It's September 22nd (though blogspot will tell you it's the 21st, the first day of Spring/Fall!) and the Jewish bakeries have only round bread today. Happy Jewish new year! Meanwhile a couple hundred young people in extravagant makeup and costumes are gathering for the Melbourne Anime Festival just beyond the Old Quadrangle here at Melbourne Uni (pronounced: yoonie), the school holidays having started. Always lots going on in Melbourne!I gather my blog's a bit bookish for some tastes -- some people seem weirdly more interested in my wanderings than those of snails -- so here are some pictures of the places I've been going back and forth between: gum trees along the Broken River in Shepparton, and a circle tram approaching from Flinders Street Station in Melbourne, a new complex called Federation Square on the left. In fact, trams, Flinders Street and Federation Square are the three icons of the city.
I'm also told that blogs are for pontificating as well as musing, so let me say that I think the colors and textures of Federation Square are most unfortunate, though not (speaking of pontificating) as unfortunate as Pope Benedict's contribution to the clash of civilizations in Regensburg on September 12th. Oz may be a long way from most places, the news dominated in recent days by the huge memorial events for race car driver Peter Brock and vaudeville naturalist Steve Irwin, but the din of wars present and planned is audible beneath everything.We could use all the new year's repentance and renewal we can get.
