Australia 2024: Melbs

First photo, of course, is of my bags getting loaded. Always handy in case you lose one. We did, on arrival, but it turns out I just didn’t recognize it when it was upside-down on the carrousel. It wasn’t this one.

The second shot of any holiday is of me looking a bit stupid in the plane toilet. I don’t know why I always take this shot, but I do.

Here are the kids post-arrival doing their car thing. It’s either this or vomiting.

Here we are with the old pater familias and his dogs. I’ve cut the section from the video where the dog brings the ball back because he doesn’t. He is a naughty dog.

The next day we took a stroll through the city. Here is St Paul’s cathedral, I’ve seen a few cathedrals recently and this one is fairly nice, even if it’s not 2,000-years old. The highlight of this visit was the gift-shop on the way out where my first-born coined the term “church-merch”. Love it.

One must have a shot of the Yarra from Prince’s Bridge. The Christmas decorations are nice.

The state theatre. I have never been in here. The weird thing is, that green poster near the middle of the picture? That’s for the Erth group, which I’m pretty sure is the same theatre group that I knew from Ballarat. Very much a group of no-good hippies and it was at one of their (many, awesome) parties that I first got drunk at the tender age of 17, on Vickers’s Gin. Nice to see they went on to bigger things.

Here’s the NGV, or National Gallery of Victoria. Our destination.

Kids 1&2 at the famous water-wall. I recall doing this myself at their age. Maybe even younger. Of course, I had to pose them for this shot “Don’t just stand there, touch the water! In wonder!”

Admission is free and it’s a great place to hang out. I don’t understand why it’s not full of homeless people.

My father and son admire the stained-glass roof. I remember gazing at it in my own youth and how the generations roll by and blah, blah, blah.

It’s actually a really cool space in its own right. I think I’ve come here on my last two or three trips.

Me and Child #1 in front of an infinity box. Do you know how this is done? I do, but I’m not telling.

That’s it for tonight, stay tuned for the next episode, Point Lonsdale!