Guessing Monet never painted Penguins…

Serves me right for being smug… jet-lag woke me at 5.40am and as I couldn’t sleep, I finished the book I began on the plane. Is this the place for literary recommendations? Why not… really enjoyed Bonnie Garmus’ novel “Lessons in Chemistry” ~ fascinating, well-written and thought-provoking, like this almost closing statement by main character Elizabeth Zott, “Courage is the root of change… and change is what we’re chemically designed to do” … quite apt for this season in my life.

Really today was a day of two halves… Monet and penguins.

This morning Em and I headed out to The Lume, within the Convention Centre, pausing for coffee en route. Em left me there while she went to an outlet centre and I basked in the “Monet and Friends” immersive experience ~ similar to the Van Gogh one which toured the UK a couple of years’ ago.

It was fantastic, getting there as it opened meant it was initially quite empty, as I explore the large space with screens of different sizes, shapes and configurations, as well as the floor, displaying projections of Impressionist Art. Great to view from the French-style cafe and the mezzanine; yet only fully appreciated when on the floor, surrounded, immersed in the art and perfectly matched music. It was somehow meditative and certainly all engaging and mindful. 

It was beautiful watching the small pre-school children visiting with parents or grandparents who really set the example of how to immerse themselves ~ as they crawled across the floors, following and ‘catching’ the moving images, or toddling over to screens and touching the towering walls, utterly transfixed. 

I know not specially about Melbourne or Australia, but so glad I was able to enjoy this amazing installation… if it should tour the world, another recommendation from me!

So to the penguins… this afternoon, at the end of a week’s work, Em’s friend, Jane, collected us and drove us 2+ hours ~ just up the road to Aussies! ~ to Philip Island so we could experience the Penguin Parade. As the sun sets each evening the colony of Little Penguins emerge from the ocean, waddle as a quickly as possible across the beach, into the dunes and scrub to their burrows. 

Philip Island is home to the world’s largest colony of the world’s smallest penguin ~ and it was great! We sat and watched them come into the beach in ‘rafts’, gather in groups and then make a run for it, protection in numbers from prey on the exposed beach, to their homes. We then walked the boardwalks over the dunes to see them outside their burrows, chattering and engaged in ‘other’ activities!

It was a lovely experience, and we also saw many other birds and a wallaby.

Additional photos below as ‘usual’… and hopefully tonight I’ll beat the jet-lag!