I (John) have walked this way in downtown Windsor many times, but always in one direction, so I never noticed this lovely mural … until the other day. I was walking on the road in the other direction and noticed this lovely mural. Very well done!!

    Beverly has been having fun trying recipes from her new cookbooks. And the family, well, we’ve enjoyed testing them all out. Sunday night, it was Miso Ramen. Yum!!

The before picture

The after picture

    Not too much else to show you today, but I do have a funny story to tell.
 

    I needed to contact CRA on a tax matter. I tried to sign in online like I always do, but it kept failing during the authorization phase. The only option left was to try contacting them by phone, and we all know how difficult that is at the best of times. Try doing it from another country 10 time zones away!

    For international callers, CRA gives a Canadian phone number and tells you to call collect. I didn’t want to burden my family with a huge long-distance calling bill, so I decided to try a collect call.

    Problem #1. Collect calls require an operator, and none of the cell phone networks here have operators, so I needed a landline. Problem #2. No one here has a landline. Even the government office our daughter works in does not have landlines. The only landline I can think of is a payphone.

    I googled how to make an international collect call from a payphone and got a 1-800 number to call. I walked to the payphone, dialed the number, and when the guy answered, I made my request. He paused. “Say that again.” I repeated what I wanted. Then the guy politely informed me that I had called a gambling site.

    You can’t make this stuff up. I tried to call the tax department and got a bookie!!

    Thankfully, I found a problem with my authentication app and was later able to get into the CRA site and deal with my issue.

That’s it for today. Have a great week!!

Our daughter and son-in-law are away for three days on a work trip to Wagga Wagga, located a 5-hour drive south of us on the Murrumbidgee River. They have some fun names for their cities here: Wagga Wagga, Toongabbie, Jerrawangala, Wollongong. But then again, in Canada, we have Medicine Hat, Moose Jaw, Red Deer, and Spuzzum.

    So, it’s just the two of us and Noelle. That means lots of games, snacks, a movie, and great suppers … schnitzel tonight.

    Lava Cake last night. Yum!

    Noelle has loved shoes since she was 4 years old, so it’s become a tradition to buy her a pair every birthday. As it’s her 16th bday this year, we wanted to get her a really nice pair. And for a really nice pair, we needed to go to some of the higher-end stores in Sydney. And, if you’re doing a shopping trip to Sydney, why not make it a little one-night holiday in the city?

So, here’s the conundrum. She narrows it down to two … and can’t decide which. After extensive negotiations between grandmother and granddaughter, mediated by grandfather, a decision was reached. One pair is the birthday present, and she gets a very early Christmas 2026 present. Everyone wins. Granddaughter gets both, and grandparents don’t have to worry about what to get her for Christmas.

    John requested one stop. A few doors down from the Strand Arcade was what claims to be the biggest Lego store in the world. Very impressive, and lots of fun.

An “Australian” Tree

A close-up of the koala so you can see the “Lego-work”.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

One thing we really liked in Melbourne was the excellent tram service downtown. You were always within two blocks of a station, and we rarely waited more than 2-3 minutes for the next tram. Another plus was that, because of the global fuel crisis, the state of Victoria made all public transportation free for the month of May. (A quick geography lesson. Australia is divided into seven states: three with the simple names of North, West, and South Australia, then going down the east coast from top to bottom, there’s Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria, and finally, the island of Tasmania is #7.)

On day three, we started with a visit to the National Gallery of Victoria. Wow. We especially liked the 17th-19th century European art. The red room below was covered in portraits and scenic art. That picture is only about 1/6 of the room.

A security guard told us that the painting below was the most expensive one in the gallery. It was a large painting (2.5m wide x 3.6m high) depicting Egyptian queen Cleopatra wagering with Roman consul Marc Antony on who could stage the most elaborate feast.

The Banquet of Cleopatra (1743-1744) by Giambattista TIEPOLO

An interesting fact about this painting and many others painted at that time is that, although it depicts an event that occurred 30-50 BCE, everyone is dressed in attire current to the 1750s.

Leaving the gallery, we passed over the Yarra River. The big stadium in the back is the Melbourne Cricket Ground, home to football and, of course, cricket.

