Week 37/2025: A flying visit
Week of 8 September
This was semester break for my uni course so once I’d handed my assignment in on Monday, I was able to have a break from study . . . (checks notes) . . . catch up on the readings and any tutorial work I’d missed.
So what did I do?
I went to Melbourne, of course.
This post is wholly researched and written by me. I do not use AI in my writing. I will always bring you my stories in my real human voice.
A flying visit to Melbourne
If you haven’t been following along, my young human, Kramstable, moved to Melbourne at the start of this year to go to university. This is on the unceded land of the Wurundjeri people.
Kramstable’s birthday was coming up and he was performing in his student theatre company’s production of Pride and Prejudice the same weekend, so what better excuse for a visit.
Hooray!
We flew over on Saturday morning (very early, fun) so we could go to the afternoon matinee because I’m old and late theatre nights do me in.
A travelling tale
I thought I had it all planned really well. Plane, Skybus to the city, walk to the tram stop, tram to the accommodation in Burwood near Kramstable’s uni, walk a couple of stops to the bus that goes to Clayton where the theatre is, catch the bus, see the play. The only thing that could mess it up was a delayed flight.
Right?
Or a tram that had to stop somewhere in the suburbs because of “an incident”, leaving us stranded with luggage 14 stops from where we needed to be.
Plan B, an Uber to the accommodation, meant going past the “incident”, which turned out to be a broken down tram on the line further along. We hadn’t expected our room to be ready when we got there, but it was, so we could leave our bags in our room before going out to find the bus.
One of the best things about bus stops in Melbourne is that they have the name of the stop on them. Not like Hobart where the helpful numbers on bus stop signs have been replaced with generic ‘Bus Stop’ signs that are no use to anyone. Especially if you don’t know the area. And there is a very quiet (sometimes loud enough to hear) recording on the Melbourne buses that tells you what the next stop is, so you potentially know where you are and when to get off.
I will say no more on the matter of public transport.
Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice was fantastic!
It’s another Jane Austen book I’ve never read (that would be all of them) but I had high expectations after having seen Emma a few weeks ago. The show was so much fun and had a fabulous cast. I thought it was cool that one of the actors was in the show with her mum. I mean, I could be in a show with Kramstable, could’t I?
Add that to the Life Goals list.
And it was beyond wonderful to see him in the show and afterwards, and to get little glimpse of some of the people he hangs out with.
Photo walking
We went out for lunch with Kramstable on Sunday. That gave me a morning and an afternoon to explore the area.
In the morning I went to look at St Scholastica’s Church (circa 1962, architect unknown).
After lunch, I took the tram all the way to the end of the line, to the Vermont South Shopping Centre.
This was built in the early 1970s (according to Wikipedia), following council rezoning what had been a flower farm to create a central ‘heart’ for this area. A housing project was developed at the same time, along with a primary school.
Wikipedia tells us that it’s “outdated by contemporary standards”. However at the time it was build, the interior was “seen as very modern . . . and allowed for air conditioning – a feature which had not yet reached neighbouring centres”.
It’s undergone some upgrades since then, including adding new windows, installing flat cladding over the original brown brick exterior, and re-fitting the interior. One thing they have kept (which is the main reason I wanted to go there) was the circular ‘Atlas’ skylights with boarded timber light shafts.
Related, though I only found this out later, was that the K-mart we’d been to in Burwood Heights after lunch was the first Kmart built in Australia.
I headed back to Burwood Heights to take a closer look at the church I’d seen from the tram.
It was amazing!
It’s now Burwood Heights Uniting Church but was originally East Burwood Methodist Church. The City of Whitehorse says that it was designed by architects Alexander Harris & Associates in 1961. The City of Whitehorse Building Citation states that it is significant due to its use of dramatic geometries in ecclesiastical architecture—such as its tall A-frame building and its steeply pitched roof “which extends to the base, where it is penetrated by large dormer windows”—and for the site’s long association with the Methodist Church.
It is super cool but almost impossible to photograph because of the trees and the road.
I had fun trying, then once I could do no more, I caught the tram back to the accommodation.
I found another church nearby.
Unlike the shopping centre, it still has its lovely brown bricks.
And that was the end of my Sunday wandering.
Habit tracker
Existing habits
- Go outside first thing (7 days): 7/7
- 15 minutes morning exercise sequence (7 days): 6/7
- Walk (7 days): 7/7
- Walk 8,000 steps (7 days): 7/7
- 9.00 shutdown & dim lights (6 days): 1/6
- Evening routine (6 days): 5/6
New habits
- Carry a notebook with me when I walk (7 days): 5/7
- Mid-day journalling (7 days): 2/7
- Thinking time (4 days): 2/4
- Set a timer for morning planning (5 days): 1/5
- Work shutdown routine (5 days): 1/5
Summary of the week
Some positive things
- I finished my uni assignment and handed it in on time. I made myself hand it in several hours before the deadline because I knew if I didn’t, I’d keep tinkering with it for another eight hours. Done is done. It is good enough.
- I got a new house plant.
- This post from @cheerful_nihilism on Instagram:
Unpopular opinion: I don’t think your life has to have a purpose, or you a grand ambition; I think it’s okay to just wander through life finding interesting things until you die.
- Seeing Kramstable’s performance and spending time with him.
- My photo walks in the suburbs.
What did I learn this week?
I was interested to know whether Walch of this establishment on Macquarie Street was the same Walch of Walch Optics
I learned from Utas that J Walch and Sons was a publisher and stationer in Hobart. They bought the business of Samuel Tegg in 1846 (at Wellington Bridge, corner of Liverpool and Elizabeth Streets). By 1876, the business was occupying a new building in Macquarie Street (I presume the above) and a store in Davey Street. The business remained in the Walch family in the 20th century, though the printing department merged with the Mercury Press to form Mercury Walch in 1969.
The stationery business was sold in 1990 and the remainder went into voluntary liquidation in 2003.
According to Wikipedia, an associated business, Walch Bros and Birchall, was founded to carry on a similar business in Launceston, later becoming A. W. Birchall and Sons Pty Ltd, which also no longer exists.
And all of this went to establishing that Walch Optics is not the same business and did not operate out of that building. Their previous building was on the other side of Macquarie Street and it wasn’t sandstone.
What did I notice this week?
Cool reflections in the glass at Daci and Daci in Murray Street
What is the ‘book end’ of the mall? Why is it called this?
I thought it was a reference to actual books, but there are no bookshops here. So, does it mean ‘book end’ in the sense of a bookend you’d have on a book shelf, in which case shouldn’t it be one word, ‘bookend’? Otherwise it feels like it’s saying this end of the mall is the “book” end. Like the “Paris end of Goodwood”. (I’m sorry. That’s a Tasmanian reference that no one else will get.)
A sign for a lost cat near the bus stop that had been written over “still missing” and then FOUND! after 68 days. I’m glad they got their cat back.
What was the best thing this week?
Obviously, hands down, going to see Kramstable.
What am I reading this week?
- Human Nature by Jane Rawson
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
- Grendel by John Gardner
What am I watching this week?
- Stranger Things Season 3
- Resident Alien
- Pride and Prejudice
About The Author
