A visit to the Bellarine Pt 1

We spent a couple of lovely days last weekend on the Bellarine staying with Sister, Bone Doctor and Little Jo. The weather was quite pleasant. We were sitting under the grape vine covered pergola. Actually, above the grapevine is perspex, so while sitting at the table, the grapevine was expirating its moisture which turned into water droplets that collected on the perspex roof and then fell down on to the table and us.

It was Bone Doctor's work Christmas bash, so we looked after Little Jo while she and Sister attended a rather large country property with a pool, a tennis court and room for a pony. They were too late for entrée and after the main course, Sister asked if there was a bed she could lie on as she had a headache and she slept for two hours and missed pudding and desserts.

We had decided to take Little Jo for a twenty minute drive to Victoria's largest regional city, Geelong. We wanted to see the ever so expensive Christmas tree and have a bite to eat. We thought Little Jo would enjoy La Porchetta and we had a nice meal, except I forgot to ask for anchovies to be left off my pizza, which spoiled it somewhat. The staff were just so nice and the service excellent. Little Jo con #1. She managed to extract one dollar at a time for us to play one of those games where a claw comes down under your guidance to pick up a fluffy toy. The seventh dollar went in and she managed to pick up a cheap toy worth less than $7.

At this time of the year in Victoria the sun does not set until 9pm, so we were in no rush to get to the Geelong waterfront. We slowly ambled along. There are some lovely old Victorian buildings.

The almost obliterated Dimmeys sign. The closure of its discount stores is quite lamented.

Once a tram ran along this Moorabool Street. Like most large Australian towns, it had trams until the late 1950s. Somewhere nearby, maybe within this building was the tram depot.

King Edward VI Sailor's Rest. After lots of activity on the ship, I suppose sailors do need a rest.

We approach the waterfront.

We heard so many figures about the cost of the Christmas tree floating in Geelong's Corio Bay. The highest figure was $5 million. It seems the real price was $1 million and if it is used for another couple of years, it was a cheap price to pay for the numbers of people who were around to see it.

Little Jo con #2. "I've never been on a trampoline while being suspended by ropes. It's only $12." She lied as we subsequently discovered she had been on one once before. It was pretty good value though. From one of the parents plonked around the trampoline, we heard, 'Isn't that Little Jo?'. It was the parents of a child Little Jo used to attend kindergarten with. R had met the father before when he once picked up Little Jo. He could not remember but the bloke remembered R too. They were pleasant to chat to, so we learnt later, ex hippies from northern New South Wales. He had his turn on the trampoline. Quite a hot guy really. People were gathering.

Little Jo con #3. Andrew and R. I just want to look at the carousel please. Look! It is so cheap for a ride, only $4.

It is a very old carousel. Many of the horses are original and it used to be powered by this steam engine, and note the chimney, so it must be started up at times.

The Hygeia arrived, named after a paddle steamer operating on Port Phillip Bay.

A very old musical instrument.

Nearly dark.

Little Jo con #4, can I have a light sabre please?

Once properly dark, every so often the lighting went into overboard and synced to the tune of Christmas carols.

The colours were endless.

Little Jo was tired. We left, slowly.

Little Jo had to stop for a quick stage performance with her light sabre.

Bye bye Christmas tree.

We took a different path back to the car, past the main entrance to Deakin University.

Near the car was Geelong Town Hall, with an illumination display.

Birds were flying all over the building. The projectionist had cancelled his gig with the Rolling Stones at Hanging Rock to work on the lighting for the town hall, a more ongoing job. Then the Rolling Stones cancelled their gig at Hanging Rock because Mick had a sore throat. Call me cynical, but I think the advance sales were not high enough.

Not exactly on the way back to Sister's but we really wanted to see this house in Aberdeen Street. Many Australian houses are so decorated. The couple who lived there were elderly and she was giving out chocolates to children. Little Jo con #5 "Haven't you already had a chocolate my dear", the woman asked. Indeed she had and was back for a second.

 

Oh, formatting has gone wrong. Not sure how this will display. Little Jo was asleep by 10.30 after a quick story was read to her by R. About 11 Sister and Bone Doctor returned. Bone Doctor and myself stayed up until 12.30 chatting over a glass or three of Scotch. Ah yes, if you are wondering about how I went with the internet, Bone Doctor only has a small allowance, so I upgraded my phone data allowance from 250mb to 1gb. After the reset on the 25th, I switched back to 250mb, so I will pay pro rata for a few days. I'm allowed to do this once per month. This works well for me when away from wifi.