window from time to time.

I wanted to go to the supermarket to buy a mop and bucket. The flat mop/brush I bought when I moved in works excellently as a broom but quite badly as a mop. I couldn't go along Bourke Street because of - well, filming and gunshots and explosions. So I walked along the promenade. It was a beautiful, beautiful day. I came back along the promenade and sat by the water for half an hour or so, watching the boats and the rowers and the kids fishing. It was lovely. I was a bit surprised later when I looked at my activity app to find that it had me at the library and that apparently I had been there since lunchtime. I hadn't been to the library. I certainly wasn't still in it after closing time. It wouldn't let me adjust anything until I had left the library!! Fortunately, I could fix it when I went to the market on Sunday. The market is in Alphington and not in the library

The weather remained lovely on Sunday. Lindsey, Freyja, Simon and I went tov the market and then for coffee and Vegemite toast in a little cafe not far from where they lived in Westgarth. It was also the Melbourne marathon and they had perfect weather for it.The platforms at Jolimont Staton (near the MCG) were packed both when I was going to the market and on the way back. I assume the start/finish line was at the MCG. There were still lots of people running when I was on my way home.

I prepped some of the vegetables I had bought at the market when I got home and organised a few things. I did my daily puzzles, my Japanese vocab practice and my piano practice. It was a fine, sunny, relaxed and fun weekend.

I bought a cat toy that Brandy and Whiskey actually enjoyed playing with.

They absolutely loved it and kept asking for me to turn it back on, or to put it back after I took it away to charge it. Alas, it didn't come with assembly instructions and when I tried to put it together I tore the mat. When I tried to fix it this morning I broke it 😭. I've managed to cobble it back together . I've also sent for a new one. When that arrives (they aren't cheap!) I'm going to ask for proper instructions on how to attach the mat

It's been raining today, although it seems to be clearing now. In addition to the ongoing filming (although no gunshots or explosions are expected today) they are setting up for the Boat Show this coming weekend. 

It's all go in Docklands!

A Day in Docklands

Now that the clocks have gone forward for the summer, my twice weekly online Japanese classes have shifted from 7:00 to 8:00 so there isn't a real need for my alarm to go off at 6:00.  I have turned it off for now.

I tend to wake around 6 anyway, if not earlier. I don't usually get up much before 6, even if I am awake.. Yesterday I got up just after 6, fed the cats, had a cup of tea and did the morning online puzzles. No Japanese class yesterday morning.

At about 6:45 I stood at the window with a cup of coffee, watching the people rowing in the harbour

At 9:15 I left the building and strolled along the water in the sunshine to my 9:30 physiotherapy appointment.  I went to the nearby supermarket after that and then bought some sushi and went and sat by the water while I ate it. It was a beautiful and relaxed morning.

I came home, organised a few things, pottered around and then went out again, stopping for a chat with the concierge on my way out.

I needed to get some replacement gas canisters for my Soda Stream. I had thought about doing it online but it costs $10 in postage. It costs nothing to go into town and swap them over in an actual shop. It is also very slightly cheaper to buy the replacements in the shop rather than online. I live in the free city tram zone. Freyja works in the free city tram zone. There is a shop which sells Soda Stream gas canisters in the complex where Freyja's office is. There is also a Daiso, and I wanted to go to Daiso. I had arranged to meet Freyja for lunch and combine all these activities.

We had bahn mi in Freyja's office. I went to Big W and replaced my gas canisters. I went to Daiso and bought some more sticker tiles so I could finish the front window sill. I came back on the City Circle tram because it was a lovely day and I wasn't in any hurry.

I realised when I got home that the stickers aren't an exact match for the existing ones. They are blue and grey rather than blue and green. I'll go back and see if they have the green ones the next time I am in town.

I did some piano practice and some Japanese practice. I prepped some vegetables for dinner. I brushed the cat. I stirred myself to sweep up the crumbs under the table. I had dinner, watched some TV, and went to bed.

Throughout the day, a bit like a string of twinkle lights, there were work things that needed attention but nothing urgent or that needed me to do something rightnowthisveryminute .

It was a lovely day. Gentle, unrushed, unhurried. Sunny but not too hot (A bit on the windy side though)

Brandy had a good day too
And both cats enjoyed the sunshine pouring into the flat

Tram Challenge Route #58. City to Toorak

The #58 route runs for about 18km from West Coburg to Toorak.

