When I first work up this morning I briefly thought I had to get up for work, but NO! I didn't! Wooh! I have a moment every Friday morning when I think I should be at work.
I picked up my sunglasses with new prescription lenses today. So happy to not be squinting anymore.
Guess what time my dental appointment was today? Two-thirty, of course! No fillings for me. I have tough teeth, Mrs Marsh.
We stopped at a fish n chip shop in Yarra Glen for dinner. The burgers were delicious...I'd go so far as to say mine was better than a Grill'd burger. It's a bit far to go for our regular Friday night burger though.
Rainy afternoon - the view from the lodge we stayed at
It rained in the afternoon both days, with thunder and lightning on Saturday. We could see the forks of lightning while sitting in the living area of the lodge.
Trees killed by bushfire
We set out to walk from the Mt Buller to the peak of Mount Stirling on Saturday, but it was hard going (for me anyway). The track was rocky and difficult to walk on and steep in parts, and it turned out to be a longer trek than we expected. I pulled the pin when faced with a long, steep incline that I just didn't have the legs for. (You know that mental note I made after walking up Mr Oberon in January about going to the gym more often? I have been exactly twice since. Still, considering I've had so little energy lately, I was pleased I managed as well as I did.)
Very tall/long fallen tree (hard to see the scale here) on the walk to Mt Stirling
Eye of the tree
Dead trees, purple undergrowth
The beautiful snowgum
A female mountain katydid...
We spotted this large insect (body about 3cm long) on the track on the way back home. It wasn't keen on posing for photos and kept turning around to try to get away when we stuck our cameras in its face. If you look closely at the photo below, you can see it has a faux face on its back end. Didn't scare us!
Bumface
I found out what kind of creature it is by coincidence. Very early on we'd seen another unusual large insect on the path with vivid blue and red stripes on its abdomen, which it was pointing at us, obviously agitated. I googled 'insect red blue abdomen' and the first picture I saw was of the insect above! Turns out the stripey one is the male mountain katydid and the brown one is the female.
Rocky whirlpool
Raven and dead trees
Raven and lichen
The view from near our lodge
Mailboxes beside the road between Mt Buller and Mansfield
I listened to Graveyard Train's Life is Elsewhere on repeat at the gym and on my way home tonight. It has a good beat for fast walking.
When I walked past the State Library there were people dancing to music coming from about a dozen ghetto blasters (proper old school ones) lined up on the front steps. One young guy appeared to be wearing only his undies and singlet. (I didn't take photos because I didn't want to disrupt my post-work out power walk momentum.)
Further along Swanston Street, the sun was sinking low and perfectly in line with with Collins and Bourke Streets so that the tram tracks looked like twin rows of gold disappearing into the light. I should have taken a photo of that.
Tis the eve of spring...and Gleeful's fourth birthday...and Luke's homecoming! I'm triply excited!
Continuing the trio theme, I saw a pair of ducks with their three ducklings foraging for insects on the bank of the Yarra this morning. I hope it's not the same pair of ducks I saw a few weeks ago because that would mean their brood is rather depleted.
I've bought two new albums this week. One is the new Gabby Young and The Other Animals CD, The Band Called Out For More, which is theatrical and almost operatic. The other isUnderneath this Big Striped Tent, the debut album of the quirky American duo Channing & Quinn. A big thank you to my friend Margaret for sending me a link to their album because she thought it would be to my liking. Yes, indeedy. I'd never heard of them, but after a few bars of the first song, I had goosebumps. Channing Lee and Gabby Young both have fantastic voices.
I wore a pair of my new boots at work today. They have pretty high (but solid) heels and a hidden platform, so I felt like a giantess (I'm usually 163cm). They're pretty comfy too, as high heels go anyway.
I had drinks with the girls from my old work last night. One friend who left the firm a few months before me was also there. We haven't seen her for ages so there were hugs and smiles all round. There's was no tasty lamb dish this time, but the $10 cocktails made that easy to overlook. Delicious fruity cocktails. Yum.
More Mali!
Here's a few more Mali sculptures. I think this weekend is their last weekend at large in the city before being auctioned off, so I probably won't get to see them all.
