Woke at 7.00 am, it was still raining. Sue made me a delicious cup of tea. Her settee has to be one of the most comfortable you could ever wish to sleep on. Pete left for work at 8.00 am while I chatted to Sue until Cilla gave me a lift to the station. Luckily Sue gave me a bright yellow waterproof which later proved invaluable as it poured down all day.
Catching the train back into Melbourne I decided to spend time at 'The Ian Potter Centre: NGV (National Gallery of Victoria) Australia'. It's free and included a guided tour which focused on Australian Artists old and new.
Here are a few paintings I particularly liked.
Frederick McCubbin,s 'Lost Children', Tom Roberts 'Shearing the Lambs' painted in NSW in 1888 and two very stark paintings by John Brack, one called 'The Bar' and the other painting was 'Collins Street at 5.00pm' I think.
I saw lots of other really good paintings too including paintings by the famous artists Arthur Boyd and Sidney Nolan. In the contemporary art section was a video of a man ripping up paper. Interesting but not for the whole 27 minutes! I saw a block of wood with a handle called 'Block Bag' you can't argue with that.
My next free guided tour focused on the 'Tjukurrtjanu: Origins of Western Desert Art' by Aboriginal artists. The exhibition included paintings, shields, spear throwers and historical photographs and video footage. There were some really beautiful works of art, I don't pretend to understand them but many were very intricate and I would have put them in my home.
I was in the gallery for over four hours when Debby rang to see if I wanted to go out to St. Kilda. Still raining we set off around 4.00 pm and wandered round the shops under cover, there was really no point walking along the prom. At Debby's suggestion we stopped at 'Stokehouse' a restraunt overlooking the sea. There I tasted my first oyster served with lemon and raspberry vinaigrette. Much better than imagined, not at all slimey, in fact I found the texture not unlike mussels anyway they go well with white wine.
Back in Melbourne we decided to go to the cinema to see.... the title escapes me now but it had the name Kevin in it. Anyway, due to a serious projection problem they cancelled the showing giving everyone complimentary tickets plus a full refund. We were both disappointed, but moved on to Brunswick Street, once more another area renowned for good food.
On our way to the 'Vegie Bar' we came upon Melbourne's Spanish Festival with loads of food stalls and live music, definitely something to explore later. After a ginger vodka and lime cocktail in the courtyard we went to eat at the communal table. My choice salad and stuffed mushroom while Debby had a tofu with spicy noodles. Very tasty and filling.
We returned to the Spanish Festival for pudding (fresh pancakes with lemon and sugar) and watched some really good salsa dancers whilst enjoying the live music. Finally the trusty 'Brunettis' for hot chocolate - what an evening and given what I had heard I was thankful Debra didn't find a Kareoke Bar on the way home!