Bling in the City!

We ventured into Melbourne city centre yesterday by tram - arriving there a bit later than expected as we'd gone the wrong way and ended up at the tram terminus in the opposite direction, where we sat on the same tram waiting for it to go back to the city! Quite funny really, and we got to see parts of Melbourne we wouldn't have seen otherwise.

Melbourne is the shopping mecca of Australia and I haven't seen as many shoes in one place as I've seen here! My daughter and I had a great girly day of shopping (mainly window shopping I have to say) and we visited a kimono shop and got to see some amazing fabrics. I did succumb and bought a few squares of fabric and plan to make a quilt with them. One of my highlights of the city journey was buying a copy of selected works of Virgina Woolf - I'm trying to read more of her novels than a friend of mine has up to now - a kind of literary race I suppose!

On our way back to the tram we visited the National Gallery of Victoria. It had several exhibitions running, and we learned that the Bugatti family are not only famous for their cars, but also sculptures, that hidden details of needlework such as tacking and unfinished hems have become design details and saw paintings by some of the Pre-Raphaelites (one of my passions) and a Picasso! A totally awe-inspiring place and I loved it!

What do you think of the amazing glitter balls? They were hanging from the Town Hall (I think because of the Melbourne Comedy Festival which is on at the moment), and the sun was bouncing off them and making little reflections of light dance on the pavement and building. Mesmerized, I just had to take a photo. It's quite arty actually - it captures some reflections in one of the balls, the reflections dancing on the building as well as a peek at the architecture of the grand Town Hall. Bling is everywhere!

We're flying out to New Zealand tomorrow, and driving down to Raglan after landing in Auckland. Raglan has a varied art community so I'm hopeful about getting some great photos. Au revoir for now!