Saturday, August 21, 2010
I woke up early (like 7am) to go to Becs footy match. However, after looking at how cold it was and realizing I would be outside from 8am till 4pm watching 3 matches I decided to stay home and put off the footy till next week when (hopefully it would be warmer) there would only be two games and less cold time.
Instead I went back to bed and woke
up around 11am to go into the city. I decided to go to the Victoria Library because I had read in one of my amazing tour books (courtesy of my amazing sister)
L: George and the Dragon. ohh ahhh. R: Jean D'Arce. Had to take a 
pict.
Almost forgot; there was this guy- Sir Redmond Barry Doctor of Law and a Judge of the Supreme Court. Name sound familiar? Ive got heaps of classes in this guys building (named after him).
Anyway, enough with the outside. Once I got inside there was security, and then the library. They had heaps of computers to us
e and off to the right they had an interactive gaming room for kids with a wii, big screan, video 
games etc. It was pretty cool. I went up the stairs and found an art gallery.
(L) Some cool paintings that i liked, (C) Sir Charles Darling- he has many things named after him such as Darling Harbor i wen to in Sydney (R) what melbourne used to look like. hahaha. thank god im not staying in the colonial melb, i would go crazy (plus it would have taken me months to travel here by ship, lol).
The art gallery was 3 rooms large and bc they didnt have a guard I snuck the photos in. Probably not allowed.
I then went upstairs to see what I could find. On the 4th Floor they had a museum attributed to books and such. I saw a tablet that had been used 20,050 BC!!!!!!!!!! I didnt take any photos here because I didnt want to damage anything (such as the practically prehistoric tablet). It was really neat to see old bibles, torahs and even a midget library (small collection of books no bigger than an inch tall).
The next floor up, 5th Floor, was dedicated to the history of Melbourne Victoria. They had some interesting things including (and those who know me shouldnt be surprised) the story of Ned Kelly and the Kelly gang (bushrangers)! Here is some of the ish they did: drugs, illegal use of horses, theft. Not too intense in my book but he still was a rebel. At one point Ned and the Kelly gang devised an armour type thing they wore consisting of full helmet with eye slits, body and back cover, and shoulder covers. They had Neds at the museum (R).
This level also had some images of old Melbourne:
I thought they were cool
On the 6th Floor it was essentially just an outlook over the main portion of the library. Not a museum, but I still went up there to see what it was about. (R) This is actually the view from the 4th Floor I believe.
After the Vic Library, which seemed more like the Vic Museum, I decided to go wander around down flinders st station. At federation square there was a street perfomer. According to my indigenous studies friend Jake ( i think thats his name) he is fantastic to watch, does it for a living, and actually went to school for the job. I decided to sit down and watch. He was fantastic, I really had a great time. He would interact with the crowd or passerby's ("Daddy, I havent seen you in so long" to an older gentleman). He also juggled flames. I enjoyed it, and i guess he could tell, because he called me up to have me in the show. If it wasnt fun already, it was now. I was among two guys and I had to check them out, pick between them, decide I didnt like either of them, and go after a stranger and sit on his lap. The two guys realizing they were alone embraced each other. This was all done with interpretive dance. It would have been nice to have a video or pict but I was all by myself today so that wasnt going to happen. Heres some images of the show:
After this I caught a train out of flinders station (at 4pm) to come home to get ready to go out with everyone.
Bec, Micheal, and I drove to a restaraunt to meet up with josh, mic and sarah (Ive hung out with them previously if you can remember). We sat down, ordered drinks (FINALLY a place that sells mojitos!!!!!!) and then ordered food. I got a cheese pizza because I had been craving pizza. It was super good. After dinner we then went over to a TAB (gambeling) but we didnt feel like loosing and money that night so the guys had a beer and then we left. Here is some photos:
Left to right: Me, Bec, Josh, Micheal, Sarah, Mic
*****Culture Note: Today was Election day to vote in the new parliament and decide upon a new
prime minister. Voting is mandatory here and if you dont go in to vote you will recieve a fine. The two main parties are Labor and Liberal. There are other parties as well but not as significant. Picture (L) Julia Gillard for Labor, (R) Abbot for Liberal. The votes were tallied towards seats in the Senate and they were tied. We are now in a hung parliament (and have been for over a week). They seem to be trying to figure it out. Whats there to figure out? Dont you just count the votes and whoever has more is PM? and if they are tied dont you have a backup system for this? It doesnt seem like its too clear. It appears that both lib and labor are trying to get the other parties on their sides and that maybe the other parties votes will go towards them? Not sure, but how long can parliament be hung?*****
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