Winter in Melbourne – more of the little things

Winter is the time of wearing black in Melbourne and walking past cafes where the aroma of freshly ground coffee beans tempt one to pause for a cup and conversation. In my last post I spoke of little things I observed and experienced during my last weekend in Darwin before returning to Melbourne.

Sporting a new smartphone which has incredible capabilities like taking high quality panoramic shots at 12 megapixels means that the saying about the best phone is the one you have on you means that the humble phone is setting a very high minimum standard.

From 2016-06-15 Around Kensington

All the photographs taken in this post about our suburb of Kensington here in Melbourne were taken on the smartphone which I purposely not naming because my mother has a similar vintage phone of another brand and it too is a sensational mobile tool for capturing our mobile life.

Click on any of the pictures in the continuation of this post for larger photographs.

From 2016-06-15 Around Kensington

So some of the little things that we have enjoyed and experienced in the week I have been back in Melbourne. Surprisingly last Wednesday we reached 17 degrees Celsius in the afternoon so Helen and I took a walk through the Newmarket cattle sale yards and abattoir area which is now a wonderful residential estate with bluestone walking paths that take you to the Maribyrnong River and beyond.

On our return we chatted with our neighbours and reflected on how good the weather was. What we had done on our way back was take photographs of the winter flowers, gardens and other things we encountered along the way.

From 2016-06-15 Around Kensington

Maribyrnong River from a number of angles.

Tree in flower, Hibiscus, Pigeons on a wire and a hidden strawberry.

I extend this post this over a couple of days into last weekend where a number of nice things happened. Normal life, normal city but special experiences. On our walk we passed a housing commission flat complex in Crown St where we noticed another community garden, so we walked in to take a look and met Kaz who is a volunteer. Kaz helps maintain the garden and there are over twenty dotted across Melbourne in various housing commission locations. The Crown St location is where elderly folk live and there was a lovely elderly resident shredding plant material for inclusion in the compost. I really believe the community garden concept, similar to a park brings people together. In our street where we have not only a pet and child friendly park called Parson’s Reserve, but a wonderful pop-up community garden which creates community.

From 2016-06-15 Around Kensington

Saturday was a busy day with our morning taken up shopping before our planned meeting with Rob and Vicki for lunch. They had just returned from Fiji where they loved their holiday there. We had miscalculated the day of the local markets and found ourselves with some time to spare. We returned home and noticed a man setting up for what looked like a children’s party. We looked skyward as it has been a little wet, cold and grey. It was touch and go as to whether this would be a soggy celebration or a sunshine surprise. Helen mentioned to me that she thought the gentleman looked like our local member of parliament, Adam Bandt. I said that I would have thought a sausage sizzle rather than bowls of snacks  would be more in line with the meet and greet of a politician with an election looming in a matter of 3 weeks.

At the same time our neighbours including Little Leo who is our youngest resident in Davis St had come out and Leo who has worked out that I am a softie extended his arms towards me and repeated “Park” indicating exactly where he wanted me to take him. I happily obliged, remembering fondly Joe’s love of parks and playgrounds. We still remember in London and Paris where the playgrounds were in relation to the famous locations of Buckingham Palace, The London Eye, The Louvre and many other places on the great trip we took with Dave and Anne when Joe was two and a half.

I meet Adam Bandt in the park opposite our house

After a lap around the reserve, I joined Leo’s parents and established that it was in fact Adam Bandt and it was in fact a birthday party for his little one. With my work colleague and former classmate from the 70’s Todd Williams also contesting our local elections in August for the Greens, I requested a selfie to share with Todd (and now you, dear readers). When you watch the media and hear the commentators injecting their opinions about parties, alliances and the whole political race, it was wonderful to see a high profile politician, by himself, setting up a birthday for his child and I am sure it was a surprise and others, including the star would arrive after it was setup.

Our park, and it is collectively our park is such a popular place for parents with children and also people with pets that it was heartening to see in the madness of politics, we had a party in the park for arguably the most important person in Adam and his wife’s life – their little one. It was something that totally humanised the political circus we are treated to via the media.

In the short chat I had with Adam, which is equally as long as I have had with almost any politician (it is not really my space) it made me think a bit about the person vs the policy. The days of being a fixed party voter as policies begin to overlap in their offerings is to me a thing of the past. Certainly after meeting Adam, I left feeling very impressed with him as a person.

We left the birthday party setup for a great lunch with Rob and Vicki at Chef Lagenda where we compared their laksa with that of neighbouring Laksa King, winner of Melbourne’s best laksa. Both are good and it’s line ball on which is better.

After returning to our house for coffee we went our separate ways. Helen and I had to collect our car which needed a roadworthy certificate to be transferred across to the Victorian register. We took the train (and bus due to trackworks) to Springvale and walked to the mechanic’s workshop to collect the car. He has one boy who has graduated from Joe’s school Melbourne High and another still studying at Melbourne High. A third, on the very day we visited him, sat the entrance exam for next year. The mechanic (who also has an engineering degree) informed us that due to the dropping of the $120 fee for students wanting to sit the exam, this year there were 6,000 participants for approximately 300 places.

It is hard to imagine, that just one year ago, Joe sat the same exam which has in effect changed his and our lives – setting all three of us on a new exciting course.

After collecting the car and Joe who had been over at his cousin’s house we headed back across the city to our home.

Sunday morning we headed over to the Newmarket Shopping Centre where the coffee shop there serves a $7 bacon and egg sandwich with coffee. A great coffee and on the large toasted bread sandwich sliced in two, not one egg but two eggs. Again just the little things. Great taste, lovely people and great value for money.

From 2016-06-15 Around Kensington

After that we walked across the road to the winter markets, a monthly community market which are held inside the town hall and along the sidewalk and entrance to the hall. Coffee, crafts, food and music in this small but pleasant market.

Following a look through the markets, we visited Bunnings in HighPoint West which is the largest Bunnings I have been into. Imagine a two storey version of the largest Bunnings Warehouse you have ever seen. It is a great experience.

From 2016-06-15 Around Kensington

We were primarily on the hunt for a bed for Joe. Fortuitously I had read a rather scathing report in Fairfax about the “mattress ripoff” and that provided me with a number of alternative vendors to look at. We did want to use the major bedding chains located at HighPoint West as a benchmark though.

I need to mention that our son has been sleeping on an air mattress for the last 6 months while here in Melbourne and the time had come to provide some semblance of sleeping normality.

The adventure resulted in us purchasing a lovely queen divan for Joe which was delivered quite late the following night and Helen and I had it upstairs and assembled for when he arrived home from Karate. Needless to say we have a very happy 14 year old. The price? Half that for a comparative solution that was already marked down as 50% off…

So a busy couple of days and it looks like snow will fall on the outskirts of Melbourne this coming weekend… Brrrrr!