This week allows for free travel on public transport throughout Victoria for anyone with a Senior's Myki card.

The forecast for today was pleasant.

So I met Wendy at the tram stop on the corner of Flinders Street and Queens Bridge Street, which very conveniently is where the #58 stops closest to me. (I think). It would have been even more convenient if I had got off the tram I was on at Market Street opposite the Immigration Museum. Instead, I absentmindedly went on the the next stop - which would have been very convenient had it been Thursday at 4:00, when I would be on my way to my Japanese class, and not 11:30 on Wednesday when I was supposed to be going on a Tram Adventure. I walked back to Market Street, where Wendy was waiting.

We were about half way along the route and decided to go to Toorak. It was an interesting ride. We went to school in South Yarra, so parts of it were familiar. However, the #58 goes along bits of the city that I don't know well, as well as along bits that I am more familiar with. I wasn't really sure where we were once we went round the back of the Arts precinct until we reached ANZAC metro station and Melbourne Grammar School.  Then things fell into place on my mental map.

As we passed through South Yarra and went on to Toorak, the houses got bigger, the trees more lush, the air more expensive. Toorak is like another country. I can't say it's a country I would particularly want to live in. It may be a very affluent suburb but it seemed a bit - well, dull really. (And it's just as well it's not on my map of Desirable Places to Live. I couldn't possibly afford to live there, even in a tiny room in a seedy boarding house, assuming that such things exist in Toorak.)

The tram terminates at Glenferrie Road. I have no idea why. There is absolutely nothing there. Just more very big houses.

Wendy was a bit surprised that we more or less hopped back on the tram to head back into the city. But there didn't seem to be much point in lingering. There wasn't anything obvious to do. Anyway. It was lunchtime and I was hungry. We went back to South Yarra for lunch. 

South Yarra seemed to be quite a bit more vibrant - although the Toorak shops might have been vibrant too if we had got off the tram to have a look.

South Yarra:

Hidden under this mound of wholesome healthiness there is a baked potato with garlic butter, bolognaise sauce and cheese. Very deceptive!

The weather was warm enough to eat outside.

Then we headed back into the city.

I'll do the other half another day. It goes past the zoo, so I could combine finishing the #58 route with lunch or afternoon tea at the zoo

There was a sign pointing to the Prahran market near where we had lunch. It is closed on Wednesdays or we might have gone and had a look; it wasn't all that far from where we were. However, I notice that two of the tram routes I haven't done yet also go quite close. I must remember when one of those routes comes up to go on a day when it is open

Another Week Gone, who knows where

We had rain last week. A lot of rain. A VERY lot of rain!

Harbour Esplanade flooded on the corner of Bourke Street again. And again. It is somewhat alarming how few vehicles slow down as they approach the water, pushing tsunami like waves up and over the pavement. How no-one has a massive accident is a mystery. Rest assured, however, that my flat is safe from flood waters and tsunami like waves. Any flood that reached me would devastate most of bayside Melbourne and probably the CBD as well.

I went to the physio twice during the week. My knee and hip are much better but not yet perfect. I'm going back this week.

I met Lindsey in the Mail Exchange for lunch on Thursday and went with her to Japanese in the evening.

I have begun sorting out my winter garden ready for the summer. I need to get another larger pot for my runner bean experiment and one or two smaller ones so I can plant my herbs in bigger pots. I have also finally, finally, finally put down the rest of the blue and green stickers I bought months ago along the window sills. I haven't quite finished but I have run out of stickers. I'll get some more, if they have any, the next time I am near a Daiso.

I put some sticky hooks up along the top of the windows, balancing on my step stool with some trepidation. One by one they all fell off over the evening and night, even though they weren't holding anything. I have put them back up with super glue. So far they haven't fallen off and I have now attached some fairy lights and a string holding the tomato plant up. I must plant the tomato seeds I bought when I got my ginger rhizome. I think it's probably warm enough now - although so far the ginger plant hasn't pushed up any shoots. I am resisting the temptation to uncover it and see if it is still healthy. Patience, Frances. Patience.  Such is the watchword of the good gardener.

