A day in Bundoora

View from Mount Cooper

Every day on the way to Narai Thai restaurant we pass Bundoora park, and I have always wanted to explore it.  Today was that day, getting up early (early for us that is) we prepared a quick picnic of freshly rolled sushi and headed off to Bundoora park to see what it had to offer.  The first thing to note was the ample FREE parking so no chance of a parking ticket here.  It was not as big a park as I was expecting but that could be because a large proportion of it is cut off to create a golf course and another section for Cooper's settlement.  The biggest disappointment was however the fact you could never get fully lost in nature at the park as despite its size there was always a road or building nearby.  We climbed up Mount Cooper for our lunch, another erroneously named Mount at only 137 meters at its highest point it makes Mount Dandenong look like Everest.  Still it gave us a nice view of the CBD from between the trees.  Mount Cooper itself is all that is left of an ancient extinct volcanic vent from the Miocene period which last erupted 9.2 million years ago.



Rosella

After lunch we then climbed back down the hill and continued to explore the rest of the park trying to get some good photos of the wildlife mainly of the avian variety with cockatoos, rosellas and lorikeets taking up the majority of my pictures.  There was no larger mammalian wildlife about, but that could just be because of the time of day we were visiting.  We had explored the park quicker than I was expecting so we then went up to the University Hill shopping centre where Barnadi bought a load of presents for his nephew and niece who he will be visiting in August and a lot of new kitchen stuff for us, including a little blowtorch for making creme brule with.  Even then we were left with a couple of hours to kill before Barnadi had to start work at the restaurant and so we headed home.

Sulphur Crested Cockatoos

D-Lovely

Events in the life of us continue to progress  much as they always have, some good, some bad.  The first attempt to appeal the parking ticket was a failure.  We swiftly received a very curt letter stating that, the small print on the back of the ticket indicates the ticket must be displayed on the dashboard or it will be invalid.  So although we had a ticket displayed, because it was on the parcel shelf instead of the dashboard, it counts for nothing.  I sent back an equally curt e-mail to express my disdain for their reply and the ridiculousness of the situation, however I do not in anyway now believe they will revoke the ticket, so we are left with the decision of whether we take it to court or just pay the fine.  Either way the Bayside council is now my least favorite council in Melbourne and I am still considering e-mailing one of the consumer rights programs to see what they would have to say about it.  It is just the kind of story I can see channel 7's TodayTonight running.

Brighton Beach: Not somewhere we will be heading back to anytime soon.

My hours at the pharmacy have picked up recently, I did over 40 hours last week, which is not bad for a part time job.  On top of that I even had the excitement of catching someone trying to palm off a forged prescription for Oxycodone.  It was a very good forgery, computer generated and perfect in every detail except the handwriting requirements hadn't been met.  A phone call to the GP surgery the prescription was supposedly from however revealed the doctor who 'wrote' the prescription had been on annual leave for over a week.  Despite us informing the con artist that we had found him out he still insisted he had literally just been to see that doctor and come straight to the pharmacy, a story which didn't really ring true (even without knowing the doctor wasn't even in the country) as his surgery was in a rural practice over 2 hours drive from Epping.  There is something very empowering about catching someone in the act of trying to pass off a forged prescription, but this was let down a little by the police who failed to follow up the enquiry.

The problem with Barnadi's overdraft has now been resolved, or is at least in the process of resolution thanks to a friend in the UK who has agreed to pay it off for us, then we can pay him back later.  A lot simpler in the long run than trying to get some sense out of anyone on the Natwest phone line.

Barnadi had his first medical check up since arriving in Australia, since he hit 40 he has tried to get a full check up at least once every couple of years.  One year he had a slightly high cholesterol reading and he has worried about it ever since, even though further tests were normal.  His cholesterol was normal this time too, but the balance between HDL and LDL was a little skewed.  The big shock was that he is officially vitamin D deficient and is now taking supplements to boost his levels.  In a country which gets so much sunlight it seems odd to be deficient in vitamin D which requires energy from the sunlight to form in the skin, it hasn't even been that cold and dark a winter.  In reality vitamin D deficiency is quite common in Australia, mainly due to an obsessive overuse of sunscreen.  In Barnadi's case it is due to the natural pigment in the skin as he rarely remembers to wear sunscreen.

Another fine mess

Last Sunday we went to do some shopping on Victoria street in Richmond to get ingredients for our dinner party on Monday.  Victoria street itself was jam-packed with no where to park, so we went up a side street and seeing the green P sign allowing 2 hour parking Monday to Saturday 8am-5pm, parked thinking as we were out of the restricted times we could stay there as long as we liked.  We had some nice noodles in a Vietnamese restaurant and then went and did our shopping.   When we got back to the car however we discovered a parking ticket stuck to the window.  We had seen the green parking sign but had failed to notice the red writing above stating it was permit parking all other times!  So although not helped by the unnecessarily over-complecated parking signage, we were in the wrong and so we paid the fine.  The parking ticket I am more annoyed about was the one issued today.  Having the day off work Barnadi wanted to take a drive so we went down to Brighton beach and parked in a car park along the sea front.  It was not a cheap car park either, $4 per hour, but we paid for an hour, stuck the ticket in the back window and went for a walk along the beach towards the pier.  On the way we had some fish and chips and then headed back to the car park only to discover another parking ticket stuck to our windscreen.  Needless to say I have appealed this one, and have no intention of paying it when I know for a fact we were parked legally with a valid ticket.

