being all cultural-like...

day one: adventures in the nation's capital of canberra. henceforth known as a ghost town with it's own tumbling tumble weeds. amazing how quiet this city is. after brunch in the civic (supposedly the centre of town and where nothing happens and no one frequents) jamie and i headed out to the motel monaro in kingston. a nice place to stay.


after checking in it was off to the post-impressionist exhibition at the national gallery. this ball was just hanging in the sky overhead.


there was a line just for us to wait in and it took about an hour and a half to get to it's end. it was pretty amazing, the exhibition i mean. we weren't allowed to take photos (of course) and although i did purchase an electronic tour guide, i didn't end up using it. jamie and i made up our own stories. much to the disgust of some of the patrons, we laughed a lot and gasped in awe. ;) van gogh's starry night was simply breath-taking, a cliched term i know, but so true.

we caught up with joel, a work friend of jamie's for dinner. mmm... indian food. and then to a pub to listen to the worst cover band in the world. i'm not kidding. who would've thought anyone could get an angels song so wrong? or acdc? well, we found them. it was a bit of a late night.

day two: breakfast alone because the boys didn't get up til noon.


joel drove us around the "city", from one lookout point on redhill, through the embassy district (check out the metal cows, they're on the lawn at the new zealand embassy - yes there was the question of why cows, why not...?)



this is joel and myself standing beside scrivener dam. yes, we stopped to look at a dam. for jamie. ;)


then onto mount ainslie... spelt different ains, but there you go. you've been mounted. ha! some great views over the city from here.




joel dropped us at the war memorial later in the afternoon, and whilst fascinating we could only manage to get through world war I and II. there really is only so much one can take. i'd like to get back to do a little more some day.






then into the evening for chinese, icecream and conversation. all good things come to those who go on holiday.

day three: after checking out and having a late breakfast it was a walk over to the old bus depot markets (for the longest time i read the road sign as old bus depot markers and was wondering what the big deal was...)




we visited the glassworks just near the markets, wonderful to watch them work. didn't buy anything - way too expensive. but pretty.





a terrific bookstore in kingston is the book grocer. and they had an amazing sale on... i ended up getting 6 brand new books for only $31. a couple of wodehouse's, a recipe book, a couple of biographies and something else. could've spent all my money just there. ah... sweet books.


but the old parliament house called to us. joel came along for another visit. really enjoyed walking through this building.












jamie getting into the character of a politician...



i won the voting game, by the way. i didn't expect the boys would continue playing after a couple of spins, but they did to the bitter end... victory was mine.



the tent embassy is still there. which i'm glad of. it's part of our history. may it always be canvas. ;)



italian for dinner before we got dropped off at the airport. bumped into a couple of the swing dancers who were in town for jump town. it was a great weekend. not sure i'll get back to canberra anytime soon, but it was definitely worth a visit.

(supplementary photos provided by jamie, thanks)

burger, chips and film

with friends. yah!

show us ya boots!!

day two (which was yesterday)... i think there was sleep between 6 and about 9, but i could be wrong. yes, the music continued til 6 in the morning. as did the rain. ;) whoever was dj'ing the last couple of hours had a great selection and i swear, had it not been muddy and raining i would've been down there in pj's dancing up a dust storm (but i did mention the mud didn't i?) the last song played to fade out, being it's a wonderful world by louis armstrong.

and then... the silence wedge... ahhhh....

the coffee lines were lllllooonnnnggg the next morning. and the rains held off until late in the afternoon. it was a brilliant day of music and people watching and spending time with wonderful friends.











the goodies were jeffrey lewis and the junkyard, wooden shjips (that is not a typo by the way) and space invadas.







and the plains has this strange but loveable tradition (in all it's 4 years) of punters taking off a boot, thong, foot wear in general and holding it in the air for their favourite band... brilliant. but if my boots were coming off for anyone it would have been for calexico. but by the time they came on it had been raining hard and those wellies weren't coming off (i'm surprised they allowed themselves to be dragged from my feet so i could crawl into my sleeping bag later on). calexico AWESOME. see them. buy the albums.





crap photo of my beloved wellies... it was late, dark and i almost forgot to take a pic. so here they be... i walked a mile in these things.


day three: it was a beautiful morning. the birds were a-tweeting and we were up early to pack up the tent and drive back to melbourne. a grand, grand time was had.



(official photographer of the weekend was jamie, go you good thing)

******

and on another note, it was 2 years yesterday that i arrived in melbourne. it's been better than grand.

golden plains meredith

day one at the plains... the rain that had been threatening all morning started falling as we were eating chicken parmas in the township of meredith. we needed the sustenance before attempting to raise a tent. of course, had we foregone lunch we could've pitched the said tent when it wasn't raining. but yep, we got it up. yyyahhh... thanks to terencio and lea for the loan of the 6 pygmy tent and accoutrements. ;)








you can see by jamie's sexy rain poncho, what apparel was common at the festival. before we got caught up in the music we took a wander around the site. fabulous set up. golden plains is the little sister of the meredith festival which just celebrated it's twentieth year. we've already started talking about getting a crew together for the event in december. it will be quite a mission, tarps, gondolas, campervans, marching bands and a kitchen sink. ;)



really enjoyed these guys, the crayon fields and will keep an ear out for a cd.


clairy baby browne and the bangin' rockettes were pretty groovy as well.

are we there yet?

a trip to tatura for a food and wine festival on sunday. i was darn tired after the housewarming on saturday night, but i managed to drag my sorry butt into the city to catch the mini bus out to the sticks. tatura is a town north-west of melbourne, not too far from shepparton. and we didn't get to see much of the settlement as we were situated in a park in the middle - surrounded by tents full of wine and food. no one seemed to venture pass them funnily enough.

a really fun day of wine tasting, though truth be known there was only two tents visited and then bottles bought to drink. and the paella was tasty. but i sadly note that there was NO CHOCOLATE TENT (and let one of the organisers know of my plight). and i had to make do with yoyo biscuits and a local baileys substitute. mmm...





jamie took a few pics (which obviously didn't include him) but kevin featured prominently. and no, i really don't know why he crawled under the table, nor the inspired art work. :)

the back of the bus was a raucous and out-of-tune place to be homeward bound. i'm not sure if the others have quite recoved as yet. i know i haven't.