But wait there's more...

Yes another weekend and another opportunity for me to get back out into the world. We headed off to the city on the tram again. This time I sat in the Bourke St Mall & watched the world go by while Bill went off to the camera shop.

After his shopping expedition we stopped and had some lunch in a little cafe in Block Lane off Little Collins St. From there we caught a tram the short distance back to Federation Square where we wandered (slowly) for an hour looking at the wonderful photo's that made up the Earth From Above Exhibition.

It was here that we passed our sculpture for today. It is a fairly new piece just added around May/June this year. Fire, light and the Australian outback are evoked in 'Red Centre' created by Konstantin Dimopoulos, an artist from New Zealand. The reeds wave around in the breeze and provide entertainment for people as they try to push them around. While trying to find out a little more about the sculpture I found that he has similar pieces in both Arrowtown (Red Ridge) & Queenstown (Grassland) in NZ. I didn't see either so next time I'm in the vincinity I will have to go exploring. I like this photo with the newly completed Eureka building in the background. At the moment the 92 storey building is the tallest residential tower in the world but that will change soon as another being built in Malaysia will take the title once finished.

So now that I have imparted that little gem I will leave you all once more

until next time.............

Out & About - On the Trams

Yep, that's me I'm talking about. I had my first trip on a tram last Saturday since coming home.

Hills have a tram fully covered with their Logo & Bill wanted to go to Flinders St to see if he could get a photo of it. So I decided that as it was a nice day it would be the ideal opportunity to have a practice run at getting on & off trams.

The steps are fairly high and I wasn't sure if I could get up & down but all was well and it was achieved with relative ease. Of course getting on is only half the adventure, you have to find a seat but some nice young boy took pity on a poor old lady with crutches so I didn't have to hobble far. Anyway I made it on & off, over to Federation Square where Bill set up the camera, I sat on the wall in the sun, and 'tram spotted' for the next hour. While we saw lots of trams (so many with great Logo's) we never saw the Hills one so will have to try again another day.

After he packed up we went and had a yummy lunch in one of the many cafes at Fed Square and then caught the tram back home. It was great to be out and about again.

Sunday night was another adventure with us going to watch our 'new' basketball team the South Dragons, Melbourne's newest team, at Vodafone Arena. (This time by cab). They had played their first home game last week but we were at the Big Night Out. This game was against the Melbourne Tigers and while they did very well for the first half they lost in the end. Still fingers crossed for next time. Anybody seeing the news since the weekend might know that the coach has now been replaced so we will attend our next game with interest.

So after another weekend of adventure in good ole Melbourne town I'll leave you once again

until next time ..........

Big Night Out

Hello again, another week has come & gone this time with an amazing range of temperatures as the weather here in Melbourne ranged from early 20's to 36.9 on Thursday, making the record books once more. Apparently it has been the warmest start to October for many years. At least we now know the air-conditioning works very well. The weekend was back to a pleasant 20.

After a busy week, we went out on Saturday night to a Fundraising dinner held at Albert Park Lake. A young lady who works for Mitre 10 was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and 'The Big Night Out' was put together by Team Jude, a group of her friends & colleagues who did a wonderful job raising a vast amount of money for both her & the Cancer Foundation. We went along with our friends from Heallesville and had a great night. Nice food, good wine & great music. Lots of dancing (I chair danced) & good times were had by all.

A step back in time now to the weekend before my surgery. We met our friends Hans & Astrid over at Docklands for a yummy lunch and then we went to the Leonardo Da Vince Machine exhibition. It was an eye opening experience. I had only ever connected Leonardo Da Vinci with art but he was an astronomer, sculptor, geologist, mathematician, botanist, animal behaviourist, inventor, engineer, architect and even a musician. He had invented all these amazing machines, many used for war, as well as the bicyle & the helicopter. Cranes & Robots were also among some of his many inventions. The exhibition was very well put together and well worth taking the time to visit. I can certainly recommend a visit if it comes to a venue near you.

