French Saloon

This is not the most obvious place to find. There is no real signage except for two small scratchy words on the door leading to a set of stairs.  We checked it out but ate some lunch downstairs at Max's.  Hardware Ln was a destination we always used during the bushwalk years. There are still outdoors shops nearby. As for wedding parties "Ce sera un bon endroit"

What's French for champagne?

Escaliers mystérieux 

Treasury Building

When this was built they didn't have weddings in mind. The banks couldn't handle the amount of gold coming into Melbourne so they built this to store the gold.  Eight gold vaults were placed in the basement.  This is now a freebie museum we only had a quick look inside. There are permanent displays and temporary shows like the Wild Colonial Boys.  Will have to go back to check that out. the wedding parlour has 58 seats and one desk.  So we should all fit.

Complete with aisle

Industrial beach

Port Melbourne has completed its industrial upgrade after transfer from the council to the Port Authority.  Watching robot like gantries unloading containers off trucks is entertaining for only a short period. The new playground has a nautical theme  but the gym section has a few puzzling sets of equipment.  The car park now seems to be filled with 9:00 to 5:00 workers as well.  Despite all this if you get a north wind day without  any dogs then it is pleasant enough.

But what does it do?

The Ancient Future - Gathering Vol 3

By the end of this third book most characters had three different names because they appeared once in each book in a different time. But also they had the ability to change their appearance to look like someone else.  So I was just glad to get to the end.  The Gods got more involved as well but I am not sure why they need spaceships to fly around if they are gods. It would have taken a lot of effort to get these books in order in the author's mind.

Big Wheel Ride

Thought we'ed take a Sunday amble to the Big Wheel.  The bike track was not a good option. First the Maribyrnong was awash with row boats because they were hosting a meet which generally blocks the track.  Over the road was the pet friends day which was huge. Many tents with all manner of animal related activities.  The track was choked with another event which lasted all the way to Footscray Park as it was a fun run cum walk called Walk West. They also had many tents and presentations. Just when we thought we were free, we ran head long into an organised bike event which came at us head first but fortunately veered off onto the road. We still managed 27 km.

Don't these people know this is our track!

Cards and Friday Footy

It has been a few months since the playing of some 500 has occurred but we managed to get through some games last night. There was much half joking stuff about alzheimer's and how we kept forgetting whose turn it was. Paul was back from his Singapore stint so we had a proper quorum of six players.  Bulldogs had an unconvincing win but they will take it.

Dental Hijack

I woke up this morning thinking I should try and get a dentist appointment, now I am missing a tooth. They had a cancellation so come in right now they say.  OK.  This tooth has an abscess on the gum below it  he says.  Some antibiotic will fix it, he says.  We'll take an Xray to be sure he says.  Sorry this tooth is fractured with much bone reduction, it has to come out.  There were five steps from that point.

• Anesthetic 
• flick out the old filling
• cut the tooth down the middle
• pull out both halves

The last three steps took about 10 seconds after I was comfortably numb.

The Lobster Pot

No not another eatery or cafe, this is the Barwon Heads historical collection. We have never been inside and from what I can tell is rarely opened other than weekends in January. Today however is the Festival by the Sea. This place is typical small museum but with fish tanks, stuffed animals. lots of stuff that's washed up.  There was much info on shipwrecks but they could not pinpoint what the funnel is that appears from time to time on our beach.

Musty

Heritage

Masked Swimmer

I have continued the pool swimming with the addition of a nose peg.  I did not burp as much as previously but there is still water getting in some how.  The afternoon swim was much bigger, so big that we measured it on Google earth.  From groyne to groyne we measured 400 metres but I was using the seaview 180 breathing apparatus.   My arms were getting a bit tired.

Beacon point news reader

The Ancient Future - Atlantis Vol 2

The bad guy in these books just doesn't stay dead.  Time travel yarns are confusing at the best of times. I think there are some clever twists here when returning from a time zone ie you have to remember not to arrive IN time but rather to arrive OUT time. This means you will get there just after you left because if you get there before you leave then there is no need to go as you have already done your task and are back from it and then there will be two of you in that time space. Simples.

Elkorn now Paddock

We rode out to the Elk Horn today only to find it has been renamed as the Paddock.  Not much else has changed that I could see so we settled in for a champers and Cockies Brew.  The sun came out a bit later so the Finska rivalry was renewed and I come off 2nd best.

Cockies Brew

Paddock or Car Park?

Plover Education

Had a chat to the Plover man today about the latest plover news.  There have been 22 nesting pairs this year with successful hatchings of one or two chicks however for the first 21 of those nests all have been killed.  The three killers are dogs, foxes and wave inundation.  The 22nd and most likely last of the season offspring, will hatch any day.  Last year only two chicks survived and the year before only one chick made it.

