ited to see there was a new movie released out about her life. I have watched two documentaries about her and it always amazes me how film makers can take such an insanely interesting subject and make a film about said subject SO boring. Her real life is crazier than any novel. She was raised in a brothel and the circus only to be discovered singing on the streets of Paris. She sang with such incredible passion you can see how she became a national icon of France. I am happy to report that unlike the documentaries I have seen, La Vie En Rose was absolutely phenomenal! Marion Cotillard is perfect in the lead. Anyone who is even remotely an Edith Piaf fan should run out and see this movie. Almost as impressive as the movie was the movie theatre itself. We went to the Como Cinema
which shows mostly arthouse films. I have never been to a movie theatre that was so gussied up. Even the restrooms were flashy. Very Nice!!!
he Como Historic House and Garden. Built in 1847 by barrister Edward Williams, Como was bought and sold by two other prominent Melbournians before being purchased by the Armytage family who lived in the house for over 95 years. The National Trust purchased Como and the interior furnishings from the Armytage family at a very reduced price with the intention of preserving a piece of Victorian life. This house would be any art director of a Victorian period movie's dream. It was fantastic to see all the art and furniture but even more interesting were the differences in daily life activities. For example, I never knew a drawing room was called as such because it was the room women would "withdraw
" to after dinner giving the men time to smoke cigars, drink brandy and do business. There were screens the women put in front of the fire because the make-up they wore at the time contained beeswax and would start to melt if they got too hot. While the family rooms were fantastic I was much more interested by the servants quarters. So much of the everyday tools they used have been preserved at Como including a coffee bean roaster, sewing machines, ice cream makers, laundry cranks and an 1860's stove. There was a line of 14 bells which w
ere operated by magnetic cranks and used to summon the servants to various rooms in the house. The gardens were beautiful in something called "gardenesque" style as opposed to "picturesque". All this means is the landscaper was trying for a more natural feel than the very organized feel of earlier English gardens. Not only are the flower gardens great but the vegetable garden was impressive with huge heads of cabbage and the weirdest looking chicken I have ever seen. It was a variety of Chinese Silkie Chicken but it looked like a fluff ball with chicken feet. Th
e trees were massive including this Bunya-Bunya pine that I am hugging. Am I becoming a hippie? I actually wanted to sit in the vine like a swing but i thought that might be frowned upon. Our guide told us that every few years the grounds keepers actually have to rope off this tree because it produces pine nuts as big as watermelons which could seriously injure someone if they got hit by one.
y area with lots of book shops, clothes stores and restaurants much like Wicker Park in Chicago or 5points in Jacksonville. There is even a small cluster of Spanish, Mexican and South American shops and restaurants. Mick and Bec (my house mates who just returned from Europe) came and met Matt and me for a Spanish dinner. We went to a restaurant called Kanela for paella. The food and decor was wonderful but the best thing was the band playing that night. String Theory (not to be confused with String Theory the New Jersey
cover band or String Theory the electronic band from Chicago) was formed in 2006 and preforms every Sunday at Kanela and other venues around the city. This band is in the same vein as Pink Martini but more raw and with a little pieces of Django Reinhardt, Louis Prima and Ceila Cruz thrown in. Mimi Zaetta-Thomas is intriguing to watch throwing herself into her performance both voice and body. I thought she might actually start a flamenco dance there for a second the way she was expressing the music with her arms. I thoroughly enjoyed this band and if you want to hear them check out their MySpace page. http://myspace.com/stringtheory01
R where the guys were in Australia. They went to an Aboriginal center and learned to throw the boomerang. When Matt and I were driving down to see the Twelve Apostles we passed by the Narana Creations: Aboriginal Craft & Cultural Interpretation Centre. I knew this was the spot the guys from the tv show went so I wanted to go too. We headed off to Geelong (about an hour from Melbourne) to see if I could manage to throw a boomerang. Matt said he may have thrown one as a kid but didn't remember so this was pretty much his first boomerang experience as well. We decided to take the scenic route and drove down thru the town of Bacchus Marsh. There were alot of little vineyards along the way but we decided to stop and check one out here. After all with the name Bacchus (aka Roman god of wine and intoxication) you can't go wrong. We followed the signs up a hill to Le Repaire de Bac
chus. On the way up we passed a farm with two horses in the paddock. One was laid flat out on the ground which made me a little nervous as far as his health concerned. I thought they always slept standing up. I didn't want to see a sick or possibly even dead horsey. Matt asked if I wanted to go poke the horse with a stick...he is always so helpful. We continued on up the hill to the vineyard which is very new especially compared to some of the local vineyard
s which were established in the 1860's. This Bacchus Hill winery didn't open their cellar doors until 2006 and has already won medals for their Cabernet Sauvignon(silver medal) and Shiraz(bronze medal). We tasted about six different types of wine mostly reds. My favorite was the Fragoletto made with fragola grapes. The taste 
started off like a normal medium-bodied red but with a mouthful of strawberries at the end. Not sweet like "Strawberry Hill" or anything close. Absolutely delicious! I could have sat there all day "trying" wines but then trying would have just turned into drinking and we would have been stuck up on the hill not able to drive. So we headed off but not without a box with a few of our favorite bottles to take home. And you will all be happy to know on our way back down the hill we saw the two horses, both very much alive, happily hanging out together under a tree eating grass.
