Geeze, I go away for 3 years and this is what happens!

In short, Melbourne doesn't look quite the same as it did. Which is not at all surprising. My first feeling of something different was on the flight from Sydney.

When I booked this trip nearly 4 months ago I took care to book myself a window seat for the last leg; I wanted to see Melbourne from above. As we approached I first picked out Mt Dandenong. You can't mistake it; the TV towers are a dead giveaway. Then Rosanna, revealed by the radio broadcast towers. As the plane made its turn toward Tullamarine the City itself comes into view and for a short moment I wondered if I were really looking at Melbourne. There was a building that looked for all the world like the Seattle Needle complete with revolving restaurant and I knew that Melbourne didn't have one of those! Yet everything else looked right.

Seeing Albert Park followed by the Newport Power station reassured me that I was in the right airspace. Landed and yep, this was Melbourne alright! The building that looked like the Seattle Needle when seen up close doesn't really look like the needle at all; it was a trick of the light.

Wandering at leisure through the City yesterday was a voyage of discovery. Buildings that weren't there last time I did that walk. More subtly, buildings that have changed ownership. The building that I remember as an average office building with the astronomical telescope dealership on the top floor is now a Ramada hotel.

Though I knew from reading the Melbourne Newspapers online that the Flinders Street overpass was gone it still came as a bit of a surprise, as I travelled from Flinders Street Station to Spencer Street via train, to see that it's no longer there.

But my old house in Footscray looks just the same as when I lived there 3 years ago. Just one change; they moved the front gate from the left hand end of the fence to the middle of the fence. Otherwise it's unchanged.

Quite an emotional moment as it happens, that first turn into the street and there was the familiar suburbscape. I've put up a small gallery of shots[^]; sufficient to make you scratch your heads and wonder why I feel so nostalgic about it all. *shrug* I lived there for almost 10 years and it is, after all, less than a kilometre from that house to most of the scenes of my childhood.