Posts

Albert Park and Nearby

Image
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...
Post a Comment
Read more

A trip to Tiger Territory

Image
 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...
Post a Comment
Read more

What a Zoo!

Image
 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...
Post a Comment
Read more

Yarraville and Seddon

Image
 One of the aspects of Melbourne which is intriguing is the number of suburbs of which I had never heard before buying our apartment.  We only became aware of Yarraville when reading about the Melbourne Circle (a set of walks in a circle around the CBD).  Seddon had an even lower profile - I only realised where it was - between Yarraville and the centre of Footscray - from street signs on this walk.  The visit was part of our Melbourne Stations Project. Before getting to the walk we did it is necessary to comment of the process for getting there.  We decided that the best route was to go to Flinders St Station and take a Williamstown train to Yarraville.  On getting to Flinders St we were told by a helpful staffer that we would have to get off at North Melbourne and take a bus due to track work.  Bugger: we should have taken the Metro Tunnel from ANZAC.  The bus trip was appalling: very crowded and slow as we dodged around suburban streets. ...
Post a Comment
Read more