December Adventures

A musical Prelude.

In about 1969 I went to see "Beyond the Fringe" at the May Fair Theatre in London.  The curtain rose to a stage with 4 bar stools and a piano.  Dudley Moore came on and sat at the piano.  He began to play something which gradually evolved into 'God save the Queen'.  This caused some confusion with the British members of the audience: do we stand or not?  Being in the Mayfair a good proportion of the crowd were American one of whom, sitting right behind us - from his accent (and attitude) likely from Texas - guffawed loudly about "the Limeys are all confused haw, haw".  For the second half, the same opening, but Dud's tune evolved into the Bar Strangled Spanner.  The Wacko Kid behind us was far from amused and jumped up, while all the Poms sat and laughed.

The relevance of this will come later.

On a theatrical note I find that just about every literary cliche in English comes from Hamlet, apart from those in the Scottish Play by the same author.  Refer to previous paragraph.

We took ourselves to Hamer Hall for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) offering The Messiah. I had carefully opened my email at the message linking to our tickets: but it didn't work so I had to go down stairs again to get printed tickets !   Not happy!

The Hall itself looked very good, even with an empty stage.

By the time it was due to start - or even a few minutes after - the place was almost full: one set of 6 seats up where we were in nose-bleed territory was empty but every other chair was occupied.

I don't think this was the full MSO: a couple of trumpet players wandered in and out from time to time and the soloists were yet to appear when I took the photo.  There were enough musicians for what was needed!

Once the music started I was surprised how many of the tunes (or as people who know might say, melodies) were familiar.  (Remember the reference to Hamlet?)  Initially people clapped after each song, but this gradually stopped, although "Unto us a child is born" got a loud reception.

At the interval Frances pointed out a service pooch in the area for folk in wheelchairs etc.  It seemed very happy in its work and ignored the toy.

The story about Beyond the Fringe relates to the most well known part of the Oratorio.  In the US everyone stands up for it, but as far as Frances and I knew, this was not a tradition in civilisation (although google seems to suggest it is). Things have changed: nearly everyone stood, including one person in a wheelchair and the person associated with the companion pooch (who handed out a treat when pooch stayed sitting).  The performance was very very good and got a deserved ovation.

Get thee to the poo ponds.

Many folk have been seeing an Oriental Plover on Beach Road at Avalon, which I think is part of the Western Treatment Plant (WTP, aka poo-pits).  We attended on the morning of the 15th of December.  It was good to finally meet a frequent Mallacoota eBirder there, but we couldn't find the bird among the Herefords and their residual product.  Here is the scene sketched by Frances sitting out of the wind in the car, with the You-yangs in the background:

So after about 45 minutes we took ourselves off to the T-section ponds at the pits.

We were greeted by a huge flock of Australian Shelduck - my guess was at least 500 birds.  I couldn't work out how to take a photograph of them, either in the air or in the ponds, so didn't.  A little later we came across a large flock (again I estimated 500, but I think that is probably conservative) of Red-necked Stints.  

I noticed one rather larger bird in the photograph, which I couldn't identify.  On seeking advice it turns out to be a Curlew Sandpiper, some of which have straight beaks, rather than the down-curving ones which give them their vernacular name.

Back at the paddock the Plover was still not available.  The farmer had turned up and advised those present that it sometimes went into the next paddock (which had much higher grass, which would make the bird invisible if sitting).  As I was not feeling 100% I took a picture of a Banded Lapwing and a couple of cow flops and we went home.

Bourke St and nearby.

On the 16th we had an appointment at the Bourke St Office of the company which handles our Superannuation and Pension accounts.  The building is very upmarket, and they have a large space on the 42nd floor.  It has nice views, to the Bay looking South:

and the Dandenong Ranges to the East.

There was also a good view across the Port to Williamstown, but for some reason I didn't snap that.

After a pleasant meeting with our new adviser (Jess) we split up with Frances heading for the Queen Vic Markets and me towards Swanston St.  It was astonishing to see the crowd looking at the Myer windows: my guess is the queue to join the line actually looking at the scenes was 300m long.  Pass. 

As I was walking down Swanston St I noticed the entry to the town hall was done up a bit. Some dudes in black suits and black ties were hanging around. The sign in the image says "Closed for private function". Being of a curious nature I asked one of the black suited gents what the function was: the State Memorial for Allan Moffat. A worthy recipient of the honour IMO.

My destination was the My Mac shop on Flinders St.  They seem to be an independent shop specialising in Apple products and I wished to acquire some earbuds.  The place was pretty busy but the staff seemed to be pretty focused on keeping things moving.  I was intrigued to see this affable dog behind the counter: it was sitting behind its owner who didn't appear to be visually challenged.

Going (a little) South

We went to Mentone Optical to collect my Swarovski Binoculars which have been having a trip to Austria for repairs.  I decided to test them out with a trip to Ricketts Point on the way home.  

It is economically impossible ($7 an hour) to park on the beach in the Bayside hegemony so we park in the burb across the road.  Unfortunately I turned in too soon so we had to walk about 500m along the beach, towing my telescope trolley.  This was unpleasant as the sand was very soft and the rotten seaweed had attracted many flies.  

There were quite a few waders around.  The 4 in the back were Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, with a Red-necked Stint in the foreground.

A hunting Sharpie.

A Darter and friends out on the point.

A few expected species were missing but due to the flies I didn't hang around but went and got the car, leaving Frances to guard the trolley etc.  The drive home was OK although the cyclists (and intermittent parked cars) were a pain.

It being a Wednesday there were a lot of sailing boats visible from the Winter Garden.  A flotilla with colourful sails had largely vanished into the port by the time I had collected the camera.

This collection were out in the bay off St Kilda.

Here be Tigers

We need an additional armchair for myself.  The solution was to take a tram ride or two to Ikea in Richmond.  It was pretty warm in the trams even though they had AC going full bore (my phone told me the temperature at Olympic Park was 37C).  The 109 along Collins St was pretty full and once past St Vincent's Plaza (ie into Collingwood/Richmond) the passengers became grittier - lotsa tatts and body piercings - but not the demented clientele I remember from this route in the past.

Business was done in Ikea with relatively little fuss.  As the chosen chair was in the warehouse I had to go to the info desk to sort that and was helped by a coworker (not, please note, a  team member).  It was interesting that the ordering process ended with a message "Bra jobbat" which my memory worked out meant 'good work' but my coworker (a) didn't see it, and (b) had no idea what it meant.  (I wonder if coworkers generally realise that 'Hej' - on the back of their shirts - means 'Hello'?)

Out into the street and see the Skipping Girl.  

When looking for an apartment we had looked at the one with an arrow.  But someone put in an offer before we could get serious.  Well done that buyer: the location was so inferior to 505 (and the asking $$ was - from memory - about $400k more.  

We enjoy being close to the trams on St Kilda Rd, but I think the 12/109 route is a bit too close to this place!