As if two parking tickets in one week wasn't bad enough we are also being fined from the UK.  On our last trip back to the UK for Gemma and Dan's wedding, Barnadi closed his bank account with Natwest seeing no further need for it.  It seems that when he closed the account on the Monday recent transaction from the previous Saturday hadn't cleared and so instead closing the account making life simpler we have now been issued with a bank statement showing a considerable overdraft.  As the overdraft was not prearranged we are also due a charge for that too.  The only money we have left in the UK now is tied up in a term deposit, so it is going to be a real struggle to find a way to pay back the overdraft quickly so as to avoid any further interest charges.  We tried phoning Natwest but after being pushed around from one department to another and then left on hold with no progress we gave up on that, as it was proving to be a waste of time and even more money with the overseas phone call charges!

Sky High

When we came to Australia I made a promise to myself that I would try and go somewhere new at least once a week.  That started quite well at first as we explored the city, but what with work and the lack of a car to get anywhere further afield all my good intentions went to waste.  This Sunday however we managed to get things kick started again, with a trip up to Mount Dandenong.  Hardly a mountain at all it's summit is a mere 633 metres above sea level, although that is enough altitude to attract a little light snow fall in winter.  The original name for Mount Dandenong was Corhanwarrabul.

The Road to Mount Dandenong

Our drive took us up the narrow, winding Mount Dandenong Tourist road, past many crazy cyclist.  Our first stop was the small township of Sassafras.  It was clear that here was a location in the full swing of 'Christmas in July'.  Despite being the middle of winter and very chilly the small village strip was teaming with tourist like ourselves and there was no room in any of the cafes to go and get some lunch.  From Sassafras we found the start of a walking trail along the Sassafras creek, but as we were not equipped for a 15km hike we decided this would be something we would have to come back to do another day.

Trees around Sassafras

Feeling a little hungry by this point we stopped at a restaurant called Cuckoo.  It is a Swiss style buffet restaurant, which didn't seem too bad for a buffet even if the mock-European decor and costumes were a little tacky.  Still we didn't really feel hungry enough for an all-you-can-eat experience so we moved on.

SkyHigh Mount Dandenong

Our next stop was SkyHigh Mount Dandenong, a garden, restaurant, maze and viewpoint.  There is a $5 gate charge just to get in, but at the summit of Mount Dandenong it offers a stunning panoramic view across the whole of Melbourne, from Port Philip bay in the south to the Yarra Ranges in the north.  Now after getting very cold taking misty photos of the distant CBD we were hungry enough to try the restaurant.  Sat beside the huge Christmas (in July) tree  I had an amazing view out the massive windows towards the city (although Barnadi had his back to it).  The meal we had was unremarkable and overpriced, and the service was terrible.  The poor couple next to us ended up with a lap full of coffee.  If it wasn't for the view the place would have closed down years ago.  After lunch however we walked around the small 'English' garden but decided against the maze as it cost an extortionate $6 per person to enter and having already paid $5 to get in it seemed a little unreasonable.  As we were about to pull out of the car park, Barnadi spotted a Kookaburra behind a wire fence so we stopped while I tried to get a good photo, struggling against an automatic focus that was more interested in the fence than the bird.  We were being laughed at though, quite literally, when we realised in plain sight and on every fence post around us sat another Kookaburra and another and another.

Melbourne CBD

Kookaburra

Our final stop on this journey was the William Rickett's Sanctuary, a park filled with mythical sculptures that blend into the stones on which they are set.  Crucially it was free to enter, so well worth the stop to explore.  We didn't spend too long here though as we had to head back in time to go to work.

William Rickett's Sanctuary

Plaza Culture

The biggest reason Barnadi gave for wanting to move back to Melbourne was the quality of life, something I am yet to be convinced about.  Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying living here, but I would not say it was any better than living in Bath.  Our life seems firmly centered around shopping plazas.  Most Melbourne suburbs, especially the newer ones, are built around a shopping plaza and our lives seem to have become inexplicably centred on them.

My own link is not that inexplicable, I work in one.  The pharmacy I work in is based in Epping Plaza and so I spend most of my days there.  It is not too bad a place to work, it is right next door to a GP surgery so it stays quite busy.  This was made even worse last week when there was a plaza wide sale event to 'celebrate' the plaza's re branding.  It took me almost half an hour just to get a space in the plaza's car park.

Barnadi's plaza of choice is Northcote Plaza, not starting work until 4:30 in the afternoon gives him plenty of time each morning to spend shopping.  Despite our best intentions to do a big weekly shop in Preston market each week, Barnadi now tends to do all our food shopping in Northcote.  Although Coles is good for bread and milk, there are several other good shops in Northcote plaza, including a butcher and a nice Italian shop.  His most frequent destinations however include his friends at the Tattslotto stall.

The best thing about living in Northcote is not however the plaza, it is the high street.  The northern end of the high street is a little grungy, but south of Nothcote plaza you get to one of the trendiest spots in Melbourne today (As endorsed by Lady Gaga, who had a night out in Northcote Social Club during her recent tour).

Barnadi had to have a fasting blood test today and after a trip to the pathology centre we were ready for a big breakfast and so where better to go than Northcote high street.  Just opposite the Pathology centre we discovered a small Italian bistro called Joe Green and so popped in for our brunch.  The place is set in a large open space with high ceilings and a very eclectic collection of art on the walls.  I am not sure what brand of coffee they use, but the latte was the best I'd had in a while.  Barnadi had fried polenta with spinach and mushroom, and I had green eggs and ham (green due to being cooked with spinach and pesto).  I really liked my breakfast, but Barnadi found his had a bit too much garlic.  The place is open for dinner and we are seriously tempted to go back.