A sunny day out in Batmania^

Great building, old brickwork and fading sign, Chapel Street

After a grey start, it turned into a glorious winter's day today. I went for a very long work from Windsor to Richmond and then home, part of it wandering through the quaint-meets-gritty backstreets of Richmond. I love Richmond.

The sun and exercise made me so toasty I not only took my jacket, off but pulled my sleeves up as well. Ah, the first kiss of sunshine on winter-white flesh is a delight.

Other good bits about today:

* I enjoyed people watching on Chapel Street as I lingered over lunch.

* I indulged in a hot chocolate and a raspberry and chocolate mousse at Ganache on Toorak Road. The mousse was almost too pretty to eat.

* I added to my library of books about Melbourne with Jenny Sinclair's When We Think About Melbourne: The imagination of a city. Flicking through, I read this snippet:

"...Chapel Street is a promenade banked wall-to-wall with cars and the South Yarra types who walked there (purple-haired old ladies, gay boys with French bulldogs on leads, confused and muttering mat-haired homeless men, groups of girlfriends swinging bags from boutique, stiff suits with real estate agents inside them) were an endless dumbshow, a never-ending stream of life I loved to feel part of."

Yep, me too.

* I discovered a row of small galleries on a non-descript side street off Church Street. Always something to discover when you get off the well-worn path.

*  I made a quick detour to the gardens and sat on a park bench as the late afternoon sun sank lower over the lake and a chill crept into the air.

*  I smelt spring. It's nearly upon us! 

*  I picked up two DVDs to watch tonight (including The Shining). I have the flat to myself, my pyjamas on already and a pizza on the way.

^ Melbourne really was briefly named Batmania after its founding father John Batman (pronounced BAT-mn, not Bat-MAN). It's both a disappointment and a relief that it didn't stick.