Culture and catch-ups in Melbourne day 1

 Saturday 22nd June

Taji had agreed to drive Nina and me to the National Gallery of Victoria for the Pharaoh exhibition. We looked first at the option of booking in advance and decided to just rock up. It was a good choice, by which we did manage to get concession entry.

It really was quite a fantastic exhibition; so much to look at, but unbelievably crowded and for some of the exhibits, particularly the smaller artifacts, there was quite a queue to be able to get to see them. Consequently, for some of them we did not read the information signs.

My one criticism (other than the crowding) would be that some of their information signs were a little low and poorly lit so it wasn't the easiest to read them, at least not for those of us with a fixed focal distance! However, we had a lovely time and we were in the exhibition for two and a half hours.

By the end of our time there, we were keen to look for food and coffee, both of which were to be found reasonably close, even if they weren't completely honest about the ingredients.

Nina called Tashi to come and pick us up, which he did, acccompanied by Jordan but due to some interesting navigation issues on the way, Nina and I ended up standing on what's effectively one of the median strips for almost an hour waiting for them!

Once they arrived it was a reasonably quick trip back to Nina's place and  I said my good buyers and made my way across town to Christine's

And it was great to see Christine again; swhile I had seen her a few months previously when she came to Hobart, and I'd had a cup of tea with Brian when I dropped off the little goodies gift box for them on my first day, it was lovely to sit down and chat properly and then catch up over a meal of abalone.  

We had a very pleasant evening and Christine and I both retired early leaving Brian to his own devices and customary practice of watching TV until late.

Reflecting back on the exhibition, the fact that the culture lasted over 3000 years, giving artisans an extended time to develop and implement a range of skills, it really was a fascinating time.

The other major fascination is the amount of subsequent study that has gone into interpreting the script, the complex history and interpretation of all these incredible antiquities to identify who, how, what and when.  So much dedication to knowledge and study.