Getting a little cold in Melbourne

Actually, it wasn't such a little cold. I'm sick as a dog and more tired than I've been for a long time. But blogging feels like something useful I can do, so here it is, our trip to Melbourne!

Took two days for the trip down, stopping overnight at Gundagai. The countryside looks beautiful. This is a bit south of Wagga.

 I love Melbourne. I get very excited when the city skyline pops into view on the drive in.

We went straight to a cafe in Brunswick - Babka, a favourite for its great coffee and lemon tart. Wim and Lian met us and also Eve and Neil McRae. Neil is a sculptor who works with found objects, making quirky metal pieces.

http://roxburgh24.customer.netspace.net.au/alkira/neilsbirds/neildata/mainfrm.htm

We had seen some of his work in a gallery on a previous visit. Tracked him down on the internet and arranged to meet at this cafe, in order to buy this: "Gear Box" an assemblage made of old gears, welded, sandblasted and then powder coated. It is to be our woodbox next to the fire.

It is on castors, so it rolls around beautifully. Form and function.

The official purpose of our visit was to do an inspection of our apartment in Southbank - the tenants are looking after it well. But the hot water packed it in 2 days before we got there and we had to replace the unit. Sigh. 

Wim's pacman installation, using multiple rubik's cubes.

The unofficial reason was to help Lian and Wim pack up their apartment in Fitzroy and move out at the end of their lease. We hired a trailer and took Lian's bed over to a room in a friend's house, where she will stay after she gets back from New York in a few weeks, until her US spouse visa comes through. What a bureaucratic nightmare that process is turning out to be! It could be months and months, poor kid. Not a good scenario for a newly married couple.

This is her new living space. It's in a wonderful house full of character and she has Suki with her. Suki is not very impressed to be sharing with another cat, however. She complains to Lian that there has been too much change lately. You have no idea what's coming, Suki. You're going on a big plane trip to New York sooner or later!

We were sleeping on an airbed and eating out all the time - fortunately Fitzroy has some great cafes within walking distance.

This one is Min Lokal - the back "garden" courtyard showing that artfully contrived inner city grunge effect that so typifies Fitzroy. And a lot of Melbourne, for that matter. We love Fitzroy.

A couple of days was spent packing up, chucking out, cleaning down and shipping out. Things went to Vinnies, the Salvos, the rubbish, the neighbours, the friends, the buyers off GumTree and even the in-laws. These big indoor plants went to Pam and Chris.

Wim's bath toy went to their whippet, Edie. She ran around like a mad thing and soon had its beak chewed off. Chris and Pam took some other stuff to sell in their antique shop and generally fed us and looked after us. Good people.

By the final morning, the pile had been whittled down to this. Plus a few plants and boxes that we loaded in the back of Rover to take back to Diamond Beach for the foreseeable future.

Actually, Rover was pretty much choc a bloc.

Final breakfast at Pope Joan's in East Brunswick. Either you like bacon or you're wrong. Drove through hell and high water to get out of Victoria, with heavy rains nearly drowning the poor little Copen. But made it to Goulburn in one piece just as the fog set in. Sandrea decided to share our family motel room rather than drive her new car back to Canberra through all that. A courageous decision, given there were reports in the morning as to the loudness of our snoring. Well my excuse is that I had by then developed a terrible cold.

Then David, Wim and I drove to the International airport. This is the final selfie taken just before he went through those gates to heaven knows what in the next couple of years. I held it together until he was out of sight, then had a little weep. Been a tough few days.

Back home via lunch at Peter and Elaine's. Saw Kathryn and Florin and marvelled at how much Anna-Louise has grown. The wood box takes its place and looks mighty fine.

Today, these photos lobbed in - this one is Lian at the International Airport yesterday morning, ready to board her flight to New York via LA.

And this one is a selfie by Wim on Venice Beach, LA.

Breathe, continue to breathe. All will be well.