A day in Melbourne

To my great surprise I slept pretty well only waking up a couple of times as the idiots at the disco chucked another bin of empties into the skip.and woke about 6:30.

I ran off to find a Westpac branch and returned to do an official run around the Fitzroy Gardens with Rob and Carol.  Proving you can't get away with anything, some friends from Canberra saw us from about 100m  distance and were surprised that we didn't respond to their hails!

After breakfast we wandered off to the Queen Victoria Markets (QVM), passing along Little Bourke St en route.  A very Asian area, although now not exclusively Chinese.


 I started my graffiti collection in Little Bourke St and will put in a narrative parenthesis on that topic here.
 This is formal graffit - ie commissioned street Art in Bourke St itself near Spring St.
 Very informal street art off Acland St St Kilda
 I think this is semi-formal work on the front wall of a restaurant in Blessington St St Kilda.
Back to the plot and we wondered how many council workers it took to lift a kerbstone back into place.  The amswer was at least 10, including those sculling a latte.
 Here is a snap of the interior of the QVM.  Rob and I purchased food for the drive after the race and some bottled goods.
 To save our legs a bit we travelled back to the apartment on the free sightseeing tram.  A point of interest was a number of folk travelling around with numbers, obviously in an urban rogaine event.
 In the afternoon we headed for St Kilda and some fish and chipps for lunch.  A google of the topic sugested Clamms in Acland St was the go and so it proved once we overcame my problem of realising that Acland started at Fitzroy St rather than Jacka Parade!
On our way to consume the fish and chips we passed by the cake shops for which the street is famous.
We ate the food in a small park outside Luna Park.  If anyone is contemplating a ride on the big dipper they may wish to look at the diagonal strut shown in this image.  I hope it isn't load bearing (but suspect it is - in theory anyway).
 Parachutists were in the air ...
 ...  and on the ground.
 The Leptospermum along the shore were pleasant ...
.. as were the Rainbow Lorikeets in the St Kilda Botanic Gardens.
 This fountain amused me.  Note that the statue is in Melbourne National Costume prepared for 4 seasons in a single day.
 Back to the apartment and after Rob cooked a good pasta dinner we looked out at the light as the noisy bloody disco started up.  An hour and a half after going to bed I couldn't get to sleep and as the management couldn't arrange anything sensible I shifted my mattress into the kitchen at 11:15 and got to sleep.  I strongly suggest that anyone staying at the Paramount Apartments makes sure they get a room on the Exhibition St side of the building.  Personally I will never stay there again.

Links to the rest of this set of posts.
Day 1
Day 3 (the race report)
Day 4

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