Melbourne Holiday

Yes, I went to Melbourne, Australia. I’d forgotten how easy domestic travel was in Australia – no passport and you can take your water bottle! As always, Melbourne’s weather was variable – from constant rain, to sunny spring weather to a day of 35 °C (although to this blogger, it didn’t feel much over 30!). I didn’t take a jacket and of course had to buy one. But that’s another thing Melbourne is famous for – shopping!

I stayed on Swanston Street, one of the main streets of the CBD. Here, my rain soaked window looks on to the back of Bourke Street Mall, where the major department stores (Myer and David Jones) are located.

Speaking of Myer, last year (or early this year?), they unveiled their new flagship store. Can’t say I’m a fan, but instead of buildings over three streets, there’s one. This is what is left of the Lonsdale St store. On my first trip to Melbourne, I could see into the men’s shoes storeroom (more interesting than it sounds).

The old book department (easily the best in any Myer store across Australia) was about Level 3 or 4 in the building on the left. Wonder what they’ll put there now?

Trams are also an integral part of Melbourne. The ‘ding ding’, hook turns and ease of getting places is part of the charm. And they’re half price on Sundays!

Flinders Street Station is where you can catch lots of trams from, or step inside and catch a train. (I only caught trams this time, get enough trains at home). Federation Square is on the very left.

There’s also a really cool cathedral opposite, makes me think of The Pillars of the Earth:

And of course, who could forget the beautiful blue Yarra River (cough cough):

This was at South Wharf, looking back towards Crown Casino and Melbourne Convention Centre.

This is from the other side, taken at the back of Federation Square.

The Town Hall is decked out for Christmas (note the tram and the rain):

And just to be fair, the sun really does shine in Melbourne sometimes! Goodbye Melbourne (from the bus on the way to the airport):

I’ll be posting some of my finds next week in Mailbox Monday.

Hope you enjoyed my pics!

Another holiday – where have I been?

I think this time it will be a little easier to guess where I went this time (hint: it’s a shorter plane ride and the weather is famously variable).

More detailed post soon!

All Together Now by Monica McInerney

A quick rundown… A collection of short stories and novella, Odd One Out.

Strengths: Good to see the works collected together.

Weaknesses: I’m still not a fan of short stories. I prefer novels.

Why I read it: It was the only Monica McInerney book I hadn’t read at the time.

Pages: 288

Published: 2008

Publisher: Penguin

Setting: Australia

Rating: 8 out of 10

If you liked this, try: Any Monica McInerney novel such as At Home With the Templetons.

All Together Now was the only Monica McInerney book I hadn’t read (excepting 2011′s new release, Lola’s Secret). I had purposefully left it until last because I’m not really that big a fan of short stories (exception: Haruki Murakami). But as short stories go, this is a fairly good collection. McInerney’s sparkle and wit shine through even in a short period. A lot of the stories (some only several pages) got me engrossed and then suddenly finished, which was disappointing. But you can’t win them all.

The majority of the book is taken up by the novella, Odd One Out, which was previously released as a giveaway with the Books Alive programme. Strangely, I didn’t read it back then. The novella is about Sylvie, who is a bit lost and is asked by an old aunt to be her companion at an inopportune moment at a wedding. Sylvie is wrested from this fate by her brother, who sets her up in Melbourne on a treasure hunt to find new things and empower herself. There are some unexpected twists and turns but the ending is fairly predictable, and a little up in the air. I’d like to see this fleshed out more as a novel – the mystery of Sylvie’s dad is solved in a couple of paragraphs and then barely mentioned. The treasure hunt was a very good idea.

Lola (the grandmother from The Alphabet Sisters and now star of Lola’s Secret) makes an appearance as a fairy godmother doing good in another short story. It was nice to see familiar characters from McInerney’s novels return and a plus for those who have read her other works.

This would be a good point for those at the midway point or the end of McInerney’s work. A lot of the stories in this book have appeared elsewhere, so it would be advisable to have a quick skim before you purchase. It’s ideal for a quick read.

Disco Boy by Dominic Knight

A quick rundown… Paul is meant to be a lawyer, but he’s a DJ spinning tracks while he gets his life together.

Strengths: It’s very funny in places.

Weaknesses: Is this bloke lit? Or chick lit from a male point of view?

Why I read it: I love The Chaser.

Pages: 295

Published: 2009

Publisher: Bantam

Setting: Sydney, Australia

Rating: 8 out of 10

If you liked this, try: High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

I love The Chaser (if you’re not Australian, you might be more familiar with them as ‘the guys that crashed APEC doing a motorcade dressed as Osama Bin Laden’). And so, I love Dominic Knight, one of the Chaser boys more likely to be found writing or behind the camera these days (he also writes some very funny tweets – worth following). However, it did take me some time to get round to reading his first piece of fiction, Disco Boy, which comes complete with quote from fellow Chaser, Chas Licciardello (that’s the guy who played Osama in the above stunt). In case you can’t see it on the cover, Chas writes, ‘If Nick Hornby and the Buddha wrote a book together, it’d be much better than this one’. Funny, but with a grain of truth because Knight’s writing reminds me of an Australian Hornsby.

