| Saturday.. Chris and I had resolved that we'd be going shopping
downtown at the Queen Victoria Market on Saturday morning. We'd told
Tracie and her beau that they too could join us but that we'd need to
be getting away to the market very early... to ensure we could buy what
we needed before it was sold out and also to beat the heat of the day.
Saturday was to be up around 100 deg F ..again. But when I looked in on
our overseas visitors, they were both very soundly asleep ..legacy of
jet-lag taking its dues. Mind you, the extra sleep would mean that they
would get to adjust to our time zone. We arrived back from the market
about lunch time, only to discover that our overseas visitors had slept
until 11am.. no surprise.
After lunch, we packed up a picnic lunch and I took everyone on a tour
of the Mornington Peninsula. We stopped at Sorrento and had a wander
along the beach before returning home in the late afternoon. It was a
very hot day. That evening, Tracie and her beau gave us a nice surprise
when they took us all out to a fine Italian restaurant for a really
good nosh-up ..it was at Cheltenham. And so it was home to bed ..rather
late again ..in preparation for a big day, Sunday.
Don
*8-)
(To be continued..)
|
| Sunday .. we'd decided that Sunday would be the day when we'd drive up
to Mount Dandenong in order that Tracie and her beau could get to see
the beautiful area which Chris and I really enjoy so much. The
temperature was forecast to be over 100 deg F. Poor Chris.. we had two
daughters who were both tired out from the night before and Elliarna
was also confronted with a huge amount of homework. Hence it was that
it was a rather depleted group who set out in the trusty Mitsubishi for
Mount Dandenong. It was so hot that I turned the twin-system air conditioner
right up to HIGH-COOL and "recirculate". This dragged the temperature
in the wagon down to a very comfortable 70 deg F or so .. while the
whole world just plain melted outside.
As we ascended Mount Dandenong the mountain breeze and the
irresistable fragrance of the gum trees (Americans call 'em
`eucalypts') took over, so we opened up all the windows and racked back
the sunroof... and it was really nice. We drove up to the summit where
we were able to take in the entire area that is Melbourne plus buy 1 or
2 little souvenirs of one form and another. From there, I drove down a
very scenic fern-lined road which winds down to the town of Kallista, a
pretty little village indeed. We then drove back from Kallista to
"O'Donohue's Picnic Ground" which is a small clearing within what's
known as "Sherbrooke Forest".
Once at the picnic ground, we opened up the containers of goodies which
Chris had packed for our trek up the mountain.. lovely salad and stuff.
After lunch, we drove to a place where Tracie's beau (he used to live
in Melbourne for a time) used to be taken by his Mum and Dad many years
ago .. the William Ricketts Sanctuary. I'd met William Ricketts myself
years ago, although he didn't seem to be around at the time we visited
the Sanctuary. This Sanctuary is something else in that it's NOT a wild
life sanctuary so much as a "sanctuary for the soul"I should expliaain
that William Ricketts is a noted Australian sculptor, and his life's
work has been to sculpt a whole hillside of Australian aboriginal
figures ...as a dedication to the aborigines. I was quite amazed at
this place and I was ever so sorry I hadn't taken the time to visit it
before.
By mid-afternoon, it was getting very, very hot indeed, adn we could
feel the backyard swimming pool at home was almost beckoning to us. And
so we packed ourselves up and made our way down the mountain. As we
did, Tracie's beau asked as to whether Box Hill was close-by. He'd been
to school there as a young'un and he was curious to see his old
school, and had been planning to pay Box Hill a visit on Monday.
Instead, since I was only a few kilometres from Box Hill at the time, I
insisted on taking him there. He was all very excited about seeing his
old school once more, and even more so when he saw the very house his
family lived in when he was in Australia as a lad ... and then he
renewed his acquaintance with the lady who lived next door so many
years ago.
And what amazed me about all this was the incredible coincidence
whereby the house that used to belong to Tracie's beau's family, was
about a mere 100 yards from the Digital Office in which I work at Box Hill!
After a few ice cold lemonades on such a hot day, we made our way
slowly home. It'd sure been a big day.. and we were all very tired.
Once home though, we all felt like slipping down to the local beach and
frolicking about in the waves there before a few of us enjoyed a bike
ride before we settled down for dinner. And now we were MEGAtired!
Soon after dinner, I faded out and fell asleep. Tracie and her beau
also fell asleep... and we waited for the arrival of Monday.
(To be continued..)
Don
*8-)
off along the local bike track.
|
| Trust me to miss out a whole lot of other things which happened on
Sunday. Y'see, while Chris and I slipped out to check out local yard
sales (garage sales), Tracie and her beau were still asleep, as were
our two daughters. As we drove down the street toward Chelsea from
Chelsea Heights, where we live here, Chris yelled out for me to stop
and back the van up about 5-10 metres. Chris had seen a lovely pink,
and obviously very tame, pet galah, just chomping on some thistles
which were growing in somebody's nature strip. This could never do,
since the galah would sooner or later be taken by a cat (mind you, it'd
be a pretty brave cat which would take on a galah). I should explain
that a galah is about size and shape of a parrot, except that it is a
hardier bird and is all pink and grey feathers.
After a few abortive attempts at catching the galah, I convinced Chris
that we should return home and get my fishing net and a blanket ..and a
strong pair of leather gloves. Moreover, I suggested to Chris that
since we have 4 cats plus a menagery as it is, that we should place the
galah with Chris' cousin, Joy, since Joy is the local vet's assistane
and Joy has all manner of things to accomodate the galah until we
locate the real owner.
When we returned home for the equipment I'd suggested, Tracie and her
beau were getting breakfast. I suggested that they might like to come
and see some beaut wild life.. that we were about to catch a galah and
deliver it to Chris' cousin, Joy. This they did. Within a short while,
we'd managed to catch the galah and get it out of my fishing net
without too much trouble. Having then driven around to Joy's to deliver
the "boid", we all met "Joey", Joy's pet baby kangaroo which Joy is
caring for until it's ready to be returned to the bush. I managed to
get a fair amount of the kangaroo epic on video too. Joy then presented
Tracie with a baby "ring-tail" possum to play with and Tracie was a
real big hit with the possum.
..back to the rest of .2
Don
*8-)
|