King Tut's Curse?

Twas a damp and misty morning in the valley last Thursday

but the natives were up early for an excursion into the city 

Me, to view the wonders of King Tutankhamun's tomb at the Melbourne Museum

and The Cook to visit a few favourite bookshops and to do some food shopping.

It is rumoured that King Tut's tomb was cursed...

I am thinking there may be some truth to this tale.

The car wouldn't start...

flat battery.

So we two old tarts high-tailed it down the road towards

the bus stop.  There is only one bus each way from this hamlet

to the big smoke each day.  We almost made it the 2 kilometres to

the stop as the bus sailed past...ignoring our flapping arms.

King Tut! 

Oh, how we cursed you!

As we walked dejectedly back home we even had a go

at hitch hiking....putting on our friendliest granny faces...

'Look,' we said, 
'We are just a couple of old girls.'

The Cook said it made her feel nineteen again.

She didn't have any trouble hitching around

the country in those days, but she seems to have 

lost her touch...no one slowed down and

I am sure I caught a glimpse of King Tut,
waving to us from the back seat
of one of the cars as it sped by.

As we turned into our street, we heard a car start up.

Could Miss Lovely Young Thing,

 two doors up, be driving into uni today?

Would she give us a lift?

Yes and Yes!

A lovely hour's chat, in a warm car, got us half way there.

Then a Number 86 tram took us the rest of the way.

And just look what I found!

  

My two princes.

After the Tut Exhibition and a lovely lunch, 

I took my leave from the princes and their mum

and met up with The Cook to fill in several hours

before we could return home...by bus.

Check out Melbourne's Museum.

Cool eh?

Following on from my Consuming Passions post, I took a few more

retail architecture photos for you.  

This is inside the newly renovated Bourke Street Myer

department store.

See that black oval at the bottom....

 ...this photo is taken from there, looking up.

These lovely guys were photographed for The Cook.  As a little girl she hated Barbie but had a strong attraction to Ken.  She says it was because of his sense of style but I think it had something to do with the his 'indeterminate manly bulge'. 

We had a chat with Rodney from the bedding department in Myer.

He has worked there since 1960....that is 51 years!  

I told him that I worked as a mail girl in Myer 

when I first left school and he said he remembered me.  

I don't think so, but it was sweet of him to say so.  

He is considering retiring next year.

Even the front of the store has been spruced up and is sparkling. 

All the windows all have their eyes open after years of being painted over. 

 

 Just a quick step over Bourke Street is the wonderful Royal Arcade.  

Look at all those lovely black bay windows 

and the matching iron work in the roof.  

Now that is great 

retail architecture.

There is a shop in Royal Arcade that sells only Babushka dolls.

And at the end you can see Gog and Magog strike the hour.

I was a bit scared that we would suffer 

the curse of Gog because we didn't wait 

to see them do their thing.

 He looked so fierce as I dodged under there ... quickly, 

just in case he dropped his bell or his donger on me.

Then on and into the delightful Block Arcade.  

Lovely masonry.

Mosaics on the floor.

This arcade was built in the mid to late 1800s when 

Melbourne was a boom town because of the Gold Rushes.  

The Block arcade was 'The Place' 

to be seen on a Sunday afteroon.

Can't your just see the 'well to do' strolling over these floors?

The ladies in their best dresses, sweeping along the tiles...

maybe with a lovely wide brimmed hat or a parasol.

The men in their top hats. 

 There have been tearooms in this arcade since 1891 

and the ladies and their beaus  

may have stopped for afternoon tea.

Today we dodged the curse of the Hopetoun Tea Rooms 

whose window display alone, 

is a threat to one's arteries and hips.

Check out all those lovely cake stands.

Can you see the green, white and black flock 

wallpaper in the background?  

 In the shop at the front of the arcade (just a chain store boutique) 

there is a beautiful original painted ceiling too.

We crossed Collins Street and entered, Centreway Arcade. 

This won an award for the architect who oversaw

its refurbishment and is said to be an excellent example

of the industrial style.  

By now the curse of the looking

up at lots of ceilings and atriums 

was beginning to effect my neck.

 Melbourne has some pretty cool graffiti too.

Some people think this is a curse...but I love it.

Another feature of Melbourne are the little laneways with tiny shops

and cafes.  This one is usually buzzing but the weather put

a dampener on that today.

We made it to Southern Cross Station to catch the bus home. 

We left ourselves plenty of time...we didn't want to be left flapping

our arms on the side of the road again.

I purchased something to eat on the trip home.
But apparently hot food isn't allowed
on these coaches and it had to be stowed underneath.
King Tut still hadn't finished with us!

But it was a quiet and relaxing two hour ride home...

well to the bus stop anyway.

Then a 2 kilometre walk 

in the drizzle and pitch dark...

no street lights out here.

As I was undoing my shoes 

I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror.

I am sure I didn't look like that at the start of the day!

Oh No!  

You bugger, King Tut!

 This little sketch was in an exhibition in a subway to the railway station.

And he hadn't finished with us even then.  

Yesterday when I went to publish this post...Blogger was down!

I think I could hear Tutankhamun 

sniggering beneath his bandages.

  

I am terribly sorry for any of you other bloggers who were caught up

in the Blogger problems yesterday... they were clearly meant only for me.  

Poor old Tut isn't that technically savvy 

so as to narrow his curse to only my computer.