A Wet Weekend

After the warmest May on record, winter has finally hit Melbourne hard.  Strong bitter southern winds, bringing lots of rain and flooding to many parts of the city.  On the plus side, it means we can put our new ducted heating system to the test, and so far it has passed with flying colours, well worth the investment.  The rain did not stop us taking a day trip up to Daylesford this weekend to visit Barnadi's friends Leah and Evan.  The trip was rather spontaneous in its complete lack of planning, we had been taking Goofy for a walk when the rain began.  Cutting the walk short we headed back home, but Goofy had hardly had enough time to stretch his legs, so we got in the car, planning to drive to Bundoora park where we could let him off the lead a bit and he could have a run around.  Before we even pulled out the driveway Barnadi suggested we make a day of it and head down to Williamstown, this sounded like a good plan to me so instead of driving to the park I took us up onto the ring road.  It was here Barnadi changed his mind again, we hadn't seen Leah and Evan for a while, and last time we drove up to Daylesford to visit them, the house they were building by the lake was still far from finished.  It seemed then that a visit was well overdue and we got off the ring road at the Calder freeway and headed north-west. 


Trentham Falls

On the way we stopped briefly at Woodend to buy a bottle of wine and a small house plant, it was rude enough of us to turn up uninvited, but to turn up empty handed as well would have been unforgivable.  We stopped again at a little place called Trentham, every time we had been to Daylesford before I had seen the little brown sign to Trentham falls and thought I would like to go there and yet we never quite managed it, until now.  Just of the main road a potholed little driveway lead us to a small car park, surprisingly busy for such a miserable day.  From the car park it was a surprisingly short 70 metre walk down some muddy steps to the viewing platform.  An impressive cascade over columnar basalt cliffs, made all the more impressive by the rain we were now enjoying.  Once we had our fill of falling water, we got back into the car and made the short final leg of our journey into Daylesford.  We weren't the only uninvited guests to turn up that day and Leah miraculously managed to throw together a delicious impromptu lunch.  After lunch Leah took us on short walk to the Mill Market where she had a stall selling vintage items, Evan stayed back tasked with baking some scones for tea.  By this point poor Goofy was getting rather fed up, what began as a trip to take him for a walk had ended up with him being tied up outside in the rain most of the day or stuck in the back of the car.  The walk to the market at least gave him the chance to feel involved again, and the walk back via the lake gave him the chance to get even wetter with a quick swim. 

Mill Market

Along the pier a there was a buzz of activity as three boys were busy tying balloons along the railings, lighting candles and setting up a stereo.  On quizzing one of them about what was going on, it transpired a friend of theirs was about to propose to his girlfriend, and they were helping to make it as romantic an occasion as possible.  Our thoughts were with that couple as we headed back up to the house and the rain once again came down, the heaviest it had been all day.  Would the girlfriend still agree to walk around the lake in this weather?  Would the candles still be alight, or the stereo work?  Would she see the romantic side, being dragged around the lake in the cold and wet?  I guess we shall never know.


Fed up Goofy

Despite his modesty Evan's scones were perfect, and went down exceptionally well with a hot cup of tea.  It was just what was needed to thaw out after the chilly walk by the lake.  Realising Goofy had had enough, cold, wet and muddy as he was, we decided it was time to say our farewells and head back home again, where we could give him a thorough wash.

Solstice

The winter solstice brings the longest night, but also sees the return of the Light in Winter festival in Federation square.  This years centrepiece was an installation by UK architect Asif Kahn named radiant lines.  Also located around the square were home made shrines, totems and some creepy puppets by the Indonesian Papermoon Puppet theatre.  The solstice also marks the one year anniversary from our move to Bundoora.  It may have only been a year since we moved from Northcote to our house, but it feels like a lifetime ago.  Lodgers have been and gone and our two beautiful children arrived. 

Radiant Lines

Having children, even non-human children can become very stressful at times.  Poor Goofy took quite ill last week vomiting twice and loosing all appetite.  For a whole day he didn't eat a thing, but he was still drinking water and wasn't showing signs of dehydration so we didn't take him to the vet, but it was a close call.  By the next day he begun eating again, but only small amounts of plain rice.  He is now back to his normal naughty self, which although frustrating is a great relief.

Goofy is not the only one who has been sick.  Barnadi caught the flu very badly this year and had to take a whole week off work which is completely unheard of for him, he has now vowed to get the flu jab every year from now on.

The arts

Our spate of cultured nights out to the opera did not stop at two.  After the Turk in Italy we went to see Carmen, the most famous of the operas we saw and this was followed the next week by La traviata.  La traviata might have been the lowest budget but they had a novel set design, involving laying the back drop canvas on the floor and suspending a large mirror over the stage.  A trick that worked really well for the big party scenes, but didn't quite work so well in the country house where the lead male actor looked like he was sleeping on the walls.  The opera season has now ended, so we will be returning to plain old musicals for future theatre excursions, the King and I, showboat and Guys and Dolls being just some that we are planning to see.

At the start of this year I set myself 5 seemingly unobtainable goals, and yet I have now completed one.  As a child I was always writing stories, but a life as a pharmacist following guidelines and evidence based medicine had pretty much killed my imagination.  I had an idea for a story or two buzzing around my head, but never found a way to get them out.  Then one day earlier this year inspiration struck, the first day back at work after white night, Cameron and I were having a conversation.  It started with a single phrase.

 "The Camerosaurus and the Peppermint princess made their way through the aftermath of the battle between the White knight and the peoples of Swanston"

And from here a whole story grew, and as of today the first draft is now complete.  Ironically enough this original phrase no longer features anywhere in the story.  Now begins the long and painful journey of editing, something I have never had that much patience with.