Busy - In Bursts

After my adventures on the #19 tram last Thursday, I hopped on an #86 tram and met Lindsey in The Builder's Arms in Gertrude Street Fitzroy for an early dinner.

It's a long time since I was last in The Builder's Arms. At one stage it had changed its menu to Mexican or Spanish or sone sort of national cuisine and we just stopped going. I knew it had reverted to a more international/Australian menu but we had never checked it out. 

Last December Jim's daughter Jeanette and her husband Matt had given me a Good Food gift card for my birthday. I found it in my wallet when I was swapping everything into the new one I bought at Ambience (my Myki card nearly got thrown away but I realised it was missing in time!)

I checked the website to see where I could use the gift card and found that the Builder's Arms was one of the options. So we went there. It was extremely busy, to say that we got there at 6pm on a Thursday. We were lucky to get a table. The menu is quite small, mostly standard pub food. But it is a very high quality. My cheese burger was one of the best I've had and the chips were lovely. Lindsey thought it was a bit on the expensive side, but it was more or less in line with what we've been paying in other inner city suburbs' pubs. I  would go there again.

I did pretty much nothing on Friday. I have no idea where the day went. I did do some online shopping but I don't think I left the flat. I certainly didn't leave the building.

I did leave the building on Saturday. I went into the city, to Big W to collect a new soda stream. My previous one was still working but it was beginning to look a bit sorry for itself. I think it was probably around 8 or 9 years old. Stella and Tony gave it to Jim and me not all that long after we moved (back) to Melbourne and I've been here nearly 10 years. It was bent along the bottom and a bit tatty. Anyway, I decided to get a new one while I still have a work income coming in. After I collected it and visited Dan Murphy, I strolled back down Swanston Street and picked up some chocolates and souvenirs to take to Japan and came home on the Flinders Street tram.

It rained on Sunday. Proper rain. The first proper rain we've had in ages. It seemed churlish to be annoyed by proper rain but it did make shopping at the Alphington market a bit of a challenge. My tracksuit bottoms got very wet. I met Lindsey on the train and Simon at the market. Freyja was working so was unavailable. After buying vegetables, cheese, condiments, Lindsey and I both came back to my place. The rain settled down and then stopped so we walked around the harbour to have a closer look at the Steve Irwin Ship4Good. 

This boat is substantially larger than other boats around it, even the larger cruisers. The Enterprize was away for the weekend, so I couldn't take a comparison photo. But it completely dwarfs the Tramboat, which was around on Sunday lunchtime.

We had lunch in the Urban Alley Brewery, which was pleasant enough. It is a convenient pub if you happen to be over in The District shopping centre and fancy a pub lunch -  and much better food than the local Tap, which I do not feel the need to visit again, even if it is only a 6 minute walk from my place.

It had started to rain again while we were eating and a tram arrived at the tram stop as we approached so we hopped on. It's only three stops from there to my place - but it was raining and I had only just dried out from the morning's adventures. Anyway,  public transport is still free right across the state. Might as well take advantage of it.  (And we were in the CBD Free Tram Zone so that trip is always free.)

Today I have prepped all the vegetables I bought yesterday and tidied up a bit. I am expecting a technician shortly to check if the existing fittings for the bedroom blinds will accommodate the new blinds. I need to go to the supermarket at some point. And there is a meeting of the Garden Club at 6pm. It's supposed to be in the garden but I have a feeling that we may deploy the rainy weather location (in the foyer). It is not raining right now but clouds are beginning to gather.

And so another week begins. I am trying to impose some order on the days so that I don't wake up in 10 years time and wonder what I've done with all that time. I fear, however, that indolence and procrastination may well win 😆

Tram Challenge #19. Flinders Street to North Coburg

It is convenient when the tram challenge runs across somewhere that I actually need to go.

Not that I needed to go to North Coburg, but I did want to go to Barkly Square in Brunswick. I had ordered something to be picked up from the Kmart there. the easiest way to get there by public transport from my place is a tram into the city, then a route 19 along Sydney Road. I decided to do the entire route so I could add it to my tally.

