Hi All – Rosie and I had a wonderful day with several other members of the Waverley Camera Club, wasnt it a beautiful day?
We woke early – for two oldies who dont go to bed until after mid-night and don’t usually wake until after 8am so 6am is early! We caught a bus from Springvale to Westall because the rail lines were broken and then the train from Westall to the city to be there before 8am as promised. We met Pete Davies on the station platform in the city and managed to learn more about the route of the competitors in running for kids that morning. Did I mention it was a beautiful day to be in the city? A day to do anything actually some of them ran others jumped, WCC, and indeed a whole gaggle of photographers wondering about in the city cameras in hand, were primed to make great images; road menders dug holes in the road, engineers lifted up railway lines – in fact anything was possible today. After the appropriate greetings and the obligatory wait for those who may or may not turn up Paul produced several maps of laneways and city walks and we wondered away together to have a look at the New Graffati in Hosier Lane. Nice it was!! Some of us were lucky enough to watch a young hooded child make his mark with spray can in hand. “Perfectly legal man” was his thought for the day.
From there we walked back on to Swanston Street via another of those paths less travelled and came across a couple of likely lads who took time out to talk to Paul and tell him what they were thinking on such a beautiful morning. Before long it was our turn to meet someone, who believe it or not, was just visiting from Heaven – he didnt tell us his name but I, a firm believer in the Second Coming, reckonned it would be preferable to ‘Go Up’ to heaven rather than ‘Come Down’ from there. Still …live and let live is my philosophy.
Sooner than I expected we lost a number of the group to more serious interests – some to the laneways, others to the runners and some to the architecture on offer. Rosie and I wondered off through the arcades and laneways and ended up near enough to Camera House where we stopped to buy some good batteries. Thank you Peter for lending her yours – I shall certainly continue to pay it forward!
Lunch time found us near the State Library and since we both have never been inside the palce we decided we would go in before lunch rather than after. The phone in my pocket rang loud enough for me to hear it Pete Davies was on the other end of the eather wondering where we were, having learned we were beside the library he joined us and we went inside to the treat of our lives. The State Library is worth a visit by itself and we were told that there is at least one camera club in the library every Saturday. It was after 1.00 when we came out and went to lunch before going back in for a Private Visit courtesy of one of the security guards who took a shine to Rosie. The room is in the older section of the library and is said to be more than 100 years old, 152 years old Rosie tell me. What a beauty!!
That ended our day folk – for those of you that came, I hope you enjoyed yourselves as much as Rosie and I did. For those of you who would go to the city anytime, well you wont have us to accompany you, but I hope the company you do keep on the day will be as good to you as ours was today.
Cheers and you have a great working week.
Andy and Rosie Armitage
