Eight years in the making

Yes, that's how long it has taken to almost complete the Metro rail tunnel. It will open next year and my local Anzac Station is all but complete. 

A friend who does not blog asked to see some photos as he lives interstate, so I though the best way is to do it here, and the post may interest some of you, although there are many local references you won't understand. 

The tram platform above the concourse. I am just showing these as the hoardings have been removed. 

The terminus for the rerouted 604 bus. It now travels from Elsternwick Station to Anzac Station.

The Domain lift to the concourse.

The Domain entrance to the escalators to carry passengers to the concourse. One escalator only and it was suggested it would carry people upwards but I am not sure. Maybe Melbourne Grammar lads will use this, but few others. 

The platform stops for the rerouted 605 bus.

Live arrival time is updated every two minutes.

I pushed the button but all it told me was the current time. Not fully operational yet. 

Trams cannot run in Domain Road and I hope they never do. For historical reasons the tram once did but the route is now much more direct and sensible (and more useful to me).

The Albert Reserve entrance.

The final touches to the landscape are happening.

A shelter with a public barbeque. 

Pavement water run off will run into the dry ponds to be filtered by plants and then presumably flow to nearby Albert Park Lake. 

Rather nice spoon drains carry the water to the dry ponds.

During construction the Boer War Monument was dismantled and has now been re-erected. 

The Albert Road Reserve lift, with a lower set of doors and a higher set of doors.

The services lift. 

The cycle way and I suppose Displan on the cabinet stands for disaster plan, meaning equipment if there if some kind of disaster at the station.

Plenty of hoops to lock up bicycles.

Left to right, general ventilation shaft, general exhaust shaft, tunnel ventilation shaft used if there is build up of heat, say on a hot day and something has caused trains to stop and remain at the station and there is a build up of heat from the train motors and the air conditioning pumping out heat.

Two chiller plants to cool plant, equipment, the platforms and concourse. Only one will run, with the other being a back up. Under testing and manually overridden, at full power on the hottest day, all plant will emit no more than 60db and at night, no more than 50db. That is not loud. No one likes the design of these but it is a case of function over form and they were designed by one of the top ten world architect companies. 

Wednesday sadness

It was my Uncle Peter's funeral today. I watched online and there did not seem to be any family and only the person conducting the funeral spoke. No mention of my father, his older brother was made although there was of his youngest brother. There are sad and joyous funerals, but this funeral was really just sad. I was under the age of ten when I last saw Uncle Peter, when he then disconnected from family. 

A couple of weeks ago as I had a couple of minutes to kill before catching a train back to town from Victoria Park Station, I snapped this poster. There are always missing person posters around but for some reason this one struck me enough to take a snap.

Sadly, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-20/vic-isla-bell-alleged-murder-caught-on-cctv-court-told/104626702 

Travelling east Part 1

The four hour drive to eastern Victorian seemed interminable. I stopped off along the way to check out the two houses I lived in as a teenager and for some lunch. The houses are modest but still existent. The second, a brick veneer, was built by my father. After we moved in, Step Mother wanted a dishwasher. It was not plumbed in to the sewerage system as it should have been but into the storm water drain because there was less digging and cost. That is bad, meaning the untreated caustic dishwasher water went into the nearest river. Not great work, Father. 

I pressed on. At Bairnsdale my body needed a break from sitting in the car, so I stopped for a wee time (go for it YP) and and took a street walk. A few spits of rain began. I set off and then the rain pelted down. The traffic slowed. There goes my nice clean car. Trucks sprayed water everywhere and I could see it was dirty water. Amazingly when I arrived at the home of Pants, my car looked clean. It was not to stay that way.

It was lovely to see her and after a short time we quickly fell into nattering away like old friends, as we are. I should have taken my luggage out of the car when I arrived. I went outside to do so and again the heavens opened. I sheltered in the carport. The next day, locals reported they had never seen such rain.

Pants had bought a posh bottle of veuve clicquot from Aldi and after chin chin, we ate her delicious fish curry and then watched an easy film called The Fall Guy. Ok, I did kind of watch it mostly because lead actor, one Ryan Gosling, was quite attractive.

The next morning, what a view and blue skies. 

 

Pants had also bought me a special cereal for the next morning, which with lots of fresh fruit and home cultured yoghurt, was very tasty. She gave me the remainder to bring home. Vogel, or something like that, and I ate some more the next morning.

Then we were out to meet blogger Sparkling Merlot for coffee at a rather interesting cafe come chocolate shop. Merlot was exactly as I expected, lovely, personable and interesting. I say the cafe was interesting because the owner can be overly friendly or quite rude. I think it might be his business schtick. A few weeks earlier a friend, who like me drinks black coffee, was asked if he wanted cold milk with his black coffee. He thought this was highly amusing. FYI, it is brought in a separate little jug. I was inclined to agree with him. 

But one of morning tea party wanted cold milk with her coffee, and Pants dutifully asked for a black coffee with cold milk. The owner replied, 'Can you make up your mind? Do want black coffee or not?" Process of elimination will inform you who wanted black coffee with milk. Each to their own. I do kind of get black coffee with milk on the side, that you can add to your own taste. It really was lovely to meet Merlot, who was a local near where many of my family live and now is a resident of where Pants lives. 

