A Geelong break

It is amazing how time disappears while you achieve nothing. In the morning of the full day I stayed there, I popped out into to the heat every so often to check the cars on display. It was a stinking hot day, back in Melbourne 37 degrees. 

I visited a cafe where I ate raisin toast with coffee. I was to meet Sister for lunch and I misread her text message and so I turned up at the venue for lunch as she turned up at my hotel foyer. It only took five minutes for her to get to the restaurant. We had been seated in a kind of an alcove with about six tables. But there wasn't direct cooling, so we asked to be moved to the main area where it was cooler. Our lunch at the wool museum building at Black Sheep restaurant|gin bar was very nice, with great service although at bit too much checking with us that everything was ok. Once is acceptable. 

We had a couple of hours to kill between lunch and seeing Jo perform. We went back to my hotel and Sister started to watch cricket but I think it was one sided, so she decided to shop for Christmas gifts at the nearby shopping centre. I thought I would have a swim in the hotel pool and I had brought my bathers and rashie but again time disappeared as I did nothing. It was time to meet Sister on a street corner and walk to where her car was parked in secret parking space. She didn't buy anything for Christmas and decided to visit charity shops to buy gifts. 

Oh god, it was even hotter as we stepped out of the car at the venue. Pray the school auditorium has air con. It didn't and we sweated our way through the terrific abbreviated show, The Newsies, which was about newspaper street sellers going on strike in NYC in the 1920s. The show was 90 minutes and I was pretty relieved to get out into the fresh air that had cooled down from 39 degrees to 30. Yes, I am biased but Jo shone in her role. Great acting, singing and I didn't know she could tap dance. 

Sister drove me back to my hotel and was going back to seeing the 7pm show with Jo in a different role, that is after she had a bite to eat with her wife Bone Doctor. I was back at the hotel for happy hour again, another glass of wine and four oysters.

After a big lunch I wasn't very hungry so I returned to Hecho en Mexico and bought a take away taco this time, rather than dine in. 

Unusually the check out time was 11.00 the next day, rather than 10.00, which meant no rushing in the morning. I had coffee at the large shopping centre and then fronted the hotel desk and told staff, 'I am ready to leave, 'can a boy bring my car to front door please'. The 'boy' turned out to be a young Moslem lass with a headscarf. Such is Australia, and I like it that way. With a stop off at Routley's Bakery on the way, I was home by 12.30. 

I will post car photos in another post. This is my hotel room.

On the very hot day children were walking along this water flow.

Happy hour made me happy.

From my hotel balcony.

This must have been at Hecho en Mexico. I've never seen Melbourne hot sauce before. 

Cunningham Pier. 

The bar at Black Sheep. 

Hotel water feature.

Looking away from the sea to Brougham Street and the shopping centre.

This lift did my head in with no ground floor. Floor 1 was ground floor. You should have to go up to get to the first floor. 

I was a bit emo

I had a nice weekend away. The hotel was not that posh but quite nice, and on the Geelong waterfront. Unbeknownst to me until an hour or so before I left home there was a huge car show right in front of the hotel and it was crazily busy. The waterfront area is great with many places to eat that aren't over the top expensive. 

I'll put up photos in a another post later. As I drove to Geelong, the Friday afternoon traffic was hideous and it took much longer to get there than I thought. I had taken food with me, including breakfast cereal and cutlery, along with wine and soda water with which I water down my wine, but I forgot milk. I visited the nearby supermarket to buy some and bought a packet of crisps. The hotel had a happy hour, from 4 until 6, so I bought a glass of wine and along with four $3 oysters Kilpatrick. Delicious. I had eaten so many snacks, I wasn't that hungry at dinner time, so I went to the nearby Hecho en Mexico and dined outside on a single small chorizo taco. A cool breeze had arrived and I felt a bit chilly while outside. I futzed around on my tablet while half watching tv in my room that evening and I slept well, in a king size bed on my own. I'll leave the rest of the stay for another post. 

But what seems to be happening is that I get upset when I am away from home without Ray. It happened last weekend when I was a away and again this weekend. I am pretty good at home, but my grief seems to bubble up when I am away from home. 

