While Not Working

Not having anything better to do on a rainy Thursday, the Beautiful Daughter and I rocked up to the Royal Melbourne Emergency Department at a truly uncivilized hour for a tedious but necessary blood transfusion (her) and a stint of moral support (me). This wasn't our first rodeo. We brought snacks, water, and phone chargers. BD brought her tablet and a list of preferred viewing. I brought morale-boosting bad jokes, chocolate, and a commitment to carry bags and make necessary food/coffee runs.   Melbourne Hospital ED was running like a duck: all calm on the surface and paddling like blazes beneath the surface.  Mind you, the drunks and wild entertainment were in short supply on a Thursday morning: Thursday morning was the prerogative of the sick, the sad, the elderly, and the mentally ill.  They clustered miserably in the waiting area, clutching painful body parts and vomit bags, while security guards prowled and flirted with the admission clerks and one young man conducte...

Bicycle riding isn't the only thing to do in Melbourne, and bicycle riding is most definitely not at the top of my daughter's list of Top Ten Things to do With Mother. To be honest, I don't think bicycle riding would make it into her top 100 list of anything. So, aided by Google, we wrote another list and now we have a whole heap of Cultural Things to do With Mother that will keep us busy for months at the rate of one per week. We started at the obvious place: the National Gallery of Victoria. Actually, we started by eyeing off the artworks in Federation Square outside the NGV.   There is always someone watching... .. .keeping an eye (or two) on you.   Once inside the Gallery there was time to sit and do some watching ourselves. With some artwork being creepier than others... A nice set of teeth, In the spirit of being cultured we went out for a night at the movies, courtesy of the Melbourne International Film Festival.  The film was shown at the cinemas in Central Melbou...

I was accosted in Melbourne's South Bank by a lady on a bicycle, wielding a notepad and a camera. "Can I take a photo?"  she cried.  "Your hat thing!  What is it?  I've never seen one!" I educated her about daBrim: sun protection for cyclists with no fashion sense. "I'm a journalist," she confided.  "For the South Bank News.  Do you like cycling here?  Melbourne is trying to move the cyclists out of South Bank - that would be terrible!" She 'interviewed' me about cycling in Melbourne, becoming visibly more and more excited as she discovered we were originally from Queensland (I want to move to Qld, so warm!) , itinerant ( now that's the life! ) and cycle tourers ( I've never heard of that! ). She was very enthusiastic and most excited,  informing me that my celebrity self would adorn the pages of the South Bank News in a short week or two. Papparazi aka SB News reporter.  Celebrities like me know that the best way to d...

Two small dogs went out for a walk one cold and cloudy morning.   They persuaded their person to take them early, because the forecast rain and wind would prevent later walks and if they didn't go for a walk they would just squabble all afternoon. D1 fought wildly at the end of his lead for the first 300m of his walk.  He snapped and growled and threatened and bullied while D2 grasped his own lead firmly between his teeth, ignored D1, and took himself out at a nice brisk trot.  Frustrated by being ignored, D1 excelled himself with fighting and snarling to the point that he pulled himself out of his collar and his person yelled his name very loudly which was quite shocking.  Before he knew what was going on his collar was back on and he was walking in dog Coventry without any chance of snapping at D2 at all. Once the magic 300m mark was reached D1&2 decided they would comport themselves like normal dogs, and everyone was happy.  They even got to walk ove...

In Melbourne my daughter was afflicted with feline paralysis, a devastating condition which results in periodic inability to move due to the presence of a sleeping cat (feline) on one's lap.  The feline in question was my new grandcat and I had no choice but to meet her as soon as possible on arrival in Melbourne. So I did. Roger immediately caught cat paralysis too.  It's very contagious. Melbourne turned on a beautiful morning for us to move into our next home. Small white boats floated on a blue silk sea and the cliffs at Red Bluff were reminiscent of the Fleurieu Peninsula. The good weather persisted long enough for us to take the dogs for a walk and explore the local area, before coming in miserable and reminding us that winter wasn't over yet.  The little dogs recovered from the trauma of being abandoned by their owners and transferred their fickle allegiance to us as soon as we fed them. Food and walks.  It's a simple life. I quickly realised that canine paral...

Doing a repeat house sit in Belair was almost like coming home: I already knew where the kettle was and where to go for my morning walk.  The comfort didn't last long sadly: I worked two days, spent another day cleaning and packing, and then off we went on our next adventure. You're leaving me? For all that there was so much to explore between Adelaide and Melbourne, as usual we just didn't seem to have the time.  Mind you, there was always time for a cup of tea, over which I showed Roger the Landrover on the pole at Keith and he was suitably minimally impressed.  The wind was cold and the sun was absent.  We had a very brisk cup of tea. Having ping-ponged back and forth between Adelaide and Melbourne quite a bit in the last 12 months, crossing the border didn't generate as much excitement as it may once have done  Ho hum.     Cold and cloudy turned into cold and rainy the next day.  We hightailed into Melbourne with a quick break for smoko a...

 I take back my comment about the Belair house being warmer.  The Belair house looks warmer because it has cosy things like carpets and lots of heating options - reverse cycle air conditioning, wood fire, gas heater, doors to shut between spaces. Except the doors have to remain ajar so the cat can get to it's kitty litter.  The ceilings are high, the floors are off the ground, there are large expanses of window, and I suspect a dearth of insulation in all the places where it matters.  Belair is also higher and consistently 4C colder than Hallett Cove, as reported by Roger who has monitored this discrepancy closely. I went to visit him at Belair and in no time at all I had my puffer jacket and beanie on and was looking for a couch blanket because the cat didn't cut it as a hot water bottle.  It was with great sadness that I had to say goodbye and take myself off to the warmer climes of Hallett Cove where work awaited me.  Yes, work slowly expanded when I wa...