Melbourne in its glory

Day one in Melbourne after a somewhat dramatic arrival last night with Jetstar arriving on time but finding my lovely host Maisie with her vintage BMW up in smoke so to speak. The radiator hose had burst and she was stranded at the airport with her doggie Leo not happy. After a few hours of waiting for the RACV to come and tow her home, we finally crashed at two am and had a good night's sleep with the car to be taken for repairs today.

Happily Maisie had organised a get-together at the Moorabbin ECK centre with a group of Interfaith people to show them our centre and tell them what ECK is about. Genevieve was there with her partner Diana and we prepared with a HU song and waited for JB to arrive who gave a short talk to the five who arrived a bit late for the RV.

However it went well and we all spoke a little and they went away satisfied and having learned a little about Eckankar and what it means to us. A great start to my time in Melbourne.

Genevieve....

The ECK centre

With quizzical Maisie...

Looking out...

At the ACMI on Federation Squareto see a Japanese movie at their festival. It is called 'Midnight Diner'.

Decided to have some late lunch early dinnera plate of cottoleta di pollo

Fish-eye view at a café on Fed Square

A quick call to old mate and colleague Di who is always available and we make a tentative lunch date for Monday with friend Roddy and hopefully Hazel can make it too if she wants to take off some time from her urgent Christmas décor job.

Then came the Japanese movie festival with an excellent evocation of Japanese food and culture of mourning the dead. The two hour movie was a series of vignettes surrounding a beautiful soul in the form of the chef of a diner only open from midnight, attracting of course, a most interesting bunch of regular clients. An urn of someone's ashes was left at the diner one night and the plot centred around who left it and how they honoured the ashes and the memory of whoever it was. It was especially relevant because of the recent tsunami north of Tokyo which was a total catastrophe where hundreds were killed and so many infected by the toxins released. A gentle love story was interwoven with this trope of  love and loss. A gem of a movie filmed in intimate Japanese detail and I hope to see another on Saturday with Maisie, that is all being well with her Mum.

Did a bit of shopping on the way home, with Melbourne city throbbing with thousands of people in Christmas mode out to see (as well as shop), the light show beamed on to the Town Hall in Swanston Street. I caught it on the way home and it was spectacular. A big day one in wonderful Melbourne.

Lego Christmas tree in Fed. Square