Melbourne, Winter 2025

Hi there

It's Tuesday, as I type this, I am back from 6 days in Melbourne, and still very tired.  My sprained knee did play up a bit.  I took a collapsable walking stick with me, but I never used it.  The stick took up much-needed space in my bag when I was only allowed 7kg as cabin baggage.  Grrrhhhh...

I went across to Melbourne to see "Beetlejuice - the musical" which had spectacular special effects.  The story differed slightly from the movie but I think it made the plotline much better. The character of Beetlejuice was acted by the guy who wrote the show's music and Lyrics: Australian Eddie Perfect.  It must be wonderful for him to see his show put on all around the world and now in his home country.

 above:  you know by now, of course, that I am the world's worst mobile phone photographer.  Here is the curtain call for "Beetlejuice - the musical".  That's Beetlejuice in the black and white-striped suit.

But ... I couldn't go to Melbourne and just see one musical.  I went along to the box office to book for the matinee show "Annie", about the little orphan girl.  There were only two seats left in the whole theatre for the following day's matinee.

I'd seen "Annie" many, many years before.  This time there were digital effects used for some backgrounds, eg, streets of New York.  It worked really well.

above:  "Annie". I promise I did take better photos but none of them had the actual young lady playing Annie in them.  Here she is, walking down the stairs. ... You are not allowed to take photos while a show is in progress, but I checked at each theatre and was told I could photograph during the curtain call.

I also went to a third musical, "Kimberly Akimbo".  A Tony-nominated show.  About a 16 year old youngster who aged faster than other people.  She looked about fifty compared to her school mates.  Not a bad musical, even though most of the songs sounded just like most of the other songs. Very crisp stage sets.

above: me, in the Playhouse foyer

Unfortunately, I had booked to see "Kimberly Akimbo" way before I sprained my knee.  The steps from the foyer led me down terrifically tight stairs to get to the dress circle.  Weird, Weird (as "Snow White" musical actress Rachel Zegler would say).

On my holiday I managed to fit in going to the Victoria Market's winter night market.  It's all food stalls, yummy.

above:  the photo was taken at about 5.15, just as the night market started.  Within another 15 minutes it got so crowded, I could hardly move, and certainly not find a seat at a table.

And.... I went to St Kilda to walk along the beach, which I love to do. St Kilda is crammed full of really nice cake shops, all side-by-side, and trying to outdo each other with fancy cakes and pastries.  I went for a pavlova, just to see if they were better than those from New Zealand.  It was awful, all rubbery and dense marshmallow-like.  Oh, for those people who don't know about the pavlova wars - both New Zealand and Australia reckon they invented pavlova.  NZ did, of course.....

above: me, at St Kilda Beach

above:  St Kilda cake-shopping area where the trams finish (you can see two trams at back of picture).  You can hop on a tram from/to Bourke Street Mall, like I did.  Or from/to the casino.

Last but not least I went to two buffet lunches:  Conservatory at the casino (I had 10 oysters on the shell) and Grand Hyatt Sunday buffet (12 oysters on the shell)....

Next holiday?  Well, that's going to be Sydney to see "Back to the Future - the musical"

Melbourne

 Hi there

I have just this minute  (12.20 am, 4 August NZ_time) returned from six days in Melbourne, Australia.  I went over to see "Beetlejuice -  the Musical".  Superb special effects.  But you know me, I can't just see one musical if there are others to visit.  So I also saw "Annie". Lots of kids in it.  And I got my seat half-price because I wandered into the box office to book the day before the show.  And they like to get rid of those empty seats.  ...  I also saw "Kimberly Akimbo - the Musical".

Will tell you more tomorrow.  Or sometime.  Goodness I'm tired...  Yawn.

Wellington CBD fallen apart

 Hi there

I was walking through Wellington's city centre (CBD) last week and I was stunned by how different from just a few years ago the shops are in Manners Street and Courtenay Place.  Dozens have closed down. The ones that are hanging on are shabby, tacky, slummy.  They're ghost shops.

