Blogs from Victoria, Australia, Oceania - page 642

A warning to the reader: At times the content of my enteries may contain more than 'check-the-box' travel stories. To your dismay, it is entirely possible that you will be exposed to the thoughts and emotions (and general streams of consciousness) I experience on my little journey. Whilst, I hope that you will often find it to be entertaining, uplifting, inspiring, witting, funny, heart warming or just a little sad, I very much intend to use this as a resource to look back upon, and see just how far I manage to go physically and personally. So please just do as most people often do, and close your minds when you feel uncomfortable about getting to know the way I sometimes work...... With that little caveat out of the way, it's time to see where I am at. Well, I ... read more

Monday, 19 April The Caulder Highway takes you from Melbourne towards the town of Hopetoun in the northwest of Victoria. I decided to stay at the Hopetoun Hotel/Motel. The rooms are pretty basic but the meals are the good old country style which suits me down to the ground. After a short walk around town I found the Kindergarten I was to work in the next day. For the life of me I could not remember being there before but there wasn't another centre in town so it must have been the same one I had visited two years earlier. On the outskirts of town I took a long walk around Lake Lascelles. It has been more then a couple of years since it has seen any water. This drought is evident in many places I ... read more

Sunday, 21 March It took an hour to reach Gembrook. I parked the car outside the Puffin Billy railway station and waited for another photographer to arrive. Our assignment was to photograph the scouts being presented with awards at Gillwell Park. As usual I had arrived ages before we had arranged to meet. This gave me a chance to catch up on some sleep. We hadn't seen each other for a while and over a cup of coffee, supplied by the friendly ladies of the scout movement we took the opportunity to find out what had been happening since we last worked together. The "shoot" started around nine o'clock. For the first hour members of each troop wanted group photos so they could be forwarded to their local newspapers. When the Governor arrived, we were introduced ... read more

Wednesday, 25 February Towards the end of last year I had pretty well made up my mind that enough was enough and photographing little children would not be my main stay of employment in 2004. In the long break that took in November and December of last year until now, I did the occasional wedding and a few other photographic jobs including formals and a large university graduation. Yesterday I drove from Melbourne to Portland and spent what was left of the afternoon resting in the motel room with the Discovery Channel playing on TV. It also gave me an opportunity to find out some interesting facts about the area. It seems Portland was Victoria's first permanent European settlement. One of the early families to make a living in the area were the Henty's. They owned ... read more

I was fidgety all night and I didn’t know whether the rickety old lock would last my stay. Every now and then the air conditioner for next door would stop, then it would continue its endless bombination until the early hours of the morning. That was even though I was pretty sure I was the only one in the hotel tonight, so I could have just slept with the door open! I had plenty of other things to do and see as well. Firstly, I had to ring my (Bank) Sister and thank her for her emergency loan, then there was laundry to be done, supplies to be bought, “Jack’s Back”…that sign outside of the Commercial was good enough for Jackie Dewhurst! I never let her forget how much her farewell on the LUYD tour meant ... read more