Yesterday was a brilliant sunny day and I went sailing with Hugh and Cliff and we had  a great day I have a very sore bum today The position for the main sheet hand to sit, is on top of the sheet cleats. Hard to get comfortable!
Today we had a working bee planned at the Yacht Club and I woke to the sound of heavy rain Again! The summer that really wasn't,  ended today with another rainy day. More than 300 millimetres of rain has fallen on Victoria this summer, breaking the previous seasonal record of 1910-11 when 237 millimetres was recorded. 

The old fence in need of repair.

However the rain didn't put us off the tasks planned. The two main jobs were replacing the decking fence and repairing broken boards on the floor of the dinghy shed.

Bernard Simon & Jim getting into floor board replacement .

The juniors working together

There was a good turnout with enough people to have 3-4 doing any one job. The Green Fleet (juniors) were also there under Sean's supervision painting and setting up racks for the Junior boats and equipment. Lots of paint around!!

All ready to go!

The fence had been pre-measured and cut and even pre painted by Bernard so when it went up it looked fabulous!
The turn  out was good and a big crowd at lunch, with lots of talk and friendly banter!

Believe it or not they are not discussing sailing, but the value of Twitter in keeping track of your children!!

Half the crowd.

Celia's gone!

It was sad to say goodbye to Celia as we had had a lovely 10 days. Just catching up with her friends, Kate's birthday, Tony, games of scrabble, lunches, dinner and plans
We have decided to do a 12 day tour of the Kimberley area in July. From Broome going up the Gibb River Road, through El Questro Wilderness park to Kunnunurra. Then down to Bungle Bungles (unknown when I worked there. National Park declared in 1987) and on to Halls Creek where I worked 1970-1972 . We will not be in Halls Creek long but hope to have a comparative look around! the n on to Fitzroy Crossing and back to Broome.
I am doing the bookings and decision making and Celia will pay up!
On Friday, the last night, we went for some music at the Czech Club in North Melbourne.

Me, Celia, Sue and Julia.

We met first for dinner at Sosta and Italian restaurant in Errol street. Sue Morris, and Julia Roberts (no movie career) came as well, as Sue was taking back a coffee machine for Bernadette from Julia so she was delivering it!

On the lane next to the restaurant off Errol St.

I stopped to take a photo of this Mural and just as we moved off again the waiter came out with Celia's credit card!

My Sauce Good

I've seen a few shows at the Czech Club and this group were a one off show from Sydney called My Sauce Good (no idea why) but a review says  “As their name suggests, My Sauce Good cook up a tempting array of slow cooked soulful folk, Jazz and Swing from nostalgic bygone eras…. what better way to intrigue the mind and warm the cockles of your heart, mind and belly with a generous serving of My Sauce Good” 

Sue and Celia in the Club.

They were good, but we were all tired and the break went on a bit long so we went home early.

Celia and Sue left at 1000 next morning, after the usual angst of cramming stuff in suitcases, (no luggage limits for these girls in their Top class United FF program.) But they were off to bargain for an upgrade to 1st class. I don't know, they have comfy Business class lie down seats and now it's not good enough!! They have long forgotten about cattle class!!

Melbourne views

I had no private patients booked (but had calls to three of them) so I used the day to finalize paperwork for the upcoming Seminar at Port Melbourne Yacht Club. Being a member I felt I should share the great venue with others less fortunate! I have planned two Seminars / workshops about feeding refusal,and the first one is on March 11th.
I took Spencer to the new dog groomer (same shop but they have two venues now). He had been a matted mess last week when we attacked him with scissor, and it seemed to malk a difference as they didn't have to shear him to whippet status. He looks very nice now!! They said he was very good just lay stretched out when they clipped him.

probably much like this!!

I got all the work done even loaded some difficult movie clips. I still can't see why IMovie will load some and others it does not recognise. and one I saved ended up saved as an ITunes file not IMovie!!
I also successfully found a file of Ed Tronick's Still Face experiment. Will use that to talk about how anxiety affects feeding.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apzXGEbZht0
So had no photos for today so have added some views of Melbourne lately.

Outside Melbourne Museum

Sunset over West Gate Bridge

Our own Flatiron Building

beautiful brickwork not seen in modern buildings now

The outdoor Dunny! Still around but probably plumbed now

Flemington street trees

A week of events

Just had a really busy week
Celia is home for 2 weeks as she does some training (2days only!) for the School Reviewer job she has here in August.
Because she was here, Tony, a retired man of leisure now, decided to come over from Perth.