I spent a lot of my young adulthood in and around Carlton, Parkville, Brunswick, Fitzroy, so the route is familiar to me.  I worked for a time in the Coburg library and occasionally in the Brunswick library. Freyja and Simon have lived around some of the bits of Brunswick that the tram passes by. It was fun. It was also a nice day for a random tram ride. I don't recall having taken the tram right to the end of the line before.

I am surprised on some of the routes by how little there is at the end of the line. What made anyone think to carry the tram line out to North Coburg? There is very little there. I would have thought a more natural terminating point would have been Bell Street. Which only goes to show how fortunate it is that I am not a town planner in charge of designing tram routes!

From the junction of Elizabeth
and Finders Streets

to Bakers Road, North Coburg

Back on the tram, heading back into the city.
It filled up as we reached Coburg and Brunswick

There wasn't much else at the terminus

I haven't been to Barkly Square for a very, very long time. I used to go there when I lived in Garton Street  and then in Pigdon Street in North Carlton. It has grown substantially since then. It is, in fact, a proper shopping complex with a large Kmart and a Coles and a Woolworths right next to each other. 

I am hoping to get a number of the tram routes covered this year. Public transport in Victoria will remain free until the end of May and then will be half price until the end of the year, which will cap my daily travel at $3. Mind you, it's only $6 at full (seniors') price. But free and a daily cap of $3 is even better

Things I've Seen and Done

Victoria Harbour continues to surprise.  I was working on something at my dining table when I looked up and saw this:

I was definitely surprised. I was surprised that it fit under the Bolte Bridge. I was surprised that the harbour was deep enough for it. I was surprised to see it at all. It absolutely dwarfs the Enterprize. It moved very, very slowly and eventually berthed next to the Enterprize.

I got my binoculars for a closer look and discovered that it is or was the Steve Irwin 77. And despite me wondering if it had somehow turned the wrong way and come into Victoria Harbour by accident, I found that it was here by design. Ship 4 Good

I was quite busy last week.

I went to the Fox for dinner on Monday evening. A small number last week; just Lindsey, Freyja, Simon and me.  

A leisurely stroll along the harbour on my way home

I went into town on Tuesday and played with a few shops and came home on the city circle tram, for no good reason other than that I could.  

This is a very dangerous shop!

Assaulted by a new wallet

I sat by the harbour in the sunshine for a while on Wednesday afternoon and went to my Japanese class in the evening. I did my online classes on Tuesday and Saturday mornings.  I do 5 or 10 minutes using the Drops app every morning:

Lindsey came round on Thursday afternoon for pre-dinner drinks.  

Sun setting behind the Melbourne Container Port

On Friday someone came to give me a quote for new blinds in the bedroom. All three blinds were quite frayed along their edges and one of the chain cords had broken. I might have replaced the lounge room ones as well but they're still in quite good condition and since the replacement bedroom blinds are almost identical to the existing ones there didn't seem to be much point at this stage. I'll do the lounge room ones when the need arises. The quote was quite good and I have paid a deposit for the new blinds.

I met Lindsey in town on Saturday for lunch and a wander around the shops. It was ANZAC Day so the shops were closed until 13:00. It was quite busy in my bit of Docklands in the morning. People were wandering around and enjoying the sunshine, other people were fishing. There were boats on the water. I got into the city pretty much on 13:00 - and it was packed. Absolutely packed. Too packed. After lunch and a bit of a wander around, we came back to my place for a cup of tea and an escape from The Madding Crowd.

Yesterday I met Lindsey at the Alphington market. Freyja and Simon had gone to Horsham on the (free) train so weren't available. Lindsey had come in her car; I went back to East Melbourne with her and then borrowed the car for the rest of the day. for I was on my way to Macedon for lunch with Chris, John, Irene and Gillie.

Macedon was packed. People had gone by (free) train or by car to admire the autumn leaves along the Avenue of Honour. There were parked cars everywhere. I know that Macedon and Mount Macedon are both very beautiful when the autumn leaves make their appearance. but so are many other places. I do not know what the special attraction is that Macedon holds.

Fortunately, there was parking outside Chris and John's place and we had a very convivial afternoon with delicious food and plenty of conversation.

