Christmas Eve in Melbourne

Tim and Olivia should be home in a couple of hours from their 2 day tour of the Great Ocean Road.  They were lucky to have good weather. Wasn't super hot, but it's been sunny. I just heard on the news that Queensland is so flooded that there are lots of cars stranded on some highway in that state due to roads covered with water and pavement disintegrating. They were interviewing folks stuck there and they're not too happy about the long delay(since yesterday apparently). One guy said, "Try spending a night in a ute (pickup truck) with the windows up because of the mosquitoes." Sounds miserable! We, on the other hand, had a fun day. We took the train into the city just to soak up the atmosphere there. I thought I'd take pictures of us on the train platform and on the train. We've gotten all over the place these past 8 and a half weeks using trains and trams. I have to get a picture of the Australian Open tram! We snapped some photos of Federation Square and we walked through the free Australian National Gallery of Victoria and practically had the place to ourselves. I must admit, if I were at home, the last thing I'd be doing on Christmas Eve is going to an art museum. This is just an unorthodox Christmas for us this year. I haven't bought a gift, baked a thing, sent a card or decorated anything. When Tim and Olivia get here, we're ordering Thai food for take-out. I did buy some Christmas truffles. That's my one and only Christmas purchase.

Middle Brighton train station. 

We pass this everyday just before we get to Flinders Street station. It's the AAMI and I don't know what it stands for

but I know it's where they have soccer and "footy" which is Australian rules football.

Overlooking the Atrium from inside the NGV.

A day of bicycling

Today was the second time Joe and I have rented bikes and done this trip, and just like the last time, I forgot my camera! Olivia took a couple of pictures with her phone and emailed them to me, but her phone's battery was about gone, so I didn't get many. It was a gorgeous day -- finally-- and we were out in it pretty much every bit of it. Tim and Olivia didn't have enough sunblock on and they're burned, but being young and from a North America winter, they're happy to have the color and are hopeful that it will all turn to tan. We tried to warn them about the powerful sun here.
Anyway, about our trip today . . .  we went from Federation Square to Docklands where we finally found the Webb Bridge. The skyline picture includes Etihad stadium where big events are held as well as Australian rules football. Unfortunately the AFL season was just ending when we got here, because we would have enjoyed seeing a match. It's now cricket season, but I just don't see that being a sport I care much about. Apparently, Boxing Day (which I know is the day after Christmas, but other than that, I don't get what that day is all about) there will be a huge, important (to those who care) match between England and Australia.
The other picture is of the sculpture "Cow up a tree" by John Kelly. I just learned (love the internet!) that he was inspired by papier-mache cows that some man named William Dobell was commissioned to make during WWII. He was to move them around airport bases in the hope of fooling Japanese pilots (it's not clear why this would fool pilots!). Anyway, John Kelly liked these cows then imagined them being washed away in a flood; thus the "cow up a tree"
We then continued south along the bay to St. Kilda. Tim ordered an iced coffee at a nice outdoor spot along the beach and it came with a scoop of vanilla ice cream in it. He didn't expect that! Conversely, apparently if you order a milkshake here, it means milk with syrup mixed together -- no ice cream.

A Golly of my very own

I posted about these Golliwog dolls the first week or so of our visit here, so I won't repeat what they are, but I have a new story to tell you about them. When Oprah was here a week or two ago, the newspapers reported that while she was in Melbourne, she'd be visiting the Royal Arcade where there's a toy store which sells these Golliwogs. The article stated that the Oprah producers asked the store to take the "Mammy" doll, which has a yellow scarf around her head and a yellow and black dress, out of the window because they thought it would offend Oprah. I was in this store yesterday and the store owner told me that none of that was true. They had already had their window displays planned for the holiday season and the color scheme was pinks and silvers and there would never have been a doll with a yellow and black striped dress in that window. So, another example of how you can't believe everything you read. The shop owner did tell me that Oprah bought a golliwog. Here's my golliwog, Maisie.

Tennis at Melbourne Park

We headed to Melbourne Park to watch the finals of the Australian Open wildcard play-off. We were watching the women's final between Jelena Dokic (a name and face I recognized) against the #2 seed whose name I now can't even remember. Dokic had won the 1st set and it was 3 all in the tie-breaker of the second set when it just started pouring. We had umbrellas but still got pretty wet. They decided to move the match indoors to a court that didn't have great viewing so we left. You can see the black clouds looming in the picture.

Maroondah Reservoir

We went to this park and reservoir and Jim and Sandra were amazed at the difference in the water level. They had never in their 5 years here seen the waterfall of spill-over water. All this rain has made for pretty waterfalls but I could have been happy with weaker waterfalls and less rain!

Yering Station for lunch then on to Domaine Chandon

Healesville Sanctuary

A koala with insomnia! We actually watched him jump from one perch to another.

This Tasmanian Devil was racing all around like a crazed devil--Ha ha!