Not are all tribulations but lets begin with them.
Sunday we visited a German church near St Patricks Cathedral. There was a German Christmas Market. What fun, not. It was in the small carpark at the rear of the building. Oddly the market didn't open until noon. We arrived a couple of minutes after the hour and it was already busy. We noticed a couple of stalls selling jams, maybe one selling something else and one devoted to selling glasses of wine and bottles of wine.
We decided the only thing to do was console ourselves with bratwurst sausage in a roll topped with sauerkraut and onions. There were some other food options and the volunteers were very well organised. We queued and didn't wait too long and the food was delicious. We then queued to enter the church where there were more stalls but we noticed people weren't staying inside for very long so we gave up and toddled off to a coffee shop near Parliament Station, where we arrived and would depart. The church yard was becoming seriously overcrowded but fortunately we cunningly followed a clever woman with a battering ram containing her child. She ensured the sea of people parted to let us pass.
Aside from the food, the German style Christmas market was a fail. It needs a larger space and interesting stalls. Clearly people were interested in attending such an event. People were still streaming towards the market as we left. If you don't like crowds and I don't really, it was the stuff of nightmares, thinking of you EC.
I've researched these sculptures before and I am not doing it again. I can't remember. But hey, it is so good, near South Yarra Station.
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Parliament Station...R struggles with the stairs but you have to walk so far to get to a lift to access the station., nearly to Lonsdale Street. Relatively new being built in the 80s, it is ridiculous that there isn't a lift at the main entrance and two need to be retrofitted at the main station entrance. How? Where? Not my job. We used the train as the tram system right to the city was pretty well closed down because of various protest marches. But that also means R has to walk up a steep ramp at South Yarra Station to get home. No escalator and no lift at one of Melbourne's busiest stations.
Matters medical. I thought I would be fine for a while but no, about three weeks ago a bit fell off one of my canine teeth, then another small bit. Last week my dentist said it could be conventionally filled but that could lock in bacteria and the filling would probably not last anyway. So it is a root canal filling with three dentist visits each two weeks apart, beginning early January. Ka-ching for the dentist. No ka-ching for me.
Just one more. Sydney has spent AU$17 billion on a brand new inner suburban road interchange and when it opened, it quickly became a disaster. Apparently funnelling four lanes of traffic into two lanes and then into one lane doesn't work. Apparently funnelling ten lanes of traffic into four lanes doesn't work. There has been massive congestion. How can such money be so badly spent. The impact on inner western Sydney residents is beyond the pale.
Photo from the SMH.
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Sigh at the markets. And definitely on your tooth issues. Expensive and nasty. My current dentist is a lovely woman and v gentle but I still dread visiting her.
ReplyDeleteWell done on having nearly finished your Christmas shopping. I have not. And it is hot and horrible out.
EC, I think dentists must be sadists. They never seem to apologise as they ensure you suffer the worst torture. We've left the hardest to buy for last.
DeleteUgh... sorry about the dental stuff. Not something to look forward to.
ReplyDeleteChristmas markets always seem appealing but often disappoint. Anticipation better than reality.
Those fowl ... Australian Wood Ducks? (Google Lens)
JayCee, perhaps we need to visit markets in Germany and not copies of the authentic. In time I would have checked the ducks as you did but in spite of not doing it, I agree with you. I have a vague memory of the spotty body feathers.
DeleteA lot of Australian events are run on a minuscule scale. Just like the Mexican festival I went last month...
ReplyDeleteAh Roentare. The mega Lygon Street Festival of the past, the Greek festival in Lonsdale Street. Indian Diwali at Fed Square. At least Chinese New Year and Vietnam's Lunar New Year is still a big bang.
DeleteThose images of the traffic look never ending :( I would rely on public rail transport instead.
ReplyDeleteHels, coming in from the north west to Sydney city, there isn't much of the way of rail transport. Of course the buses are stuck in the traffic too.
DeleteI, too, hate the crowded farmers' fairs and Christmas markets. I get jittery and look for exits and am not one who walks around all touchy feely on the wares. And I hear you on the challenges facing R. Here they'd don't bother with sidewalk clearings of snow but roads are pristine for our god Da Cars. It enrages me in a city full of seniors terrified of the ice with no cars.
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good luck with the dental, it sounds soul destroying.
XO
WWW
WWW, I too am someone who looks for escape routes in crowds.
DeleteI suppose it depend on potential footpath usage but if people want to walk, the paths should be cleared.
I know nothing about root canal fillings. I am trying to stay relaxed about it but I am getting indications that I ought not be.
Can't think of anything worse than root canal treatment. Good luck with that one. The Christmas markets never live up to expectations.
ReplyDeleteYou've cheered me immensely Marie. I don't know what to expect with a root canal filling and best I think I don't. We need to go to proper German Christmas markets, eat sausages, drink lots of beer and the markets will be great.
