Today we didn’t really know where we were going to end up. We started off going back through Warnambool, and passing a sign saying “Whale watching – June to September.” We both liked the sound of that, but didn’t much like our chances, it being the very end of Sept. Nonetheless, we thought we would check out the beach for the heck of it. We actually went past the turn-off, but J being the lovely boy that he is hauled the truck around and off we went looking for the beach. I was trying very hard not to get my hopes up – I don’t often have much luck at the best of times, and this is the end of Sept – so I was very, very impressed to see a whale!! And a calf!! !!!!! When I say ‘see’, I mean of course ‘caught a glimpse of its back and flipper, and the occasional spurt of water’. Most of the time it just looked like a shadow under the water; in fact, at first we both thought it was just kelp. It was so exciting to see. And quite funny, too: J and I have a running joke that on lots of our trips bush, I [jokingly] demand that he show me some animal I’ve never seen before. I think this really started when we went up to Mt Buffalo a few years ago; we passed all these lyrebird signs, so I told him I wanted to see one. On our last day there, there was a lyrebird basically making its nest in the carpark. J therefore claims never to have let me down – and the whale today backs him up.

Anyway, after that excitement, we headed down the Great Ocean Road. We stopped at the Bay of Islands – sea stacks, very nice; skipped the Bay of Martyrs; stopped at London Bridge (which, of course, has fallen down); skipped Loch Ard Gorge; then went to the Twelve Apostles. The last time I saw them, you could still park basically right next to them. But no longer: now, you park in this massive supermarket-like carpark; go through some ‘Discovery Centre’ thing (which I don’t think had anything commercial, for which I am thankful), then under the road out to the lookouts. Come on people, they’re just sea stacks!! Quite pretty and impressive, but sea stacks nonetheless. And then there were these idiots who ignored the warnings about the crumbly cliffs and jumped the fence….

Next we drove up to Lavers Hill, then to Triplet Falls. It was nice enough – quite a pretty little walking track. From there we went down through the Otways, back to the coast, on quite a fun track (few too many potholes, and lots of curves that made me glad J was driving). We ended up at Blanket Bay, which we thought might be full but turns out isn’t – getting there, though; I’m glad we arrived early-ish.

Well, it was a surprise that we ended up spending the first night in Port Fairy: that was because J, he-who-laughs at my geographical ineptness, managed to get us lost. I think he is blaming the instructions his dad gave us (we stayed the weekend in Ballarat first) – we were meant to be heading for Colac, but instead ended up going to Hamilton. So we decided that Port Fairy was a perfectly fine place to spend the first night.

So we drove to Port Fairy. It’s a lovely drive down there – all green and rolling – a bit like Gippsland really. We ended up in a caravan park at one end of the town which was half-closed; we had expected the town to be crawling with people, thanks to the holidays, but no. Which was very nice for us. We walked along the wharf, past the boats (another of J’s obsessions), and out to the lighthouse on Muttonbird Island (and saw one of my students… she didn’t recognise me, I think). We then walked back to the truck, and this is impressive because I was walking in my new Scarpas (thanks Mum!!), and they didn’t hurt. Well, they didn’t give me blisters; the left one hurt on the bridge of the foot, but this is a small price to pay for what I know will be the best shoes in the world once I’ve worn them in a bit.

We ended the day with fish n chips (incredibly average whiting, unfortunately, but it was made up for by the six battered scallops I got – after J only ordered two…), and reading in the truck. Truly a lovely day.

And it was an adventure holiday because J insists that all holidays in the truck must be adventures. By default.

Another Brian Caswell story – the most recent, as far as I can tell. And the darkest one yet: teen pregnancy, abusive parents, violent boyfriends, prostitution…. Again written from multiple first-person perspectives, some third-persons, and the occasional switch from past to present tense. The main characters are Cain, an average eighteen-year-old; his twin Chris, who has artistic talent coming out of his ears; TJ, a teen mother who’s escaped from an abusive boyfriend with her son, Tyson; and Abby, a sixteen-year-old prostitute who has run away from her sexually abusive stepfather.