Kosov seems to be staying here rent free. I don't care. He is a sweet guy and good company. I can't remember how it arose now but, "Kosov, look at my clothes in my wardrobe. Look at my unironed winter shirts I've been wearing. Look at all my beautifully ironed short sleeved summer shirts that I am now wearing, ironed by Ray". I burst into tears and he pulled me in with a comforting hug. My embarrassing emotional outburst was over quickly and I apologised. I should not have lain my grief on him. 

Some of you will have experienced grief at the loss of life partner, and some of you will. Your responses and how you cope with it will be different to mine but you have to remember, none of us are the first person to go through this. It is part of life

I have no more time away on the horizon until the new year when I will stay at Sister's to look after her cats, and perhaps that is just as well. 

Travelling East, Part II

The lakes are very extensive and singing in my mind, 'a three hour cruise' alarmed me a little. Yes, most of you will get that. 

Before so, my host drove me around a newly developed area, which I thought was terrific but underused, for now. It won't always be, and just wait for the summer tourist influx.

The cruise with the commentary was terrific. We paid with cash and the lovely attendant did not have change and said she would deliver it to us later on boat. We said, don't bother. She offered us a Mel Bag Tag instead. I took up the freebie offer and paid $10 for another to give to Phyllis and Kosov. I had also bought them chocolate in the morning when we had coffee. I correctly guessed they would really like a souvenir. 

There was free instant coffee available, and tea bags, along with a bubbling hot water urn. At some point a huge hot scone with jam and lashings of cream was served.  (I've always wanted to insert lashings of something into a post and never had the chance since I last read a Famous Five book)

We were informed about many things involving the waterways and surrounding land and one fact among most I've forgotten was the area had the highest Aboriginal population in the state before the white invasion. 

We arrived back home around 4.30 and took a rest until we later went out for dinner to the local RSL club. The meal was ok although there was some bother about me wearing my hat indoors. I explained why and I was allowed to keep it. I was annoyed at about the way I was told and once back in Melbourne I sent a message to the club and received an apology. If you've forgotten, I had a melanoma removed from my scalp and there is a bare patch. Slowly its appearance is improving but I am not ready to expose it to the world yet.

The next morning we both set off in our respective cars to Paynesville and after meeting, travelled as foot passengers less than 200 metres across the water by a chain pulled ferry to Raymond Island. We walked the two kilometre koala trail walk and while I was hopeless at koala spotting, my friend was excellent. I couldn't even see some as she was pointing to them.

It took quite some time to walk the two kilometres because of the wildlife distractions. It was a terrific outing to Raymond Island.

We had coffee from a caravan near the ferry and I fortified myself for the journey home with a toasted sandwich and I took a break from driving at a service area at Officer South.

So, the day before:

There are a number of these timber carved sculptures along the foreshore, all war related. They are very well done.

A dredge can be seen in the distance. A lot of money has been spent in the main street along the foreshore and in a kind of marina area. This is to cater for the huge number of tourists who arrive during holiday periods and it seems there is space for numbers to increase. 

Here comes another dredge that I guess had been out dredging. No surprise there. 

A couple of young lads were crabbing near here.

The man made entrance has to be dredged to keep clear of sand. There was once another natural opening that often closed over, so fishing boats could not get out to sea. 

You can see the turbulence at the entrance. 

There were many seals next to the ferry, jumping out of the water but of the dozen or more photos I took, I did not get one of  a seal jumping from the water. A few were sitting on rocks.

The seal fin sits out of the water as the seal tries to warm or cool itself. 

 

Human made concrete point, that was in less than stellar condition but the cormorants liked it.

This sea eagle was sitting in the tree as I snapped, but it had taken flight, which made a much better photo.

The next day at Raymond Island.

The callistemon was past its prime, aren't we all, but what a great shape. 

A tawny frog mouth in its excellent disguise. 

Nein mein herr. I have a headache. I've never seen anything like this, although I've heard the sounds. Make sure you have yours on.