Today I have done very little. I have done some ironing and I have prepped all the veg that I bought yesterday I have taken the food scraps down to the dehydrator. I have done almost none of the other things that were on my list of things to do. I have brushed Brandy, but only because he practically insisted.

There won't be very much to put on my "What I Did Today" list at this rate.

Having been surprised by the arrival of the big dredger, I was also surprised when it immediately disappeared again

I was about to take the rubbish down shortly after it arrived, when I noticed a little tug boat turning the dredger around. I watched for a bit but had to get on with things so took the rubbish down. When I came back, the dredger was gone. I wondered, briefly, where it had gone and then more or less forgot about it. I figured it would turn up again eventually.

The Enterprize came to play instead

I noticed, on Thursday afternoon, that it was beginning to get very dark, very early. I looked around to see why and noticed that both cats were sitting up and looking intently out the window. I looked too. And decided to shut the windows. They don't open very far but there was rain sheeting in, almost horizontally. Lindsey had not long got back to her flat after our tram adventure to Port Melbourne when the rain hit. The storm had reached East Melbourne. It was quite an intense  and short lived storm. It was also very localised, mostly around the city centre. Reservoir, which is only about 10km away, didn't get any of it.

The rain did not clean my windows (although it did wash some of the dust off).

After the storm

The weather yesterday was lovely. So I went for a walk, along the harbour and round to The District. I needed to go to the East West Supermarket and also visited Woollies while I was there. 

Glow in the dark marker buoys
outlining where the Central
Pier used to be

Pontoon boat with more marker buoys ready to
go out

Friendly neighbour

Marina

And I have found the dredger. It's over by the new tower blocks which are being built at the end of Collins/Bourke Streets

That makes sense. It did seem odd that they would go to all the trouble of bringing it into the harbour only for it to turn around and go straight out again.

I met Lindsey in The Quarterhouse for an early dinner.  She had come back from Ballarat on the train and suggested meeting for dinner. In the event she came back on an earlier train and went back to the flat but came back into town anyway. The pub was busier than I had expected it to be. It's usually fairly quiet on Sunday evenings. I had forgotten that the football season is back underway and there were matches in the stadium. Plus, it broadcasts sports events in the main bar.

We sat in a quieter, out of the way corner where it was much calmer

I was a bit surprised over the weekend to find Whiskey sitting on the cat tower. Brandy often sits on it. Whiskey - almost never.

It's a glorious morning. The sun is shining. There is no wind. The harbour is as calm as a millpond. I should consider the possibility of getting dressed and going out somewhere!

Tram Challenge #109. Collins Street to Port Melbourne

The 109 route runs from Port Melbourne to Box Hill, past the flat in East Melbourne and also past Victoria Gardens, where Ikea is located. Lindsey had suggested that we take it to Box Hill yesterday. I thought, given that the weather was rather nice, that it might be an idea to go the other way to Port Melbourne. So we did.

We picked it up at the tram stop outside Southern Cross Station, on the corner of Collins and Spencer Streets. I think it's about 3 or 4 km to Port Melbourne from there

Most of the route to Port Melbourne follows the old railway line. You can see remnants of it, especially where it becomes a light rail track rather than a more usual tram track. Some of the tram stops look like former stations. The final stop clearly is a former station. The ferry to Tasmania used to leave from Station Pier (it now leaves from Geelong) and cruise ships still stop there. I think naval ships might also use Station Pier - there was what looked very much like a naval vessel berthed alongside it. The container port is now on the other side of the river, in the Port of Melbourne.

You can see that the building was once a railway station

Waterside restaurants

Station Pier

Looking across to the container Port of Melbourne

Port Melbourne used to be a bit of a dive. It is not now! There are lots of green spaces and cute houses and expensive apartment blocks. I have only been there once in recent years, to visit Bunnings which is not by the ferry port. Many years ago I caught the ferry to Tasmania, which doesn't really count as visiting Port Melbourne. I will definitely go again. There is a large, sandy beach. There are restaurants and pubs and coffee shops. There are also shops, although we did not go and look at them. 

