And here we have Melbournian Street Art...including a couple of Benzo pieces...Today was actually kinda all about art really... well, there was lots more walking too... walking and buying and art and photography.
I slept better last night, I fashioned my own Bodymate pillow out of two spare pillows, a blanket and a sheet... and it actually worked fairly well. And the clocks went forward last night, so technically we missed out on an hour of sleep, but I didn't wake up either hideously early or overly late.
We headed to Tropicana for breakfast... Tropicana is (or should be) a Melbourne institution... if you visit Melbourne, you HAVE to go visit. From the oranges hanging all over the outside of the store to Giles (the owner) who is a total character (sweet, talkative and a little bit nuts), it's an experience. But the best thing is the smoothies/juices... they're just delish! I had the South American juice (and the Big Breakfast)... I have no idea what the hell was in it (it's a secret), but it was delightfully tart and tangy.
Once we were finished we walked down to the Sunday Market at The Arts Centre. There's lots of cool stuff there (including this tiny orange papier-mâché elephant that I just had to buy)... although to be honest it seemed slightly smaller than I remember (but then it has been five years, so who knows that I was remembering).
One of the stalls had a lot of really cool photography by Matt Irwin... I actually spotted one of his photos (Robot Alley) in a little gallery in Chapel Street... a photo of a Benzo piece from Hosier Lane. I was actually hoping they would have had it in a greeting card size, but Matt was actually there and he said that he knew that that one was only in the A4 size. Since it was only $25 (with $5 for postage), I got him to mail it to me, so hopefully I should get it by the end of the week. After we'd looked around the rest of the Market I actually went back and got chatting to the woman working on the stand (for a long time actually), and ended up buying one of the cards (Interview). I was also really tempted by his B&W calendars too...
I also picked up some fairly tasty Rocky Road (still not as good as mine though) and a delicious chocolate cupcake (complete with edible glitter). Ma also found a cool seahorse mobile/card, whereas PT spent the whole time watching an admittedly cute busker... *rolls eyes*.
After a brief "rest stop", we jumped on the tram down to St Kilda (which was packed, we had to stand up the whole way there) for The Esplanade Market. There was infinitely more cool stuff down at St Kilda... and both Ma and I ended up getting a bunch of stuff. There was a cool wood/metal seahorse, a seahorse magnet, some of Matt Irwin's postcards and lots of jewellery related things for Ma... and a groovy Scrabble letter necklace, Mr Bucket badge and a couple of Jay Walker "graffiti style" cards for me.
We also ended up getting all of our names (and PT got them for La Cousina, Mr Cousina and Miss O) written in Japanese by this awesome calligraphy artist. She was awesome to watch, she put her whole body behind each stroke and it was a performance to watch her work. All the names came out fairly accurately (most of the time anyway), mine was "thoughtful" and "peaceful" (like I said... most of the time).
After taking a bunch of photos outside Luna Park we headed down the tail end of Ackland Street to get some lunch at Grill'd. PT is one of those annoying eaters, won't try new things, doesn't want salad or anything vaguely healthy... but then were any of us really that different when we were teenagers. On the plus side, Grill'd was staffed by some very cute boys... there was one cutie in particular who had his pants pretty much hanging off his ass showing his perfect ass clad in tightly stretched blue underwear *drool*... fortunately he seemed to be working the tables outside, so he kept going past us and doing things that required bending and stretching and just generally showing off his undies. And there was also the cute Irish boy who brought us out our burgers. Actually there have been a lot of people with accents around these last few days... mostly working in stores, and a lot of Scottish/Irish in there too.
Our next stop was right next door for Trampoline Gelato... more very yummy stuff (I had the Spotty Dog and the Caramel Pear Sorbet... seriously good), and there were more cute boys working there too... one of them was bleached blonde and had what I thought was a scarification "tattoo" on his arm... I couldn't resist and mentioned how cool I thought it was, and although it turned out to only be a henna tattoo, he said that it went up his arm and across both his pec and his shoulder blade. Sadly he didn't offer to show me. Very hot though.
We wandered back along the Esplanade eating our gelato and perusing the market stalls again, then I left the girls to do their own thing (again... I'm suddenly realising how many times I did that over the last few days) and took off down the St Kilda Pier to take photos. I ended up heading out towards where all the boats were moored (since I know Ma likes photos of boats) and taking lots and lots of shots down there. I have no idea how long I was out there, but it must have been a good half hour.
When I finally got back to The Esplanade we were just in time to jump on the tram coming down the road and headed back to the city. On the way back to the hotel we stopped off at Kathmandu so I could look at their tripods (that was the brand of the one that broke). Even though I could have waited until we got back home, I bought one there and then. I think I kinda got rogered on the whole "If you join our Kathmandu Club you can save 25%, but it costs $10, so you'll only really save $1.20" deal. But honestly my brain wasn't really working on some of the higher levels by that point so I just got the card and the tiny discount and bought the tripod.
We went back to Ma's room to divide up the purchases from the day, then I went back to my room to rest up for a while before the next expedition.
To be honest, I wasn't really all that fussed about heading out to the Melbourne 360° tower at the Rialto... but it turned out to be pretty good (it would be even better at night, but it being Sunday they shut at 6pm). The view is spectacular and if you use the telescope to look down, you can see all kinds of interesting things (like the fact that the Crown Tower keeps their rubbish bins on the roof). Like with a lot of things we've done during this trip, it's not cheap, but I took a lot of photos and it was a better experience than some of the others we've had to pay for.
After they kicked us out we went looking for somewhere to go for dinner... but it being a Sunday evening, everything seemed to be closed or about to close or whatever. We ended up in Federation Square (during the stupid thugby match) and looked at a couple of places... and I lost my temper with PT. I didn't really mean to, I think I was just frustrated and tired and hungry and my feet were sore and I was just generally over it... but the whole "I don't eat XYZ" thing just pissed me off one too many times and I went off at her. And because I'm a big meany, I made her cry... which I'm not especially proud of... and of course as soon as I realised that I gave her a hug and apologised. I think all is forgiven though.
But I'm thinking that perhaps this holiday was a day too long.
Anyway, after all that drama we had dinner at a place in Federation Square and then wandered back to the hotel, stopping off at Krispy Kreme for some after dinner doughnut action.
When we got back to the hotel I took a shower and started getting everything organised and packed up (it was actually easier than I thought it was going to be). Unfortunately one of the plans I'd been hoping would come together just didn't (I guess that's a big fat dose of karma for my behaviour earlier tonight)... but I have Bolt and doughnuts to keep me company for the rest of the night...
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