The second saga...

I'm dead... ah bollocks
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So, here we are at the end of the second day. It has been… exhausting. I have, quite literally, been all over the main part of Melbourne. Either on foot, or by tram – I’ve walked so much in these new shoes I brought just before I left that they are already starting to come apart in places! Not really, but I don’t think it can really be helped if they do – I have been walking a lot recently.

Anyway, what did I do today… ah yes; the Old Melbourne Gaol (pronounced ‘jail’, for those who don’t know, which I doubt is any of you). That was… well, let me put it this way. You ever gone into a room and someone has told you that someone died in it, and you get that chill wash over you? Yeah, this is the same sort of thing, but it permeates the building. The entire place is creepy enough by day, but I think I may see if I can’t get onto one of their night tours whilst I’m here, will have to enquire about it tomorrow. They say it’s one of the most haunted buildings in Australia, and with good reason. But that wasn’t the worst part – the worst bit was that I was looked at a list of executions carried out – one of them was called James Williams, aged 19, hanged on September 4^th 1904. Now that, friends, is scary. I’ve included a photo to prove I’m not lying, although you can’t see the date on it. Sorry about that, but it was either include the date, or loose some of the detail.

Gold...
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After this, I went to the Immigration Museum… that was good. Social history is not my best part of history, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like it. I spent more or less an hour in here, including an interesting part on the interview process. It was all pre-recorded, and you had to make the overall decision based on the responses to pre-determined questions. I got it wrong – they wouldn’t have let the guy in, and I would’ve done. Ah well, you can’t get it right all the time. Where else did I go? Ah, the actual museum – I’ve done a lot of looking today.

Just for you, Ann
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That… was disappointed, actually. See, it is based in the old treasury, and you would have thought there was more to it, but there isn’t. I mean, yeah, there is gold in the basement, which is all nice and shiny, and they do have a couple of decent exhibits – the temporary one at the moment deals with ghosts, and although I’m not a big believer in such things, I have to admit, there was really convincing stuff there. They had a few pictures, actually, taken in the Gaol, and one of them… well, I’ll have to explain it. The Gaol is split into three levels. Someone took a photo, looking down the cell block, on the upper levels, and got a picture of glowing red eyes. They were staring out of the cell-block wall, and there was a definite head. I can’t show you, as the picture was detailed enough for me to get a third-hand photograph of it, but still… scary stuff children!

And the final location of the day was the moving arts centre... I can't recall the exact name of it offhand, but I'm sure it will come to me in time. In any case, that was good, all about how things have changed over time. They have an exhibit on at the moment, all to do with Pixar and how they create their films, from the initial concept drawings and models through to the computer generated end-result. Very cool stuff. I got a picture that I know Ann will like... at least, I hope she likes it, because if not my memory is going.

Anyway, that is me for today. I will be honest, feeling a little lonely right now – homesick, I guess. It’s weird, I’ve been here over half the time now, 4 weeks this coming Sunday, and yet it’s only now that it seems to kick in. Ah well, nothing that can be done about, we shall solider on. Talk soon, I hope.