We randomly chose the Exchange Pub as somewhere to have lunch. And the food was lovely. The staff were friendly and cheerful - but also a bit pushed for time. There was a large lunch party in the main dining area and I think there were not really enough staff to cater for the rest of us. My food arrived well before Lindsey's, and the plate of seasonal greens we ordered didn't arrive until we were about to leave. They didn't charge us for them and apologised mightily. We brought them home and forgave the mismatch in the meal timings.  If I happen to be in Port Melbourne for lunch I would go there again

We need to do the Box Hill leg of the route now.

Victoria Harbour

 Well well. Look who's back:

It was here when I moved in and, checking back on the photos the estate agents took when they put the flat on the market in April, it was here then, in the middle of the harbour. It went away sometime in mid-October, just before the Boat Show.

It floated back in just before 8:30 this morning

Yesterday, for most of the day, there was a little pontoon style boat puttering around in the middle of the harbour laying out these white marker buoys. 

I watched them being laid out and eventually went out to see if I could see what they were doing and what the marker buoys were for. I came back none the wiser.

Until yesterday evening, after it had gone dark. It turns out they are green-ish twinkling lights. I assume they are to prettify the harbour. Not sure how the dredger will cope with them. Unless, of course, the centre of the harbour doesn't need to be dredged this year.

There is quite a lot of activity on the harbour. The Enterprize went away for the weekend and came back yesterday. The aqua donuts have been pottering around. The ferry and party boats come and go. Private boats trundle around. There are birds and storm clouds, and the tide coming in and going out. There are people fishing from Victoria Promenade and other people wandering around. Dogs going for walks. I saw a siamese cat out for a walk the other day. Plus there are the festivals, celebrations, activities.

There is always something to watch

Last Week

So the week just gone wasn't really very much better than the week before.

The virus that had viciously snuck up on me proved to be particularly difficult to shift. It still hasn't properly gone away. It wasn't that I have felt unusually unwell, although I did have (and still have) a quite startling cough. I just felt bleurgh, listless, unenthusiastic. And tired.

So I didn't get all that much done. I did very few of the things I had intended to do. I did make it to my Japanese class on Wednesday evening. I made it into work, as planned, on Friday. I have done a little tidying and a little organising. 

And so life trundled very quietly along until the weekend. Not really a good indication of what I might or might not do if/when I finally retire. Must do better!

Things improved over the weekend. I still have the cough but I am beginning to feel a bit brighter and my appetite, which seldom deserts me for long, has started to come back. But it is a bit of a worry when there are roast potatoes left on my plate!

Lindsey and I went out to Victoria Gardens in Richmond on Saturday morning. We went in the car from East Melbourne. Normally we would go on the tram but I needed a new ironing board from Kmart (mine had dramatically collapsed while I was ironing a shirt - one of its legs had fallen off) and I also wanted a couple of things from Ikea. It seemed easier to go by car, or it seemed easier to return by car which necessitated also going in the car ;-)

I bought a couple of lamps  (one tabletop and one standard ) in Ikea and a saucepan. I got my ironing board from Kmart. Lindsey wanted to get things in the butcher shop, the greengrocer and from Coles. We had KFC for lunch in the food hall. And then we took Lindsey's stuff back to her flat and she delivered me and my stuff to mine.

New lamp, being cosy

On Sunday Lindsey and I met  on the train and then met Freyja and Simon at the Alphington market. I seem to have spent vast amounts of money at the olive oil stall. Plus I bought the usual vegetables and other stuff. Then Freyja and Simon drove us to High Street where Lindsey and I had lunch in Poke the Bear, which I wanted Lindsey to visit. I thought she would like it, and she did. Freyja and Simon couldn't join us. They were heading off to a show in the Melbourne Comedy Festival. Lindsey and I went to our respective flats on the tram.

So I did manage to get out and about over the weekend. So far today, not so much, although I could do to go to the supermarket. Which doesn't really count as getting out and about. It's a ten minute walk at the most from here.

I tell you what I did do. Do you remember, some time ago, I bought an Ikea cube (which I assembled quite easily) together with two cupboard inserts which I simply couldn't work out how to install? I was going to return them to Ikea but didn't get around to it. Every now and then I looked at them and thought I should do something about them. I watched YouTube videos and it seemed reasonably straightforward but they all used electric screwdrivers. I do not have an electric screwdriver. Mine are hand-propelled.

