Thursday, December 20, 2001
Holiday shopping in Melbourne, Australia
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
At the beginning of our trip Down Under I was advised that it would be much fun - Australians are very friendly, New Zealanders are even friendlier, and Fijians will be the friendliest. Our expreience has been about equal with the three, except that the Fikians do greet everyone encountered with their universal multipurpose greeting, "Bula," like a "Shalom."
Australians are the most informal in personal relations, although the saw that "Australians get dressed three times, to get married, to get buried and to go to the races" is not entirely true. Business people in the large cities are well-dressed and even their business informals are well-pressed and clean. But it is really true about the races. We happened to be in Melbourne on the day of the horse race called " Melbourne Cup," first Tuesday in November, when the state of Victoria shuts down completely and the rest of Aaustralia partially, to ocelebrate the event.
Our hotel breakfast room the day before had been filled with what I thought of as rugby players, men of all ages, strong guys wearing shorts despite the rainy weather, shouting imprecations at each other. Next morning, entering the lobby, I was surprised to see it chuck-a-block with the same men, now in their best suits with classic neckties, their ladies wearing broad-brimmed hats and matching pastel dresses, crowded around tables filled with huge trays of delicacies. There were oysters on the half-shell from Tasmania, huge prawns, herring from the Indian Ocean, and pastries beyond belief.
Around the life size staue of a previous winner, three husky men in nearly white wigs and khaki uniforms of a crocodile farm were bantering with all passing women, young and old, while nearby a tall blond-bewigged dandy in a beautifully cut pink suit, showing a heavy five-o’clock shadow, entertained a bevy of gorgeous models. Crossdressing, to give the needle to the Royal Ascott-loving Pommies (Brits) with their proper ways, is part of the Cup spirit. . I never made it to the breakfast, a dozen oysters topped off with a few fruit tarts, all laced with endless beakers of decent chardonnay and champagne will hold the appetite of the biggest trencherman.
While the afficionadoes in their scant finery were getting chilled at the race track, our tour hit the road, to visit a seaside colony of "fairy penguins,". on Phillips Island, 80 miles away. We had formed a pool, and my draw was the favorite, which started last and came in last. Nevertheless, my dearest had the place horse, and we celebrated the winnings toasting Melbourne with glasses of superb shiraz, the best tipple "roo country" has to offer.
Fairy or "little penguins" are smaller than seagulls, and the males cavort all day in the surf, catching fish. They come out of the ocean at nightfall, in tidy groups by the dozen or the hundred, climbing up the dunes and looking forlorn in the grass until they figure out how to reach their hollow (the mates help, by calling). There they regurgitate their catch, feeding the family. The hillside resounds with happy clucking and cooing. Tourists watch this from arena seats and boardwalks. No cameras are permitted, to prevent disorienting the small creatures even further.
Unlike Sydney, Melbourne was founder by immigrants rather than convicts, and the architecture shows it. Delicate lacy balconeed two-story houses still exist in profusion in the outer areas of this city of 1.5 m inhabitants- while the city, in a rush of modernization started in the 1950s and intensified by the rush for the 1966 Summer Olympics, has become a skyscraper metropolis. American accounting firms - Deloitte, Ernst, KPMG, PWC- and insurers -French AXA- sport their acronyms on tall buildings in Melbourne, alongside native banking giants (they also abound in Sydney and Auckland). The result is an incongruous mixture, and melbournians are heard regeretting their error of not protecting the old treasures. Now preservationists have succeeded, and many a fine colonial structure and courthouse can be viewed in or near the 64-block central square, navigable by trolley cars that take you around it free of charge. There you can buy gifts for both this and the succeeding Christmasses at the immense Victoria Market, with its hundreds of wagon traders offreing a profusion of both souvenirs ans necessities at negotiable proices. It staggers the imagination ( make sure you come on Sunday, on other days it offers mainly food).
Melbourne is also a city of parks - one-fifth of the space was reserved for them, and the major thoroughfares have two tree-filled medians, since they were constructed to the width of 99 feet, enough for an ox-cart to make a u-turn.
