A la recherche du temps perdu

 My visits to Melbourne generally seem to centre around riding the trams and checking out the old haunts near where I spent most of my formative first two years in Australia. This last visit was no exception, and I was pleased to see both 51 Elgin St and 20 May St still standing and still where I left them. The former must still be a rental property, judging by the unkempt garden and peeling paint. The latter is looking very smart and proper, though still a tiny weatherboard cottage.

I have fond memories of my time in Elgin St, where I brewed my first drinkable home brew and built my first Newtonian reflecting telescope. (I started another one a while later in Tasmania, but after 30 years of carrying the half ground mirror around I somehow lost track of it.) I also clearly remember painting an enormous '51' on the gatepost in yellow paint, to assist guests finding the place when we held a big rowdy party there once. It's still there! It's been painted over with a more subdued green colour though.

One not so fond memory is of chasing the Norwegian party guest down the street when I realised he'd made off with my passport and other valuables. He ran into the nearby park and managed to lose me. Two days later the Swedish couple who'd been looking after him (also party guests) turned up and took me home for the return of the lost property (hidden up the chimney) and a grovelling apology from their kleptomaniac lodger. 

I went back to the police station and told them I was 'dropping the charges', because that's what they usually said on TV. "There's no such thing as 'dropping the charges'" the annoyed policemen told me. But without their star witness, they had to anyway. I'd told them who he was, so I hope they gave him a hard time anyway.

N

Eureka!

 Being a Sydneysider these days, I was only dimly aware that little old Melbourne had gone and built one of the world's tallest buildings. We try to ignore such silliness (except when it's us doing it). We got used to commiserating with people who lived in Melbourne ("Melbourne! - Oh you poor thing!") We still try to tell ourselves not much could ever happen in any other Australian city.

 I even turned up at the old tallest Australian building first, the Rialto south tower. I could see it had a taller cousin, but thought the view from its observation deck would be better, as it would include this new Eureka Tower too. But alas, they'd closed it a few months ago. Couldn't compete. 

So it was over to the south bank and up the 300m new colossus.

It is quite impressive, and it was a very pleasant and comfortable way to spend a couple of hours away from the wind and wet and cold that Melbourne can still dish up. It's 38 seconds to the 88th floor in the fastest lift in the southern hemisphere (against 30 seconds to the third floor that I'm used to at work!) The pamphlet tells me the building weighs 200,000 tonnes, has 3680 stairs and 52,000 square metres of glass, and the glass on its top ten levels is 24 carat gold plated. The Skydeck is the highest public vantage point in the southern hemisphere. (I'm always underwhelmed by these 'southern hemisphere' claims - makes it sound unnecessarily second rate in my opinion).

I saw the toy trains of Flinders Street station, the Spirit of Tasmania docked in Port Melbourne, the sports stadiums - including the sacred MCG - just to the east, the Dandenong Ranges in the distance, and every few minutes the intrepid tourists in the glass box that trundled out into space for the 'Edge Experience'. Wasn't tempted by that one.

N

Melbourne revisited

The skyscrapers have well and truly overtaken Sydney's, there are new parks, walkways, sculpture gardens, sports stadiums and exhibition buildings galore, plus a rather wacky but pleasant little space called Federation Square. A lot has indeed happened in Melbourne since I last explored the place. Best of all, the public transport has got even better and more convenient to use (with inexpensive go-anywhere tickets and new smart cards of the type Sydney spent tens of millions trying and failing to introduce).

It was a bit cold and windy, and some of the trams were annoyingly driving along the wrong streets (I used to drive the things, so I should know!) but it was well worth the visit. I should try to get back more often.

N

Travelling south

Off for a few days on a long awaited trip southward to reaquaint myself with Melbourne. I'd lived there for a while shortly after arriving in Australia many many years ago, and during my years in Tasmania I made inumerable work visits, but it's now actually about 15 years since I last went there and explored the place. They say lots has happened there.

Following the Princes Highway down NSW's south coast and Victoria's east I was able to check out for the first time the picturesque town of Bermagui, and then revisit equally pretty Eden, Orbost, and Lakes Entrance. Bermagui was the setting for the Billy Connelly film 'The Man Who Sued God', and I think I recognised the very fishing boat that God sank with his lightning bolt in the harbour there. (The insurance company refused to pay, as it was an 'act of God', but were embarrassed into settling anyway when he sued God instead.)

N

Why Westleigh?

And why not? It's a very nice place to live, after all. What with its neatly kept homes and gardens, quiet scenic streets, and its quaint, slightly out of date shopping centre.

We assume the name derives from it being west of Thornleigh, and it forms a peninsula jutting into the bushland. So there are walking tracks galore, birds, possums, exotic deadly spiders, lizards of various types, all competing with the 

neighbourhood cats and dogs. Westleigh is a child of the seventies, and in its early stage of development, "abounded in exhibition homes, which set the standard for housing elsewhere in the (Hornsby) shire" -  Mari Metzke, Hornsby Shire Pictorial History. The homes are indeed large and comfortable.

N & F

Anglo-Indian old folks at home

The day dawned bright and sunny as we prepared to host Shelley's 48th. Old folks and young arrived from faraway suburbs like Werrington, where Mum and Shelley used to live, and where Shelley's birthday parties were legendary. They were noisy, themed affairs with one party almost ending in an inferno, as the 'harbour bridge', dangling from the clothes line went up in flames, bringing Mum's Olympic Games to an end.

As most of the guests are older and slower, the parties have followed suit.  Nevertheless, we managed a large affair with dekchies of khana, lots of noise and party games that no-one quite knew how to play and where cheating was rife. Mum did her best to control her guests and get the games played in an orderly fashion, but in the end declared everyone a winner. 

Shelley remained Little Miss Uncongeniality until it was time for the cake cutting Happy Birthday ritual, when she finally thawed out and mingled with her guests. Later, she also enjoyed the ritual of opening her presents and having all the cards read out to her.  

Many of the oldies had trouble getting up and down the driveway. Nick had to physically assist many of them and there were several scary episodes involving the steps and steep slope. No doubt we'll do it all again next year, but hopefully at a venue that's more oldie friendly.

F 

Advance Australia where?

Well, it's been and gone.  The election that everyone predicted would be a cliffhanger turned out to be exactly that, and over the next few days the Independents and Greens will determine the fate of the major parties. While the election campaign was uninspiring and rather dull, the aftermath is proving to be anything but. This is the first hung parliament since 1940, and the journalists and broadcasters have finally got something to talk about.  

Nick and I went along to the Election Day carnival and found ourselves inundated with 'How to Vote' pamphlets, as per usual. Then Nick took his place at a nearby polling booth on behalf of the Greens, doing exactly the same to the afternoon voters, until close of the poll.

 

It will be a week or more before the final count is in and the horsetrading is over and we know who the new government will be.  The Greens have done spectacularly well, surely all thanks to Nick.

F