Babies and the Beach

Mornington beach huts

I spent this week on the Mornington Penninsula, east of Melbourne. I stayed with Sophie (Jasmina’s sister) and her little boy, Oliver. He’s 10 months old and REALLY happy. He is a bulldozer when he crawls and he flirts like mad. When I wasn’t looking for surf, we all hung out, played and went for walks.
Jacqui ten Hove and Glenn Whitney are good friends back home in Victoria. They recommended I get in touch with friends of theirs who are now living on the Mornington Penninsula. And so…I met and visited with Sheila (Canadian from Vancouver) and Sue, her Australian partner. They have a really CUTE little 6 week old baby boy named Finn. Both Sheila and Sue are teachers and we got on really well. We spent the afternoon chatting and enjoying lunch on their deck.
When I wasn’t meeting really cool people and their adorable offspring, I did catch some great rides on waves at Gunnamatta Beach. It reminds me of Long Beach.

Note to Others #1

SOME of you leave comments on the blog, and SOME of you send emails. Please keep it up! It’s so nice to hear news from home and friends! You might even be my FAVOURITE people. (No, it’s true…I’m not above cheap manipulation! ... JOKING!)

If you do want to leave comments on the blog, just click on the Comment box, and sign up on Google blogspot with your email address and a password. It’s easy AND free!

SNAIL MAIL

Every time I post something new on my blog, I embrace my “Inner Nerd”. I love receiving the comments that some of you leave on my posts and pictures. I also love reading the emails that some of you send! It just makes me feel a little closer to home and all of you… And wait for it…
Here’s my new address in St. Kilda, so now YOU can reach out, harness the combined power of Canada Post and Australia Post…and send me cards or even care packages! (I’m not hinting, I just know that some of you want to send stuff…)

#23 - 185 Barkly St.
St. Kilda, VIC.
Australia 3182

My Spider Story

November 25th was Election Day in Australia. While the nation’s votes were being tallied, (The Labour Party trumped the Liberals for the majority after John Howard’s reign of 11.5 years!), Susan and I went to a pre-Christmas party thrown by one of her friends. The party was fine, but that’s not the story….

On our way to the event, we stopped off at a Bottle Shop (Liquor store) to buy some drinks.
As we got back into the car, I reached down to put my purchases down on the mat between my feet, and there --- on my calf --- was a HUNTSMAN SPIDER!

I was excited and scared at the same time! Finally…a Huntsman spider, up close…AND IT WAS PRETTY BIG! Not dinner plate big, but hockey puck big! I should have calmly reached for my camera and taken a picture of it alive on my leg. I didn’t. I screamed and brushed it off, stomping repeatedly on it as it fell to the floor. When we were sure it was dead, we laughed hysterically for a while before disposing of the body.

The question is…where did it climb onto me? In the car --- maybe from underneath the seat? If so, it had been hanging out on the back of my calf for a good 20 minutes before I saw it.
In the bottle shop --- maybe scuttling out from between stacks of booze boxes as I stood considering my options? I sure didn’t feel it on my bare ankles if it crawled up onto me from the floor.

Bottom line: Huntsman spiders DO bite, but they are not poisonous or deadly. They’re just ugly and scary. I’m sure I’ll meet more, and maybe next time, I’ll get the photo!

333 Beaconsfield Parade

This shot is pretty representative of Melbourne's architectural style: The old buildings cheek by jowl with the modern ones, like Susan's.


Here are some pictures of Susan’s “flash” building in St. Kilda West. I’ve had a good week as I continue to explore the city. The weather has been a bit crazy. While it is “summa” here in Australia, the weather plummeted from 37 degrees and sunny on Monday to 16 degrees and rainy on Tuesday! Apparently Melbourne is somewhat like Calgary: “If you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes."

Lorne Again!

My Surf Buddy Jasmina and I on the Lorne Foreshore

This weekend I hitched a ride with Chris up to Lorne to visit Matt and Jasmina. He is helping them renovate their farmhouse in the Otways…and I’m the token surf bum! . Weather was warm! (34 degrees!) Summer is here or...as they say: “Summa is he-ya!”

Sunrise at Lorne Surf Beach before Jasmina and I hit the water for our daily morning surf.
There’s a nice sandbank at the beach right now…the result of a pretty wild storm a few weeks ago. The sandbar makes for some really cruisey fat waves that are ideal for my board. I get a lot of practice taking drops and breaking left and right with my mal. Yesterday I even carved a wicked turn...by accident. I'll have to sort out how I did that next time I'm out on the water!

Temporary Home Sweet Home

My friend Susan has a great apartment with amazing views overlooking St. Kilda Beach and St. Kilda Pier. I’m staying with her when I’m in Melbourne until the first week of December, at which time, I’ll move into my flat share with Chris and Ian on Barkly Street.