Many of the original buildings here and throughout Australia were built by the settlers in the late-1800s and early-1900s. The builders clearly brought design and building techniques from Europe with them. We went inside the cathedral; very beautiful inside, too.

St. Paul’s Cathedral

The grandeur of this building makes one think, “Important government building.” Nope. The train station. Even the train stations had remarkable design and architecture.

The last stop of the day was Centre Place Lane. The city had many of these “lanes”, which we would probably call “alleys,” that were filled with shops, or in this case, lots of small food establishments.

We hope you enjoyed our short, 3-day journey to Melbourne. See you next time.

We really enjoyed going to Paddy’s Market when we were in Sydney, so when we heard there was a similar one here in Melbourne, we wanted to go. We thought Paddy’s Market was big; this one was bigger. Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Market opened in 1878 and has expanded over the years.

This is one of eight aisles with fruit and veggies. All of it fresh, top quality and reasonable prices.

Queen Victoria Market also had a merchandise area with about 4 aisles, each about the same length as above. At Paddy’s, the merch seemed cheaper and more touristy. At this market, while it still had the touristy stuff too, there were many booths with higher-end merchandise, like opal jewelry, amazing leather clothing, wallets, belts, etc.

Lastly, they had an area just for meat and seafood of every kind … two aisles like the one in the picture. Beverly said she knew all the meat was fresh because there was no “meat smell.” Many of the stalls had “hung meat”, the full animal carcass ready for butchering. You can’t get fresher than that!

Next was a visit to the Royal Arcade and the Block Arcade. Again, the old, elegant style of these old versions of our malls amazed us.

At the end of the Royal Arcade stood Gog and Magog. These 7-foot giants have been striking the clock’s time since 1892.

In the Block Arcade, we had to stop and drool for a while at the window of this Tea Room. Too bad it wasn’t tea time.

    Hey, I’m trying something new here. I made a short video from the rotunda of the Block Arcade. Check out the beautiful mosaic floor, the dome, and the arcade itself. To see it, click here. Someone try this and let me know if it works.
 

    On our way to our next destination, we went into the main branch of the Melbourne Library. Many of these old buildings are museums and works of art on their own. One of the exhibits was ancient books and writings, including tablets from 3,400 BCE, and a scroll with the book of Esther written on vellum. Amazing stuff.

    Below on the left is a “reading room.” And the staircase on the right is a masterpiece. Usually, stairs like that are made of wood … not here … that’s all done in stone.

We ended the day having dinner at the Hofbrauhaus. John has always wanted to go to the original, world-famous Hofbrauhaus in Munich, Germany. When he discovered there was a satellite location in Melbourne (and only two blocks from where we were staying), Beverly insisted he had to go!

Have a great day, everyone!! We’ll post Melbourne Day Three tomorrow, and then tell you about what we did this past weekend.

Last Sunday, Mother’s Day, we flew to Melbourne with Krista. We have done that before when Krista had a work trip … we would tag along and play “tourist” during the workday. We had a nice one-bedroom apartment right in the downtown core.

    After we had sent Krista off to her conference on Monday morning, we looked out at the beautiful day and decided to go to the Royal Botanic Gardens. The best way I can describe it is a blend of Vancouver’s Stanley and Queen Elizabeth Parks, and add a focus on trees/plants from all over the world.

Walking from the tram to the park (more on trams another day), we passed the Shrine of Remembrance, built in the 1930s. Initially, it was to remember those lost in the “Great War,” World War I, but now commemorates all Australians lost in war.

Such a beautiful park in the middle of a major city.

This picture shows the depth of the park

This gazebo had the most intricate woodwork.

We thought this was one of the nicest views in the park

When walking in the park, we encountered this “fork in the road”. Both paths, so beautiful. We stopped and just looked at it for a while, then had a discussion about the many times in our lives when we have faced a “fork in the road”. Do we move or not? Do we change careers? Do we go back to school? Do we buy this house or that house? Do we do this or that? What would have happened had we chosen the other one?

    How about you? How often have you faced a “fork in the road”? Something interesting to ponder.

Hey, do you want to see a really crazy quirk about driving in Melbourne?? First, remember that driving here is the reverse of how we drive at home. In Australia, the right turn is the wide turn where you cross oncoming traffic. So, you would think that on a multi-lane, downtown road, you would have to be in the right lane to turn right. Right?? Nope, not necessarily. At some intersections in Melbourne, to turn right, you must be in the left lane.

