BusTed in Melbourne 5 yep still here!!

Fun in Melbourne

The weekend came and we all headed into St Kilda Markets for the day.The Esplanade was lined with an array of creative people and their wares. It was a lovely day, blue skies, a crisp freshness in the air ....and then BANG out of nowhere pops Luna Park.......

totally unexpected....however with no volunteers to come on the rides with me, we kept walking down further to a street filled with crazy arse buildings...

 

 

 

and crazy arse people and crazy arse sidewalks... 

 

 

                                                            oh yes and more trams...

 

and shady looking characters.....

 

 

 and where's Ellen???????

 

 

well, she had the camera for the most of the day and here is a phone shot that I snapped, can you see her?????

 

 another great weekend with the family.

 

 

 

We are Blockheads

 

We have been watching the block on TV and, on a whim, decided to drive over and take a look. Well, I punched the address into the Navman  and off we drove in Shazz's trusty little Cruze....to Park street but the wrong suburb ....never mind.

We typed in the correct address and it was only 5km from where we were, on the other side of the city, woohoo I got to make a hook turn...which is, for the non Melbournians, a right hand turn from the left hand lane so as you don't get splattered by a tram.

Ellen even managed to snap a photo of us in action.

 

 

 

When we finally found the block, after driving past it several times, it was awesome.

 

 

we even met a couple of blockheads...Matt and Kim.

 

as you can see it's totally different from what is on TV at the moment.. they are 16 weeks ahead, the living wall gardens look fantastic.

 

Back to Shazz and Andy's for some r&r

oh, that's right, that's about all we do anyway

or is it ??? Meet Bailey, Shazz and Andy's Cavie. Soooo cute.

 

 

"Bailey plus park equals Walkies"

 

 

A lovely cool autumn day, for a splendid walk in the botanical gardens.

 

till next time

 

Ellen and Michelle

xxx

 

 

 

 



BusTed in Melbourne 4

Hello again,

Yes, still here in lovely Melbourne, not complaining, love to get Theodora back though. Starting to really miss her.

Michelle, Shazz, Bruce and Andy decided on having a golf game at Malvern Valley. They had a great time, not being a golf fan I got some good reading done. Bruce flogged them all and given that it was Michelle's 5th game of golf did well to come in second last. Aparently she has a bit of a Happy Gilmore slog.

We heard of a street sculpture exhibition at Toorak Village. Yippee more trams. The sculptures were great, make sure you read what's written on the bottom of the sardine tin, very funny. The exhibits came from people all over Australia as well as a couple of international entrants. We were particularly impressed by the Everest sculpture which is made of chicken wire, who has that level of patience? WOW. There was a large number of bronze sculptures which pleased Michelle no end, she loves bronze.

 Bruce took us to Abbottsford which is an old Catholic Convent which was run as a self sufficent  orphanage over 100 years ago. They ran a laundry which serviced many of the local motels as well as extensive food gardens which supplied the  kitchen's needs. Now it functions as rentable rooms for various practitioners including massage, reiki, and courses for drama and computers, as well as studio's for artists.

There are beautiful gardens crisscrossed with paths and a few coffee shops in which we partook of some macaroons, can't say I'm a real fan of them, very sweet.

Till next time.

Michelle and Ellen.

BusTed in Melbourne 3

Hello lovely people,

So, since we have all this extra time in Melbourne we may as well enjoy and immerse ourselves in it. First things first, visit the relly's. Yes, my lovely Melbourne cousins who we see very seldomly, yet being amongst them feels like home. I dragged Michelle into the wonderful craziness of my extended family for the evening and she now understands my fondness. Unfortunately, I missed photographing my cousin Paul who left before we remembered to get a group shot. It was such a lovely evening.

So it's back to Bruce's place in Malvern (Michelle's Brother) where we can jump on a tram back to the art gallery because... yipidy do dar... the  Monet exhibition is on!  Talk about great timing.

Even though we've both seen exhibitions of his work before, it was still magnificent. At the end of the exhibition they played a movie of photographs with music, showing his garden at Giverney and home. It was easy to understand his desire to capture such a perfect environment. I left feeling inspired to pull the paints out and capture Australia on the way around.

 In the main foyer of the gallery is a beautiful instillation. It consists of a shallow round pool of water which gently circulates and floating on top are about 30 porcelain bowls of various sizes which bump into each other and make sounds similar to chimes. So relaxing. 


Michelle was concerned by the unusual butt shape this female sculpture had, I guess we're all different shapes and sizes.

So back on the trams for more exploring, this time in true tourist fashion we boarded the free city tram. Old, noisy and gorgeous.

It took us on a loop of the city and we could get on and off where ever we liked. We've decided the free tourist link is a must do in every city we visit.

Afterwards we had lunch in Fed Square and the sparrows ate bread from our fingertips. I thought sparrows were too timid to do that but obviously they have been watching the seagulls and getting ideas. Very Darwinian of them.

Till next time

Michelle and Ellen.

BusTed in Melbourne 2

Hello again,
Theodora has now been placed in the tender care of Latrobe Valley Truck Works to do the final TLC to get her road worthiness certificate so we can finally transfer her rego.... Yeah. What a long journey this has been. So while she has her holiday in Latrobe we are reliant on foot power, public transport, Bruce's chauffeuring and Shazz's car.

On the way back to Shazz's we saw these potatoes, we had to photograph them especially for Kelly, who is the potato peeler extraordinaire and Jade who is well known for making mountains of mash potato for an afternoon 'snack'.

On the weekend Shazz and Andy took us to Apollo Bay, on the Great Ocean Road for a beach picnic. It was so beautiful, the road winded along the coast and the views were spectacular. We had a pit stop for morning tea at Anglesea, where we fed the birds and a shark.



Then along the Great Ocean Road..

 past interesting sculptures, (we got smiles from passers by with this one)...

spectacular views

and finally Apollo Bay.

Absolutely beautiful. The temperature of the water was well below swimming level though we dipped our feet in, how could we possibly resist. So nice to be on a beach again, I had missed the water. One last shot before I go... here's Michelle doing her Chariots of Fire impersonation.

Until next time, have a lovely life.
Michelle and Ellen.

BusTed in Melbourne still Week 1

Ellen and I head in to stay at my brother Bruces' place; he lives near the city at Malvern...this can only mean one thing trams, Trams and more TRAMS. Ellen loves Trams, her little face lights up and she has an excited little body shake happening,so cute., Our first big adventure is to go to the National Victorian Gallery..nice we are met by a wall of water at the entrance which makes for a beautiful photo opportunity.

When we ventured inside, it was just as we had anticipated.... a visual splendour and an excellent opportunity to immerse ourselves in a bit of Culture.............................

Here I stand in front of a most controversial painting.....did Rembrandt paint it or one of his apprentices????

Who cares its awesome.. I am going right out on a limb here and in my eyes saying the best in the whole gallery....I love it!!!!

......and for a bit of fun.

We then head up to Fed Square (we sound so local) for a look around and really soak up the atmosphere ...

all good.


Now... did someone say PARTY.?????

Thats right SHAZZ is 50

People arrive from near and far ,
by boat, by car....to celebrate this great day..,
see if you can guess
what are they in this dress,
 all starting with "S" ???

What a night.................till next time  lots of love from Ellen and Michelle

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