We parted ways long after we finished our coffee and Pants got on her telephone and booked us an afternoon cruise of the interconnected salt water lakes. But first, at my request, we went up to a lookout point, which Ray and I had visited in the past. It has now been very organised and no longer patchy grass and mud. It was still a bit raw in looks but it will improve. A sea eagle flew above. 

The distant sea gap is the entrance from Bass Strait to the lake system.

Infrastructure!

In the manner of the best stalkers, we drove past Merlot's newly built home with its feature rocks. I'll tell you about the lakes cruise in my next post. 

Tales of Phyllis

With apologies to Bob for stealing his Carlos headline. 

Saturday night Kosov was working at his hospo job in Collingwood until 1 am. Phyllis was with friends and then went to accompany Kosav back home. There was a wait for them before the all night 67 tram service was due, so they enjoyed a Slurpee at a 711. 

They arrived back home at 2.30.

I woke early and I was up before my usual time of 7. Phyllis had not slept. He had left his phone on the tram at 2.30 am. As soon as I arose, he was asking me what to do. I answered with, if the phone is handed in to the tram driver, at the end of their shift they will hand the lost property into the senior management tram depot person on duty. Lost property only operates during business hours. So Phyllis, you are flying home tonight, Sunday night. This is not business hours for lost property.

Phyllis fell into a sound sleep and could not be woken but Kosov could. I had called in some favours, and a phone has been handed in at Glen Huntly tram depot from last night, as it would be if found on a 67 all night tram service. It sounded like Phyllis' phone and I drove Kosov to pretend he was Phyllis to hopefully collect the phone. It was not Phyllis' phone. That was about 9am.

I had texted my 'dead in bed' neighbour HH at the usual time of 8.30, and she too was feeling bad about the lost phone. 

Phyllis awoke at 10.30 and was very stressed about his lost phone. I had to bash off to meet Ex 
Sis in Law, her son and his three children at the Altona miniature railway. Just as I was about to leave Kosov received a phone call from someone in Elwood who had found Phyllis' phone on the tram. It is too difficult to explain how someone could call Kosov from Phyllis' fingerprint locked phone, but it was something Phyllis had set up. Phyliss knew his battery was flat and had also set up something by 'my lost phone' that would make the phone delete everything on his phone after it was restarted once he ordered it lost.

I messaged HH that the phone of Phyliss had been found and she was pleased and offered to drive him to collect it. How kind is that! I felt like replying with some bad words about Phyllis, but instead said, he can catch the tram, no problem. Funnily the address to pick up the phone was in the same Elwood street Ray and I lived in  back in 1980/1/2.

There was no point in being cross with Phyllis about losing his phone. When such things happen, no one is more critical of themselves than the person themself. We all do stupid things at times. 

Sure enough, he charged and restarted his phone and it returned to factory settings. It's not such a big deal for him. He just wanted his phone back. 

The rest of the afternoon was packing and constant luggage weight testing. His student luggage allowance was 47 kilos and he was just on that and having spoken to him just before finishing the post, he did have to pay another $100 for some excess luggage. He is safely back in Chennai/Madras now. 

Kosov and I did quite a lot of cleaning today. Miss capital city of Peru stayed one night in the spare room the night before Phyllis left and I didn't say she couldn't but I didn't say she could. My old desk chair is in the spare room while I await a rubbish collection and she had been sitting in it, spinning and it has marked my newly painted wall. Kosov tried to clean the marks off, but only reduced them. I could get the painter to touch it up but there is no reason why I can't do it and I will. 

I am not happy about this at all. It indicates disrespect for my home. There will be new house rules about visitors once Phyllis and Kosov return.

There is also this mark on the kitchen bench top. No one confesses as to how it happened. 

Kosov is returning to his accommodation, which he has been paying for, while living here. Phyllis had paid the rent until Thursday and I said Kosov could stay until then. I told Kosov today he can stay a night or two while Phyllis is away. Phyllis will move in with him when he returns at the end of December until Kosov's lease agreement ends sometime in January. The cost of the room to accommodate them here will increase from $200 per week to $300. Over the last few weeks, it became clear and it is obvious Phyllis and Kosov are 'together'. Both have love bites on their necks.

I'm looking forward to some time alone, although I have no regrets about taking on 'the boys'. I love 'em to bits in a fatherly kind of way, and as I may have mentioned, the father of Phyllis is the same age as I am. 

Later: There is a notice on the building's notice board by someone who wants to rent a room for a week at the Christmas and New Year period. I could have them in my spare room, at $350 for the week, use of the bathroom and kitchen but no cooking. The person who posted the notice is a resident two floors below and it is to accommodate some visiting relatives. I'll give that some thought. 

Unexpectedly good

I didn't know what to expect at this exhibition and it took a while for the theme to sink into my ageing brain. It was an exhibition by Reko Rennie, an artist I'd not heard of. Let the art tell the story and the longer I looked, the clearer the theme of Aboriginal rights, invasion of their lands and mistreatment became obvious.

I thought it was very well done and afterwards, HH, who volunteers at the Melbourne Visitor Information Centre, also saw it and thought it was very good, and  helpful to recommend to visitors.

I can't remember the connection between a Rolls Royce in camouflage and 'the cause'. 

Lots of neon was used.

Nice one.

Very clever.

I am heading east tomorrow in the motor car for a few days of a 'well earned break'. While there are Aboriginal inhabitants who I may come across, I am more afraid of the white people who I will meet there. I'll return soon.