Melbourne is crazy awesome.

One of the benefits of living in New Zealand is that Australia is relatively close to visit. I spent last weekend in Melbourne with my husband, for whom this was his first trip to Oz (I'd been once for a quick trip to Melb in 2009). We booked a glorified backpacker's hotel, (the Formula One) which was sparse but right downtown, quiet, and appeared to be secure. Melbourne has a mix of very old and new buildings, as the photos show.

 Melbourne was "bought" from the native aboriginals and grew up due to it's port and the gold mines. There's a nice museum at the Treasury Building, where you can visit the thick rooms where they kept all the gold.

There are frequent trams that go all over downtown.  We rode them to the St Kilda free music festival,

 where we saw awesome motorcyle stunts and I bought a lovely green opal directly from the miners, to New Quay with it's modern and expensive looking new developments, where we ate good Greek food, and to Little Italy where we had massive piles of pasta with a bottle of chianti. We were walking distance to the river, the Flinders Street Station (1910), Federation Square, where the visitor center is, Hosier Lane, where there's great street art,

and shopping, including a vinyl record store.There's lanes and alleyways t hat have unique shops and cafes, and with the excellent public transportation system, everyone uses it and walks places.  Unfortunately, I forgot my thyroid medication (Eltroxin), which I have to take every day, so we spent a good portion of Saturday trying to figure out how to get it. I only needed two days worth, so I asked at the pharmacy, where I was told that I had to have a prescription from a doctor in Australia and that I could only buy 200 pills. We managed to finally track down a clinic that was open on Saturday afternoon, but the asshole doctor said that he would have to charge me $96 for a visit. I explained that I only wanted the prescription, I can't get the cost of the visit reimbursed from the gov't since I'm visiting from NZ, and my travel insurance doesn't cover pre-existing conditions. He still said no, and I think he was a total A-hole for that. It's not like it's an addictive drug or anything. He could have charged me $30 or $40- I would have paid that. Instead I walked out.   

Then this street art sort of described how I felt. But, as I mentioned, Melbourne is crazy awesome so we had a good time anyway. And that should be the last time that I ever forget to pack my medication.

We also were impressed and very jealous of Melbourne's Queen Victoria Market, where sections of the market are devoted to seafood, meat, chicken, fruit and veg, dairy, candy, bread, deli, and cooked food.  Auckland has a historic old Victoria Market, but it's full of mainly tourist crap.

 Too bad this picture is a bit out of focus. That's Zeus (4.5 mo) on the left, Fargo (11.5 yrs) in the middle, and Ruby (3 yrs, Zeus' mum) on the right. I took it just before we left for Melbourne. Fargo had his belly shaved for an ultrasound a couple weeks ago, and this showed neoplasms on his liver and adrenal gland. He's still playful and has a good appetite, but has been losing weight. It feels like you can feel every bone when you pet him.  I've been boiling chicken and rice for him for probably 5 weeks, and I could probably do it in my sleep now. I've switched him over to browned ground beef now, and will see if there's any Science Diet kibble that he will tolerate (he has GI issues). I don't know how much longer he will live. The vet wouldn't give us any estimate, because every dog is different.  There is no treatment that is going to cure him.  He's the only one that hasn't pissed me off by waking me up this morning.

This street art from Melbourne makes me think of cancer- spreading, poorly defined, scary. One of the books I've just taken from the library is called The Emporor of All Maladies, a history of cancer. I've read a few pages, but have put it aside until I finish Johnathan Frazen's The Corrections (which is so intimate and voyeristic, funny and sad, and familar- really enjoying his prose, so like a painting).

Old dogs and swine flu

My sister recently learned that her dog, Cerebus, who had been sick for awhile, had multiple tumors. There was nothing that could be done to cure him. She was very sad to have him euthanised. He was a very lucky dog; he lived a good life. This is the problem with dogs- they get old and sick and die. It's so sad. But we can give them the privilege of euthenasia, which is denied to people. Below is a photo of Cerebus with Barb, on his last day with her. Though I wasn't really in the mood for a party, I couldn't miss my friend's Swine Flu party. Yes, these are painting masks, but this is New Zealand- we make do with what we can find. Fortunately, Roberta and her partner travel a bit, and find premium tequilas in the duty-free shops. They are also excellent cooks and prepared a delicious Mexican pork stew. Darin and I were pretty hungry when we got to the party, because we'd been up to Maungaturoto and back that afternoon. We took advantage of the sunny clear day to spray pesticide on all the thistle we were unable to eliminate with our machete. The land was pretty pugged up from the cows and sheep that were recently grazing there. We had fun slogging around in the muddy areas, trying to facilitate the drainage.
My sweet puppy Ruby waited a month to come into her heat cycle, just before we take a two week holiday to the US. If we had booked the dogs into the usual kennel, they would tell us we can't bring her if she's in season, which would leave us in a real bind. Fortunately we have a housesitter to look after our house and animals while we're away. If there are challenges, my sister lives just 5 minutes away so they should get it sorted. I better remind Darin to check the fire alarm batteries, just in case.
I finished reading Garlic and Sapphires and really enjoyed it. Of the three foodie books I read recently, this one was the best. I would definitely read more of her writing. The Man Who Ate Everything was a bit tiring and old, but I enjoyed The Man Who Ate the World, which is a modern update on the former title. I am up to chapter 14 in Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone, and it is due tomorrow. I tried to renew it, but can't because other people have placed holds on it. This may be the best, because it is a very sad story. The main character has crazy family issues, and I'm about to go back to Fargo and see my family. I need to be in a good place, mentally, for this trip, and Wally Lamb's book is not going to assist this. So I might come back to the story of Dolores Price at some point. For the travel, I might take Freakonomics, a nice lightweight paperback that my brother-in-law passed to me. The library came through for me again, and bought a brand new book I requested: The Ten-Cent Plague: The great comic book scare and how it changed America. I have this now, and might take it along instead.

Now for some art. Check out this most excellent street artist, Banksy: It says "I must not copy what I see on the Simpsons". Check out more of his stuff here.