Winter in
Melbourne

One thing that we like about Melbourne is that there is always an event happening — similar to larger cities like LA and London, every week there is some event, many unexpected. In July and August, mid-winter in Australia, there were Egypt exhibits from the British Museum, fire and light shows, whale migration festivals, plus the Euros and the Olympics.

We started July off going to a 4th of July party (which I found on the internet) — usually the American Chamber of Commerce sponsors events in foreign countries but I couldn't find one. But I did find the "Australia-American Association of Victoria" and we went to their event. About 100 people and we were the only Americans — the group was Australians and other nationalities that loved America. The keynote speaker was a local politician there to get support for AUKUS (submarine program with UK and US) but the follow-up speaker had lived in the US about half his life and offered a very positive perspective (back when Biden was in the race): "Out of these two awful choices for President, it doesn't matter who wins because America will survive and come out stronger on the other side."

A gamechanger for us was finding that we had the ability to rent a PopCar (Uber for rental cars) and one of the pick-up spots was right outside our cottage. We saw a flyer for a whale migration festival in Phillip Island, which was about a 2-hour drive. Nice small town festival and walk along the ocean to look for whales — didn't see any but the ocean views were spectacular. But we did see a flock of mega-pelicans.

We had a couple of nights out in town — found the Australian Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Little Italy on Lygon Street, free ABBA tribute show at the casino, the Pharaoh exhibit at the National Gallery of Victoria, a fire show at the Docklands, and a light show at the Royal Botanic Gardens. All first rate. We also met people through playing pickleball — not as serious yet in Australia as in the Kentlands but moving that direction.

The Euros and Olympics were terrible time zones for us — most events started at 2am and finished at 8am. I was all in on England and was up for most of their games, and went to a huge dance club that converted to the "Official" England fan zone for a couple of games, including the final. Sadly England lost and my English coworkers were thinking we needed to leave before the game was over because of the potential for fights — but it just got very quiet and everyone went home (or to work in our case). It was still only 7am and the hangover hits quickly in a loss. But they do go all out for the National Anthem.

The Australians are very competitive about the Olympics — a lot of drama over the US changing the medal count standings to be based on total medals won instead of gold medals. I said remember two words — "Track and Field" — and after Track and Field, the local media ultimately changed their medal count to a per capita measure where Australia wins. A lot less focus on the human interest stories as well — it is showing the sports that they are winning. Commentary is very biased — during the time trial cycling race where the American and Australian cyclists were favoured, the American went first and went down in the rain on a sharp corner, and the announcer said "that's going to be great for Gabbie" — and after a long pause added "and of course we hope she (the crashed rider) is OK." When I mentioned this story at work, a co-worker said "it was awesome — Gabby is my cousin." Many people had personal connections to Olympic athletes. About the same number of athletes as the US, which is 15 times bigger.

Quick trip through Bendigo — a regional gold mining town — on the way to a work event in Ballarat where we had the opportunity to meet Julie Bishop. We had never heard of her, but in a quick Google search right before we met her, we found that she had been the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia for 11 years and former Secretary of State equivalent. She got shafted and overlooked to be Prime Minister (and everyone we talked to agreed) but still had a good attitude. Very impressive person.

Lastly, after the winter blockbuster hit "Twisters" became popular — I had to assure people at work that F4 and F5 tornados don't hit on a daily basis in Oklahoma. People were: "it must have been horrible to always be running from them." But we found a music venue in the same entertainment complex that had a free ABBA show. We are moving from our Cottage in Port Melbourne to a high-rise apartment about a mile closer to the CBD — so it will be a different experience for the next couple of months.