The Ron Mueck Exhibition:

While Chris strolled around the ACDC exhibition, I took myself off to see what Ron Mueck was made of. This was my absolute favourite exhibition in Melbourne (even though I got to play on the very first Sid Meirs Civilisation at the ACMI - for MS DOS!!) so I’m going to dedicate a whole blog post to his work. Ron Mueck is an Australian-born, London-based sculptor and his sculptures are so lifelike and completely evocative.

A Girl: 2006

The first thing you see when you walk into the exhibition room is this huge representation of a newly born baby. It’s so real, it’s unreal.

Man in a Boat: 2002



The most evocative thing about this sculpture is the expression on the man’s face. He looks so vulnerable and unsure of what’s out there - his arms seem to be folded not because he’s cold but more as a defensive action.



In Bed: 2005




This is the biggest of all the exhibits and people stood a long time looking at the woman’s face - what is she thinking about?



Wild Man: 2005






Again, massive, this man looks so afraid. I took a closer look at the skin and the hair on his body - it’s unbelievable how Mueck’s managed to make these look so real and life-like. I’m truly amazed.

Two Women: 2005


I liked this one the least - I thought the women had been depicted as slightly evil. Also, this was the one sculpture where I found the proportions to be off slightly - the heads seemed a teeny bit large for the bodies - perhaps this added to the evil-looking nature of the women I disliked. Still impressive though.


Youth: 2009

The look on the boy’s face is what catches your attention here - as he realises he’s been stabbed, the look of mortification is really well done. It’s a small sculpture and the use of size is obviously for emotive effect, just as with Man in a Boat.


Woman with Sticks: 2008



Again, I got a close look at the skin and hair on the sculpture - it’s very realistic. This woman has a look of deep intent, her pose implies she’s bearing a heavy load yet she looks focussed and purposeful.



Mask 2: 2002
This was unveiled at the British Museum so some of you may have seen it - I think I remember seeing it on the telly and Chris says he’s definitely seen it before. This huge, life-like head lies on a podium sleeping and dreaming - a great effect.

Old Woman in Bed: 2002
I found this one quite sad - the lady looks close to death but as it‘s such a tiny sculpure, she looks all the more vulnerable.

Dead Dad: 1996-97
This is one of Mueck’s most recognised works and it’s one of his only sculptures where the subject is no longer alive. They’ve put it in a huge room on it’s own - the only exhibit to be given such privacy. It’s only 102cm long - I guess the small size could be symbolic of how small we are in the scheme of things.

Drift: 2009

Still Life: 2009


The only animal at this exhibition, the chicken still managed to look as real as the others. From the pimples in the skin to the few stray feathers, it evoked the most ‘Ewww’s, ‘Gosh’es and ‘Oh look at that’s in the exhibition as I remember.

St Kilda: Bowling, Boardwalk and Penguins

Just another Tuesday night in St Kilda - Steph and I decided to explore more activities after our great success at the sailing club. We wanted to see what all the fuss was about at the local bowling club up the road. We were admitted as non-members for a small fee and a patient groundskeeper/barman was willing to come out and show us how it'd done.

Now the rules for English lawn bowling are a little like the continental European boules, bacci, petanque. However the balls are larger and glide across a designated area that is a manicured patch of grass. The balls are ever so slightly egg shaped and weighted so that one can hook one's toss to the left or right. How curious.

It would have been nice to find a group of friends to go bowling, but we were stuck just the two of us it being a school night and all. Naturally we needed to elevate the competition and make things interesting. The winner would be bought a steak dinner at the Republica restaurant on the promenade.

Steak is serious business - Steph had underestimated my desire for a huge juicy steak on a bed of mash potatoes. Luckily for our budget, Tuesday is $10 steak night at Republica.

We enjoyed our dinner on the boardwalk so much that we returned for their $5 gourmet pizza nights for $2 beers, backgammon and even some penguin watching on the pier. Joggers, cyclists and rollerbladers wizzed by every two seconds. We kept thinking how beautiful a place this would be to live, full of activities and people who love the outdoors.