Look at the above example. The white car is in the right lane and is going straight. The left lane is for those who wish to turn, either left or right. The darker car wishes to turn right. On the green light, it will move ahead into the box marked on the pavement. Others wishing to turn right will line up behind it. When the light turns red and the intersection clears, it can then turn and proceed to the right.

    It’s one of the craziest driving things I’ve ever seen. Apparently, the reason is to prevent those turning right from blocking the tram tracks during green lights.

Have a wonderful day, everyone. Come back for Melbourne-Day Two. I will try to post it in the next day or two.

It’s been a few days since our last post. Our apologies. A busy time helping the family with things.

    Mother’s Day is the same here in Australia as it is in North America. Father’s Day, however, is different. In June for us, and in September for them. We’ll celebrate that Canadian style in June.

    Because Mother’s Day Sunday was fully booked with another activity, we decided to celebrate Mother’s Day on Friday night. First thing, cook up a beautiful meal. Krista’s favorite: steak. There were no complaints from the rest of us either! We cooked up some lovely filet mignons, mushrooms, and French potatoes.

Dessert was a decadent chocolate cake. We’re so spoiled.

Beverly got some lovely gifts. Two cookbooks from well-known Australian chefs. We look forward to trying many of the recipes when we get home.

A very Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers out there. We wish you all the best. And now we will finish packing. We’re flying to Melbourne this afternoon. Krista has a business trip there, and we’re tagging along. We haven’t been there before, so we’ll see what it’s like. We’ll tell you about it at the end of the week.

The day we arrived in Australia, it was gloomy and rainy. Since then, there have been a few cloudy days, but mostly sunny, low to mid 20s, and no rain. That is, until today. Gloomy, rainy, and 18°C.

    No complaints, though. Later this morning, we’re heading to the mall to pick up our new glasses. We always get them here as it’s less costly than at home. A good day for an indoor activity.

    During last week’s visit to Sydney, we went to the beautiful Darling Harbour.

Darling Harbour is home to many boats and attractions. We were there for Sea Life, Sydney’s aquarium. For us, a highlight of the aquarium was the four underwater tunnels you could walk through, allowing you to get up close and personal with many sea creatures.

Below and on the left is a dugong, a relative of the North American manatee. We were looking into the water when a plastic tray with lettuce attached suddenly floated down. As it reached the bottom, this dugong swooped in and started chowing down on the “salad.” On the right side, we don’t need to tell you what that is. There were about six of those in this area. They had some very impressive teeth!

The aquarium had small boats where you could float through the penguin area and enjoy the same 4°C as the animals. It was nice when they would stand right by the glass and pose for pictures.

We’ve always liked turtles. Very interesting animals. These were quite active, swimming back and forth right by the glass. We found their light, almost albino-like coloring, interesting.

That’s it for today. We hope you all have a great week.

During our short holiday to Sydney, we visited the Taronga Zoo, located across the harbor from downtown. By the way, the Aussies don’t call it “downtown,” they call it the “CBD,” short for the Central Business District. They seem to love their acronyms.

    The easiest way to get there was a ferry ride across the harbor. On the north side of the CBD is Circular Quay, home to many passenger ferries. (Can anyone tell me why “Quay” is pronounced “Key”??) It’s a nice location with the Harbor Bridge on one side and the Opera House on the other.

    Sydney actually has two harbor areas: this one and one on the south side close to the airport. Years ago, they decided to move all commercial/shipping traffic to the south side, allowing only ferries, personal boating, cruise ships, and the Navy in this harbor. We think that was a great decision. The harbor is beautiful and doesn’t have any rusty, old freighters blocking the view.

Navy Yard

View of the City from the Zoo

We won’t bore you with too many animal pictures … we’ve all seen a giraffe.

Whenever we see a Koala in a zoo, they are always sleeping! Why?

We could walk through an enclosed area where emus and wallabies walked freely.

Whenever we go to a zoo, John always says it’s so he can visit his relatives. He found one of them here!

Everyone, have a great weekend. Next post, we’ll visit the Sydney Aquarium.