I’ve enjoyed my U3A photography excursions. Here’s one from the Botanic Garden.
A woman in my Friday walking group suggested that we train out to Little River and go to the You Yang range. She thought it was 3km from the train to the trail head so that seemed like a great day. The next day, when we disembarked at Little River, we discovered that not only was the trail head 10km away, no Uber wanted to take us there. After 4 cancelled Uber calls (cancelled by drivers), one driver charioted us to the trail head – he got a tip. The hike was family friendly so it was packed but it was still highly enjoyable to gain elevation and have a great view at the end.
I went back to the botanic garden for the Lightscape and it was magical. I’ve wanted to do this for years.
Fun things this month:
- Night market for a meatball sub
- Mecca opening on Bourke street – it’s a casino for women
- Athenaeum Library Tour with U3A
- Visited Highpoint shopping mall just to see where it was and what it offered
Another photography session was to focus on street photography in China Town
There was one week where the flowers were shyly showing themselves for early spring – I was all for that!
The City of Melbourne sponsored a large scale art and sound installation experience throughout the city. I started at the Royal Exhibition Hall where there was a reverse Christo wrap of a building; it was a giant pink bladder filling a building. I felt like I was an embryo in my mother’s womb. The next location was at Town Hall where suspended fabric was manipulated to mimic storm clouds or seas. It was my favorite and stayed a long time to hear the thunder and feel the storm pass by. Outside the Town Hall was a box filled with a light show. The library was transformed into a giant screen where abstract patterns rotated through a 6 minute loop of sound. After 3 hours, I was tired and saved the last installation that I went to for the next night. Evan Walker Bridge was lit and also had sound looping while you walked over it. I like this type of art.
Train line dates
I have really enjoyed these excursions where I pick a train line, we ride to its end destination, and have a date. In August we went to:
- Belgrave: where one would board Puffing Billie. It was in the Dandenong range so there were plenty of trees and the town was super cute with buildings on the main street being painted different bright colors. We lunched at a pub, visited the bookstore, and walked to the next closest train stop.
- Upfield: I walked off the train into a large parking lot, in front of a large, abandoned field, and burst into laughter. There was nothing there!! Across the street, there was a small strip mall with a dozen middle eastern restaurants. After an long walk on upper Sydney Road, where there was nothing but empty buildings, we ate at one of the restaurants and had Syrian dessert afterwards.
- Frankston: all locals warned us not to be stabbed. We thought it was lovely. Walking in the light rain for several blocks took us to the beach where we ate at a great restaurant right over the sand. The pumpkin dish was divine. We saw nothing scary on this trip.
There was a healthy dose of Taylor Swift this month with the announcement of her new album and her engagement. I spent a lot of time watching the podcast, the various analysis reels, and the beautiful photos of the album variants and engagement. I was inspired.
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