One of our favorite shows to watch is the British comedy “Keeping Up Appearances”. It centers around the life of snobbish Hyacinth Bucket (which she pronounced “Bouquet”) and her attempts to impress others. My favorite character in the show is Onslow who is married to Hyacinth’s sister Daisy. He describes himself as “bone-idle, work-shy and out of condition”. He spends his life doing whatever he likes and not caring what others think. He is the antithesis of Hyacinth. The actor who played him (Geoffrey Hughes) passed away a few years ago. He was also the voice of Paul McCartney in the animated movie “Yellow Submarine” Throughout the show, he wants to find a “bacon butty” sandwich but never seem to be able to get one. I discovered that a restaurant close to our hotel had one for sale so Josh and I each went and got one to go. The ones we got had a thick layer of bacon on a sandwich roll. It was seasoned with what was called “Brown Sauce” which is close to A1 sauce. The sandwich was excellent; I can see why Onslow always wanted one now.
Josh headed off to the hospital to work and I walked to see the Eureka Tower. This tower is a large skyscraper which is 89 stories tall. It’s the 2nd tallest building in Australia and one of the tallest residential buildings in the world. They offer not only a ride to the observation desk, but an opportunity to go outside to an observation deck plus go on “The Edge” where you are in a glass enclosure suspended in the air. Josh had gone to the observation deck and said it was great, so I headed on out there. You take an elevator to the observation deck and then you can walk around to your heart’s content. It’s fully enclosed and climate control. They have viewers pointing to various landmarks plus arrows on the glass showing locations and distances to further off places. I also read on a sign where they have a race up the stairs to the top every year. I walked around a while and then went outside to the to the outside terrace. It’s full enclosed but you get the real feeling of feeling the wind in your face and hearing all the noise below. Finally, I decided to go into the Edge. You can buy tickets on the observation deck level so I bought one. Before you go into it, you have put show covers on as to not damage the glass in any way. You also have to give up your cameras and phones. The said it was for safety sake, but I feel them wanting to sell you a picture of you is at least part of the reason. You enter the glass room and then they slide you out away from the building. The glass is opaque at this point then suddenly becomes transparent. You get an unbelievable view of the area from there. The young lady told us (through a speaker) that we could even lie down on the floor and pretend we were Superman. Of course, I had to do that. They took a picture of each of us which of course I had to later buy. We exited the cube and picked up our belongings. I looked around a bit more then took the “lift” (what we call an elevator) back to the ground level.
I walked back across the Yarre River and went to look for lunch. There were several little shops called “Pie Face” that I had seen in the city. Pies in Australia tend not to contain fruit but contain meat/and or vegetables. I decided I give one a try. I got a chicken pie which was similar to what we eat called “Chicken Pot Pie”. It was pretty decent but no better than the Banquet ones I make for myself at home. I rested for a few hours til Josh got back. They had decided to go to the Victoria Market. It turned out that on this night, they had all sort of food vendors in the area plus entertainment so we decide to do that .
We got there and they all sorts of different kinds of food. The one thing that was again lacking was soda. I saw somebody walk by eating ribs so I had to find those. Turned out there was a vendor selling “St Louis style ribs”. I got some and they were excellent. I also ended up getting Fried Oreos for dessert. Josh chided me for getting food “that you could have gotten back home”. Josh managed to at least get me a bottle of water. We watched a young lady do all sorts of tricks with fiery sticks and ultimately a large metal hoop. Josh was intrigued by the fiery hoop, he wondered if putting on of those in the doorway to his office might deter visitors. I had seen an ice cream sundae selling but unfortunately the line was much too long. Josh and I and one his co-workers finally left and decided to walk the streets of Melbourne before going to bed. I was slightly concerned about walking around at night but there were plenty of people around so it was no problem at all. We walked through Flinders train station and then crossed the Yarre River and went near the area I’d been earlier that day. We walked around by the Arts Center where there was a smaller replica of what looked like the Eiffel Tower all lit up in blue. On our way back, Josh had a nice treat for me. There was an actual Krispy Kreme in Melbourne. It wasn’t nearly as large as what I used to but I was able to get my usual Chocolate Cream filled donuts. There was a McDonalds down the street so I was able to get an actual fountain drink in a cup. We walked back to our hotel
Josh was done with his work so for the next three days, we would be able to spend the next three days doing whatever we wanted. Two of his co-workers were staying in town so we planned to meet up the next day. In my next post, I’ll let you know where we went.
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