Tony with some Western Bulldogs (Footscray) items for his grandson. A  huge fan

He stayed at the local hotel and we met up each of the 5 days he was here. He did some touring around including visiting the site of our old house in Beaumaris, pulled down but still no building after 18mth. We three went out to Paris Cat Jazz Club and a meal in Hardware lane I think the first time we have ever gone out together!
He also organised a lunch  with some of our old childhood next door neighbours. Sandy and her sister Cheryl came as well as Alan Grant from over the road.
None of us live in Beaumaris now; we were the last to leave. In our heyday there were about 23 kids out on the streets or bushland.
A great deal of the meal was discussing the exploits of the bad boys of the area and the freedom we enjoyed roaming the neighbourhood in the 50's- 60'.

Celia, Alan Tony & Sandy

Just starting to sit

Tony, Celia and I also went to visit Bridie and Sean and Dylan who is growing into a chubby charmer!!  5 months now...time flies as they say!

Sue and Wendy after the show

On Sunday I went with Celia, Sue and Wendy to the Williamstown Little Theatre to see Two weeks with the Queen a lovely funny and poignant story by Morris Gleitzman. The lead Tim Walker and Dylan Boyd playing  two young boys were great esp Tim. A really enjoyable show!

Kate and her cake (before we added 3 more candles!)

 I finished the week with a lovely Roast Lamb dinner with Chocolate Ripple cake for Kate's 12th birthday today.

Nick picking the melted wax off his dessert

 She enjoyed all her presents including about 8 books!
She also liked the Monkey hat Celia added at the last minute!

Clowning around

I spent part of today getting soil and mulch for the new garden bed. A lovely sunny day to spend in the garden

Canberra and costumes

My plan to visit Canberra for the day to see the exhibition of the Costumes of the Ballet Russes went ahead without a hitch (except for a 20minute delay leaving Melbourne). I had thought that the costumes were  traveling from overseas, but they actually belong to the National Gallery, having been bought at Sothebys years ago. 

Many were just as they had been put in hampers  after use, and most needed cleaning and restoration. Through 140 costumes from 34 productions from 1909 to 1939, the vivid and innovative dance design of the early 20th century was on show for the 100th anniversary of the Ballets Russes. 

Léon Bakst Tunic from costume for the Blue God c 1912 from Le Dieu Bleu worn by Nijinsky

The Ballets Russes made its first appearance in Paris in the 1909, a sensational season of dance organised by Diaghilev, a Russian-born impresario. The ballet integrated traditional dance narratives with modern design, folk art, contemporary music and new approaches to choreography. The costumes were so different to the traditional tutu and longer dress .

Some looked incredibly heavy and others with soft falling fabric must have looked stunning moving across the stage. Especially with Nijinsky in them!! There were 3 huge rooms, and with each set of costumes were details of the Ballet story, choreographer, designer and the music. It was one of these ballets that introduced Stravinsky to the Western world.

 Goncharova’s squid costume

Some ballet sets and costumes were designed by Matisse, and  Picasso. The best preserved lot were a gorgeous collection from the ballet the Sleeping Princess that did not do well, so the costumes were kept to wait payment of the debt for the production by Diaghilev, they had never been used again.

I took it all in, in several doses and saw some of the other exhibits before I left.

1/3 of the curved room

Did you know there is a room like Monet's Waterlilies that show the whole collection of Sydney Nolan's Ned Kelly Series?

Also saw Lin Onus' Dingoes. 

In the Aboriginal and Torres strait Islander section, there was a piece ART Each letter covered with ashtrays all depicting aboriginal children or adult people. I even recognized one that I am sure we had. Not thought of it as a child as being racist, or tasteless or whatever, especially ash trays!!

Had lunch in a sunny spot outside with a view to some of the Art in the garden.

Two pieces on the front lawn

The outdoor cafe.

I had a good flight back quick pick up of the car and home by 5pm.

Had a laugh at this cartoon in the Age on the same page where I was reading about Dame Elizabeth Murdoch's 102nd Birthday!

What next?

Tony rang me from Perth last night to ask how we were in the floods in Melbourne and asked if I had heard on the news about the fires in Perth.? There has been no news here until today but they have been a worry there for 2-3 days.

The latest in the North east suburbs he said looks alarmingly close. This is the week of the anniversary of the Victorian bush fires so is a timely reminder of the power of nature, and how close disaster may be.
A cartoon in the Age showed a car in the middle of the water covered road saying "We were told to have a fire plan No one mentioned  a flood plan"

River Walk

Sydney's heatwave has shattered a 150-year-old record, but the big sweat isn't over yet.

In dozens of suburbs on Saturday the temperature soared into the mid to high 30s for the sixth day running and over much of NSW.

What wimps those Sydneysiders are!!!  over 30!!! I was expecting to see the details as days over 40. Last Summer we were heading for a record 30 days over 30 when the last day was only 29. We were complaining I know, But 6 days... I ask you.

