A singing waiter and a travelling cat

Last night was again a night of revellery for other people.    I finally put my head out of the window far enough to see that there were quite a few people in the laneway between my building and the carpark.  This morning I looked to see what was there apart from the pile of beer kegs & bins of bottles.  A sign of a singing waiter indicated but one of several hole in the wall drinking establishments.    The Prahran owl was also there as was a Jewish man with a lot on his head and hands praying.  Maybe a previous guest felt in need of prayer to get through the night.

The laneway, beer kegs & bins in question

 

Looks like he's singing

The owl again

 

Someone with much on his mind

 

Prayer

 

This morning the top end of Bourke Street was all-but deserted and the tram had to travel a distance before a few tourists and shoppers emerged, a far cry from the street activity of the last few days.  It was a lovely day at St Kilda where I had a quick look at some of the stalls, definitely some good quality handmade items there and walked further down and back along the beach passing the longstanding institutions of the Palais Theatre and Luna Park.    A few energetic bods were out jogging and some dogs were having a great time catching balls along the waterfront. 

Some of many stalls of good quality handmade goods

 

Luna Park & the Palais Theatre are in the background

         

                                                                                                                                St Kilda beachfront

Pier and pavillion

 

 It was soon time to return for another tram back into the city.  One of the passengers had his cat with him.   Apparently his cat goes just about most places he goes and can be trusted out of its cat carrier in a tram.   It actually looked more relaxed in than out of the carrier.

travelling cat

 

I had a luncheon appointment booked with my nieces.   Despite being at the correct tram stop I decided to jump on the wrong tram for some unknown reason and found myself on my way back to St Kilda.    Resort to a taxi soon had me at my destination having an enjoyable lunch and meeting the first of the next generation.

On my return I stayed in the area where I got off the tram.  The tram had passed an enormous church so I checked it out.   Although Adelaide is known as the city of churches, Melbourne seems to have its fair share of large stone churches.   The one which had attracted my attention was the Catholic cathedral which has been well restored.  It is designed like some of the old European churches with numerous small chapels and also has some beautiful old mosaics.   Some of the outside windows have tiny lifelike sandstone sculptures of faces imbedded in them.   

St Patricks Cathedral

 

Mosaics in one of chapels

 

One of the faces

Near the cathedral and a nearby Lutheran church, which are also near Parliament House, is an enormous stautue representing the 1891 petition Victorian women presented to the government requesting the right to vote.   http://wiki.prov.vic.gov.au/index.php/1891_Women’s_Suffrage_Petition When I was a little girl I remember my mother mentioning something about one of the women in my father’s family and the right to vote.   It might have been his mother or one of his aunts.

Lutheran church from catholic church

The petition in sculpture

Rent a bike, also in the same area

After perusing architecture and artworks I returned to my pleasant hotel with noisy neighbours, collected my luggage and caught a tram to the next one I’d been booked into for a conference.   A rest and dinner in Chinatown with one of the other delegates followed.