Andy - Day 8

On Sunday morning, I got up to get to church by 9 am.  I drove down to Elwood, and along the way found the single Mexican restaurant in all of Melbourne, right across the street from St Columba’s Catholic church.  It was an old, old church, one of two churches in this parish.  The lone priest does one mass at each church on the weekends.  Pretty small compared to SSJ.  In fact, there were probably fewer than 100 people in church during mass. 

The gospel and sermon had the theme of “go out on a limb,” which seemed to sum up our plans for Australia.  On top of that, the pastor commented that security is not enough.  We need to stretch ourselves and take the occasional risk.  How’s that for a good omen?

Afterwards, though, I stayed for a cup of tea and a bit of socializing with the parishioners.  I met Dominic, who had recently visited Gettysburg, and Gerry who was once an accountant for BHP Billiton, the largest company in Australia.  I also met Teoni who is a teacher in Brighton, and whose son is in Year 5 at St Columba’s.  Teoni had great things to say about both the private school and the public schools in Brighton.  Of course, Brighton is the Newport Beach of Melbourne.

After church, I came home to chat with you guys, then headed out for a short drive before going to the Celtic Woman show.  I took the tram for a 10 minute ride down south, and had plenty of time to walk around.  First stop was Luna Park, which is a beach-side carnival, like Coney Island. 

Luna Park

Andy in front of creepy clown at Luna Park entrance

Then I walked along the boardwalk and took a few photos of the beach, which was cloudy, windy and pretty cold.  

Beach

While walking through the parking lot, I identified the only minivan I’ve seen in Australia, a Kia Carnival.  The Mitsubishi Pajero and the Toyota Kluger are mid-size SUVs with a third row of seats.

Then I walked back to the theater and took a few photos outside and inside.  As I walked into the theater, I quickly noticed that I was clearly among the youngest in the audience.  From my seat in row zed (“Z”), I saw plenty of gray hair or bald heads.

Before the show started, an old woman was being escorted to her seat down front.  Apparently she dropped her program, and the guy in front of me gallantly got up, quick-stepped a few rows to pick it up, and chased down the lady and the usher/escort to return the program.  What a gentleman.

During the show, the one beautiful song had the lyrics “set your desire on this far shore,” which seemed like yet another favorable omen for moving to Australia.

Theatre where Andy saw Celtic Woman. He was in Row Zed (Z!)

After the show, I stopped at a restaurant called Phamish for a bite to eat ($45 for an appetizer, pizza, beer and dessert, and that was just for me!).  I ended up in a corner of the restaurant, and soon a pair of Irish women were seated at the adjacent table.  I was minding my own business, reading the paper, and trying to do an Australian crossword, and failing miserably, when one of them started dishing on marriage and monogamy.  I sensed I might get drawn into this, so I did a quick calculation should I need a bit of data (12 years, six months, 13 days, 3 hours).   Before long, one of the women stepped away, and the other (Christa) asked my opinion of marriage, and I nonchalantly held up my left hand to show her my ring.  She raised her eyebrows, and asked “How long?”  Was that predictable or what?  “12 years, six months, 13 days and 3 hours,” I replied.

We proceeded to talk about marriage, and I happened to be the one piece of evidence that Christa did not need to support her arguments against marriage.  I mentioned how eager I was to see my wife on Tuesday, and how we’re off on a great Australian adventure.  Hopefully I managed to knock a small hole in her belief that marriage is unnatural/wrong/destined to failure/etc.  By the way, the other woman’s name was Caoimhe.  I’ll give you a hundred bucks if you can figure out how to pronounce that one, and absolutely no fair Googling it.