Showing posts with label Melbourne. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Melbourne. Show all posts

Saturday 31 December 2016

Laser Light Show Melbourne Town Hall

Creating family memories is something that is becoming more and more important to me. Over the years we have immigrated twice and have had to say good bye too many times ... Growing up in a Military Family meant that we moved often and said good bye often too but in all honesty I don't remember it being a big deal because my parents always made the holiday's a super special time of the year.  A few years ago the town of Melbourne put on a laser show on the town hall which we attended.  It was wonderful.  These have now been shown a few years in a row and this year was a beautiful show.  We went to town with our home school friends and Paul did a live stream of the projections.  The best part was that my daughter in Sidmouth UK happened to be online and watched the projections live with us!  Such an amazing special moment. 


I blew the dust off my SLR and took a photo story of the lights this year.  I loved how they made a story of Christmas in Melbourne from shopping for the gifts, unwrapping and celebrating.  I couldn't make up my mind to which photo's to share so I will share them all.

Merry Christmas from the city of Melbourne.

The countdown begins ...

Melbourne gets dressed for Christmas


The shops are ready for Christmas and open for trade

People come to town to shop

Flinders Station welcomes people to Melbourne

What's Christmas without lollies?

Gingerbread Village arrives in Melbourne

Gingerbread Village is here

The Nutcracker looks on

Night Falls and all is still ...


Santa gets busy wrapping Christmas


All is quiet and the elves are out to play in Melbourne.

Christmas arrives in the Town Square

The Christmas Tree is up and Santa is here in the Square

Christmas in the Square

Christmas in the Square

Christmas is on the bridge and at the Art Center

Gifts appear beneath all the trees.

Santa and the Nutcracker celebrate


Celebrating the season


I'm looking forward to going into Melbourne to see Christmas next year and hope the laser show will be on again.  It's so beautiful to watch with lovely music.

Blessings
Chareen

Thursday 10 March 2016

Places to Explore near Melbourne

One of the things I enjoy about home educating is the opportunity to make use of the things within our community in order to make use of immersion learning. The second thing I love about this life style is the opportunity to meet families from around the world which in turn encourages us to explore local places and 'show' our guests a little piece Australia.

Michelle from Homeschooling Down Under and Belinda from Live Life with Your Kids have invited us to show you our little piece of Australia. In our 'back yard' we have a number of gorgeous places to visit and today I would like to introduce four of them to you.

1. Victorian State Rose Garden

This is a little piece of heaven earth-side.  The garden beds are arranged in the shapes of rose petals and filled with roses from around the world.



Photographs do not do the Rose Garden justice.  The Rose Garden is open every day of the year to the public and entrance is free.

2. The Mansion

Here is a place you can spend a full day and not see everything there is to see.  Entrance to The Mansion property is FREE but if you would like to look inside the historical home there is a small fee.  Walking through these gardens is magnificent.  The trees are enormous and the grounds are beautifully kept. Continue round the back and you will walk into history.  The farming part of the mansion is still there to take a look at.  If you like art there is also a sculpture walk to enjoy.

3. Werribee Open Range Zoo

A visit to us is not complete without experiencing a little piece of Africa or the Werribee Open Range Zoo.  Paul works here and if you'd like to meet his serval be sure to attend a presentation (You can watch Paul introduce serval at a night zoo presentation on YouTube).  Depending on the time of year the zoo is open after dark (Night Zoo) and during summer for Rhythm of Africa.


 You can also meet many of the animals up close and personal.

4.Geelong

 Geelong is a beautiful waterfront city not far from our home.  There are a number of museums and areas to explore here.  Among them the Wool Museum which often has exhibitions on.






If you all looking for some family friendly things to do in Melbourne do not forget to check out this post: 10 Family Friendly Places to Experience in Melbourne Australia 

Blessings
Chareen

Friday 23 May 2014

Victorian Police Museum {Field Trip}

When I first started blogging one of my goals was to record our trips.  I have been looking over my blog and realised that it's been a long time since I have done this.  I have decided to join in on Field Trip Friday and start recording our trips again.

This past Monday we took a field trip into Melbourne to the Victorian Police Museum. They are open Monday to Friday and entry is via gold coin donation. The Museum is located on the Mezzanine Level of the World Trade Centre.

You are allowed to take photographs inside this museum as long as it's without a flash.
 
The sky was a beautiful deep autumn blue, it was wonderfully warm and we got to see a lot of the old architecture in the city. My Mom joined us for the trip.