Patience is also the watchword of the very new piano learner. I want to be able to play it properly NOW, but am a long way away from that. I am, in fact, still struggling to read the bass clef and apply it to the piano keys. I can actually read the bass clef. Once upon a very long time ago I played the cello (badly). I just can't seem to translate it into piano. It's a bit like when I was in school and deeply frustrated the sports teachers because I could map field positions onto a piece of paper absolutely accurately but I couldn't translate them onto the actual field. They thought I was being obstreperous. I wasn't. I really couldn't do it, or not easily and certainly not quickly. In order to be able to translate the bass clef into piano, I have bought a book filled with exercises for learning the piano keys and their clefs. Now I just need application. And patience.

It's a bit bizarre, though. I have absolutely no trouble translating the treble clef into piano!

The weather yesterday was glorious. Not particularly warm but sunny and shiny. I went to Geelong on the train. The Sunday Lunchers were meeting at Irene's place for lunch. And a magnificent lunch it was too.  Irene made a chicken, leek and ham pie. We had mini pavlovas with raspberries and blueberries for dessert. But the absolute star was the entree. Gillie had found farm fresh, fat, new season asparagus at a farm shop and we had platefuls of them with melted butter to start. There is very little that beats farm fresh, new season asparagus (unless it is the aforementioned asparagus with new season baby broad beans and/or peas).

It was a lovely afternoon with good company as well as good food.

Then Gillie took me to the station after lunch, with a brief diversion along the beach road so we could see the sea. And my train journey home was entirely uneventful. Quite a change from the last time I tried to come home from Geelong on the train, which you might remember terminated rather abruptly at Wyndham Vale from where I took a bus to Werribee before catching a suburban train back to the city.

I had thought about doing a tram route today but the afternoon is half over and I haven't. I also haven't cleaned the flat, which was the other possibility for today. Not that it takes anything like a whole day to clean my flat, but by mid-afternoon I have usually lost interest in cleaning. I have sorted out the rubbish and I've changed the bedding and washed the sheets and pillowcases. I've sort of tidied the kitchen. I have not sorted out the vegetables, which I bought at the supermarket this week because I went to Geelong on the train yesterday instead of the Alphington market. 

I cannot argue that today has been a particularly productive day!

And, having announced to the lunch table yesterday that I had already adapted to the change in the clock to daylight saving time (I sort of started on Friday and Saturday and it is, after all, only an hour's difference, such as between Eastern Standard Time and Tokyo time, or London and Paris time), having announced that, I managed to sleep in this morning. Fortunately, Brandy and Whiskey didn't notice. They are still on Standard time 😂

Long Weekend

Last week seriously tested my sense of time. Friday public holidays behave like Saturdays and throw the entire week out of kilter.

I was at work on Wednesday and Thursday, covering the desk for people who were away. Not only was I starting reasonably early but I also closed on both days. This meant that I got home fairly late (by my standards at least) and I also missed my Japanese class on Thursday evening.

When I came through the city centre on Thursday evening it was extremely busy, the tram was full, there were also people everywhere in Docklands. This was slightly mystifying until I remembered that Friday was a public holiday for the Grand Final parade, the teams in the Grand Final were both interstate teams so their supporters were in Melbourne for the weekend - and there was a concert at the stadium with someone I had never heard of but who the 20 and 30 something fans were definitely enthusiastic about.

It was a lovely evening so when I got off the tram I spent some time admiring the harbour both from the Central Pier lookout and from the ferry terminal

The view from the Central Pier lookout

On Friday Wendy came round and we went to Fiona's on the concourse for fish and chips for lunch. Fortunately, the weather was pleasant so we could sit outside. The weather was definitely not pleasant on Saturday. I woke up to find that the harbour had been eaten by a Fog Monster. It rained for most of the day. It was cold, gloomy and miserable. I think it wasn't too bad for the actual grand final but I decided that the day was a Stay At Home day and went through the closet in the entrance and my wardrobes . I looked at everything. If it hadn't been used at least once in the last year it had to argue very hard for its place in the flat. The picnic blanket argued successfully. I don't very often go on picnics but when I do a picnic blanket is a useful and pleasant thing to have. Most other things went to the recycle bin, the Free-to-a-good-home shelves or into the bin. Things that had only been used once or twice were carefully considered.

Fortunately, the weather had improved on Sunday. I went to the Alphington market in the morning, had brunch with Freyja and Simon and pottered around gently in the afternoon.