Travel Sounds to Wake Up To

When travelling far and wide, you often forget where you are when you first wake up. Throughout our trip I've been keeping notes of the sounds we've woken up to. Here in Melbourne, I have enjoyed waking up to the soft chimes of tram bells from the #96 in St Kilda that begin service around 5:30 am.

Thoroughout Australia we have woken up to many unusual alarm clocks:

Cockatoos and parrots

Wombats poking at our tent pegs

Kuala chucking seeds on top of our tent

Waves crashing off the great ocean road

Parrots and crows that sound like lambs

Wallabies bouncing by our tent

High fives from the surf school

Lyre birds immitating other bird calls,
while kicking leaves and looking for worms

Kangaroos munching on grass and lazing about

Kookaburra birds (which sound a little like screaming monkeys)

I think my favorite morning in Oz was on Australia Day. Steph slept in while I enjoyed sipping coffee in front of a stunning view from our own chateau of a cellar door. You could watch the sun rise over the vineyards from here on the porch each morning from 6am. It slowly makes the trees and bushes of the mountain glow. And every few minutes I could catch kangaroos jump through golden bushes while making notes of the best we have managed to learn from Australia in our moleskines.

Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron

The Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron

A five minute walk from Dave and Iulia’s place is the St Kilda Yacht Club where Chris had found out we could crew for a sailing team. We jumped at the chance and on the two Wednesdays we were in Melbourne we could be found out on the ocean participating in the weekly yacht race.

Spirit

We were met by Nigel, crew to the boat ‘Spirit’. He took us under his wing and showed us the ropes. It was Chris’ first time sailing and it was a great way to start. In keelboat sailing everything is obviously a lot bigger than with dinghy sailing and the legs of the race have to be a lot longer - there is more space and also more time to explain things. Chris learned all about sheets and cleets, tacks and jibes, main sails and spinnakers. To be fair, Nigel and Paul (the helm) had it all under control and while they needed an extra hand with one or two things, Chris and I were pretty much able to watch and learn.

I have never been in a keel-boat that heeled so much though - Mum, you wouldn’t have liked it! I know Keel boats can’t capsize (it’s very difficult anyway), so knew we weren’t about to tip over, but we really were vertical! After a while, we gained more confidence and didn’t need to hold on until our knuckles were quite so white!

Despite being almost vertical for much of the race, I loved that we were able to have a beer mid-race! I’ve never been able to do this before in dinghy racing, for obvious reasons, and thought this was wonderful! It was only on the down-hill leg but it was a great feeling, sitting back watching all the other boats, feeling the wind in our hair while drinking a cold, fresh beer. Good times.

Chris spent most of his time sprawled across the top of the deck, hanging on for dear life every time we tacked (there was only enough room for three of us in the hull’s seated area and Chris drew the short straw, having to cling onto the roof of the boat! He loved it, really, and came out swearing like a sailor! (Only joking, Lisbeth!).

After the race when we’d helped pack the sails away, we followed Nigel and Paul back to the clubhouse where we sat down to listen to the prize-giving. This was new for me too - it’s a big club so they can have a prize-giving after every race rather than at the end of a season or a special regatta. There is a big dinner you could buy too and it really was a wonderfully social occasion. If I were to move to Melbourne I would definitely join the club to crew for someone - it costs $300 a year (about 160 pounds) and that’s it - no other cost, ever. It’s such a social sport, people were extremely friendly to us, and I love the element of competition.

Two weeks later, we were back again, this time sailing for the ‘Matrix’ team. This was a far bigger boat and without a spinnaker so we were in the pursuit race. There were eleven crew and a helm - Chris and I really did nothing in this race but move our weight accordingly as there were enough hands on deck already. We were just grateful to be taken out and be able to join in with such a fun race. It’s a wonderful way to meet people too.

Matrix

If you’re ever visiting Melbourne for a week or more, I recommend you hunt this place down and join in on a Wednesday night. You’re guaranteed to have a good time! Trust me, I’m a sailor…

Arrival in Melbourne

Though we were sitting up for the whole night, the Night Train experience was far more pleasant than that in China when we didn’t opt for the sleeper. We arrived in Melbourne somewhat sleepy, but not so exhausted that we couldn’t enjoy the scenery.