Yeah…It's true! I will soon have a fixed address in Australia! The situation unfolded quite nicely as follows: Chris is a really good friend of Jasmina and Matt, (my friends from the Great Ocean Road Backpackers in Lorne), and Ian is a really good friend of Chris’s. They are flat mates sharing Chris's apartment, and they needed a reason to ask their third roommate (who apparently had become something of a hard case) to leave.
Enter Canadian girl!
Chris and I met initially in Lorne, but I met them both “officially” later in November when they had me over for a real Aussie BBQ. We hit it off, and they invited me to watch the Melbourne Cup with them at a cool pub the following day. Good times! They are pretty cool guys, and I think it will work out just fine!

Top 3 Fave Things on Philip Island (besides the surf!)

Confusing Signage: (Would YOU trust YOUR body to one?)

Awkward Land Mass Handshake:

The BIG Koala: (Australians like Big Roadside Attractions!)

The Penguin Parade!

So these little guys are pretty cute. They live along the South Coast of Australia as far east as Sidney and as far West as Portland. (Any farther past these points, and the warmer waters become rife with nasty predators!) They are only 12-13 inches tall and weigh no more than 3-4 pounds.

The big touristy thing on Philip Island is the “Penguin Parade”. You pay your money, walk through an educational centre and a gift shop to two huge sets of concrete bleachers on the beach. You sit and wait under the field lights for just past sunset. Out from the waters waddle groups of Little Penguins with tummies filled with fish. You watch them and giggle as they trundle past the bleachers through to their nesting grounds (like little football players walking post game to their locker rooms!, Kind of…with ridiculously short legs, maybe.)


So, it’s mating season for Fairy Penguins…and the Park Rangers warn us that we may see “highly animated” behaviours. And we do! When the last groups pass the bleachers, you can walk along low lit boardwalks and watch them head into the beach grasses and tussocks. Penguin Parade my ass! Try Penguin Orgy! Full on animal copulation!
Here are some of my favourite quotes verbatim from the evening:

Sachiko’s friend: “Sachiko! Loook!”
Sachiko: “Oooooh…so funny!”

Aussie gramma commenting on loud penguin cries of ecstasy: “Well! SHE sounds like she’s having a good time!”

Bloke #1: “Hey! They do it that way too!”
Bloke #2 (nudging his girlfriend) “Yeeeaah good!”

Aussie mom to small child: “No darling. They’re not fighting.”

Serious! I am NOT making this stuff up!

Driving in OZ is Fun, but...

1. Sometimes it's tough to get your head around driving on the wrong side of the road and on the wrong side of the car. I did have a relapse on my second day, and quite naturally pulled out of a turn into the right (Wrong!) lane. I drove on an empty road for probably 500 metres before realizing my mistake and correcting myself just before a vehicle crested the hill in front of me.

2.It's challenging to drive in the Melbourne city centre. There’s quite a few rules about sharing the road with the Trams… thankfully I left on a Sunday when trams run less frequently. I missed two turns on my way out of the city, but got turned around fairly quickly.

3.Aussie Road Rage is alive and well. I think I got called a “f*@#ing tourist” while pulling into a car park to correct one of my missed turns. Understandable! It IS TOUGH to remember that the windshield wipers are where you would expect the turn signal to be! And of course…the right and left clickers are opposite too!

4. Roundabouts. Still don’t really get them. I wait…and then I go fast and hope for the best!

5. Some road hazards: Marsupials crossing the road in front of me at night. Had TWO near misses with Wallabies when I was returning back to the hostel from watching the “Penguin Parade” one night (more about that later…). I don’t know…they’re like deer, only they hop.

Note to Self #5

Always Remember “Driver in the Middle” (closest to the centre line!) BEST ADVICE EVER!
(And no, I am not going to careen off the road into the ditch like it looks like in this pic...it's just tricky (and moderately unsafe) to take a perfect photo of oneself driving!)

My Surfari on Philip Island

Last month I was able to lug my mini mal on and off buses with success on the Surf Coast west of Melbourne. This weekend, I decided (with some trepidation) that if I was going to continue my adventure and find more waves on the coast east of the city, I would have to rent a car. (SCARY!)

My destination: 5 days on Philip Island. 125 km. southeast of Melbourne.
My vehicle: a Nissan Tiidased.
My gear: surfboard, wettie, bathers, sunscreen, books and lots of treats.

Philip Island is a surf destination. It’s pretty small: 26 km long and 9 km across. However, with 12 surf beaches (point, reef breaks and beachies) all along the coast, facing in all directions….there’s waves to be had at any given moment!

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

Billy Jamieson used to sing that song (Kenny Rogers?!) to my friend, Lizabee when we were in elementary school...good times. It’s bubbled back up through my memory to become my theme song for the last 24 hours. I’m going to take the high road and say that my exact complaints are not really the issue here ---they are not serious. --- Ahh…who am I kidding?! I can’t help myself! Venting has become a necessity. My issues are as follows:

1. My first Aussie cold
2. Stupid, immature dorm mates who continue to thwart my efforts to sleep --- and lastly
3. A yoga master who mocked me in front of a yoga class. Being a teacher and all, I spoke (actually sputtered) to him about it afterwards.

Bottom Line? THAT AIN'T NO ROSE GARDEN! My solution? RETAIL THERAPY.

