Easter in Melbourne

G'day

I hope your Easters were all good. Mine was a mixed bag of fun and a bit boring, all with a backdrop of beautiful blue skies and temperatures in the low 20s - not bad for the equivalent of late October, northern-hemisphere-weather-wise.

The fun bits all involved getting out and about (more below), eating some excellent pizza, and moving to my new place in North Melbourne. I'm now in a self-contained flat on the ground floor of a three-storey house in a quiet lane just a ten-minute walk from the city centre. The bathroom's a bit grim (think bare lightbulbs and a toilet placed so close to the shower cubicle that you need to sit slightly sideways when using it) but otherwise it's noice enough - good thing as it's home for my last six months here. And on a day full of new things, I also had my second-ever coffee (the first was in 1985 at an intensive German day course where I had a cup of instant - strange the things you remember). Coffee is a Melbourne obsession and even though I don't actually like the smell of it, I thought I should give it a go as part of my Melbourne Experience (after building up to it over my first six months). Unfortunately, even with the addition of a sugar or two it wasn't my, er, cup of tea and I won't be rushing to order another latte any time soon.

And what about the boring bits? Well, traipsing round town buying bits and pieces for the new place was rather dull, plus most people I know were busy so I didn't really see anyone for half of the long weekend, but I did make a daytrip out to Williamstown, now a suburb of Melbourne but originally the new town's port in the 1830s before the Yarra river was deepened and ships were able to come all the way into the city. There's quite a bit to see and do, including some lovely old houses and some nice park and beach walks, but the most amazing thing to happen there (at least to me) was that I was unable to finish the portion of chips I ordered. In my defence, Australian chip shops work in a slightly strange way in that they cook each order fresh (no fish or chips sitting around) so have a minimum chip portion size to justify them heating up the oil, and that portion is pretty big (usually for 2-3 people). Still, portion size has never stopped me finishing a bag of chippy lovelies before, so I'm not sure what happened. I think I'll put it down to an off-day and hope that it doesn't happen again.


And now the moment you've all been waiting for - the photos!

Fitzroy Town Hall - built at the height of Marvellous Melbourne's 19th-century boom (a weekend or so before Easter I did a walk around Fitzroy and East Melbourne)

Lovely 19th-century East Melbourne homes - these would be worth getting on for a million dollars these days (around £600,000)

More lovely East Melbourne homes - and more expensive than the last lot

The house in East Melbourne where Joan Lindsay, author of Picnic at Hanging Rock, lived

Cliff has his second-ever coffee - is that a nervous grin?

Easter Monday - strange fog over Melbourne's CBD

Easter Monday again - strange fog (again) at the top of the Eureka Tower

On the boat to Williamstown - Melbourne's Docklands

Williamstown's Clock Tower - the ball at the top used to rise and then drop at exactly 1pm to let ships in the bay know the time

View across the bay to St Kilda and Middle Park, where I used to live

Williamstown Beach

Williamstown Botanic Gardens

And again - looks like Beverly Hills

Cafes and restaurants in 19th-century buildings in Williamstown

Melbourne across the bay from Williamstown

Enjoy the royal wedding and g'bye for now!

Cliff

Eureka!

G'day

No, I haven't discovered whatever it was Archimedes discovered when he shouted 'Eureka!' (something to do with water I think), but I have gone up the highest tower in the southern hemisphere to enjoy the view. Oh, and it's called the Eureka Tower, hence the rather strained opening paragraph of this post. Anyway, enjoy the pics!

Eureka Tower - 'Eureka' means 'I found it' but you'd have to be pretty thick not to be able to find this place. Most of it is flats but the top (the bit covered in real gold) has a viewing deck and a bar.

Floor 88, where you get out. Not sure why the shot is a bit blurry. Maybe excitement at being so high. Or lack of oxygen making me shake.

Sunset looking towards the LP office

Federation Sq, Flinders St train station and St Paul's Cathedral

Government House in the Botanic Gardens

The CBD

The MCG cricket ground (top left) and other sporting venues. The spire thing is the Arts Centre. The long shadows are pretty cool

Albert Park (that's it with the lake - it's where they have the Grand Prix) and Port Philip Bay. My old house is just behind that white building centre right (which is the sports centre)

CBD skyscrapers

The Arts Centre and MCG lit up

Melbourne at night. The long yellow lights at the bottom are the platforms at Flinders St station

And that's all for now.

G'bye.

Cliff

Picnic(less) at Hanging Rock

G'day and welcome to chilly Melbourne

I might have prematurely predicted the demise of my shorts (still wearing them) but now the clocks have gone back here there's a definite wintery feel - but that didn't stop me having a great weekend, after a hard week during which I pulled a muscle in my side making biscuits (don't ask).

First off I found somewhere to live. It's in North Melbourne, just round the corner from Victoria Market (of Night Market pig-out fame) and on the bus route to work (oh yes, 25 mins door to door). It's the ground floor flat of a couple's three-storey house and I move in over the Easter weekend.

And to make the weekend even better I headed off with J and M (names reduced to initials to protect their anonymity) to the famous Hanging Rock (off Picnic At fame). Before we experienced the mystery of the rock though we went for (the most expensive) lunch (I've ever had) in a lovely town called Kyneton. It's quite an arty place, with shops selling nothing but relishes, and trendy galleries/shops that would be more suited to Hoxton than a small Victorian country town, and the restaurant we went to fit in well with this general artiness. All the produce is grown in the chef's garden and even though it was pricey it was also excellent - locally-foraged mushrooms (luckily they didn't pick any poisonous ones) on sourdough bread with poached quail's eggs on top; home-made gnocchi with pumpkin; the chocolate pudding you see below; and some delicious cheeses. Plus my palate seems to have matured because I now can drink Chardonnay without shuddering (previously I could only drink Sauvignon Blanc without shuddering).

An arty-farty shop

Look at it. Just look at it. And the cheese behind too.

If you think I look a bit simple in this photo then I blame the chocolate pud

Annie's garden. And no, those upturned wellies aren't previous diners poisoned by the locally-foraged mushrooms.

We didn't go for a drink here.

And then it was off to Hanging Rock.

In case you don't know the story, there was a group of schoolgirls in 1900 who went for a Valentine's Day picnic. Three of them, plus a teacher, went for a walk on the rock - and disappeared. One of them was found a week later but had no memory of what had happened. The others were never found. But before you think 'wow, that's incredible' I need to add that it was all made up by author Joan Lindsay in the 1960s. Only she never admitted that it was a made-up story.

Anyway, irrespective of the truth or not of the story, the area is beautiful. Instead of just one 'hanging rock' it's more a hill of rock formations with a route to the summit passing several rocks that look like something else - the Cathedral, the Flying Saucer, Stonehenge. You need quite a lot of imagination to see these natural sculptures but it's still impressive and a little bit mysterious with great views from the top.

Do I look suitably scary? Or like an idiot?

Me and "J" at the summit (I still look a bit simple so let's blame the chocolate pud again)

Is that a Cathedral? Or a Flying Saucer?

The Hanging Rock itself. More like toppled over.

And the perfect finale to a great weekend was that there was lots of dappling on the drive back to Melbourne - my favourite thing in the world after chips.

And that's it for now. I'll keep you updated on the shorts front.

Cliff