Rolling

Moving right along… A week has passed. Decision must be made… Go or stay?

The plan was to drive… A slow trip up the east coast in a vehicle that is as yet, without registration… Through two states seriously affected by flooding of biblical proportions, at a time when fuel prices are off the scale! ($2:20 per liter!)

Not going to happen. On top of all that, I’ve gotta find a new place to live, pronto!

In the past week we’ve done some miles & seen some things.

Geelong by Sea Cat

Saw Hamilton… (Stage show)

Hanging Rock & Organ Pipes. (Barely a word about the original people of the land or the significance either site)

Looking through the feather of a Gang-Gang cockatoo – They are still among us

Bendigo – Great Stupa of Universal Compassion

On Saturday we went out to St Andrews market. Market day is just an excuse. It’s nice to be there when the place is alive, even if the atmosphere is only a shadow of what it was.

It seems all the hippies are gone, squeezed out by real-estate speculators and a new generation of well healed wannabees! I don’t really care. I’m not about to start blazing up on the grassy hillside now. But as I walk barefoot across the sharp edged clay visions return to me of wilder days. I walk oblivious past market stalls and find a spot to sit by the creek and listen to the birds and frogs… Feel the cool water bighting the arches of my feet and embrace my past so tightly it overpowers the now.

I liked his T-shirt – Seemed a nice bloke… old school

Later we went up the hill at Kangaroo Ground to view the sunset

From this grassy hill… we can see the far, all it needs are the native grasses returned

Sunday at Camberwell market. Camberwell area continues to have a huge supply of wealthy person stuff from the 19th and early 20th century… Great quality stuff and beautiful. Bless their silk stockings. Lots of Chinese jade (real and pretend) and silver cutlery, high class clothes and a private collection of sacred objects. (I have no idea how the collector obtained some of the objects which had originated from first nations people, they were authentic and I know are forbidden to be held by the likes of us!) I took no photos. Questions remain.

Today was dedicated to art. Vincent Van Gogh exhibition at the Lume.

Finally after the Lume we caught up with a mate from Darwin who had spent four months cycling from Darwin to Melbourne last year. It was great to catch up. He’d found a great little apartment and spends his days off wandering the city with his cameras. An artist at heart, maybe misplaced in Darwin. We spent the afternoon wandering the city, exploring lanes and old buildings. The life dreampt of as a young man… (Though my romanticism always included booze!) ‘Jay’s approach was far more sustainable than anything I could achieve… He also managed to teach himself how to process film and operate his cameras manually.

The afternoon spent with Jay, was a highlight of my trip. This guy is able to see the city with the eye of an artist. He notices all the curious delights of city living and is able to share them as I might see.