On Monday I wanted to take in some museums and galleries, so we stepped out
just after breakfast. Our first stop was
at the Anna Schwartz Gallery on Flinders Lane.
When we got there, however, the door was locked and there was no sign of
the gallery. Had it moved or ceased to
exist? Next, I thought we'd go to the Ian Potter Centre. Well, although we were at Federation Square,
the location of the centre, I could not find it
anywhere. We went into an information
office to ask what was on. Lourens also
enquired about an exhibition of vintage cars he was interested in seeing. Exiting from there, we tried again to enter Federation
Square, but all we saw seemed to be elevators leading to office space. We gave up.
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Next we wandered across
Yarra River to the National Gallery of Victoria, where there was an exhibition
of works by Ai Weiwei (the Chinese dissident) and another by AndyWarhol. Lourens decided that the entrance
fee was too steep, and I was agreeable to not
spending money. We popped in at the
State Theatre to pick up our tickets for Wednesday night.
Finally, we walked down Sturt Street to the
Australian Centre for Contemporary Art.
Here, again, we found something unexpected. It turned out to be a
collection of different venues. We
stepped into the foyer of the
Malthouse Theatre, where we had a cup of coffee and shared a massive
muffin. I liked the language in
their program 'menu'.
Now we headed back to Flinders
Street Station, where we'd meet Kathy.
Yay! She, her James and Chris had
hired a camper van in Sydney. They took
three days or so to drive it to Melbourne, where they'd been for a few
days. Tomorrow they were off again on
the road; this time their destination was Adelaide, where they'd hand back the
van and then fly to Perth. I was so happy that we were once again in the same foreign
city! She, Lourens and I took lunch in the same side streets that Steph had introduced
us to. Then we bought some pastries (custard slice for me!!!) and headed to the river-side Alexandra
Gardens. We ate our sweeties there amid an animated exchange. Then we headed
back into the city for a walk-about. It rapidly grew late.
Lourens and I joined Kathy on the
train to North Brighton, where she and her boys were staying.
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(When I'd met Kathy and James many years earlier in Tokyo, they
were there visiting James' brother, Will.
At the time he worked as an IT specialist for the Tokyo stock
exchange. It was Christmas then and very
cold. That was the one and only time I
visited Japan, that land of huge prices.
After that visit, Kathy and James had flown on to Australia, and that is
why I remembered they had connections there.) Now here in Melbourne, they were staying with
Will again. He, his Japanese wife and
their two kids first moved to India after Japan, and
had now relocated to this antipodean location.
Tonight, we'd all eat dinner together.
(In Sydney, James and Chris had been otherwise occupied; I'd
only seen them briefly at the opera house.
Also, I'd not seen Will since 2002 in Japan.) Our choice was Indian and we had the
restaurant to ourselves. The meal was
piquant, as was the company. After
dinner, I was miserable about saying goodbye to Kathy, but meet her again
I most certainly shall.
They returned to Will's to prepare for their interstate trek; Lourens
and I returned to Graduate House.