Yesterday Matt and Will called in early in the afternoon. They have now finished closing down Will's flat in Flagstaff, have handed the keys back and Will has bid farewell, for now, to City Living. They brought with them limes, lemons, oranges and ginger from their garden. My fruit bowl is full! (The ginger isn't in there. It's being carefully cosseted in the fridge.

I have created something of a monster with the Cat TV on the laptop. Brandy absolutely loves it. He jumps up onto the chair and stares intently at the laptop screen if there aren't birds and squirrels running around. If I happen to be using the laptop, he bashes my leg until I give way. I may need to get a keyboard guard though. He keeps standing on the keyboard and turning things off. Or on.

He is watching birds and squirrels in
a summer garden in Finland

I must get myself organised. I have a physiotherapist appointment shortly. My knee and hip have been VERY unhappy recently and this won't do at all. Back to the physio so she can sort it out.

Come with me on an afternoon walk in the sunshine

I had a choice this afternoon. 

I could (should) sweep and wash the floors, carpet sweep the rugs, dust the furniture, including the piano, and do several other useful things. 

OR

I could go for a walk to the river.

The sun was shining. It was a beautiful afternoon. I abandoned the useful things. I needed to go out and buy some flowers and a card, anyway, so I was being sort of useful. Sort of.

I set off and decided to go down a road I can see from my place but which I haven't ever been down. It goes along the other side of Docklands Park. I very often go along the Harbour Esplanade side of Docklands Park, most often on the tram but sometimes on foot. I hadn't been down this side - in fact, I wasn't really aware that there was a "this side" of the park. And there were LOADS of things there that I had no idea existed!

I had absolutely no idea. I should go exploring more often.

I reached the river just as the office workers were heading back after their lunch breaks, although there were still people around. I don't come over to the river very often. I more often walk around Victoria Harbour, which strictly speaking is an inlet of the river and then usually for practical purposes. Anyway - come with me for a stroll along the water:

 

The river runs from here through the Port of Melbourne to Port Phillip Bay, near to the bayside suburb of Port Melbourne. It is obviously cleaner than its proximity to the shipping and container ports would suggest. We often get seals in Victoria Harbour and in the river, and sometimes even dolphins, plus there are lots of fish and many sea birds.

I came home, having bought the flowers and card, to find the harbour shimmering in the spring sunshine.

The floors are still not swept. The rugs remain dotted with cat fur. The dusting is undone. And I don't care. I would say it could wait until tomorrow but I am working tomorrow and Thursday. It will all have to wait until Friday, which is a public holiday. However, Brandy is reminding me that he and Whiskey have absolutely no intention of waiting until Friday for their dinner 😹

A week in early spring

We are just about at the spring equinox in the southern hemisphere. It is getting light now when I get up, usually just before 6am. It is still light 12 hours later. We are almost at the change to daylight saving time. Summer is lurking on the horizon.

Sunset, from my lounge window

It was 27d on Sunday, plummeting to something like 13 or 14d yesterday. Proper spring weather (although 27d is a touch on the warm side for September!) It was a perfect day for the Docklands monthly market, which Lindsey, Freyja and Simon joined me for 

Morning light from my window

From the esplanade

Farmers' Market

A new Japanese restaurant has recently opened next to my local supermarket. I'm told it has been two years in the making, although I have only been watching it for a few months. Lindsey and I went to check it out on Saturday and it was lovely. It does do a proper menu but we chose from the more izakaya-like menu and shared skewers and sushi

There was more Japanese food last night. Ian was in town and sent out an invitation to Freyja, Simon and me to join him and Lindsey at Kinyoubi in Fitzroy.

I've recently been playing Cat TV programs on the TV. You can find them on Youtube. I've had to stop doing that. Brandy has been trying to get at the birds and squirrels and chipmunks and I could see me ending up with no TV and no cat! So I've been playing them on my laptop (wouldn't be quite as disastrous if the laptop was knocked over).

Otherwise, last week trundled along. Matt and Will called in briefly on Thursday. I went to Japanese in the city in the evening and did two first thing in the morning Zoom classes during the week. I went in to work on Friday.  I've been practising my piano, badly, and doing my daily puzzles, vocab practice and gentle exercises.  

It was quite a pleasant week, all told.

My lemon tree seems to be enjoying life too