G'day
It's a bit embarrassing to mention the bowling in the same sentence as illustrious landmarks of my adopted city so let's just get it over with, shall we?
In the on-going series of Christmas events I've been lucky enough to be asked to at work (rainy funfair party; team drinks and meal) last Thursday was the Melbourne publishing team's outing and they decided to go bowling. Yes, those crazy commissioning editors chose to celebrate the birth of Jesus by bowling, and not even ten pin bowling. No, lawn green bowling. Still, I was pleased to be invited along and good fun it was too.
First there was lunch and once the veggie burgers and meringues were polished off we were introduced to the art of bowling by Lenny.
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| Lenny explains what a bowl is - red face courtesy of either too much sun or too much beer |
After a brief run-through we were let loose and while some of the team seemed to have had secret lessons they were so good, this blogger shamed the good name of Wilkinson (apparently my grand-dad was selected for the English national bowling team).
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| Some of the better players (Glenn and Geoff) |
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| The worst player - I blame the glare from my two bottles of milk |
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And so moving on....
Having recently become a convert to markets (to visiting them, rather than actually shopping in them) I decided it was time to visit Melbourne's most famous - the Queen Victoria. Just north of the city centre it's pretty big and has everything you'd expect from a market including (my favourite) a huge cheese, bread and chocolate section.
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| Souvenir stall |
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| Snags (aka sausages) - I didn't buy any (unsurprisingly) but I thought northeners might enjoy this shot |
And so after buying some mini peppers stuffed with feta (sooo good) and some nice bread, I headed off (in the rain - again!) to the National Gallery of Victoria.
You may remember a previous photo of the outside of this place (not sure why I didn't go in that time) and me wondering what exactly is 'national' about it given that Victoria is a state, but anyway, this time I went in and spent an hour or two wandering around. It's split into two main sections - Asia and Europe and has a small but decent collection.
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| Chinese cup and statue |
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| Old Chinese art mixed with modern elements - worked pretty well |
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| It's Veronese darling. Obviously. |
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| Australian fashion is a bit behind the latest European styles |
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| No wonder rabbits caused so many problems when they were introduced to Australia |
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And so to some miscellany.
Tattoos - I thought the British were bad at having tacky tattoos but wow, the Australians like getting inked. And not just a small bird or even a celtic armband here and there. Oh no, we're talking whole arms and legs covered in tats. Pretty grim in my opinion.
Bruce the dog - and here to finish is my housemates' dog, Bruce. Cute isn't he?
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| Bruce the cute dog (he charges more to look directly at the camera) |
And that's it for now - Christmas, penguins and cricket to come soon!
G'bye
Cliff
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