As soon as we stepped out of Southern Cross Station, I felt like we were in Switzerland - Zurich or somewhere. Never before on our trip have we stepped straight out of the train station and into a tram. There was a distinctly European feel to this city already, despite the palm trees when we arrived in St Kilda!

We had arranged to stay with Chris’ school friend Dave and his fiance Iulia for our first few nights in Melbourne while we found the cheapest hostel in town or preferably a self catering apartment for our three weeks here. Dave and Iulia live in the cool suburb of St Kilda, the most popular place for backpackers to stay. It’s right on the beach and has heaps of direct trams to the city centre. When we first arrived, Dave was at work (another Deloitte-er!) and Iulia took us for a walk around the town and helped us plan our next few days.

A very despondent looking me
- it’s just so expensive to stay in hostels!

After a day of seeking out the cheapest hostel in town, we soon realised that our stay in Melbourne was going to be an expensive one. At $450 a week for a double room and not much less for two dorm beds, we came home despondent, wondering whether we’d have to cut our trip short. Dave and Iulia encouraged us to stay with them for the whole time in Melbourne and we just couldn’t believe their generosity. They knew we weren’t flying out until 20 February and still insisted we should use the pull out sofa in their living room for the duration of our stay. Chris immediately got to work on finding out their favourite food and cooked up an amazing Burrito feast on our second night as a thank you. So far, we’ve cooked some great meals at Dave and Iulia’s - it’s wonderful to have said goodbye to the Stag Chilli and have a proper kitchen to cook in again!

Chris’ burrito night

We’ve spent our first few days in Melbourne strolling around the city and visiting some of the free exhibitions. There is so much for tourists to do and we’ve drawn up a huge list of free tours we’d like to go on, exhibitions we’d like to see, activities and neighbourhood walks - we have no clue how to fit all of this is but we’ll have to make a detailed itinerary for each day!

The city council have made it extremely easy for tourists to get around - there’s a free oldy-worldy tram which comes every ten minutes to stops around the city at each of the places of interest for tourists - circling the city, it‘s highly practical for locals too. What a great service! Chris was beaming - he loves trains, trams and when cities come up with unique improvements. He was delighted to be on such a traditional tram that had been restored. Not only have the city provided this free tram service, there is a free bus too which reaches further tourist attractions - we’re all set up for a very interesting (and hopefully cheap!) few weeks in this wonderful city.

An exhibit at the ACMI

We’ve even found a wonderful place to sit where there’s free internet. In Federation Square, the council have provided free deck chairs along with lounging areas where people can come with a picnic and their laptops to make use of the free wifi - another excellent service for us. There is often live music on the bandstand too and on our first visit we listened to the police band playing some fab music such as ‘Sex is on Fire’ by the Kings of Leon - what a treat! The architecture is interesting and it’s home to a number of museums such as the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) - again, with many completely free exhibits.

Federation Square, opened in 2002, is the size of an entire city block. A Fed square leaflet describes the architecture as ‘A perfect metaphor for ‘Federation’: many diverse elements connected by what they have in common’.

We absolutely LOVED it here at the Screen Worlds exhibition, learning about the history of the moving image from the very first cinema experiences to modern day video games. Incredibly interesting and interactive too. Definitely recommended.

Steph-Monster and Chris-Monster

There’s just so much to do in this city and we can’t wait to get started on it all!

Sydney to Melbourne Express

The time had come to surrender our car and camping ways. I must say I was a little sad to give it up after five thousand some kilometers. Our little white Toyota had gone all this way without a scratch, until well, the minute before we were to hand it in. I managed an embarrassing pop of the curb right in front of the rental garage door, almost worthy of a Mr. Bean episode.

Relieved to get off with out a fine, we met some of our only Sydneysider friends who happened to be brunching around the corner. Sue and Peter Kenaly insisted on treating us to a pie and were eager to hear about our travel up the coast which all started from their encouragement nearly a month ago. It's a shame that we could not have spent more time with their family this time around in Sydney.

