Grand Prix and other stuff

This was quite a busy week for me. First up was the Grand Prix. No, I have not been hiding anything from you. I never have nor most likely never will be a fan of car racing. It is just that the track is two blocks from our apartment. On the first day, prelim racing, admission was free (a payback as to Melburnians as this year’s event was the 10th anniversary of the race). So, I wandered over – walked around the track, the tents, etc. and just scratched my head. First off, even if you are a fan of racing, given you can only see a small portion of the track, it is probably better seen on TV than live. I was pleasantly surprised at how not-loud the race was from our apartment. Fortunately we faced away from the streets where the race was held – but even when walking around the neighborhood the noise from the cars was not bothersome. What was a bit surprising was that there was also an airshow going on this weekend – to the extent the area was noisy it was because of the Formula 1 cars and because of the Aussie equivalent to the Thunderbirds …

On Thursday evening I also went to a concert in St. Paul’s Cathedral. Historically, the church (1891) was built on the sight of the first public Christian services in Melbourne. The setting was beautiful and acoustics great. Quite an enjoyable night. I ended up sitting next to a woman who was also there on her own – we had quite a good chat about Melbourne life, etc.

On the weekend, as I was avoiding the street sounds, I was enjoying a few movies at the French film festival. I saw two movies and recommend both. First one is called Genesis, a documentary – not much of a story – but the cinematography was great. The film captures some amazing scenes from nature. The second one, A Common Thread, is a touching film about a young and an older woman who share a talent for embroidery (cannot tell you more without ruining the movie for you).

The next big event in Melbourne is the food and wine festival – a two week extravaganza that includes tons of events – yes there are the expensive dinners with the famous chefs – but then there are lots of events for those of us who appreciate food but do not have a big wallet. More next week …

Below are various pictures of the architecture from buildings near where we live … enjoy!

This is one of the shopping areas -- in Prahran (our neighborhood) -- the building with the clock is the local townhall -- each neighborhood seems to have its own town hall (for back when travelling a couple of miles was difficult so a city was made up of a series of towns)
 

proof that I went to the Grand Prix 

more of Prahran (getting closer to South Yarra) 

more of the shopping area around Prahran 

some of the architecture of Melbourne (from the neighborhood in which we live)