[i'll add some photos when i can]
It's festival time in Melbourne. Just as the Fringe Festival draws to a close, the Melbourne Festival is beginning. Half the time I wonder what exactly the word 'festival' is supposed to mean; take the Fitzroy St festival in St Kilda last week. I couldn't work out what that was, except for a whole bunch of people hanging out on the patch of grass near the end playing giant chess. Apparently there was even a Victorian Seniors Festival on this week too. Even after 7 months here I can't quite get used to hearing the word 'Victorian' used to describe people from the State of Victoria rather than people from another era. Weird.
I hadn't seen anything at The Fringe Festival, which is a shame, especially since it ended on Saturday - so I was glad to catch the closing night of Titus Andronicus. The Melbourne Festival is actually an international arts festival, which opened on Friday night with bell ringing displays. I had to laugh when I read the description on the events page as a 'splendorous event'. Jen and I were going to head down to watch, but got distracted by food... maybe I'll catch one of the shows later this week.
The Leica/CPP Documentary Photography Awards exhibition is touring nationally at the moment, and as it's in Bundoora, which is helpfully on a tram route that passes near my house, I went along to check it out. I'm not normally a documentary photo kinda gal, but you gotta check new things out. I hadn't realised that the Bundoora Arts Centre is actually a historical house - and it's apparently haunted (if that's your thing). It's at the edge of Bundoora park and it was a beautiful day, so I wandered around the park for a while after I checked out the house.
We've been planning to go to Hanging Rock in Mt Macedon (two places with what could be the WORST tourism websites ever made - especially considering how many people go to Hanging Rock, and apparently the basis for a creepy movie I now discover) ages ago, but kept getting foiled by illness and injury (and not just my own). So today Sarah, Erin, Dave and I decided enough was enough, and jumped in the car for a day trip. It was a beautiful day again, and so amazing to get out into the bush and away from the city for a day. I was really struck by the fact that spring here almost looks more autumnal than springlike and had to laugh when Sarah said everything was looking really green at exactly the moment that I said everything looked a bit dead... and there we have the main difference between Australia and England. Water!
I discovered last week that my work contract ends in 5 weeks, when I'll be jobless once more. Yet more revisions to the visa laws mean that no extension is possible. I definitely can't afford to be without a job, and don't think I want to go through all of that looking process again, so there's a few big fat decisions to be made.
