First of foremost, Welcome Back!
Recently S and I took the girls to the Museum, and I have to say that ashamedly it has been years since I've been. In fact it's completely possible that I had never been to the new Museum building. But I was very, very impressed. The building itself is beautifully set out, was exceptionally clean and despite their being a lot of people there, didn't always feel overly crowded.
We had gone to see the Dinosaur Walk specifically but there was a lot to see. In fact in our 3 hour exploration we skipped 3 separate exhibitions, but we have vowed to go back. The aboriginal art exhibition seems to be fairly permanent, but we may miss out on the Mind and Body exhibition, and the VCE design exhibition. The girls are too young to really understand, and too young for me to really explain the true tragedy around the aboriginal exhibition, and why its so important.
The Dinosaur Walk was pretty impressive, lots of big bones of beasts, but they where a little close together so it was hard to really see which skeleton belonged to which dinosaur. However, in the rooms surrounding the walk itself where filled with lots of cool interactive stuff. Bugs on display, buttons for the sounds spiders make, light displays for the inside structures of bees, many things to keep little 2 year old and 5 year old girls entertained.
But us 26 year old girls had to wait until we got upstairs for our fun. A quick relaxing stroll through the forest gallery (literally a rainforest in the middle of the museum!) got us upstairs and to the Melbourne Story exhibit. I do love a Retro story, and this was FULL of them. Photos, maps, furniture and displays all from Melbourne's birth. Here are some of my favourites;
This magic little display is filled with fabric and paint swatches, house plans and product advertisements from the 1940s and 50s. Most disturbing is the advertisement for asbestos panelling. But the colours in everything were so cool; aqua, yellow, tan, reds and blues. Very inspiring.
I'm so tempted to try and make one of these for in my entry way! I had to keep the flash off because of the glass, so it's a bit blurry but it says "Chief Secretary and Superintendent of the Lunatic Asylum". I figure that describes me most of the time!!
We all know how I am about black and white, so this photo is half taken for my Mum (big Dame Melba fan) and half for the wall paper. So beautiful!
And no trip the Museum could be complete without going to see His Majesty - Pharlap. M and C where both fairly blown away with just the size of him, and both insisted on having their photos taken in front of him (C even told me she need to 'bogie bogie' during her photo that it would look good!) I don't think they really understood why he was such an icon, but they figured he must be important since he was in a very big glass box!
Overall it was a very fun day, and I can't wait until the girls are old enough to really get involved in our cities history. We drove home through Hawthorn, and S and I toyed with the idea of moving into the inner suburbs once he starts his PhD, maybe applying to Melb Uni for that. I've always wanted to live in the city, although I am a little hesitant to move schools so early in M's education.
It's always nice to realise you still have dreams and ambition even at our age!