And yet the Wellington City Council have seen fit to rebuild a little toilet block on the corner of  Courtenay Place and Taranaki Street.  The price: two million dollars. Two million dollars for a few toilets?  Wouldn't that money have been better spent polishing up the area?  Oh, wait, much of that two million dollar price tag includes some sort of expensive digital night-time lighting display on the outside walls of the structure.  I guess that's all right then...

above: Herald newspaper photo....  the toilets, all lit up.

As the top-named emporiums have moved out (Kiwibank, how patriotic of you?), a different sort of shop keeper has moved in.  Ones that sell healing crystals and incense.  Or insurance.  Or spa treatments and manicures. And there are lots of mobile repair shops, and hole in the wall coffee and sushi places.  And $2 Shops that have now had to drop that name because their products are quadruple the old $2 price tag.

In Auckland there are now dozens of little kiosks run by young entrepreneurs who are selling dresses for size 2 ladies. And chic raincoats for pet poodles.  And faux jewellery by the window-full.  Auckland's Smith and Caughey Department Store has closed, as has Wellington's David Jones, and Farmers in Cuba Mall.

 Cross fingers please that Courtenay Place and Manners Street will be able to revert back to being streets for Wellingtonians to be proud of.

above: Lambton Quay, July 2025.  This area has not, as yet, been breached by empty shops.  But how about empty streets?

Ladies (and Gentlemen) please remove your hats

 Hi there

Way back in the days of silent movies - late 1890s to about the 1920s - a sign would come up on screens imploring ladies to please remove their hats.  Otherwise, can you imagine what it would be like to sit behind a lady wearing a high many-feathered monstrosity of a head-piece?

A friend said to me, "Thank goodness, that's all over and done with."

'But .. Is it?" I said.   Really?"  I had my doubts.

I have been to many conventions, many stage musicals, many lectures over the years.  And there have always been guys, and some women, wearing duck bill caps.  When they look up at the stage the duck bills shoot up high to block the vision of the person sitting behind.

"You're too picky," said my friend.  He gave me a salute by flicking the side of his duck-billed cap.

I groaned.  "I'm giving up on you," I said. 

Those Airport scenes

 Hi there

There was a gang of us at the beach a while ago, and we got to nattering about airports.

"I get embarrassed when I exit out of the security section and into the arrivals hall," I said.  "Especially when I'm in another country."

"Oh, why?"

"Well ...  I emerge to a sea of upturned eager faces, everyone waiting for their loved ones to bounce through those doors. There are sometimes signs:  "Welcome Home, Mum"...  "Congrats, Cousin Alison". ... "Limo for Brad Pitt" (I wish)...  But, instead, they get ... me." 

On seeing me, everyone -  I mean really everyone - looks dejected, like little sad puppies.  Somehow, I feel I'm to blame for all that disappointed sighing, and shaking of heads, and pulling back from the railings they were full-tilt leaning across, ready to release their Big Welcome to Dad back from a business trip, or Auntie arriving from Australia, or that football team from England.  It's like a walk of shame for me to trudge past them all.  I have been dismissed.

I wish I was Dad, or Auntie.  Or that football team. I want to spot a sign that says something like "Welcome to any Solo Traveller. You made the journey!"  There should be an official airport hugger.

Mal, a long-time Hataitai Beach veteran, patted me on the shoulder.   He tsk-tsked.  "Just run up to some waiting stranger, throw your arms about them, and get that hug," he said.

Like, it's that simple....?

stock photo.  "Love Actually"  .Airport scene.   what follows this picture is thousands of people deliriously greeting loved ones.  The maker of the movie - Richard Curtis - has a lot to answer for.

Our Tasman Floods

 Oh dear.  Now, it's our floods in New Zealand.  The Tasman region, top of the South Island.  Houses, roads, power, rivers, phones.  And orchards and wineries. 

Not only does my heart go out to Texas, but now also to our Tasman district.

Texas Floods

 Oh, Texas, my heart goes out to you....