The suburbs on the ocean, with beaches, were undesirable just decades ago - St. Kilda’s was full of bawdy houses and bars, until the dinks (double income, no kids) discovered it. Another suburb, Williamsport, has grown in value . A high school classmate of mine, penniless post-WWII immigrant, built a house on a then worthless property that has now grown to 30 times its cost.. Although patriotic, he is crook on Australians (a crook car, for instance, is not broken but is does not run well), and considers them shiftless, without ambition ("get a job, make a little money, and then, happy days!"). The anti-immigrant policy adopted by the conservative Coalition Prime Minister John Howard, as exhibited in his refusal to accept the boatload of stranded Mideastern refugees has my friend incensed - the emigrees have built Australia to what it is today, he feels. Our stay n Australia overlapped the general election period, when the events of 9/11 legitimized this refusal to accept immigrants before their papers are validated, and gained it more popular acceptance, to the point that the opposition Labor candidate Jay Beasley adopted a similar stance. Howard won.
Melbourne has gorgeous Royal Botanical Gardens with a lake full of lovable ducks and swans eager for the visitor’s bread, popular on Sundays. Downtown, across the muddy Yarra River from the monumental Flinders Street railroad station, is the Southgate, a center of cafes, art galleries and places to sit and enjoy. the view and people. Flinders Street crosses the big shopping street, Swanston, and, going east, becomes Wellington Parade, with the Treasury and huge Fitzroy Gardens on one side and the Melbourne Cricket Grounds and the Tennis Stadium on the other. The city owes its initial prosperity to the iBllarat gold strikes of 1851, oand the stadiums to the 1956 Summer Olympics.
Melbourne is the birthplace of the Aussie rules football, with 12 of the league’s teams residing in the vicinity. This is a sport of 18 players to the side, on a field much larger that the US football, and it combines kicking, carrying and throwing of the ball with tackling of players (no protection) Injuries are frequent. Aussies are sports oriented to an extreme, and, besides soccer, basketball and cricket (the Test Matches were about to begin), go wild over rugby, both union and league style (don’t ask me what is the differrence, I just might tell you).
Wally Dobelis and the staff of T&V wish all our readers a Happy Holiday Season. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and a Joyous Qanzaa
.
At the beginning of our trip Down Under I was advised that it would be much fun - Australians are very friendly, New Zealanders are even friendlier, and Fijians will be the friendliest. Our expreience has been about equal with the three, except that the Fikians do greet everyone encountered with their universal multipurpose greeting, "Bula," like a "Shalom."
Australians are the most informal in personal relations, although the saw that "Australians get dressed three times, to get married, to get buried and to go to the races" is not entirely true. Business people in the large cities are well-dressed and even their business informals are well-pressed and clean. But it is really true about the races. We happened to be in Melbourne on the day of the horse race called " Melbourne Cup," first Tuesday in November, when the state of Victoria shuts down completely and the rest of Aaustralia partially, to ocelebrate the event.
Our hotel breakfast room the day before had been filled with what I thought of as rugby players, men of all ages, strong guys wearing shorts despite the rainy weather, shouting imprecations at each other. Next morning, entering the lobby, I was surprised to see it chuck-a-block with the same men, now in their best suits with classic neckties, their ladies wearing broad-brimmed hats and matching pastel dresses, crowded around tables filled with huge trays of delicacies. There were oysters on the half-shell from Tasmania, huge prawns, herring from the Indian Ocean, and pastries beyond belief.
Around the life size staue of a previous winner, three husky men in nearly white wigs and khaki uniforms of a crocodile farm were bantering with all passing women, young and old, while nearby a tall blond-bewigged dandy in a beautifully cut pink suit, showing a heavy five-o’clock shadow, entertained a bevy of gorgeous models. Crossdressing, to give the needle to the Royal Ascott-loving Pommies (Brits) with their proper ways, is part of the Cup spirit. . I never made it to the breakfast, a dozen oysters topped off with a few fruit tarts, all laced with endless beakers of decent chardonnay and champagne will hold the appetite of the biggest trencherman.
While the afficionadoes in their scant finery were getting chilled at the race track, our tour hit the road, to visit a seaside colony of "fairy penguins,". on Phillips Island, 80 miles away. We had formed a pool, and my draw was the favorite, which started last and came in last. Nevertheless, my dearest had the place horse, and we celebrated the winnings toasting Melbourne with glasses of superb shiraz, the best tipple "roo country" has to offer.