Disco Boy is unashamedly Australian (nothing wrong with that, except the novel is set in Sydney – blergh). It makes the most of picturesque settings such as Sydney Harbour, ferries as a form of transport and the great weather. Sydney/Melbourne arguments aside, this book delightfully captures the musings of Paul, who has a degree in law but is trying to refuse the conveyor belt to hell of CBD law firms and the working day that never stops. So, he’s living with his parents, doing DJ gigs to make some money while he works on his music and lazes about. Unfortunately for Paul, his DJ savvy turns to nothing after a poor choice of song on a harbour cruise and he quits. He is then enticed back to his law firm (short term, part time –really!) where he lusts after lawyer Felicity, while fighting off the younger Emily then pouring it all out to friend Zoe. Surely every man would like three lovely ladies in his life?

In between hilariously satirical mishaps (and I do mean hilarious – Knight has a talent for this), Disco Boy counts down great party songs from 40 to 1 culminating in a somewhat predictable ending, but pleasing all the same. I finished this book with a smile on my face – it’s light and entertaining Aussie fiction, something we don’t have enough of. It also pokes fun at the need to be one better all the time – we all should just cut it out and stop pretending like Paul.

Glory Girl by Peter Yeldham

Glory Girl was yet another Christmas present I received. It had one of those stickers ‘love this book or your money back’ on it – I actively dislike those. Is it telling me that I’ll love this book with a passion? Or that the publisher is not that sure about it and willing to give it a chance? What is actually meant by ‘love this book’? I enjoyed this book but I think it’s a bit extreme to say love. Does that mean a refund? (Obviously not, because it was a present and I don’t have the receipt). I enjoyed this book, but I preferred Barbed Wire and Roses.

The blurb on the back of the book really covers only a small part of the book. It is about Daniel, an Australian journalist who is working on Fleet Street who meets Sarah Carson when she crashes a function at Australia House. They quickly move in together (it is 1927) when Daniel discovers Sarah’s love of flying. One night they meet an old acquaintance, James Harrington, who is planning to fly from London to Australia – the first person to do. Sarah convinces him that she should join him and Daniel covers the event for his newspaper. The flight is not without problems, but the story continues long after that. With fame comes problems and notoriety. Several years later, Daniel receives a plea for help from Sarah and quickly travels to Florida where it seems they are in deep trouble… (I don’t want to give away too much more of the plot here). So it’s not just about flying, it’s about tall poppy syndrome, social norms of the time and what happens after something momentous occurs.

Did I enjoy it? Yes I did. I didn’t find the character of Sarah too engaging, because she was quite flawed (and so was James for that matter). But it’s still true to life and the events post-flight were quite surprising. What was even more surprising was that the story was modelled on true events 

Read it if: you’ve ever complained about being stuck in a plane (their journey took weeks!) or if you’re interested flying in the 1920s.

7 out of 10.

At Home With the Templetons by Monica McInerney

 

Monica McInerney writes good, solid books usually combining families in various locations with a bit of romance and drama. In this, At Home With the Templetons doesn’t fail to disappoint. It’s a good book recommendation for your grandmother, mother or sister.

The Templetons arrive from England to country Victoria, Australia and take up residence at the family ‘colonial mansion’. Each weekend, the family dresses up in period costume and opens the house to strangers to relive the gold rush era. There are just a few problems with this:

-          Most of the Templeton children don’t want to do the tours

-          Their aunt is an alcoholic and often insults the visitors

-          The kids do some wacky things (such as underage driving)

-          The fellow townspeople think they are attention seekers

The book follows the four children (Charlotte, Audrey, Spencer and in particular, Gracie) as they grow up in this environment. Spencer befriends Tom Donovan and Gracie her mother Nina. Nina is wary of getting involved with the Templetons but their paths meet consistently. So when the Templetons must return to England, Nina takes over as caretaker of Templeton Hall.

Many years are then covered in a series of letters, faxes and emails. Gracie grows up and the Templetons and Donovans are entwined again, with dramatic results, arguments and dramas. Will it have a happy ending? I’ll let you work that one out. 

I found the character of Hope (the alcoholic aunt) quite annoying due to her drunken stupidity, but fortunately she is less involved in the later sections of the book. I also thought it was a bit strange for Gracie to lose her drive completely after the Event and be so directionless for years after, but I suppose that’s what gave the book its last 200 pages.

The book is well written and an easy read, good for summer holidays.

8.5 out of 10.

Down Under by Bill Bryson

(Once again, image from Goodreads. I must remember to take more photos!)

I wasn’t a big fan of Bryson’s Notes From a Small Island. I found the humour depreciating and his treatment of others distainful. Other encouraged me not to write him off entirely and suggested something closer to home, namely Down Under, a subject I know a lot about as I’m Australian.

Firstly, I found Bryson’s treatment of fellow Aussies a lot better- there are only a few he gets snarky with. Maybe this is because of our dry humour- and the fact he would get cut down to size pretty quickly.

I found it highly amusing that he had no concept of the distances involved between cities- Sydney is not two hours away from Brisbane for instance- surely he would have discovered this in his research? (Plus I’d like to know what speed he was doing to suggest Perth to Shark Bay is an eight hour drive- it’s nearly 900 km and our maximum speed limit is 110 km/hr!) Still, kudos for going to places that other tourists would not- such as the Shark Bay stromatolites, Broken Hill, Daly Waters and Canberra. His history of Australia is also very good, especially the explorers, which brought me back to primary school social studies.

If you’re not from Australia, you might find Bryson’s obsession with dangerous and venomous snakes/spiders/whatever a little worrying. Honestly, you can walk down the street here without confronting a deadly snake or spider, plus we do have anti-venoms!

I thought that this was a pretty good travelogue of Australia, even though Bryson did leave some areas out, namely the north west of Western Australia. Maybe he’d like to return? I’d certainly read it.

8 out of 10.