Tropical Winter, Thu, 10 Aug 2017 | written by Simon
Simon with Charlie, Dee, Eva at a City, Museum in Australia, Australia & Oceania

The last two days, both spent in the city, were hard. It was everything I don’t want from holidays now – having plans, busy streets, cold and wind, people wanting me to go to places, huge crowds… I’m tired. It’s all made more difficult by the different priorities we have and different speeds at which we operate in our small group – I constantly feel dragged somewhere or like I’m dragging others. And the only thing I hate more than waiting for other people, is making other people wait for me. So the whole thing is just not a great mix.

It started as I was plunged from glorious complete silence of the previous nights in Nyah West, straight into the incessant noise of Melbourne city centre. Our apartment is on a pretty busy street and the noise is just overwhelming. I got up at 7, not particularly in the mood to do anything at all but unable to sleep, stayed in bed for a bit longer and got out to read. After a few hours Charlie and Dee got up and soon we went off to the Australian Centre for the Moving Images – a museum of film, games, and various video technologies. It is quite cool, and had a neat exhibition on female game designers.

I wasn’t quite done with it when Charlie found me to suggest going for lunch, luring me with the prospect of hot chocolate. I went, though found a cheaper lunch on the way with Eva. The hot chocolate was really good, and served in a fancy way, with a cup overflowing with candyfloss which you then melt by pouring the chocolate in from a beaker (yeah, the place was pretty hipster).

Guy on the left plays rock, the other preaches passionately,
completely independent, resulting in a weird mix.

I then went back to the galleries – me and Eva back to ACMI, Charlie and Dee to the nearby art gallery. I only got to the gallery when they were already leaving, and only managed to see about a half of it by the time it was closing. It was really interesting though, especially the 19th century painting which I usually find rather boring in European art. Here the style is similar, but the themes are quite different, most of them focusing on making nature your bitch. Colonial outback narratives all around. Made for a really interesting collection for someone who comes from a different background.

After they closed, I met the others in a bar down on the nearby waterfront, chatted for a bit, and we moved to the Queen Victoria Market – a massive open air market with loads of everything. Except it wasn’t. Today was a night market day and all the cool things were reduced to one massive hall which was pretty much all food, with a bit of tat and a substantial representation of healing crystals and psychic readings. Quite boring. The others got some food, I wasn’t really hungry. Charlie then took us for more hot chocolate at a Max Brenner place. I’m normally all for more sugar, but this place completely out-sweetened me. It got me all noxious, and as I was already really tired and cold (we had to sit outside), I soon suggested going home. Eva also wanted to go, so we left while Charlie and Dee stayed out until after midnight. I spent the evening happily alone in the bath.

* * *

On the next morning I got up in a somewhat better mood, looking forward to walking about alone, without much plan except to start where I left off in the gallery. Then Charlie got up and started asking about plans, which got me all anxious, so I quickly escaped the flat. On the way I saw the cathedral and this was perfect – I walked in and spent some time just sitting and gathering my thoughts.

Somewhat gathered, I moved towards the gallery. The 20th century collections were sure decent – nothing stunning or famous, but a solid selection definitely. I really loved the 1930’s exhibition, which focused on the themes in Australian art of that time. One is the birth of the cult of the beach, the surfers, the ripped lifeguards, and generally sporty hot people, all bordering on eugenics – Charlie always talked about how this was a big deal and a very oppressive part of the culture she grew up in, and it was really interesting to see how it developed and became a part of Aussie national identity. The other theme was a stark contrast, revolving around the disenfranchised – the Great Depression, communism, and the Aboriginal people.

Out of the gallery, I hoped to grab something to eat and go read my book on the riverbank. But it was so cold and windy that instead I went for a quick peak to the Yarra Centre for Aboriginal cultures, and decided to wait out the bad weather looking at more aboriginal stuff in the museum. I meant to take a tram there, but misjudged where the stops were and ended up walking all the way, cursing the bloody wind and wondering what the hell am I doing here and how is this meant to be holidays. When I got there eventually, I wasn’t too impressed. I’ve been to the museum the last time I was in Oz, so I was only after the part on indigenous cultures which was closed then. But it turned out to be both too little and too much – there were lots of objects packed on top of each other in display cabinets, with touchscreens in front, where you could select any object and read all about it. The effect was that I didn’t know what to look at first, while anything I did select just showered me with lots of very detailed information with little connection to any of the other objects in display. It made no effort to guide you through it all, it was basically a fancy catalogue, not an exhibition. There were other parts to it too, which were focusing more on stories and experiences of Aboriginal people, and these were more interesting, but overall I was disappointed.
After the museum it got worse. I wanted to eat something in the park, but there were no shops around, I was hungry, caught a tram to the other side of the centre thinking I’ll just walk about and eat something on the way, someone puked in the back of the tram and it all smelled, I got out and got swallowed by the crowds, still couldn’t find anything to eat, got confused by how Subway is the same but different here, decided to go home, the weather got better, couldn’t stand the crowds anymore, decided to go back to waterfront, got some chicken nuggets in the shop on the way, reached the bridge on the river getting out of the centre – finally able to breathe!
After that horrible journey I managed to enjoy myself on the riverbank grass for a bit, eating and reading while all the birds came over to partake in my late lunch. This was the first moment of the day I enjoyed. And then the sun set behind the buildings, it got cold and windy again, and I decided I can’t even anymore, so I went home.
My peace and quiet didn’t last long, as the others soon also checked in. Fortunately, Charlie offered going out for bubble tea – something we did last time I was here and a thing I really wanted to do with her again. Thank you Charlie, this was the first properly nice thing in a while (beating even the birds) and it got me out of the gloom a bit.
I’m now chilling at home, under a duvet, drinking some beer, Eva reading and Charlie and Dee enjoying their anniversary dinner. I can’t wait to get out of the city tomorrow.