Retail Therapy and Public "Art"

Saturday was a bright and sunny day, and since I had no plans, I decided to head to the CBD and let my whim lead the way.

It lead me to the lanes and alley ways that I had visited Friday night with Cybele- this time to actually take a look at all the retail glory contained in these tucked away corners.

First stop was Central Place, where I popped into the cafe where Jamie and LeAnn were working off their monster hangovers. (I am really glad I didn't meet up with them later Friday night- they looked pretty rough! Still smiling though.)

Then I headed to Collins Street and found shampoo mecca. Finally, the drug store that I knew had to exist somewhere, and it is called Priceline. Lots of good stuff to choose from, and almost found everything I had been searching for. So close!

Next it was a shortcut through Myer and off to the GPO- Melbourne's "historic" General Post Office, which was actually rebuilt in early 2000s after a fire. It has some very posh shopping as well as the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Channel- like PBS) store, which didn't quite jive to me, but it seemed to work.

Those are birdcages hung from the ceiling, containing live finches or parakeets or some other kind of small twittery birds. Seemed strange to want to place uppercrust shoppers beneath birds, but then again I obviously don't know much about upper-end retail marketing.


Convinced I'd seen enough capitalism for the day, I headed to the Docklands and New Quay Promenade. I haven't spent much time in this part of Melbourne, and I decided today was the day to check it out.

This is a photo from the business end (the public docks) of the Promenade toward the city. Way off in the distance you can see the Telstra Dome (middle right).

Like most of the new urban areas in this city, the Promenade consisted of posh looking condos, pubs, and restaurants.

And some pretty interesting art.

This "Cow Up A Tree" (creative name, no?) was inspired by a flood that left cows... up trees. It seemed vaguely reminiscent of my friend Steph's photos of her time in New Orleans last year. Lots of things stuck up trees there.

Back towards the river a bit and this structure (I didn't see the name) towers over a playground. It looks like it should be a bit of a windmill, but it actually is mechanized to move "randomly" every so often. I didn't quite get it but I liked it.

Since the sun was getting lower (and I was without my jumper) I headed back home. Not bad for a day with no plan!

Vocab for the day
Heaps and Loads: Used to describe many of something. Not necessarily used together. Heaps is used instead of the American "tons", and loads is used instead of the American "lots".

There were heaps of people out in the CBD on Saturday since it was the first nice weekend in a while.