St Kilda and City

Still back two weeks ago. After the market I got a tram to St Kilda. There I decided to go for a walk on the St Kilda Pier.

Going forward

...Looking back

On the breakwall

I read somewhere that the breakwall was built to create a harbour for the sailing events at the 1956 Olympics.

The end the breakwall is home to some criters, the Little Penguin
and the Native Water Rat.

While I was looking at the sign above I overheard the following


"how cute"

"oh yuk, it's a rat, oooo!"


You just can't please some people. As far as rats go it is pretty cute.

Looking towards the city skyline

going down wind...

I sat on a rock for a few minutes waiting for the yacht to get closer so I could take the photo. After it passed I headed back towards the shore.

Say aloha to Captain Cook.

I don't know why, but this statue seems somehow out of place here.

I then walked along the Esplanade to the Palais and Luna Park.

The old Palais looks really run down.

And again somehow out of place here.

The show that was on this day was a live version of the childrens TV show Yo Gabba Gabba. I have no Idea who they are or what they do, but it seemed pretty popular with the kids.

Then I saw this restored fire truck, which a maxi taxi kindly decided to park in front of just as I was about to take a photo...

Never mind double parking illegally blocking entry to the street,
or the space a few metres down the road where you could safely unload,
or the person standing in the middle of a traffic island with a camera clearly trying to
take a photo of something...

After a few minutes he settled his fare and finally drove off after asking me if I needed a taxi. I was after all standing on a traffic island to take this photo.

click

Around the back where all the hoses and attachments go.

I guess you could call this the money shot if there

were such a thing as fire engine porn.

AFter getting sick of St Kilda I travelled back to the city on a tram via St Kilda road. I don't know why but I am always surprised that this route usually does not take any longer than the light rail to get to the city. I got off the tram at Lonsdale Street and slowly made my way down to Southbank where I was due to meet my mother.

Southbank Footbridge

Am I the only preson who does not like the design of this footbridge? Not in looks, but in the way it handles pedestrian traffic. There is no clear path across, you spend the whole time trying not to walk into the handrails and dodging people coming the other who are also trying not to walk into the hand rails. All because of the way the bridge zig zags. Not to mention that there are always tourists taking photos, not that that is a bad thing, but because of the design of the bridge they get in the way. My other gripe is the narrow subway under Flinders Street Station that the bridge feeds into, it is all rather uncomfortable. And the often terrible buskers impede the flow of traffic.

Eureka! Tower

Looking back towards Flinders Street Station

After theis I met my mother who had been to the opera and we ate dinner in the Foodcourt at Southbank before catching the train home.

That was my day on the 30th of May 2009

Update 1: Down the bay

The Pier at Flinders. Philip Island and "The Nobbies"
can be seen in the background.

The 'straya day long weekend saw me tripping around the Mornington Peninsula on the Monday with my Mum. We went to Flinders and had fish and chips for lunch in the park overlooking the Jetty. After that we headed over to Rosebud. While there we went and had a look at my grandparents former home. My grandfather actually designed this house, he was an electrical engineer so he was pretty good at this sort of thing. A lady was out the front washing her car (Are the Mornington Peninsula on lesser water restrictions?) As is typical of houses of this vintage, it is constructed from fibro cement sheeting. To it seems as if most of Rosebud is constructed of Fibro.

After heading down to Rye we decided to turn back to Melbourne. We decided to stop at Rosebud for afternoon tea. We ended up at what is named the "New" Rosebud Bakery. While the service was pretty good, the chocolate milkshake I had was not so good. The best milkshakes are the ones where you get the tin cup with another glass or two worth of shake in reserve, sadly this was missing and my glass was empty all too soon.

Our refreshments done away with we drove to the Rosebud Pier across the road. It was a warm day, and this was the place to be. There were a lot of people on what little beach there was due to a high tide. What I've always found quite amusing about this part of the bay is how you can wade out for 100 metres, and the water goes no higher than your knees, and that's at high tide. On the pier there were lots of kids and teenagers jumping off and splashing around. Strangest of all some young girls were even sunbathing, strange given all the warnings of danger of this activity.

A ship passing Rosebud Pier

At both Flinders and Rosebud the colour of the water was unreal (as seen in the photos), I don't recall seeing water this colour before in Melbourne. Also on the pier there were a few people fishing. No one caught anything while we were there, but on the way back I saw a school of some reasonably sized fish. All this brought home to me the uncertain effects of the channel deepening dredging and eventual blasting of the heads that was due to begin in the next week or so after we were there. I have no idea, what will happen, but I suspect that the Port of Melbourne Corporation probably got the environmental effects statement they wanted.

Arthur's Seat from the Pier. The water really was that
clear, and that colour!

The road home lay ahead, taking us along the bay via Dromana, Mount Martha, Mornington and Farnkston to Edithvale where we headed up Springvale road and Westall Road home. Getting closer to home it was nearing dinner time so we stopped at Hungry Jacks at Forest Hill for a bite to eat. Why is it that the air conditioning in these places is always so cold?