They had two of the armour shields the Ned Kelly gang used on display.  The piece of metal that Sir N is touching is an example of mould board.  This piece weights nine kilograms.  The armour Ned Kelly wore weighed a total of 45 kg.

Women in the Victoria Police
Top L - Hat with badge for women Bottom
Left Madge O'Conner one of the first police women.
Right Christine Nixon First Police
  • About the hat and badge: "When Alma Aldersea joined the Police Force in March 1945 women were issued special 'PW' badge numbers rather than the unique individual numbers given to male officers. These numbers could be re-issued to other females when the original owner left the Force as was routinely expected. Alma's badge, PW9, can be seen on this cap. After Alma married and resigned her badge was issued to three more policewomen - the last in 1975." Interestingly if a woman got married she had to resign from the police Force.
  • Madge O'Conner joined the Victoria Police as an agent in 1917 and became a fully sworn in police officer in 1924. It took her seven years.
  • Christine Nixon became the first woman to be appointed as the Chief Commissioner in Victoria.
  • Women had been in the police force since 1917 but it was only in 19743 that the first one was promoted one rank.
Each of the glass cases contain different uniforms and interesting documentation and information about the Police Force over the decades.

 Here Sir N takes a look at 'ERIC'.  He was built in 1989 and became the first bomb disposal robot used by the Victorian Police.  He spent 18 years serving the force and went into honourable retirement in 2007.


In the rear of the museum there is an area dedicated to the history of fighting crime in Australia.
  • The first detectives were introduced into the police force in 1844. They wore plain clothes, and operated independently of any uniformed police.
  • Detectives were issued an identification medallion on a  fob-chain.
  • In 1925 three detectives were charged and found guilty of asking for money in exchange for protection.  The presiding judge in handing down his verdict expressed great shock that "a guilty person can buy the silence of the guardians of the law."
  • From the Victorian Police Manual: "A good detective should know the suspects in particular classes of crime, their haunts and associates, especially their intimate male and female associates."
  • "Science is the most efficient and most effective member of the Victorian Police Force ... the one unimpeachable witness." - John Morris, The Argus Weekend Magazine 11 May 1940
  • The Australian Police were slow to adopt forensic investigation. It was pioneered by individual detectives.  Today it is standard practice.
  • You can read all about DNA proofing, fingerprinting, ballistics, etc along the walls.
  • The identification kit called Photo-FIT was developed by Jacques Penry.

Last but not least we were able to try on a police uniform.


It was a lovely day out building memories and exploring together.  I hope to revisit this museum with Sir N when he is in high school so that he can better enjoy all the displays and reading all the interesting historical information.

Blessings
Chareen



Friday 27 December 2013

The Gingerbread Village 2013

Last year we discovered the Gingerbread Village by Epicure. This is an annual display at the Melbourne Town Hall.  Entry is by gold coin donation, all funds raised are donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation Australia. This year they had some more sights and sounds of Melbourne. This year the Royal Melbourne Zoo featured.

Be sure to click on each picture to see it in full screen.






This is definitely a tradition worth adding to your annual outings in Melbourne.  If you have never seen the village before be sure to note it in your diary and take a look next year.  The detail is amazing.  It must take the chef's hours and hours of hard work to bring the Gingerbread City to life. 

Blessings
Chareen


Photo collages made with: Photoscape a FREE photo editor

Thursday 26 December 2013

Enjoying a Surprise Trip into Melbourne



A relatively new tradition for us is taking a trip into Melbourne to see the Christmas lights and Melbourne Town Hall laser show.  We went to see this last year and it was with great anticipation for this year that I surprised Sir N with a trip into Melbourne on the train to see the show.


It was so much fun catching the train and surprising Sir N this year.  The sunset was amazing and lights and sounds were beautiful.


The Melbourne Town Hall was decked out for Christmas and the tin soldiers were at their posts guarding the grounds. You can watch a YouTube clip of the Laser Light Show on YouTube.


From here we meandered up to have a look at this years Myer Christmas Windows. Last year the theme was based on the book Russell's Christmas Magic by Rob Scotton.  This year it is the 58th year that the tradition has been continued. The windows have been modeled on the book Gingerbread Friends by Jan Brett.  You can see a YouTube clip on the production of this years windows.




I'm always amazed at the work that is lovingly put into producing these windows. 


There are some amazingly beautiful sights and sounds to be seen during Christmas in Melbourne..  Do you have any beautiful window displays that you see each year ?

Blessings
Chareen