Last week I decided that I absolutely had to try. And I did try. And I succeeded. The cube with four open squares in it now looks like this:

I am quite pleased with myself.
The doors even open and close!

I am less pleased with the state of my windows, but I cannot think of anyway that I can fix that, before their next wash, due in June. Just as it was going dark the other day a storm blew in up the harbour. It looked spectacular. But I couldn't take photos of it for you because with the stormy sunlight shining on the windows, this is what we could see:

Right. Supermarket. Must get out there otherwise it will be bedtime before I know it and I won't have taken the soft plastics to be recycled or bought the stuff for tomorrow's vegetable curry, which I want to make this afternoon so the flavours have time to mature.

Easter Weekend

I had a fairly quiet Easter weekend, partly because I have had some sort of cold virus. It started about 10 days ago as a mild sore throat and a very mild headache. Didn't stop me going to the Long Lunch, or going out on the Sunday or even to the pub on Monday but by the Tuesday I had virtually no voice, a cough that sounds as though I've been smoking 5 packets of camels before breakfast, a runny nose and a general achy feeling, and a bit of a loss of appetite.

I don't think it was covid or RSV, but I don't have any testing kits so can't tell you for sure. On the other hand, if it was an ordinary cold I would have expected it to have gone away by now. I guess we'll never know, other than I've had some sort of persistent virus.

So I didn't do very much over the weekend. I went to my Japanese class and struggled to speak. I did the food shopping on Thursday and Saturday. But not much else

Freyja, Simon and Wendy came for lunch on Easter Sunday. I went to the garden and harvested lots of Warrigal greens and some river mint. I had some silken tofu and a vegan feta style cheese. I had some filo pastry. I made a vegan friendly not-spanakopita

I also made braised jackfruit, to which I added a Malaysian marmite sauce, which was strangely sweet. I checked the ingredients and was very surprised by the amount of sugar it had. I had, of course, checked the ingredients when I bought it but I was checking for vegan friendliness and hadn't noticed the amount of sugar. I added extra soy sauce and other savoury things to ameliorate the sweetness, but it didn't really remove it entirely. Next time I'll just add Vegemite if I want a yeasty umami  flavour. We had these with roasties and veggies. I was quite pleased with my not-spanakopita. It was tasty and creamy and flavourful. Not so sure about the braised jackfruit

Other than that I barely left the flat unless it was absolutely necessary. I feel as though today I should venture out a bit, get a few steps in, be a bit more active.

I had been planning to sit here 😆

Catching Up

I've been quite busy recently catching up on the things that I didn't have time to do before I went to Japan. I've had that hair cut, which I definitely intended to have done before I went away. I should also probably have visited Liam the Podiatrist before I went, although I didn't think about it until I was just about to leave. I visited him yesterday. I have also been and visited my optometrist, which I hadn't thought about at all until I got a reminder for my 12 month visit.

But how to get there? It turns out it's quite easy. Train to Clifton Hill, bus to East Ivanhoe.  My eyesight is stable. I still have no signs of glaucoma or macular degeneration. All is fine - and no need to buy new glasses.  Good.

I was in the pub on Monday evening at a farewell dinner for Emily, Andre and the children who are returning to Canada on Easter Monday. Lots of us turned up. We more or less took over the upstairs, undercover area.

Emily

Christian, with his new scarf from Japan

This was my walk home from the tram stop, along the harbour

It's not a long walk, only about 400 metres. Takes about 5 or 6 minutes, unless I potter along, stopping to look at things, enjoying the warm evening. It was just after 8:30 as I wandered through and there more people than I had expected sitting on the low wall between the path and the rocks, or on the bollards. There were a few people standing around. A couple of people fishing. It was all very peaceful and quiet and rather nice.

I am expecting a reasonably quiet day today, although I must remember to go to my Japanese class which resumes later this afternoon after 3 weeks off.  I have nothing else in the calendar today and then nothing until Sunday, which is Easter Sunday when there will be Lunch. Hopefully, a quiet few days.