A Walk in Armadale

A kangaroo gargoyle!

Town hall tower framed by tram lines

Sandra, her sister in law, Joyce, and I took a long walk this morning. The woman responsible for this lovely garden invited us in to have a look around when I complimented her garden. She was very proud of it and clearly eager to show it off.  The rhododendron in the upper right hand corner of the photo was huge; the homeowner estimated that it's 50 years old.

High Fashion at Flinders Station

Trying on a fascinator at Victoria Market

It's a holiday weekend for Australians. It's the 150th running of the Melbourne Cup, a big horse race. We decided to head downtown to soak in the atmosphere at the train station as people headed out to Flemington for today's race. Not exactly sure how it all works, but the most important race is Tuesday which is a holiday here. The well-dressed woman will don a fascinator (I'd never heard that word until today). I was talking to one woman at the train station and she said the real fun people watching is late afternoon when everyone comes home from the race. She said it's crazy to see all the well-dressed women drunk and stumbling with drooping fascinators and smeared lipstick. Actually, I'm glad we saw them at their best. Milena, too bad you weren't here this weekend --- you would have loved watching along with me! Joe got a little bored but I had a great time people watching.

A Walk in Brighton

Lots of these big, noisy magpies around

One of the many quaint houses with ironwork detail in the area. 

A view of the city from the docks of Middle Brighton Yacht Club

The iconic Middle Brighton bath houses.

I took a long walk this morning. It was very warm outside -- nearly 30 degrees. Ah, something I'm not used to -- speaking of temperature in Celsius. Is the U.S. the ONLY country that uses Fahrenheit to report temperature. Another surprising difference between here and home is the polite way to make room for  someone walking towards you on a narrow sidewalk. . . . North Americans instinctively move to the right side of the sidewalk, but here they move to the left side. I guess our driving rules transfer to our pedestrian rules. I've had a few near collisions, but fortunately I've jumped out of the way in time.  I'm so glad I'm not driving here though. I just hope I don't get flattened while crossing the street because I've failed to look right rather than left. 

All tennis fans will recognize the colorful little houses on the beach since they're often shown during the Australian Open. We were told that these little huts sell for about $200,000! There's no plumbing or water-- just a pretty paint job. (There I go again, mentioning the high prices here!)

Our 3 Male Street Apartment

We're very happy with our apartment. There are 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Twice a week they bring fresh towels and do a mini cleaning and once a week they change bed sheets and do a thorough cleaning, so I'm getting to be a lady of leisure as far as housework goes. Cooking here for me is kind of tricky because I don't have an especially well equipped kitchen (too bad there aren't cooks to go along with those housekeepers:). I'd considered doing a Thanksgiving dinner the week Scott and Milena are here, but sorry guys, that may not happen because of my lack of the right pans and ingredients. Plus, I saw a $68 turkey in the grocery store the other day! The range in prices of food is crazy. I bought bananas when I was with Sandra for $1 per kg and a day later saw them in a store for $3.99 per kg.  If we had a car we could drive further out and possibly find better deals, but I checked into renting a car for the 2 months we're here and it would be well over $4,000. The price of gas is high too -- between $4 and $5 a gallon. Joe tells me I need to stop marveling over the high costs of things here. One more example: I saw Baskin Robbins ice cream cones for $4.60 for a one scoop cone. I guess I need to just pretend it's Monopoly money.

Golliwogs

Saw these dolls in a shop window today. These are patterned after the originals from the end of the 19th century. At this time, Australia was occupied by the British and there were Egyptian laborers who wore armbands  with the letters WOGS on them which stood for "Working for Government Service". The British troops called these Egyptian laborers "ghuls" which is the Arabic word for desert ghost. The workers made little dolls like these for their kids then the British started sending them back to their families and called them "Ghuliwogs". That word morphed into the present day word for these dolls: golliwog.

Street Art

I was soaking up some sun in Federation Square this morning when a high school girl asked me to do a survey on street art. I told her I didn't know anything about it. Apparently the city wants to paint over all the graffiti around the city and these high school students are hoping to prove to the city that people like it. She told me where to find some of it and here are a couple of pictures of the artists' work. I think it's funky and interesting. I should have gone looking for that girl and done the survey.

Flinders Station

Took my first train ride into the city today. This is a picture of Flinders Station -- the biggest train station in Melbourne. Today I went to Melbourne Park (the tennis venue that hosts The Australian Open) and did cardio tennis. It was a very good workout for me; I was really tired and sweaty afterwards. People there were very friendly. I definitely will go again.

First Day Down Under

Our first sunrise in Australia was a beauty! This picture was taken from the cab. Our journey here was uneventful. It was, of course, a very long trip -- about 30 hours from Tim's apartment to ours. All went well with the flights. I watched about 5 hours of "Modern Family" on the long flight on V Australia plus a couple of movies. Was fed twice and slept about 6 hours. The premium economy seats were definitely worth having. Heard "no worries" said quite a bit by our Aussie flight attendants.

Yesterday we spent the day with Jim and Sandra Frederickson who've been here for about 5 years. They took us to several specialty grocery stores. Boy, things here cost soooo much more than at home. 

Last night I slept about 10 hours and feel much better this morning. Sandra's picking me up soon and we're going to set out to do some more errands and exploring. It's great to have a friend with a car!

One thing I must do today is get the correct adaptors so I can recharge this computer.