How are you? I am fine. I hope that the cat has given up trying to eat your toes, and that the 'incident' in the back yard with the neighbour's parakeet has been forgotten if not forgiven.
So! at the moment I'm still in Melbourne. I've been wandering around taking in some of the sights and really getting a feel for the place. I really can't get over the mix between old and new. I'm not joking, you'll regularly find an old (well, relatively speaking of course) building and looming behind it like a space-age monster is a big sky scraper. I've tried to get some pictures and I'll be sure and post them on FaceAche.
Apart from wandering the city, which has a weird mixture of feeling like America and Luxembourg at the same time, I've been hanging out at the pier getting some sea air. Wait and I tell you what happened me the other day! I went to the pier to visit my penguin buddies and decided to bring a sandwich cos I was hungry. I'm sitting there munching away when I look up and see this seagull hovering about 2 foot over my head. Well, I thought, no bodder, I'll just shoo it. Eh, no. The little b*****d wouldn't bugger off!! at all!!! argh! It ended with me running away, flapping half a sandwich at the world's most aggressive seagull. Ok, fine, it was funny in hindsight I suppose...
So when I wasn't getting beaten up by marauding seagulls I wanted to take in some culture so I went to the Immigration Museum. I was on my own when I went, and my goodness, it was pretty tough. I was reading some of the stories and I could feel my lower lip start to go. I managed to turn it into a sneeze but I did have to go through it at fairly high speed to stop myself from bawling like a baby. I learned a lot about the history, some of it very surprising - for example, I never knew there was such anti-Chinese sentiment here for so long, especially as there is such a huge Asian population here now. Very sad. There was also a cool bit where you went into a room, listened to an interview then got to decide whether or not the person should be allowed in to the country - that was amazing. Me of course, bleeding heart, was letting them all in. It occurs to me that customs officer may not be a viable career choice for me...
Finally, jaysus, this letter is going to long as my leg... but finally, I wanted to make you really jealous by telling you about the Tim Burton exhibition - that was faaahoooooobulous! There were (naturally) lots of his sketches but they also had models of some of his characters, clips from many films and the best bit... they had some costumes on display!! they had Edward Scissorhands' black leather rig out, and they had one the actual hands (ok, in a glass box but still!!). They had the headless horseman's cape from Sleepy Hollow too, and lots of other bits and bobs. I'm definitely considering going again to get a proper look.
So that's it from me for now, hope as I said, that all's well with you! I'm trying to behave, and *yes* I'm eating / sleeping enough
Love and hugs!
Your Daughter (the one who ran away)