The flooding in Foostcray looks mild compared to some places Especially Narre Warren and Point Cook We were lucky. Global Warming followers will be keeping data!

Today has dawned Sunny but sightly windy, so I decided I would do a  walk to a Park. Namely Maribyrnong River Park

So Spencer and I headed off and hit the river at The Blackbird Tours, down by the new Freshwater Place development with new apartments with view to the city if looking up, or the factories if looking down.Appropriate as the Blackbird, a traditional ferry of Lakes Entrance, tours the Maribyrnong River with emphasis on its history as an industrial area.The river was discovered by Robbins and Charles Grimes in 1803, settled by groups led by J.P. Fawkner and John Batman in 1835. We all learnt at school their disgust when they came upon the river to find it was saltwater!Tidal from the bay.

We then headed up stream to find the Buddhist Temple seen by anyone traveling by train from Footscray or crossing the Maribyrnong Bridge on Dynon Road 

The remarkable transformation of a vacant site previously a tannery, into a Buddhist temple complex has been underway for a while but really shot up visibly this year, with a 16-metre statue of the Heavenly Queen, also known as MAZU. Devotees believe that Heavenly Queen will protect all those who pray to her before setting out, and that she will save the lives of anyone on the open sea who cries to her in their hour of distress. 

It was reported to be finished in 2009 but is way behind schedule. A blog entry dated 2008 show it in its early stages.  http://ilbonito.wordpress.com/2008/12/11/construction-of-the-heavenly-mother-temple-in-footscray/

The temple structure seems complete

The Gold Queen

It's all on the same side of the river. That is a Backwash

There was group of cyclist having a shot in front so we waited .There is still construction going on all around. Slightly muddy at present!!

Great Views to the city

This is all at the Edge of Newells Paddock a bird wetland (wet at last!)

Don't know where the line went But the area where the Arts Precinct is now (ahead) was originally park of the Meat Works

Someone has a sense of Humour!

I then headed back to The Arts Precinct to get a cup of coffee but it was closed cleaning up after Chinese New Year. Established in 1974, Footscray Community Arts Centre is widely acknowledged as Australia’s leading centre for contemporary arts and community engagement. They run a huge range of activities, classes and events. Have coffee shop well attended on the lawn on Saturdays and markets at times as well.

At the roundabout Unvandalized for over 10 years!!

So I went home catching Noddy's car en route.

Floods and Rain

View down Dynon Rd.

After along day with clients yesterday, I stayed and had dinner with Anne, Paul and Alistair (Stuart is back from Paris on Friday) at a Chinese Restaurant with a view to the Dandenongs. 

Gradually the view disappeared as a storm hit; torrential rain which continued overnight. Woke me twice with the noise on the roof. I expected that Dynon road would be flooded as it was fairly full of water when I came home last night.  As usual the junction of Kensington Rd and Dynon road was awash but mainly up Kensington Road. Impassable for about 200mts. 
As the traffic carefully travelled in the middle, a 4 wheel drive obviously rejoicing in the chance to use  its off road features, surged past us all sending water washing over the top of all cars it passed. 

Queens Rd next to Albert park lake.

Newspaper pictures of Queens Rd are amazing , not a place I have heard to flood before!

 I went to the National Gallery on the ever wonderful Myki-Seniors-free-travel card to see Unnerved an exhibition exploring a rather dark vein in contemporary New Zealand art. The psychological or physical unease underlying many works in the exhibition is addressed with humour, parody and poetic subtlety by artists across generations and mediums. Bringing together a range of works from the collection of the Queensland Art Gallery, Unnerved engages with New Zealand’s changing social, political and cultural landscape as the country navigates its indigenous settler and migrant histories. If the vision is unsettling, it is also compelling and Unnerved: The New Zealand Project offers us new ways of seeing one of our closest neighbours.

It has a huge blow up rabbit in the foyer  called McMurty to remind us of the devastation wrought by introduction of rabbits to New Zealand (as well as Australia). 

There was a great gallery of digital photographs that were stunning as well. A very disturbing movie about children living in a house with fighting parents (never saw the parents just their voices) and the children protecting themselves. Very chilling. Some stunning black and white photography that you would enjoy Celia.

After I walked back to the train I enjoyed the sight of the Fountains now running again having been empty for so long.

The work on the Hamer Hall is coming along. Due to reopen in mid 2012

 

They were setting up the Speigel Tent in the forecourt and at the curb was at tram on a truck. An old style one so maybe being set up for something??  There has been a lot of comment about making use of the old trams. A cafe would be good there instead of just the clear plastic covered coffee place that is there now..! Or maybe just moving it!!