The mundane is to be cherished

Luke and I wandered around the Abbotsford Convent today.  I really like the convent - it's only 4kms from the CBD, but it feels like another world. The numerous buildings on the site were deserted and derelict not so long ago, but are now being progressively renovated to house artists' studios, a gallery, a health and wellbeing centre, cafes and a reception venue. There's still enough dereliction to give it a sombre, almost spooky, atmosphere, especially when there's no one around (see my photos here). 

Soon after we arrived I found a very large feather on the lawn while taking photos in the courtyard - it's more than 30cms long! Must have come from  a very big bird (a big bird; not the big bird). I held onto it for the rest of our wander and brought it home with me. (I''ll post a photo tomorrow.) 

We had a vegetarian lunch at Lentil as Anything in the convent grounds (where there are no prices - you pay what you think it deserves) and then visited the C3 gallery. I liked these works of Georgina Lee from her exhibition called Living the Dream. 

A ticking clock (click to enlarge)

After the convent we drove to Brunswick and strolled up and down the multicultural melting pot that is Sydney Road in Brunswick. Yes, there were some old signs, including these gems:

Nisser's lingerie, frocks, suits, hosiery, gloves and coats

 Ask for Nestle Chocolate

There were also some nice windows on the old buildings. Click here to see. 

The world and Jayne: a love story

The rail brige over Johnston Street...a portent of glee?

This might sound strange and arrogant, but today it felt like the world was in love with me. Everywhere I turned, there were awesome things that made me smile. It's like the world  was trying to make me happy. Damn fine job, world. Lucky - I wouldn't  want to disappoint the world.

I was up early again and as it was such a lovely day I decided to walk to Collingwood to meet Marian. I was worried I wouldn't make the 6.4 kms in the hour I allowed myself, but I got there in 45 minutes. Thank you, legs; thank you feet.

We wandered to the Abbotsford Convent and browsed the indoor and outdoor stalls of handmade arts, crafts and clothing at the market. We saw many nice things - jewellery, skirts, soaps that look like cupcakes (though we were a little let down when we realised they weren't actual cupcakes), T-shirts, and a sausage dog puppy that had gathered a gaggle of gushing girls about it (Wooh! Alliteration!). The sausage dog wasn't for sale.

We strolled around the buildings and grounds. It's a fantastic place with a slightly eerie atmosphere about it in parts, particularly where there's no people. Some buildings are still vacant and in a state of disrepair. We found an open door and poked about inside, which felt a bit naughty. It's still being developed and there's loads of potential there. It's going to be AMAZING.

I showed Marian this old building which I love, and she liked it a lot too.

We found this old thing which looks like a petrol pump. Maybe the nuns pumped their own fuel?

And this awesome tree, which, devoid of leaves, perfectly matches the eerie atmosphere (as did the crow call we heard).

The possum guard detracts from the gothic air a little.

We then headed to Lentil as Anything, a vegetarian eatery onsite staffed by volunteers where nothing has a set price - you just leave however much money you want to give in a box on the way out. I had tasty pancakes for second breakfast.

Lentil as Anything still life

When we were on the train back into town, we sat near a boy about six playing chess with his mother. I'm not sure if he was very good at it or whether they were just playing at playing and she was letting him win. He said "check" a lot and went on to win the game. I'm sure I heard him say to his mother, "You lose, sucker"! (Old person comment coming up) It's nice to see a kid playing an old fashioned game on the train instead of having their eyes glued to a DS screen or whatever.

Marian and I parted ways in the city. I went to Target to get some more photos printed for my collage. I bought (I bought, I bought, I bought!) a book on origami. Another project! I've been thinking about having a go at it after seeing cool origami things on Etsy.  It seems I'm good at ideas and getting the materials for projects, but less good at actually completing things... I have to stop getting inspired and going to art and craft stores...but...but...

I was at Lincraft yet again today and I finally found some square frames that are big enough for the art cards I want to display. And they were super cheap!

I also rearranged their paper mache letters again, to something less profane this time.

On my way to Lincraft, I saw this on one of those pillars that people usually tack gig posters to:

No, lovely person, thank YOU.  And then I had a hot chocolate at Muffin Break. Look what was at the bottom of my mug! How adorable is that?

When I was waiting for my tram home tonight at Flinders Street, the Yarra Trams staffer was very entertaining. As the City Circle tram approached he said, "Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, boys and. girls. Lend me your ears...All you've gotta do is smile and board the tram.  It's free."  And then: "The tram is now departing. Stand clear please. Goodbye!" After I got on my tram and sat down, he motioned others to the door and said, "Good looking people use this door"! Hahaha. What a legend. (Why, yes. I did use that door.)

Walking home in thh golden late afternoon sun I saw guys in the park kicking the football and throwing a frisbee.

 Frisbee at top left.

I like to think these bikes are having a chat as they lie in the warm sun

 I am in love with Curly Girl Designs (the site itself is cute too. Run your cursor over the camera). My favourite of her cards reads: "I just don't like to see you waste your time on silly things," he said. "Well, then," she said, "Close your eyes." Ha. 

