31/01/2022 Two Little Dogs: Melbourne

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We are the temporary custodians of two small dogs whose owners have jaunted off to find some sunshine,  Melbourne not being  noted for an abundance of the same.  Sunshine that is, not small dogs.  I haven't ascertained the small dogs per capita ratio of Melbourne compared to anywhere else, so I can't comment on that.

Pats please!
 

They are very nice little dogs: easy to look after, relatively well trained, and not shedding large amounts of hair.  They live in a luxurious abode with abundant space and a swimming pool, on a leafy suburban street with lot of opportunities for a reverse-challenged car to parallel park with a forward exit.  It's quite the change after our tiny flat in Sydney's inner west, even if some of us are suffering from FlightRadar withdrawal syndrome. 

In short order we found ourselves driving around Melbourne city, trying to avoid the trams and hook turns of which Melbourne has more than any respectable Queenslander would consider healthy.  Our daughter, who doesn't own a car, showed a distressing tendency to enjoy having her own personal parental ubers so off we went to the beach.  It didn't really matter which beach as long as it was one which was not easily accessible by public transport, and therefore one which she would not usually be able to visit.  Thus it was that we found ourselves at Black Rock for potato gems (daughter), gelato (us) and sunset (everyone).

It was one of those perfect summer sunsets, dressed in pastel and gold with a gentle breeze to cool the skin. Melburnians were swimming in benign waters while container ships paraded out to sea. 

I can recommend Black Rock for quiet sunset-watching activities. Be warned however, a rat lives in the bushes near the seat at the top of the bluff. It quite scared the living daylights out of us when it decided to say hello and have a tilt at scoring a potato gem or two. After a spot of leaping and yelling the potato gems were rescued intact and the rat retreated to swear at us from the bushes.

Rat dramas over, Daughter effortlessly found a shop which sold her a gelato twice as big as ours at half the price.  Feeling decidedly ripped off in the gelato stakes we dropped her off, fed the dogs, and went to bed ourselves.





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