Fairy Park. Matt described this park as fairies carved into rock so I envisioned some picturesque little sculpture garden with lovely greenery and naturalistic little winged creatures. Not so much. Sometime, most likely the 1970's, someone thought it would be cute to bring fairy tales to life on the side of a mountain thru the use of animatroninc puppets. I am sure in the 1970's it was very cute! Now it all seems a bit dated and some of the puppets look like they have had better days. I know by all the squealing that was going on all the kids who were there still thoroughly enjoyed the park. I, however, became very suspicious of one Mister Matthew Clarke's intentions for bringing me to this
so-called fairy park when there just happened to be a meeting of the Geelong Antiques Car Club....hmmmmmmm???? I must say the cars were very cool. Matt of course knew every year, make and model car that was there. There was even a Ford Model-T. We went along on our way just as the car club was also leaving. We managed to get stuck on the highway behind a few of them for as cool as these cars look alot of them don't go very fast. 
s the man in the front shop, who was really nice, gave us a short demonstration on how to check which way the wind was coming, which way to stand and how to hold the boomerang. Then he directed us off to the boomerang throwing field. Fortunately Matt and I were the only people out there so we were free to make fools of ourselves. My first throw wasn't so bad. After that first one I got a little too intent on my stance and just kept attacking the groun
d with a bent stick. When he wasn't trying to chop off tree limbs Matt wasn't half bad with his boomerang. Some of them almost came all the way back. We had a blast throwing and then finding (mostly) tons of boomerangs. We also walked thru the garden filled with native plants many with medicinal uses. There were emus walking around and lots of large rocks with Aboriginal paintings. I liked the painting with the witchetty grubs...really I just like saying witchetty grub. We had another chat with our instructor about boomerangs and how they need to be carved. Evidently alot of the boomerangs sold here are only for decoration and aren't carved to return correctly. He also told us a bit about AMERICAN CHOPPER. Matt and I bought a boomerang and we are going to take it out to the football grounds and practice some more.
rule I didn't really want to post anything sad on my blog but I am breaking that rule for a good reason. Last October, weirdly enough the day I met Matt, I found out the dermatologist Phyllis and I saw had been brutally murdered. Dr Cornbleet was a character for sure. Walking into his office in Chicago was like walking into a small town doctor's many years ago. I loved that my information was not typed into a computer but written on a 3x5 card. More importantly he was very kind. I went to see Dr. Cornbleet when I was having horrible skin allergies and had no insurance. He not only helped me clear up my allergies but charged me very little and gave me samples since he new I didn't have insurance to pay for prescriptions.
HING!
