Teh Melbourney Gallery
The Traveling Troupe: [from left to right] The much-mentioned Tach (Rachel), her hubby Matt, Hannah (12), Dad (I won't give you his age :P), dearist Mum, Josh (14), wonderful moi, and the two little monkeys in the front are Caleb (9) and Aaron (8).
The Location: Windy, rather cold Melbourne. And if you adjust your bifocals and squint really hard you might be able to make out my grandparents there on the balcony from which they waved us off on our many shopping sprees. It was sooo much fun having Tach with us to do the whole real all-the-females-of-the-family shopping experience. *grin*
The Occasion: Grandma's 70th birthday party. Nearly every relative on my Mum's side came together and we went out to this Swiss restaurant in the mountains to celebrate.
Sadly, there was no eye-boggling beer brawls or any such eccentricaly exciting incident at the restaurant, but I did have the very bad luck of being dragged into the floor show by a wild Swiss chap in outrageously short shorts and made to yodel. Yodelling looks easy. Take my word for it, it's not that simple...*roll* My brain got seriously scrambled standing up there yabbering my jaw up and down, trying to come up with creative variations on "yodelly-yo-de-yi-hi-hi-hoooo". But they did present me and my three fellow unfortunates with a certificate stating our grand achievement. I dare say it shall make an invaluable addition to my resume ;)
And then what do you think happened? I made my fortune gold panning a couple of days later. So much for that extensive resume...
Ok, so actually, I think the credit for our $1 dollar gold fortune mostly goes to Mum, Dad, and Josh. But hey the largest particle of our collection did come out of my pan. Give credit where it's due, mate :P
Between shopping and my so-called "sleeping" days where I laid around at home looking for strength, we went out to see some of the old sights. Second to Sovereign Hill, Cape Shank is a great place that has that "photograph me!" quality. This is the boardwalk down to the very tip of the cape. Take a long, long look at those steps. It is such a looooong way back up.
The boys climbing on Cape Shank.
Some places "get" you when you're a kid, and as you grown older you fall in love with all the more. Sovereign Hill would have to be one of those places to me. It's this awesome little town that's been rebuilt and is run like the old gold-minding settlement that was once there. Going there, patting the lumbering old clide-dales, peeking inside tent flaps at old miner's beds, and buying boiled lollies from the Lollie Shop is like getting to live a day in the 1800s. It is so much fun. Hannah and I can't wait until the day we get the opportunity to volunteer or work there.
This was so funny. At Sovereign Hill volunteers come in every day and dress up in 1800s style clothing and walk around to give an atmosphere to the place. Well, on that morning, there was this huge group of Asian tourists going totally nuts over these volunteer women in their hoop-skirts with their little kids in tow. They were all in a mad panic to get their photo taken with these "1800 women".
Hannah and I were walking by at the time and finding it all rather amusing, quite un-intentionally giggled our way closer and closer. Cameras were finally going back into pockets when suddenly they mobbed us. At first we thought they just wanted us to take their picture with the ladies for them, but that notion soon went out the window when suddenly one guy--all smiles--took the camera right out of my hand and another of them squeezed his way in between us. It was totally crazy. We were like, "Ok, I guess we better just stand here for this one guy." Then suddenly he was gone and another one was between us. Then another. Then another. There must have been 15 odd Asian guys in that mob!
We were still rather dazed when just as suddenly as it had all began, it stopped, and the guy who had taken our camera wouldn't give it back until he'd taken a shot of just the two of us. But oh, it was just bizarre. We spent the rest of the day ducking into alley-ways every time we saw an Asian coming our way. We even had a couple of the regular volunteers come up to us later, "Aren't you the girls who got mobbed by the Asians?" It was really one of those experieces. lol