todayiamadaisy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
todayiamadaisy) wrote2006-02-02 07:45 pm
todayiamadaisy) wrote2006-02-02 07:45 pm
Entry tags:
Nero Freen *
I discovered two days ago that Sydney's Powerhouse Museum had a William Morris exhibition late last year. I could have gone over my long Christmas break. Was it too much to hope that it would still be running? Yes, of course... because it has been packed up and moved to the Melbourne Museum. That's in Melbourne, of course. Three-hour-day-trip-away Melbourne! But only until February 12.
All of which is just to explain why I was up at a most ungodly hour to catch this morning's train to Melbourne. The train used to be run by a private company and ran express from Geelong to Melbourne. Since being taken back by V/Line, it now stops at four stations in between, adding a considerable amount of time to an already lengthy journey. I answered a phone survey on this very topic a few months ago, but they obviously didn't rush to V/Line with the news that I was displeased with this change.
They have also renamed Spencer Street station as Southern Cross station, which (a) I already knew and thought was pointless and (b) really is pointless, especially when the official platform signs say "Southern Cross (formerly Spencer Street) Platform 5". I'm sick of things being renamed and rebadged for no good reason. Spence - sorry, Southern Cross - is being revamped with a wavy roof and when the train pulls in it's like being swallowed into the belly of a beast and looking up at its ribs.
At the museum, the ticket lady kindly pointed out where I needed to go to see William Morris, then said, "But first you really must go to the Forest Gallery and follow the path round to the second signpost and look up. It'll make you go 'aaah'." She shrugged her shoulders and wrinkled her nose with glee. Ordinarily I would think that sort of thing is the museum equivalent of "Do you want fries with that?" but those instructions were so precise and she was so excited I gave her the benefit of the doubt and went to the Forest Gallery's second signpost and looked up... and went "aaah." In the forest, there is a mating pair of tawny frogmouths with two chicks, and being nocturnal they had decided to sleep the day away on top of the pillar. All four of them: two adult birds and two little balls of grey fluff. So cute.
I spent the rest of the morning wandering around the Morris exhibition, said hello to Phar Lap (Morris is just next door to him) on the way out and caught the lunch train home. Blistered right foot aside, a good day.
* A piece of graffiti on one of new non-express station's walls. I was wondering how the artist came up with that tag when I realised it was actually "Aero Freek". When will vandals learn to spell?
All of which is just to explain why I was up at a most ungodly hour to catch this morning's train to Melbourne. The train used to be run by a private company and ran express from Geelong to Melbourne. Since being taken back by V/Line, it now stops at four stations in between, adding a considerable amount of time to an already lengthy journey. I answered a phone survey on this very topic a few months ago, but they obviously didn't rush to V/Line with the news that I was displeased with this change.
They have also renamed Spencer Street station as Southern Cross station, which (a) I already knew and thought was pointless and (b) really is pointless, especially when the official platform signs say "Southern Cross (formerly Spencer Street) Platform 5". I'm sick of things being renamed and rebadged for no good reason. Spence - sorry, Southern Cross - is being revamped with a wavy roof and when the train pulls in it's like being swallowed into the belly of a beast and looking up at its ribs.
At the museum, the ticket lady kindly pointed out where I needed to go to see William Morris, then said, "But first you really must go to the Forest Gallery and follow the path round to the second signpost and look up. It'll make you go 'aaah'." She shrugged her shoulders and wrinkled her nose with glee. Ordinarily I would think that sort of thing is the museum equivalent of "Do you want fries with that?" but those instructions were so precise and she was so excited I gave her the benefit of the doubt and went to the Forest Gallery's second signpost and looked up... and went "aaah." In the forest, there is a mating pair of tawny frogmouths with two chicks, and being nocturnal they had decided to sleep the day away on top of the pillar. All four of them: two adult birds and two little balls of grey fluff. So cute.
I spent the rest of the morning wandering around the Morris exhibition, said hello to Phar Lap (Morris is just next door to him) on the way out and caught the lunch train home. Blistered right foot aside, a good day.
* A piece of graffiti on one of new non-express station's walls. I was wondering how the artist came up with that tag when I realised it was actually "Aero Freek". When will vandals learn to spell?