DeleteDid the various protest marches concern the German market? I imagine that when people visit a German market they rightly expect to find Germans there as well as downy snowflakes falling slowly to the ground. As for the mystery birds on the grass, are they emus?
ReplyDeletegoogle emus!
DeleteYP, no they were protesting against you know where, and the lack of climate change action. There were at least German accented volunteers at the market. Gently falling snow might have improved my view of the market. I've confirmed by using Google that they are baby emus, soon enough reaching full 1.5 metre size and ready to attack tourists.
DeleteRiver, it would more useful for him to Google himself.
DeleteI haven't been any Christmas market this year.
ReplyDeleteDora, you'd better get busy then. I want my Christmas present.
DeleteMy goodness but you are caught up in a social whirl. I like the rabbit and will search with Google lens. Sorry about your tooth though.
ReplyDeleteDebby, over my lifetime I've learnt teeth come and go and not to stress about them, except I am.
DeleteCould those "ducks" be Moor Hens? Or some other river fowl? I remember back in my twenties I had my first ever root canal, it took forever and hurt quite a bit but it was a one visit and done job. Never gave me a bit of trouble in all the years since. Later root canals have all been the three visit type and caused no end of troubles for years. They are all gone now, replaced with a plastic denture. No more toothache for me.
ReplyDeleteI can see how that traffic stuff up must be a nightmare, but can't see how on earth they thought it was a good idea to do it that way. I hope a lift (or two) does get installed at that main entrance.
The German Christmas Market sounds like fun, but I agree it needs a far larger area.
That was my initial thought River, but ours are generally purple and I know what they look like.
DeleteI am thinking now I might go down the road of normal filling. If there is a problem, I can have root canal filling later, or as you say, a denture.
A cynic, and there are many, suggest the creation of such congestion might funnel people on to toll roads. I would not be surprised.
The Christmas market was woeful. But if it was the first , they will now know there is a market there for Christmas markets and will host somewhere more spacious.
Oh no! I had a whole long comment here and it has vanished. Perhaps I forgot to click on "publish".
ReplyDeleteTwo of your comments went to spam.
DeleteNot worth going to the market then, time wasted - I never go to markets, not interested at all, and I would buy anything if I were to go. I'm funny like that.
ReplyDeleteSydney's new road, good grief I can't believe that all those lanes of traffic go into two lanes, how stupid and the people who designed it need their heads seeing to, but they know better than we do, of course they do!
What a lovely building is the Windsor Hotel Andrew.
Margaret, I've never been impressed by farmer's markets. The best fruit and vegetables we can get is from the Asian green grocer, who also sells many exotic things. No one will held responsible for the Sydney road disaster. The new government has to pick up the pieces.
DeleteThat rabbit looks like a Gillie and Marc statue. We have a couple of them in Perth too. It seem you and I (and Jose) have been paying off our dentists Porshe!! I also had a canine tooth cap that fell, and the only option was a bridge or an implant. So as not to damage 2 good teeth I've gone for an implant, Ka-ching, ka-ching!! Those Sydney roads were certainly not well designed.
ReplyDeleteThat it is Sami. Well done you and I didn't know you had some works of theirs in your city. I tried to get assurance that the root canal filling will work, but nothing could be promised. I understand that but even so...I don't know what to do now.
DeleteBeatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit maybe?
ReplyDeleteYour are not English Kirk. What would you know about Peter Rabbit...well, perhaps more than I do.
DeleteIt's ridiculous that new public buildings don't have lifts - after all, mothers with buggies and toddlers have to travel too. The road situation - channelling four into two or ten into four has been a problem for yonks and something my husband was studying and researching donkey's years ago at Birmingham University. Plus ca change!
ReplyDeleteJB, yes all as you say. Ridiculous. Apparently the motorists are at fault for the interchange not working. One can only laugh, or cry. Billions spent to fix something not really broken with a terrible outcome.
DeleteLifts, ramps, escalators, shortened walks, make public spaces easier for everyone simple universal design.
ReplyDeleteTP, it isn't until you reach a certain age that you start to notice these matters, and they are so important.
DeleteThe Silverton Christmas Market was something like you described the German one. Lots of interest, nice lights but the booths were awful, with nothing interesting. You sound very busy for a retired man.
ReplyDeleteStrayer, I believe even in Germany Christmas markets are more about light, colour and food than meaningful small products for sale.
Delete"A battering ram containing her child" -- ha!
ReplyDeleteI wonder what the story is behind that road? Who engineered and approved it, and will there be consequences?
Plenty of consequences for motorists Steve, but none for those responsible for the designers etc, which is what happens when road design comes about for profits for private road toll companies by corrupt governments and not a product of thoughtful and cautious road engineers.
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