Thursday 13th September 2018
When I arrived in Melbourne after an uneventful flight and a short stop in Adelaide, Pat & Kay arrived at the airport just as I was picking up my bag and we were quickly on our way home to their house in Beaumaris. I got shown around my bedroom, and we sat and had a chat catching up on their news, before going off to bed. A good day all round.
Friday 14 September 2018
Up in the Morning and after breakfast we walked along to Pat’s Men’s shed at Bayside in Beaumaris, Pat, and I had a good morning seeing this organisation and I took plenty of photographs of their facilities.
Back home for lunch then off to see the hulk of the HMVS Cerberus, which was sunk at Black Rock as a breakwater, then we went along to Brighton Bay to see the iconic bathing boxes which were very very bright and colourful.
A short train journey took us to Richmond where we went along the Cremorne art walk, which we all enjoyed and liked much of the art we found but we all felt that the various artwork was difficult to find as the map was not so easy to understand. During our time in Richmond, we met some really nice people who made the afternoon special. Most of the photographs I took there can be seen in the Street Art section.
On the way home, we stopped at Black Rock to take some photographs of the Black Rock turtle mural, which I will include here as we all thought it was our pick of the day.
By the time we got home, it was time for dinner and a couple of beers before a quiet night chatting and watching the Aussie Rules football game between Hawthorn and Melbourne, which Melbourne won, before going to bed.
Saturday 15th September 2018
After breakfast, we all went for a stroll along the beach before going to the local shops to collect the morning papers. After a short rest, we headed to the Cheltenham RSL for lunch with Sean, Moni and the boys, it was a nice afternoon catching up. On leaving the RSL we headed to the Naked Rider, a local motorcycle shop and museum where we saw some really interesting bikes and exhibits. The only concern was I suddenly appeared with a bloodshot right eye, everyone was quite concerned about me, but I decided to wait and see how things progressed over the weekend.
Sunday 16th September 2018
A busy day, we started off after breakfast taking a walk in to Beaumaris to see the Bayside car and bike show, which was very enjoyable and we were able to meet Andrew and Sheree with Isla-Rose and Leo, after having lunch there we visited the local pharmacist, who suggested that I visit an Optometrist, we returned home for a coffee before driving to Frankston.
In Frankston we said goodbye to Andrew and his family, then visited Specsavers where I had a full eye examination, which confirmed that it was a burst blood vessel, which although it looks bad, will sort itself out over time as I was not feeling any pain and there was no loss of vision. We then visited Park Lane to see a large mural by Smug before visiting the Frankston Library to see the Alice & Wonderland art there.
Monday 17th September 2018
This morning we had a stroll along the beach before stopping for lunch, after lunch we then went to P&K’s art group where I met their tutor who originally came from Clarkston. I then took the train from Sandringham into the city.
As I had been in the city previously when Jean & I were there for Graeme & Briony’s wedding, I wasn’t really looking at the city like a tourist, I was more interested in the street art on offer, therefore, I discovered when I returned home that I never took many photographs of the tourist attractions or even of the city itself, I will need to go back again to get some.
Once in the city, I tried to follow the street art map provided by Kay and managed to get to a good few of the places plus some others, and as usual, I stopped for a pint along the way. There were not so many good examples in the city as many had been tagged and the popular lanes were full of Chinese or Japanese tourists all wanting to pose in front of the best bits, however, it was still a good day in the city.
On my return to Beaumaris, the three of us went for a nice meal in Vincent’s, an Italian restaurant around the corner, then headed home to relax before bed. I was pleased to hear from Bryan from STA regarding a mixup for my time in Fiji, so hopefully, that’s all sorted now.
Tuesday 18th September 2018
My last day in Melbourne, after breakfast it was off to the airport with P&K, my flight to Sydney was a little delayed on take off but we made up our time and arrived as scheduled. I had a wonderful and interesting time staying with Pat and Kay, they went out of their way to make me feel welcome at all times and appeared to enjoy themselves wandering around with me while I was taking all my photographs.
[Perth] – [Alice Springs] – [Sydney] – [Back to Australia]
Jim's travels 