We were nearly back to the ferry terminal when a passing motorist indicated to us to look to the left, and a few metres away was an echidna, or a spiny ant eater. We would have missed it. It had no fear of humans, which they normally do and wandered around the feet of the rapidly gathering throng of tourists. Note its rear paws with claws that face backwards that enables it to quickly burrow straight down underground if threatened. Just wow!

I am again away for a few days where I will stay on my own in a quite posh hotel that I picked up for a good deal. Later babes...

Travelling east Part 1

The four hour drive to eastern Victorian seemed interminable. I stopped off along the way to check out the two houses I lived in as a teenager and for some lunch. The houses are modest but still existent. The second, a brick veneer, was built by my father. After we moved in, Step Mother wanted a dishwasher. It was not plumbed in to the sewerage system as it should have been but into the storm water drain because there was less digging and cost. That is bad, meaning the untreated caustic dishwasher water went into the nearest river. Not great work, Father. 

I pressed on. At Bairnsdale my body needed a break from sitting in the car, so I stopped for a wee time (go for it YP) and and took a street walk. A few spits of rain began. I set off and then the rain pelted down. The traffic slowed. There goes my nice clean car. Trucks sprayed water everywhere and I could see it was dirty water. Amazingly when I arrived at the home of Pants, my car looked clean. It was not to stay that way.

It was lovely to see her and after a short time we quickly fell into nattering away like old friends, as we are. I should have taken my luggage out of the car when I arrived. I went outside to do so and again the heavens opened. I sheltered in the carport. The next day, locals reported they had never seen such rain.

Pants had bought a posh bottle of veuve clicquot from Aldi and after chin chin, we ate her delicious fish curry and then watched an easy film called The Fall Guy. Ok, I did kind of watch it mostly because lead actor, one Ryan Gosling, was quite attractive.

The next morning, what a view and blue skies. 

 

Pants had also bought me a special cereal for the next morning, which with lots of fresh fruit and home cultured yoghurt, was very tasty. She gave me the remainder to bring home. Vogel, or something like that, and I ate some more the next morning.

Then we were out to meet blogger Sparkling Merlot for coffee at a rather interesting cafe come chocolate shop. Merlot was exactly as I expected, lovely, personable and interesting. I say the cafe was interesting because the owner can be overly friendly or quite rude. I think it might be his business schtick. A few weeks earlier a friend, who like me drinks black coffee, was asked if he wanted cold milk with his black coffee. He thought this was highly amusing. FYI, it is brought in a separate little jug. I was inclined to agree with him. 

But one of morning tea party wanted cold milk with her coffee, and Pants dutifully asked for a black coffee with cold milk. The owner replied, 'Can you make up your mind? Do want black coffee or not?" Process of elimination will inform you who wanted black coffee with milk. Each to their own. I do kind of get black coffee with milk on the side, that you can add to your own taste. It really was lovely to meet Merlot, who was a local near where many of my family live and now is a resident of where Pants lives. 

We parted ways long after we finished our coffee and Pants got on her telephone and booked us an afternoon cruise of the interconnected salt water lakes. But first, at my request, we went up to a lookout point, which Ray and I had visited in the past. It has now been very organised and no longer patchy grass and mud. It was still a bit raw in looks but it will improve. A sea eagle flew above. 

The distant sea gap is the entrance from Bass Strait to the lake system.

Infrastructure!

In the manner of the best stalkers, we drove past Merlot's newly built home with its feature rocks. I'll tell you about the lakes cruise in my next post. 

Unexpectedly good

I didn't know what to expect at this exhibition and it took a while for the theme to sink into my ageing brain. It was an exhibition by Reko Rennie, an artist I'd not heard of. Let the art tell the story and the longer I looked, the clearer the theme of Aboriginal rights, invasion of their lands and mistreatment became obvious.

I thought it was very well done and afterwards, HH, who volunteers at the Melbourne Visitor Information Centre, also saw it and thought it was very good, and  helpful to recommend to visitors.

I can't remember the connection between a Rolls Royce in camouflage and 'the cause'. 

Lots of neon was used.

Nice one.

Very clever.

I am heading east tomorrow in the motor car for a few days of a 'well earned break'. While there are Aboriginal inhabitants who I may come across, I am more afraid of the white people who I will meet there. I'll return soon.