Yes, my dear friends, with a take-away skinny latte, (2 sugars) in hand, and a tram pass to the two best shopping districts in Melbourne, I wished a mental “Namaste!” to my yoga “master” …and I hit the shops.

It was inspired, really. As luck would have it, it was not long before I happened upon Melbourne’s one and only lululemon athletica store! The sales staff quickly identified me as a Canadian, and from the West Coast, no less. I accepted their profuse thanks on behalf of lululemon (and it’s birthplace) for making it possible for Melburnian women to enjoy a tidy rearview! So of course, I made a purchase!

I headed off along Chapel Street to wander in and out of some boutiques that I will revisit when I am actually making money! (See! I exercised some restraint!)
I then took a tram to the funky Brunswick Street in Fitzroy, and invested in a beautiful Nicola Cerrini satchel for my laptop. She’s an Australian purse designer who uses beautiful silk-finish fabrics printed in gorgeous colours with Australian flowers and birds.
Satisfied, and light-headed from only drinking a coffee so far today…(I didn’t eat before yoga!) I headed home to my hostel, switched rooms and finished off my Thai take-away from last night.

Screw the Rose Garden! Flushed with fever and the glow of a successful shopping spree, armed with some Neo-Citran from home and a good book, I am just happy to know that sleep will come soon and sweetly.

The Fascinator

As the Australian female plans her Race Day Ensemble, she is faced with a style conundrum that undoubtedly leads to one or two sleepless nights. The issue: Hat or Fascinator?
“What the hell is a Fascinator?” you ask.


Well, it’s a precious little bit of millinery that perches on one’s head (often at a coy or rakish angle) consisting of feathers, ribbon, and/or bobbly, sparkly bits.
(Any style-conscious Canadian woman would not be caught dead in one….and if she is, she was obviously mistaken for an over-large quail during open hunting season.)

The Race That Stops A Nation: The Melbourne Cup

EFFICIENT taking home the Cup, with PURPLE MOON a close second.

Facts:
* Cup Day is to Melbourne what the Stampede is to Calgary.
* It’s an unofficial public holiday for Melbourne. The CBD pretty much shuts down.
* It takes place on the first Tuesday in November at Flemington Racecourse.
* Some figures suggest that over 85% of Australians bet on the Melbourne Cup.
* It is the longest (at 3.2 km) handicap race in the world.
…and the richest: Note: Handicap Racing means that weights are assigned to each horse to equalize their chances of winning (a real “fair-go”)
* Phar Lap, Australia’s hero horse, won the cup 3 times in a row. This is Phar Lap's heart on display in the National Museum in Canberra.
* It’s an excuse for Australians to dress up to the nines! The women pull out all the stops and invest in a new outfit: frocks, shoes, handbags, accessories…and last, but by NO MEANS least….hats!


* It’s also an excuse for a huge piss up. Many Aussies get off their faces with champers on Cup Day! Here are some photos of the more casual crowd watching the races at Gun Island Hotel in St. Kilda.

Waiting for Trams...

I went to see a performance of Shakespeare’s King Lear at the Victorian College of the Arts. I officially start my Post-Grad program there in February, and I wanted to suss out what level of expectation there was for the Year-end projects.

University productions are notorious for being very “Creative”, and this show was no exception. I wasn’t looking forward to the 4½ hour (uncut and unnecessary, God bless them!) running time, and as it happened, I left at the interval after Act Three, wishing I had left at the interval after Act Two! (There’s a storm in Act Three, and the sound effects were delivered, BeatBox Style, yo! on a microphone by the actor playing “Fool”.)
No longer intimidated by the expectations of the program, I just missed my tram back into St. Kilda…and waited smugly for the next one...20 minutes later.
This shot is of St. Kilda Road, late at night with the Arts Centre spire in the background.

Back in Melbourne

I'm staying in St. Kilda, on the south side of the Yarra River during this sojourn in Melbourne. St. Kilda reminds me of Santa Monica, (more towards the Venice Beach end). It’s beachy and beautiful, but a little bit seedy too. There’s a pier and penguins, a great yoga shala, excellent cafes, bars and restaurants, and some cool shopping.
This is the entrance to Luna Park, a beachside amusement park that has been around for years and years.

The Great Ocean Road

The Great Ocean Road twists and turns as it skirts along the Tasman Sea. It rides along ridges of bright green grazing fields dotted with sheep and cows. It dips down through dense eucalypt forests of the Otway Range. The bus drivers are ready with motion sickness bags for those with sensitive stomachs.
At times it has reminded me of traveling along the Cabot Trail in Nova Scotia, and at other times, I’ve seen shades of the Malibu Coast in California.

The Twelve Apostles (only seven of them left now) are a pretty spectacular sight along this feral, rugged coastline. They are beautiful, slowly eroding limestone, like the Haystack Rock on the Oregon Coast or the Flowerpot Rocks in the Bay of Fundy.

The summer crowds of holidaymakers have not yet taken over, so life moves at a slower, quieter pace in these little villages than it does in the ‘Big Smoke”.