Bourke Street Mall
Southbank, the Clarendon Street end
I think I posted a pic of this one before, but I only
realised last night this is the Mali self-portrait
I had a beautiful view from my desk late this afternoon. The sun was low in the sky, reflecting off the city buildings against a backdrop of grey clouds. It was so golden and glowing. I took a photo with my phone, but it didn't come close to doing justice to the scene, partly because of the reflection from the lights in my office.
I made lamb stewp for dinner - a cross between soup and stew. This is the third time I've made it in the past few weeks and it was the best batch yet. I made the stock with lamb shanks last night and tonight threw in a heap of vegetables and the meat from the shanks. I also made parmesan and chive dumplings which I plopped in the pot to cook in the stock. They were yummy. Good, hearty winter fare. There's leftover too.
The heat has come back on in my building and it's nice and warm around the clock again. Aaaaaah (not so 'aaaaaaah' for the environment, however).
One week down in my new job (albeit a four-day one) and I'm pretty happy with my decision. It's a far smaller group compared to my old job, so I don't feel like a face in the crowd. A lot of the systems and procedures are simpler than my old job, which makes learning the ropes much easier. And I know I said it before, but the people are just so friendly - even the partners and the managing partner of the entire firm are friendly, talkative and jovial.
Luke and I visited Davey's Bay beach (Frankston) this afternoon. We poked about in the rockpools, but didn't see much apart from snails and seaweed. It was still fun looking though.
We stopped off at the Frankston foreshore on our way home, just in time to see the sun sinking into the sea.
My department moved offices over the weekend. I'm still settling in to my new workspace, but I have an even better view than before.
The partners gave the each of the secretaries a bunch of flowers and a Myer gift card to say thanks for all our hard work during the move. I got tulips with purple flowers I think I should know but can't name (some kind of bulb - a little hard to see in the photo). Pretty. I wasn't expecting it, but it's a lovely gesture.
Speaking of flowers, the little black and yellow daisies have sprouted in the grass along the river banks. It's spring! Warm weather is forecast for the weekend too. Yay! I want to get out and fly my kite.
Look at all this fungus! I've seen numerous varieties on each side of the path walking to work beside the river. Lucky I took photos when I did, because they've all been lopped by the council mower man now. (Mushroom murderer!)
Yesterday (when I was on late shift) was the first time I've been at my new job when it's got properly dark. It's so nice to look out and see the city lights all around. It really does help to ease the gloom of shorter days. There's too much reflection to take a photo unfortunately. Here's one of tonight's setting sun.
The Skywheel is back in town! It seems odd to bring it back for the cooler months, but I'm glad it's here.
This is the sun setting from my boss's office. Not the most spectacular sunset, but still quite pretty and a great view of it. More spectacular were the dual reflections of the sun bouncing off Eureka Tower and converging so that they looked like a second sun. Waaaait a minute. the sun was over there before. What's it doing over there now? it was pretty cool, but I didn't get a photo of that.
I have lots of fun stuff happening this month - lots to look forward to. I'm going to a comedy gig tomorrow night (taking potluck on what tickets are available), I've got a girlie shopping weekend with a friend this weekend, I'm seeing Mark Watson next Friday, then in the two weeks after that I'm seeing Daniel Kitson and the musical Next to Normal. I'd like to fit in a few more comedy gigs too.
I have been in my job long enough now that I can remember many of our eight-digit file numbers off the top of my head. This delights me disproportionately.
At the gym tonight there were program cards near mine for people called Zayne and Jay. I re-arranged them so they went: Jay, Jayne, Zayne. That just seemed right.
Daylight savings ends this weekend. Although I will be sad it's over, I'm looking forward to being able to see the sun set from my office window.
I was on late shift today (late = 9.45am start). I get to sleep in until 8.30 (hurrah!) and my 1.00pm lunch time comes around very quickly when I start a little later. I don't even mind working until 6.00pm because I'm really loving my job. I was feeling overwhelmed for a while, but now I've settled in and I feel like I know what I'm doing most of the time, I'm enjoying it much more. I feel a nice sense of satisfaction from successfully surfing that steep learning curve (so far...I'm still learning).
Me and J at Coles late Saturday night. Do I know how to
show a foreigner a good time, or what?
