Melbourne Adventures

On Bastille Day I took myself for a walk along the North Shore of Albert Park Lake and past MacRobertson Girls School (which seems to be referred to, for efficient use of breath, as Mac Rob) to the tram stop at Toorak Rd.  It is about 4.5km including the stretch from 505 to the Pavillion.  Here is the route. For those interested in other sorts of efficiency than use of breath, the sight of these 4 cranes all set up on the Pits (and it is metaphorically 'the pits') site offers scope for thought.  As nothing on the site is more than 3 m high why do they need 4 cranes with a lift of about 20m each?  (Possible answers include: the rain might cause buildings to grow very suddenly; and someone's brother-in-law had 4 cranes not otherwise engaged.) There must have been more recent rain than I was aware of as the water level in the Lake seemed to be a bit higher than it has been recently (good) but the water - especially in the SE Conservation Ponds appeared to be more t...

 This trip arose from the imminent Soccer World Cup Match between Norway 🎆🎆 and England 😢and follows my quiet celebration of Belgium dismantling Team Mango.  From the internet I found that a store trading on Bridge St, Richmond as Purvis Beer offers Norwegian beer.  I had never been to that area so an exploration seemed to be in order.  Here is the route as it emerged.  I am intrigued that Google Maps suggestions all began with the bus on Punt Rd/Hoddle St while I would have thought the sequence of trams 72 and 78 would have been far more efficient and pleasant, although #78 is a less frequent service than many routes. Getting off the bus on Hoddle St at the start of Bridge St I found an odd little plaza with several sculptures.  No idea why this site is so blessed. This gives a view into a car park and is simply labelled 'Opus 15' 1995 Adrian Mauriks .  The late sculptor has a pretty good CV and has done some interesting works. An historic places p...

 We decided to take grand-daughters to the Melbourne Zoo today.  In an improvement on yesterdays effort Public Transport delivered us to their apartment in the CBD with NO problems.  Hopped on the 19 tram and all returned to normal after 1 stop.  "Please leave the tram. It can't move until a mechanic repairs it." So we wandered up La Trobe St and hopped on a 58.  (A minor problem really, as we would have had to walk a similar distance from the 19 at the other end.) Somewhere along Royal Parade a group of people with loaded up wheel chairs got on the tram, including this small person driving herself, very competently.  Obfuscated to block evil AI face recognition. She looked somewhat youthful to be in charge of such a device and in answer to my question, one of the larger people said she was 4 going on 5!  I tendered my congratulations. Once into the Zoo our first animal was a secret Dingo! I am fairly sure #2  was a Lion.  We saw 2, surprisin...