Barry and Laurel highly recommended the memoirs of A.B. Facey, A Fortunate Life. Matt and I got a recorded versions to listen to in the car. The story is fantastic and really gives insight to what Australian life was like through the 1900's.
nt anyway. Lucky for us the weather just a little over an hour north was beautiful. Matt was happy because just before we got there we saw a park with a "Hot Jam Donut" truck. He has been trying to get one of these donuts at every market we have gone to but the lines are always really long. Bendigo is the quintessential gold mining town. The first gold was found on a sheep ranch called the Ravenswood Run by the overseer's wife M
argaret Kennedy in 1851. They tried to keep the discovery secret but could not and a gold rush began. The city was named after acclaimed bare knuckle boxer, William "Abednigo" Thompson, who worked as a Shepard on Ravenswood Run. The city has many beautiful examples of Victorian architecture. My favorite detail on these old Australian structures is the cast iron lace work over the verandas. The lace makes even the simplest of houses look elegant. Some major Australian businesses began here like the Bendigo Bank and Myer's department store (equivalent to Macy's in the USA).
um. Like so many others George Duncan Guthrie left Scotland and came looking for his fortune in gold. He didn't find gold in Bendigo...he found clay. He was already trained as a master potter so he founded the Bendigo Pottery Company. The company is still active today and has preserved some of the largest examples of wood-fired kilns in the world. After the tour we had a lesson with a master potter and were able to throw clay and make our own pots. I used to take pottery lessons when I was little but Matt had never tried before. It was really fun but I made a huge mess. We both did well enough to have a piece fired and will get them in the mail in a few weeks. I hate 
to admit it since I was the one with at least some experience but Matt was better on the wheel than I was...something maybe to do with patience?? Who knows. 
ortation until 1972 when the trams were converted to a tourist attraction. We road around the city while the tram(recorded voice) told us all about Bendigo's history. We stopped off at the depot to see where they refurbish all of the old trams, some built as long ago as 1917. The trams at the depot are all still in working order. 
ad lunch at the Shamrock Hotel in the middle of the downtown area. The hotel is over 100 years old and has had many famous guests such as Prince Charles and Princess Di. The hotel is also well known for hosting various performances. My favorite is Lola Montez. Lola was born Eliza Gilbert in Ireland. She reinvented herself becoming Lola Montez, exotic Spanish dancer gaining fame all over Europe with her "tarantula dance." After a notorious romance with King Ludwig I of Bavaria, Lola fled to California were she danced for gold diggers. A few years later she moved on to Australia to danc
e for the diggers in Victoria. They used to throw gold nuggets at her feet when she preformed. The expression "whatever Lola wants, Lola gets" is credited to Miss Montez. This mannequin was dressed up in Lola's likeness at the visitor center. 
ics settled in Bendigo among them Dr Henry Backhaus, a German from Paderborn and the first Catholic priest on the Bendigo goldfields. Dr Backhaus was very financially skilled and collected many properties in Bendigo which upon his death he left to benefit the church and surrounding community. His gift enabled the diocese to start building the Sacred Heart Cathedral, one of the largest churches in Australia. Construction commenced on 1895 but due to lack funds stopped in the early 1900's. When building recommenced in the 1950's. Bendigo did not have enough skilled builders so people were hired over from
Europe to finish the cathedral which finally opened in 1977. We had driven down to take a look at the beautiful sandstone building just as the parishioners were participating in the Annual Marian Festival. 
untries or kids on sponsorship adds I have never seen anyone look so miserable as the exchange student. The father wouldn't leave her alone even though it was obvious to anyone within five miles of her she wanted him to. She was just short of spinning around in circles to get him to stop grabbing her by the shoulders. It was driving me CRAZY!! I felt so bad for the girl I couldn't really get into the mine thing. I do know this, I could never be a miner for a living. We only went down to the second level (60 meters underground) of the mine which was made all big and reinforced as a tourist sight and I felt sickly. The a
ctual mine goes down seventeen levels. If the elevator ever broke down and a digger had to climb the ladder out from the seventeenth level it would take two and a half hours. I liked the display they had set up showing the difference between real gold and fools gold. At one point the guide had us turn out our helmet lights to demonstrate how the explosions worked. I have never experienced absolute darkness like that in my life. All that kept running thru my mind was the miners trapped in Utah. I was happy to get back above ground in the light and away from that "no sense of personal space"man even though I wished I could take the exchange student away with me. 