Plover John and six new plover houses

Hidden Figures

This film reminded me of when I was learning Fortran. It was on a Cyber that took up a whole building and you had to wait in a queue for the punch card machine then you waited in another queue to get your card deck submitted for input.  In this film there was a magic 20 or so cards that produced a whole set of rocket trajectories. Poetic license at its best.

Those were the days

Ocean Grove Bingle

We were not going to stay today but the weather improved.  I went to the supermarket and amongst the to and fro, my car and another car backed into each other out of two parking spaces.  It would have been better to just have not been there.  The little old lady was shaking trying to write down her name and address but I think that may have been more her age than anything else.  She did need to get her stick so she could go and see the damage to my car. And of course there was no damage to her car.

The sensors did not work

Collendina Report No 193

We ran into the Geelong Council CoastCare officer yesterday. He was investigating whether we had set up camping tents on the new man made beach. It turns out he was the man who actually made the beach and some nosey neighbours wanted us off it. The snorkeling did not show any spider crabs but there were a number of rays in the area.  I did a 200 metre swim using the new mask.  Much simpler breathing through a mask.

A Pod of surf skis

The levee along the Barwon

Collendina Report No 192

You can always find a new track if you keep your eyes open. I went down to the sheepwash area by the river yesterday and kept riding along the Barwon until eventually I came out at Jirralingha. This was where we could nurse a koala. The sunsets have been ok but not spectacular. Today we will see if the spider crab migration has reached our side of the bay.

Jet Ski bursting through

7:48 pm

Marriage Talk

There has been a lot of marriage talk lately with actual weddings and plannings, it's never far away lately. I remember 10 yar ago helping a guy to carry a stockpile  of wood about 1km through soft sand and up some dunes into a huge sand blow.  It was exhausting and I never even found out his name. He erected some kind of  shelter with a platform and said he was going to pop the question. We went back that night and saw a string of candles lighting up the path.  Today I saw another approach but the guy didn't quite get it right.  I guess there is another question that needs to be asked before the big one. This guy wanted to pop the question but before he could say he ran out of wood she said yes I do want to get married, maybe sometime in the future. So he thought next time I will bring some extra wood.

Collendina Report No 191

Water Water everywhere and not a drop to heat but they are still working on the replacement boiler. Another ideal beach day today. The breeze dropped off mid afternoon as well as low tide also turning mid afternoon. The park seems to be deserted now except for one person.  The mid week vannin is to be recommended even though 6 hours work was put in before we arrived.

Rock Pool Cool

Millionaire's Walk

The final day of the Portsea extravaganza finished with a visit to London Bridge and a stroll among the houses of the well to do. The Fox tried to assume control of the beach in this area once and these guys may have also had to concede a right of way through their backyards as every gate was unlocked. I'm not sure if each house should be allowed their own private pier, some of them with swimming enclosures.

More like a series of holes through rock

Yes I'll take this one

Ya Ya Ya Ya Ya by the ocean

It was a good day for a white wedding with some blue thrown in.  And it was certainly All Smiles for the 1000 plus photos I estimate were taken between us. The high venue presented an impressive view of the beach and the sunset.  From St Thomas we had a short detour to Portsea Hotel for one drink. This is worth going back for lunch in the beer garden. After all the planning the wedding went off with only one hitch.

Cake for All

Beach Bliss

Wedding Attitude

Uno Mommento in Sorrento

Checked out some of the venues yesterday.  After an earlier than expected ferry and an even more fluky empty motel room, we showed our teeth at the All Smiles. We observed first hand how wedding photos can be taken using gimbals, drones and virtual reality. The main town was crazy busy when we drove through off the boat but at 6:00 pm it was quiet for a seaside seafood paella.

Smiles

Where's that drone?

Collendina Report No 536

A pattern is emerging about midweek living in Ocean Grove. Morning swim, followed by morning bike followed by afternoon beach.  This has worked three days in a row now. There are a few gangs here though.  What is the collective name for pram pushers? Maybe a swarm of pram pushers or better, a hazard of pram pushers. When they get onto the bike track there is no room and they are blissfully chatting away without a care.  I have found out how you get a booking for a tent site in the council caravan parks like Riverside. On the designated day (yesterday) you line up at the office in person. The first guy was there at 5:00am.  This is for December and January 2018 and you are only allowed 2 weeks to stay.

School of the Sand

Collendina Report No 535

I tried the pool again this morning but seemed to struggle to get some rhythm going but eventually I got a few of the short laps strung together.  Mr maintenance was there so I got the word on the boiler. It seems what I saw yesterday was the old boiler being removed. A new one needs to be built hopefully before the Labour Day weekend.  I went for a ride in perfect sunshine at 9:00am. A huge fog bank rolled off the ocean and literally tumbled down the sand dune to cover Ocean Grove.

No Bridge to be seen

Fog on the Blog