I think I'm going to fall in love with Pinterest, which Marian told me about today.

OK, I'm going to get off my laptop and actually work on a project. More action, less blog.

To the nunnery, the photo exhibition and the movies

Hoddle Street and Collingwood Town Hall from

the overpass

I did indeed go to the Abbotsford Convent today - thanks to the GPS on my mobile phone. I forgot to look up exactly how to get there before I left home. Yay for technology.

Although the convent's numerous buildings have been rescued from ruin, many of them are still in a shabby state. Of course, I didn't mind at all. There was a market on, but I was more interested in the buildings than the wares on offer. (See Girl in Melbourne for photos)

After I left the convent I walked up Johnston Street to visit the Centre for Contemporary Photography (CCP) in Fitzroy...only I turned left when I should have turned right into George Street. But I didn't mind because George Street has so much character  - an appealing mix of lovely old terrace houses and grunge. Sometimes being on the wrong path has its own rewards...

Look at that fabulous brick and bluestone! (Stupid light pole)

The exhibition I saw at the CCP was US photographer Taryn Simon's An Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar, a series of photos taken in places in America that most people never get a glimpse into (if they even know they exist). I really enjoyed it - it was fascinating, but also a little disturbing.

Today I learnt that there's a Braille edition of Playboy. I guess the vision impaired are the only ones who can genuinely claim to read it for the articles.

From there I walked to Carlton and decided on a whim to see Boy, an independent New Zealand film I'd heard good things about. It was funny and a little sad, with beautiful cinematography. I loved the shot of the old, ramshackle house overlooking the beach near the end -  it fit the theme of my day quite well.

I walked into the city and then trammed it home, very tuckered out.

Convent, coincidence, compliment

I love that someone's tried to spruce up this

 grimey city alley with hanging plants

How great is the view when you're going up the hill on Studley Park Road? I don't get over that way much, but I've caught a bus to Kew for appointments the past two Saturdays and love to look back towards the modern city towers over the the brooding, medieval bulk of the Abbotsford Convent (anyone who follows my Girl in Melbourne blog will know the contrast of old and new is a photographic fetish of mine. Sorry, no photos from today).

I haven't been to the convent in years. In fact, the one and only time I've been was back when it was disused and on the verge of ruin (my then boyfriend was an extra in a low-budget movie made by a friend of a friend, which was filmed at the convent. My bf was Henchman no 3 or something). Now it's "fast becoming an important arts, learning and education precinct" with regular farmers', art, craft and design markets. There's a couple of markets on tomorrow and since I'm going to be in Fitzroy tomorrow to visit the Centre for Contemporary Photography...well, it's gonna be another big Sunday out and about for me. Ace.

Coincidentally...

I was reading my book When We Think About Melbourne on the bus today and just after I came down the hill on the way back into the city, I read this passage about award-winning Melbourne writer Helen Garner's classic Australian novel Monkey Grip (which I re-read earlier this year):

"Garner's fiction is famously close to lived experience, but what does it matter where the line [between fiction and non-fiction] is drawn when it produces passages like this from Monkey Grip on cycling down Studley Park Road: '(H)alf a mile of steady, inexorable downhill run. I let go and flew down it in ecstacy, head thrown back, mouth open, feet at a quarter to three...the wind pushed at my front, the mudguards rattled so fiercely I thought the machine would fly apart... on my left the convent low down on its mediaeval banks, ancient trees shadowing its courts...' The writing is so evocative, so grounded in place, that I can just about feel the wind on my face and the ground rushing by beneath me." 

Not quite as exhilarating on a bus, but it's pretty cool to be reading about a place in a book you've literally passed through moments before.

And, yes, it didn't escape my notice that I'm reading a book about Melbourne which has a chapter about books about Melbourne. It's like watching a TV on TV.

"When the writer's subject is their own town, the result is often dismissed as thinly disguised autobiography - not proper fiction...And yet they say: 'Write what you know.' And let's be honest, it can be a lot of fun to read about what you know. If evocative writing is the art of revealing to the reader what they had only dimly felt, evocative writing about Melbourne reveals what makes the city feel like ours..."

The author (Jenny Sinclair) also mentions the pleasure of location-spotting in books set in your own town and the sense of ownership and recognition it produces. Yup.

She likes how books set in Melbourne are written from a place of "deep intimacy with the city". And that's what I'm enjoying about her book.

Anyhoo, enough of that...another little coincidence. Today I was listening to Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs' song Escalator as I went up an escalator at Myer.

Complimentary

The dude at the DVD store complimented me on my choice of movie tonight. Go, me. Yeah, I was a little bit pleased. I probably wouldn't have been if I was a Blockbuster customer, but I go to a tiny independent place on Swan Street and for some reason I'm flattered when they approve of my selection. Probably because you can tell they're movie buffs, not just pimply kids trying to earn some spending money. (I borrowed Cool Hand Luke, if you're wondering. It's my cult movie for the month).