5th LAP - Reminiscing Melbourne

THE FIFTH LAP

Reminiscing Melbourne

Last:  Gippsland Victoria

Photo Album:  Reminiscing Melbourne

It was a sunny but fresh rise at Rye Beach and we have a long trip ahead getting to metropolitan Melbourne, ahead of a courtesy catching up with my long time tax accountant, whom I have only met once more than 20 years ago.

The trip into metropolitan Melbourne was really to do a few reunions with relatives and friends, whom I have bonded with during the first 19 years of my time in Australia. The enjoyment of their companies and the reminiscing over a meal and a few drinks were overwhelmingly amazing. Something that I should do more often after this trip.  Unfortunately, time was also limited, it was not possible to see everyone, and not everyone was available due to their various situations and availabilities.

In between reunions, there were visits to old places where the family lived, and frequented during the 1970s and 1980s...but also many places were missed, waiting for another time.

Vermont South Shopping Centre was where my young loved family was brought up...there is definitely a change of demographics, from a youth population to an older one....in those days, it was a young suburb with many new houses, now a leafy one.

Forest Hill Shopping Center...looks like has done a fair bit of renovations and expansions, unrecognizable.

Swanston Street, Melbourne....definitely has a much more multi-cultural demographic now.

And of course there are always something that has changed little....

And the new additions as well....

And then it was a visit to Lt. Bourke St., the China town precinct, where I worked as a dish-washing hand and a waiter during my university years.  Those were happy days, when life was busy and tiresome, managing priorities between earning monies and studies.

But customers were happy with my services, and some were generous with their tips as well as empathic of poor student lives, especially away from home thousands of miles away, solo. But, in those days, we always had two or three weeks off following X'mas Eve, with a much more relaxed pace of life otherwise. I always was able to find another job, as a van driver delivering soft drinks for a wholesaler for at least one or two summers, during the restaurant downtimes.

Then, shops were closed after 5 pm, no trading on weekends. Any of those American gun killers would be hard to find any target on a street after 6 pm. I remember on one long summer driving trip from Melbourne to Townsville over X'mas  ( that's another long story! ), I was eager to find a tour boat out to see the Great Barrier Reef, everything was closed until after the 1st week of Jan. !!!  Good grief.

THOSE WERE THE DAYS !!

In my final days before graduation, I was lucky to be the inaugural waiter team for Flower Drum, the talk-of-the-town Chinese Restaurant, frequented by celebrities and/politicians such as Derryn Hinch ( the loud-mouth 3AW host ) and Andrew Peacock, the never-quite-make-it-to Prime Minister politician. Notably, Hinch made his final lunch there with his fellow supporters in a live broadcast, before being taken to serve his 12 days jail term for naming-and-shaming a child molester priest, whose identity the court had ordered to suppress.  So it was Flower Drum...still the eminent Chinese Restaurant in town, I believe.

And it is sad to see Empress Of China where I worked first, the mother of Flower Drum, had degraded somewhat...to a run-of-the-mill restaurant status.

And now my alma mater, RMIT University...I can't say I like the modern look, dare I say, the traditional Victorian(?)  look was more of my taste, which she has retained a little.

The traditional RMIT entrance block, where I collected many a parking tickets on the street, and computer punch cards in the computer room....I can't remember how many I did get around to paying, I mean the parking tickets !!

A walk around the suburbia, brings back a lot of memories as well....the proverbial Milk Bar that survived the onslaught of 7 Elevens, 

And the red mail boxes still standing and working..

Suburban shopping strips that are decaying...

And the traditional houses and lane ways, some are taken over by new modern ones...

And one of the pre-eminent Melbourne landmarks, the home of the Melbourne Cup, Flemington Racecourse.

So that was Melbourne....the west is calling, time to continue forward.

......Read More

Gremlins:  I needed to drain about a 1 Litre of engine oil in response to the "Oil Filter" warning shown up whilst on the way to the Philip Island. Extreme care was taken to slowly undo the oil sump plug, thinking that it may slowly leak out as I turned.  Unfortunately, the plug is so well fit, oil only leaks out at the very last thread, spurting out almost uncontrollably.  Fortunately, I was quick to re-engage and turn back the plug and tighten it. A litre of oil has already came out, just as well!  A little bit messy, but the job was done.

NEW : There were about 10% residue fuel left in the 4 tanks of 22L each which was pumped over to the main tank when in Bombala a few days ago.  One particular tank has nearly 4L left, and a litre or so was left in the plumbing hoses.  From this, I think I need to empty the tanks better.

And the overfill of the 20L tank to 22L has not caused any problems, this is helpful on longer trips in the Outback.

Next: Digging The Gold Digging Past (i)

Previous:  Gippsland Victoria