My US friend J has been and gone and it was fun. I enjoyed showing off my town to him and since the long weekend was all about packing in fun stuff (and none of the usual boring stuff that has to be done on weekends), it was like a little holiday for me too. I felt like I'd been away from work longer than three days.
On Saturday we watched half of the AFL Grand Final (Mark I) with the masses at Fed Square and the end of the game at the the Eureka Tower Sky Deck, which was almost deserted. A good time to go! We could see the crowd at the MCG and hear the roar of the crowd at Fed Square from 88 floors up.
Although the drawn game was anti-climactic, at least J can say he was in Melbourne for the historic 2010 drawn Grand Final.
After the game we strolled along Southbank as the sun set. It rained a little, but then there was a rainbow over the city.
Saturday night we ate a quick dinner in North Melbourne before seeing Dave Callan's Fringe Festival show, Woman. Back in the city, J loaded up on Tim Tams at Coles. He couldn't get enough of the chocolatey Tim Tam goodness.
On Sunday we went to St Kilda and ate breakfast outside at The Espy in perfect spring sunshine. The weather could not have been better. We meandered the length of the Esplanade market where J bought presents for himself and friends, and then along Acland Street, which was thronged with people enjoying the warm weather.
From St Kilda Pier
That evening we went to a threatresports show at Theatreworks on Acland Street, which was the first time I'd seen theatresports live. On Monday we hired a car and travelled the Great Ocean Road to Port Campbell. The weather wasn't as good as the day before, but it was still mostly sunny and we didn't get rained on.
At Sheoak Falls
It was beautiful as always, especially the lush green pastures glowing in the late afternoon sun. I think I almost like the rural parts of the GOR more than the seaside bits.
Another rainbow, near Port Campbell
Us and some of the remaining 12 Apostles
We ate dinner at a pub in Colac and then hit the highway for home.
On Tuesday it was back to work for me, but I met J after work for Philip Escoffey's Six More Impossible Things Before Dinner, which was very entertaining (regardless of whether you think he's a con man or a mind reader).
And then J was gone! Four days really isn't long enough to see Melbourne...
I am so full of love for Melbourne I could kneel down and kiss the ground, all Pope-like. I'll settle for giving the place a psychic hug.
After a surprisingly foggy start (above), our beautiful Indian summer continued. It was a lovely balmy evening when I left work tonight (albeit very smokey as a result of burning off somewhere nearby). I got my hair cut and coloured, so I feel all sleek and brand new, then I made my way to Southgate to get some shots of the hazy sunset.
The sun had sunk below the buildings by the time I arrived, but I could see a fiery orange ball reflected on the office buildings at Southgate. The smoke isn't pleasant, but it sure makes for a nice sunset.
Southgate was abuzz with chatter spilling from bars and restaurants. There's a lot going on in the city at the moment. The Grand Prix is in town, the football season kicked off tonight, the Comedy Festival has just started and the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show is also on this weekend. It's all happening.
The city from Southgate
I decided to walk home - have I mentioned how much I love walking along the river in the dark? - and it was beautiful, with the backdrop of city lights and a pale yellow half-moon watching over everything. I could hear crickets chirping and the occasional roar from Carlton v Richmond game at the MCG.
It was my adorable quasi-nephew's third birthday today so I travelled out to visit, presents in hand. Of course I was pleased that he played with my presents all afternoon - a Bob The Builder chainsaw (with moving, whirring 'blade') and a purple car that makes revving and wheelie noises. ("Is it a Hummer?" he asked.) Still, I guess cars and power tools will always win out over clothes and books. Aunty Jayne rocks! He chainsawed the furniture ("Why are you sawing the couch?" "It's my job.") and tried to chainsaw his cousin but she ran off.
My flatmate did a feng shui make-over of the loungeroom this morning. I'm very skeptical about the whole feng shui thing, but the place sure does look better. More welcoming and roomier. I likes it. It's fun changing the furniture around. It's a tiny bit like being in a new place.
Before the couches were in an L-shape, one with its back to the door which apparently is a feng shui faux pas.
If I do suddenly meet the love of my life or win the lottery, I'll know who to thank though...