Fairy or "little penguins" are smaller than seagulls, and the males cavort all day in the surf, catching fish. They come out of the ocean at nightfall, in tidy groups by the dozen or the hundred, climbing up the dunes and looking forlorn in the grass until they figure out how to reach their hollow (the mates help, by calling). There they regurgitate their catch, feeding the family. The hillside resounds with happy clucking and cooing. Tourists watch this from arena seats and boardwalks. No cameras are permitted, to prevent disorienting the small creatures even further.
Unlike Sydney, Melbourne was founder by immigrants rather than convicts, and the architecture shows it. Delicate lacy balconeed two-story houses still exist in profusion in the outer areas of this city of 1.5 m inhabitants- while the city, in a rush of modernization started in the 1950s and intensified by the rush for the 1966 Summer Olympics, has become a skyscraper metropolis. American accounting firms - Deloitte, Ernst, KPMG, PWC- and insurers -French AXA- sport their acronyms on tall buildings in Melbourne, alongside native banking giants (they also abound in Sydney and Auckland). The result is an incongruous mixture, and melbournians are heard regeretting their error of not protecting the old treasures. Now preservationists have succeeded, and many a fine colonial structure and courthouse can be viewed in or near the 64-block central square, navigable by trolley cars that take you around it free of charge. There you can buy gifts for both this and the succeeding Christmasses at the immense Victoria Market, with its hundreds of wagon traders offreing a profusion of both souvenirs ans necessities at negotiable proices. It staggers the imagination ( make sure you come on Sunday, on other days it offers mainly food).
Melbourne is also a city of parks - one-fifth of the space was reserved for them, and the major thoroughfares have two tree-filled medians, since they were constructed to the width of 99 feet, enough for an ox-cart to make a u-turn.
The suburbs on the ocean, with beaches, were undesirable just decades ago - St. Kilda’s was full of bawdy houses and bars, until the dinks (double income, no kids) discovered it. Another suburb, Williamsport, has grown in value . A high school classmate of mine, penniless post-WWII immigrant, built a house on a then worthless property that has now grown to 30 times its cost.. Although patriotic, he is crook on Australians (a crook car, for instance, is not broken but is does not run well), and considers them shiftless, without ambition ("get a job, make a little money, and then, happy days!"). The anti-immigrant policy adopted by the conservative Coalition Prime Minister John Howard, as exhibited in his refusal to accept the boatload of stranded Mideastern refugees has my friend incensed - the emigrees have built Australia to what it is today, he feels. Our stay n Australia overlapped the general election period, when the events of 9/11 legitimized this refusal to accept immigrants before their papers are validated, and gained it more popular acceptance, to the point that the opposition Labor candidate Jay Beasley adopted a similar stance. Howard won.
Melbourne has gorgeous Royal Botanical Gardens with a lake full of lovable ducks and swans eager for the visitor’s bread, popular on Sundays. Downtown, across the muddy Yarra River from the monumental Flinders Street railroad station, is the Southgate, a center of cafes, art galleries and places to sit and enjoy. the view and people. Flinders Street crosses the big shopping street, Swanston, and, going east, becomes Wellington Parade, with the Treasury and huge Fitzroy Gardens on one side and the Melbourne Cricket Grounds and the Tennis Stadium on the other. The city owes its initial prosperity to the iBllarat gold strikes of 1851, oand the stadiums to the 1956 Summer Olympics.
Melbourne is the birthplace of the Aussie rules football, with 12 of the league’s teams residing in the vicinity. This is a sport of 18 players to the side, on a field much larger that the US football, and it combines kicking, carrying and throwing of the ball with tackling of players (no protection) Injuries are frequent. Aussies are sports oriented to an extreme, and, besides soccer, basketball and cricket (the Test Matches were about to begin), go wild over rugby, both union and league style (don’t ask me what is the differrence, I just might tell you).
Wally Dobelis and the staff of T&V wish all our readers a Happy Holiday Season. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and a Joyous Qanzaa
.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 6:15 PM 