That evening we finally splashed out on our first hostel in Australia. Steph and I made a joint decision to keep the tent, blankets and air mattress. Even though we had to give up the car, there might be room for a little more camping in Victoria.

But this meant we were overloded with too much camping gear to move more than a block in Sydney and thus needed a place to plop it all down a stone's throw from the station. And so what we found was a hostel INSIDE central station. The YHA Railway Square was built in the renovated loading docks, and the rooms occupy revamped carriges on 'platform #0' of the station. It was the coolest concept hostel I've been to, and the extroadrinry facilities made it well worth the money.

We shared a train car that night with six other Dutch backpackers who were attending a surfing school at Bondi beach. It turned out that our 8:05 overnight train to Melbourne left from track #1, right accross the platform from our bed. We were happy to be in a proper bead that doesn't inflate with crisp clean sheets.

From one night train to another.

The next day we completed many errands before catching our real train departure that night. We sold our excess gear, deposited checks at the bank, napped in the park, spent our first paycheck dollar one of Sydney's oldest pubs, before cooking up our surplus camping food. Funnily enough, we bumped into a friend while washing up in the hostel kitchen. Becca was a fellow backpacker from the boat in Halong Bay, Vietna, and it was great catching up on where our paths had split and converged again. We rudely had to scarf down our dinner in front of Becca before dragging our body boards, backpacks and camping gear (in a clown bag) down the platform to the Melbourne train - not sure if it was a comedy or drama for passangers who saw this from the train.

Exhausted, the second half of Australia begins tomorrow from Southern Cross Station.

Thanks a lot, Bill and Wendy!

It was an absolute privilege to meet Bill and Wendy. It was a privilege because they have, in my opinion, achieved something special that, even though most people dream of achieving something similar, the majority wouldn’t even come close to it. Having bought the land in 1988, the last twenty years have been a hard slog to create the vineyard and lovely home they have today. When they first arrived, they lived in a caravan with no electricity and not even a toilet. They admit now how ambitious that was and how much faster they could have achieved things in that first year if they’d have waited for electricity.

Looking at the photos of the progress they made in those first years was impressive. From moving a whole house (a 1914 church from nearby Singleton was about to be demolished until they rescued it and had it moved) to preparing the land, from digging a dam to store enough water to nourish the vines to planting the vines themselves, Catherine Vale has required a huge amount of planning, patience and hard graft.

Creating this vineyard has required massive team work over the years and there will have been times of such stress and seeming disaster that most couples wouldn’t have been able to handle it, in my opinion.

Bill and Wendy are the type who have seen much of the world. One year they took the children out of school for a few months to travel around Europe in a van. Amazing, and something I’d definitely consider myself. What an education that is for children! Their children, now all in their 30s or 40s, are all of the adventurous type too, living all over the globe as snowboard instructors, Symphony Orchestra musicians in Europe, IT managers and bike riders who ride across the length of America in races as well as up and down Germany for a holiday!

Bill was a PE teacher at a prestigious boarding school for 36 years where he was third in the hierarchy of the staff. In the cellar door proudly hangs a display presented to him on his retirement showing photos and autographs of all the Olympians he has trained or coached - there are around 12 of them. They became a huge part of the community at this Sydney school and were heads of one of the boarding houses for many years. This is a couple who have achieved great things in their lifetime yet their modesty overrides this.

Wendy has a huge heart and shows kindness to every one of her pickers: you wouldn’t find many more vineyard owners who bake brownies for their pickers every day or serve beer and other cold drinks on their terrace after a long day’s work. Despite this, watching Wendy manage the grape pickers and getting everyone and everything in order, I knew that she wasn’t one to be messed with. Bill and Wendy are tough as nails - they’ve had to be to create Catherine Vale.

If Chris and I ever manage anything close to what Bill and Wendy have done, I’d like to say I’ll die happy, or at least extremely proud. They’ve been a real inspiration and we’re just so pleased to have met such amazing people.

Farewell Bill and Wendy -

you have taught us an awful lot!