It’s a very clever storyline; I really enjoyed reading it. J can vouch for that: I was reading it in the car, and he had to prod me to keep reading it because I was going on and on about it and trying to figure out what the resolution would be. I had guessed part of how it would work out, but not the whole lot, which is always a great way to end it I think.

Mum and I went for a walk organised by the National Trust of ‘Marvellous Melbourne’, the other day. (And of course, we couldn’t avoid the curse/blessing of our family – although it was usually associated more with Dad than Mum: Mum knew the tour leader, from her Playgroup Assoc days). It was a fun walk – took us 2 hours to get from Spring St, down Collins, to Federation Square!

Started off with morning tea at the Park Hyatt, which was very swish. Then went into St Pat’s Cathedral (very impressive! Those Catholics know a thing or two about architecture and art, although I’m not entirely convinced about the Christianity behind some of the icons…), and past a couple of other little churches (including one where Nellie Melba learnt the organ, and later gave free singing lessons to poor children). It was yet another reminder to look up, when walking in Melbourne – the street-level shopfronts might be new and boring, but so many of the old facades have been retained above that – it’s great!

I love that families living in the east end of Melbourne would pack up their entire family, servants etc, and decamp for the weekend… to where the MCG is today…. Such a long trip! And the fact that the shop with the most glorious shopfront, Le Louvre, is owned by the daughter of the woman who opened it is very impressive. Of course, the mother would be unimpressed: some of their oufits are now imported, and not handmade; sometimes there are ‘sale’ signs in the window; and you don’t have to have been introduced in order to buy from there anymore. As well, finding out about the Melbourne Club (exclusively men’s), the Lycaeum (women with a degree), the Alexandra Club (women’s social), and the Athenaeum Club (men again) was a glimpse into a totally foreign world….

We’re watching it at the moment. Great film, great cast, great music…. When it came out, my high school principal hadn’t realised that it was a true story: he was in the NZ equivalent of the SAS, in Vietnam, and the news was censored so that morale wasn’t affected. And this was one story that didn’t make it through. Although quite how he managed not to hear about it over the next 20+ years is something I never figured out.

…was on the teev last night. Bruce Willis is always good. And he still had hair at the time! The little kid was great, too – reminded me of Leo DiCaprio in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?. The one thing that annoyed me was the flashbacks they gave Willis: I understand that the cop-having-a-hard-time-with-authority is a tried and true stereotype, but it really, really didn’t make any difference to this movie. It was just a bit dumb.

And golly, the bricks they were using as mobile phones….

…the one problem with the Caesar in Gaul doco is that the dude speaking as Vercingetorix looks like Hugh Grant, but even more horsey; he has terrible teeth, but he talks in such a way as to keep showing them. Urgh.

I’m watching some docos this afternoon, which I’ve had on tape for a while now.

First, SBS’ “As it happened: Peasants and Nobles.” It wasn’t bad, although I have to say that it wasn’t as focussed as I would have liked. I was anticipating more discussion on the lives of the two groups, the cross-over and similiarities… and that was there, a bit. But, although I found the discussion of the Swiss v Hapsburgs stuff interesting, I didn’t really think it fit with the topic! I’ll still be able to use maybe half of it, though.

Right now, one on Caesar in Gaul. I quite the idea of the historian and archaeologist playing Vercingetorix (sp??) and Caesar, talking through the tactics and intent of each man – it’s something that could easily have become tacky, but I think they’ve managed to do it in an engaging and even proud way. It’s a really interesting doco, actually; I don’t know enough about his campaign in Gaul to be able to figure out whether it’s white-washed or airbrushed, but it seems to be reasonable.

I also have a doco on Carthage somewhere, but I don’t think I’ll get around to that today, since we’re off to see the opening night of Macbeth tonight, at a fundraiser for Antithesis, Melb Uni’s postgrad group. Should be fun!

So yes, we’re a bit sad, but we are watching “20 to 1” on the teev. An what I wonder, and what I’ve always wondered, is exactly who gets to decide what order these things appear in? Who decides that the story of scuba drivers getting left behind is lower in the rankings than the story of Bigfoot? Or that the question of Marilyn Monroe’s death is less intriguing than whether ghosts actually exist?