Another interesting design we saw that day was the above sculpture 'Silence' by Adrian Mauriks. Silence was commissioned in 2002 as part of the Melbourne Docklands Urban Art Program for the New Quay precinct and it is on that note I leave you to contemplate the silence once more.

Until next time.........

In the eye of the beholder

That's what they say about beauty & I've now decided it applies to art as well. Melbourne's National Gallery of Victoria has been home to the Picasso Love & War Exhibition 1935 - 1945 since June. It finished yesterday.

We went along yesterday and joined the many other people who like us left it till the last minute. The exhibition explored the personal & artistic relationship between Picasso & his lover of those years, Dora Maar. There were over 300 pieces on display & it is said that the two lovers inspired one another intellectually & artisically throughout their time together. Well, I'm not an art critic but I know that some of the paintings left me scratching my head with wonder - I know, very uneducated but definitely 'in the eye of the beholder' category.

The Dora Maar portions were mainly photograhs and most were very good. We finished our visit to the NGV with a lovley lunch in the Garden Restaurant and wandered back home (well Bill pushed me) to watch the finish of the Bathurst 1000 on the tele. So there you have it our very varied Sunday.

A temporary sculpture, the illuminated PICASSO lettering (pictured above) has greeted visitors to NGV International for the duration of Picasso: Love & War and has quickly become one of Melbourne’s greatest tourist attractions! (I'm not the only one to take a photo of it). The letters went under the hammer as part of NGV Contemporary’s annual fundraising party last Thursday night. I'm not sure what anyone would do with one or more of the letters but still it's a novel way to prevent storage problems eh!

As we walked up to the gallery on Sunday we could hear lots of noise and it was obvious that something was happening there with the PA systems & closed roads. We discovered that the road in front of the gallery was in fact the finish line for the Melbourne Marathon. We saw a few of the runners coming in after their efforts in running from Frankston. So there added a little unexpected excitiment to our day.

So now it's Monday and life has returned to normal once more so until next time.........................

Everything old is new again

Well life has returned to normal, almost, after our adventures in New Zealand. Bill has been working for the month and I have been recuperating for that time. Still a long way to go but we can't let that stop the progress of 'Rhossietalk' can we? Today I am taking a small step back in time to the week before we left for our holiday.

The highlight of our week was our trip to Rod Laver Arena to see Hugh Jackman in 'The Boy From Oz'. It was an excellent show. Never having really taken too much notice of Hugh Jackman, other than seeing him on talkshows during his visits to Australia, I really did not go with a preconceived idea of what he would be like. Well, from the moment he entered the stadium (from the ceiling, on a White Grand Piano) he had the huge crowd mesmerised. The story of Peter Allen's life was told in vivid colour, song & dance, and Colleen Hewitt as his Mum was just great. While we knew alot of the songs, there were quite a few that came as a surprise.

One song that I did not know was credited to Peter Allen was our title of this segment. This had already sprung to mind after a wander through Birrarung Marr a couple of months ago in search of Melbourne's newest (old) sculpture. Originally commissioned in 1987 as a project of the Australian Bicentennial Authority for the south moat of the NGV's St Kilda Road site, Angel has now been installed on the Yarra bank at Birrarung Marr. (Hayley, I think I have found Billy Connolly's Angel).

Angel stands 10 meters high and is a Ceramic Sculpture by Deborah Halpern, who is known for her fanciful beasts inspired by Pablo Picasso. Having never seen Angel in it's old home I can only say that it certainly is an imposing sight in it's new location. It looks great from whichever angle you view it from but I think at night, floodlit, when viewed from the other side of the river it comes to life. We saw it as we walked home from the show, taking the scenic walk along the Yarra. Yes it was a bit chilly, but a favourite walk at night with all the city lights reflecting on the water. Also the quickest way to Southgate for coffee on the way home.

So once again it's time to say farewell, until next time............