I Needed That!

Today is a day of rest and optional activities.  We have walked and walked…usually 4 miles a day but 6 miles yesterday…and learned and experienced.  I’m pooped!


I lingered at breakfast this morning rather than rushing off.  Several people were going on bus tours, but I felt it was a duplication of woodlands and villages we saw in Tassie.  Another couple was on an 8-hr bus tour along the ocean, but I saw lots of that in Tassie too.  Today is for me!


I had posted another blog this morning after writing for a while, had breakfast, and then headed to the Immigration Museum built in the former Victorian Customs House.  This massive building’s Great Hall was once the center of imports and taxation.  It now houses an amazing and comprehensive history of the colonization of Australia and the dispossession of the aboriginal lands without the natives’ consent nor payment for them!


After the prisoner transports ended, England had a “white Australia “ policy allowing the ease of immigration especially of British citizens from England, Canada, Ireland, and Scotland..  Applicants from other countries were restricted.  After a long history of convict settlers, Australia did not welcome criminals, prostitutes, or people with mental or physical disabilities.  Sometimes a “dictation test” was given to applicants to copy down correctly the text read to them in English.  I tried and failed it was so fast!


From 1946 until 1972, race wasn’t mentioned, but white immigrants were still preferred in a push to populate areas of the country less occupied.  From 1973 until today, multiculturalism is encouraged, but the number of immigrants allowed into Australia has been reduced.


Over the years, Asians were encouraged to come work, but then discriminated against and often deported.  During the war years, “enemy aliens” were deported even if they had been born in Australia!  Aborigines were allowed to serve in the Australian military, but not allowed citizenship.  


Over 9 million people have migrated since 1788 to Australia which has a current population of over 26 million….that is essentially 1 in 3 people!


There was also an exhibit called “Joy” with multiple artists expressing what brings them joy.  For one it was an array of brightly swirling colors and lights, for another a giant plush rabbit remembered from childhood taking up an entire room, and the one I thought most creative was recreating a video store from the past!  The artist explained what joy she received visiting the local video store as a child and picking out a special DVD!  I remember those days of pizza and a DVD!


I have been on this trip for over two weeks, and I needed some “me” time.  What I really needed was a massage!  I had asked the hotel’s concierge and also our guide, John, but neither could recommend a place other than googling it.  John was a little hesitant since his last experience resulted in a couple of women going to two different sex massage establishments rather than a regular massage parlor!


Walking to the Immigration Museum, I passed a small doorway, “Royal Thai Massage”, and I felt lead to check it out.  It had a sign, “Not Sexual!” prominently displayed!  I made an appointment for the afternoon for a 1-hour deep tissue massage and 30 minutes of foot reflexology.


Wow, what an experience!  I told the young Asian woman that I wanted firm pressure, and my body has been beat, prodded, elbowed, sit on, knelt on, stretched, and stroked.  After an intensive 30 minutes of digging into my feet and popping joints, they felt so much better!  I turned over and she climbed onto the table with her knees working up the backs of my thighs and her elbows in my butt.  Then the knees were in my buttocks and the elbows were all over my back.  She did everything but stand on me!


It hurt so good!  And boy, did I need that!  Thank you, Lord!


Afterwards I walked for a while, pass the “boto” or liquor/bottle shop, and wandered around a grocery store looking at products many of which are similar to ours.  The local favorite cookie is a “Tim Tam” a thin vanilla layered cookie covered in chocolate and also in a multitude of other flavors.  Several products in the freezer section were “pub size”.  They had Cheese Doodles but also “Cheese Tubes”.


We leave Melbourne tomorrow early…4:45 AM…for a double jump to Sydney and then to Alice Springs heading to the red sands of the Australian Outback.  Temperatures were in the 30’s and 40’s in Tassie, 50’s and 60’s in Melbourne, and tomorrow should be 70’s and 80’s in the desert.  I’ve gone from opossum fur gloves to sunscreen in less than a week!


Lunch was yesterday’s cold leftover pizza since I didn’t have a way to warm it up.  I wasn’t hungry except for one thing…blood orange and passion fruit gelato!


Yes, a massage and then gelato for dinner!  I needed that!






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