Happiness from a book

So, my reading life has been quite stunted lately, I start a book but i cannot finish it. Sometimes i read the first few pages and I lose interest! In this strange, grey land that I have been dwelling for sometime now, I came across this book called ‘The Deal of a Lifetime’ by Fredrik Backman. The blurb at the back of the book caught my interest also what was more significant was the size of the book. It is a novella with exactly 65 pages. I could finish it in one sitting and that was more enticing.

The book is very well written, in a cryptic, elusive fashion. Throughout the story the narrator engages with death personified as a middle-aged woman with a grey sweater, carrying a folder and a black pencil. I thought, that for the first time someone had the guts to give death the female gender, i found it intriguing! The narrator is a famous celebrity dying of cancer, however death always seemed to elude him by a whisker taking away from him instead his near and dear ones! Death had a weak spot for him. In the end his constant pleading to spare the life of a five year old girl in exchange for his, allows death to relent!

The book has several interesting ideas and quotes and a few them stuck in my head. I feel the need to pen it down so that it remains in context for a while. This quote on happiness is thus something which is from a different perspective. Especially when the narrator debates with himself why does everyone ask about his happiness!

“Happiness is for children and animals, it doesn’t have any biological function.

Happy people don’t create anything their world is one without art and music and skyscrapers, without discoveries and innovations.

All leaders, all of your heroes, they’ve been obsessed, they don’t devote their lives to curing illnesses or making planes take off.

The happy leave nothing behind.

They live for the sake of living, they’re only on earth as consumers.”

This interesting view point could be partially true as some of the world’s great geniuses had something amiss about them and they changed the due course of history. One could choose to agree or disagree, nonetheless it is a perspective.

A rainy weekend during the holidays

The easter holidays are on and yet it is not a pleasure to go outside as the weather turns, the sky opens up with showers and the sun plays hide and seek. The kids are restless and so am I, as these holidays are the only windows during the year that I find I could visit places without worrying about school, homework and school lunches the next day.

So, there we were trapped inside the house wondering where to visit, somewhere preferably indoors. A quick online research later we agreed to visit the Melbourne Museum at Carlton. Museums always interested me and that love has somewhat been passed on to the next generation. There is always some new gallery that we haven’t discovered yet or a new exhibit which is interesting to view. Decision made, we set off towards the museum on the train. Travelling on the train was a novelty by itself as we had not visited the city for almost a year and a half due to COVID restrictions.

We had bought tickets earlier and so did not have to queue up and entered the museum immediately on arrival. The first gallery which caught our attention was the Forest Gallery, a beautiful zone filled with indigenous plants displayed across different seasons. Also, in this zone was different animals which live in this ecosystem, we spotted some birds, the blue tongue lizard and the stick insects amongst others.

After exiting the gallery we headed towards the Melbourne Gallery, this gallery displays the evolution of the city Melbourne as we know today. Inside this gallery is also the mega sized mini model of the museum itself which was a sheer delight of miniatures and life like small-sized structures. It also included a mock cafeteria filled with artificial, very real looking food. Other than this there was an old fashioned book store and houses and alleys which existed in the days gone by. The Melbourne Gallery is certainly a good place to know more about the city we live in, continuously evolving, there are now names of new train stations posted on the walls with suggestions from kids about the colour scheme. By this time we had already spent one hour in the museum and it was not enough however we had bought tickets to IMAX, the Great Barrier Reef Show and we had to exit the museum.

The IMAX theatre is located right next to the museum. When we arrived, we found out that we had to queue up to the candy store to scan our online tickets and get our seat numbers. This was a bit frustrating as the queue was long and our show was scheduled to begin in 5 minutes. Eventually our turn arrived and we got our seat numbers and moved inside with 3D glasses to view our show. The Great Barrier Reef was a great show and superbly filmed the coral reef, the beautiful sea creatures and the narrative. We were mesmerised by the cinematography and the information provided.

Our next stop was lunch and we headed off towards Makoto Sushi Train in Melbourne Central. As a family we love sushi and the sushi train is always a great fun with my kids. The choice is mind boggling and the quality is very good. We sampled crab salads, spring rolls, handmade sushi rolls and even green tea ice cream. After filling up her tummy and our heart with sushi we exited the restaurant to do some shopping.

Melbourne central is a shopper’s paradise sprawling with different shops and restaurants, the choice is mind boggling and temptations galore. We spent considerable time looking at different shop windows and items inside the shop, after walking around considerably we finally decide to head back home on the train. Before boarding the train however we made a quick stop at this dessert shop, our discovery for today, selling Japanese choux cream-filled pastry. Picking up a choux pastry each we boarded the train to go back home.

Macedon and Daylesford with the family

This was a trip in the works for a long time, planning multiple times only to see it come to nought. Finally with the easter holidays, a promise of good weather and everything in favour we decided to do a meticulous itinerary so that the trip was worthwhile. It is helpful if you could manage to spend a night in Daylesford, so that makes your journey less hectic. However, this booking has to be done well in advance as the places get sold out pretty fast!

We were driving in from Melbourne and the drive as predicted by Google maps was around 1 hour. We are a family of 4 and that meant getting the kids up and ready to leave by 9 am. This is something which takes more effort, as everyone would agree. Also, when going to a place with kids you have to be super prepared with food and journey essentials. I packed some light snacks of fruits, crisps and enough water, some spare clothes, sun hats, sunscreens and a first aid kit. Armed with fully charged mobile devices, spare chargers and brekkie in our tummy we finally managed to leave the house by 9:30 am.

Our first stop was the Honour Avenue in Mount Macedon. This is a stretch of road lined on both sides by tall trees showing off the different hues of autumn. Beautiful to walk as it an easy, flat, stretch of road and absolutely great place for the photo opportunity. The road was completely blocked off to traffic and parking there was prohibited. No worries folks, there was enough parking on the adjacent streets, manned by charity organisations, who would love it if you could donate $5 as a parking fee. There was a small coffee van on the site, selling really good coffee also if you want more information on the region there is an information kiosk too!

After spending roughly half an hour in that place and a million photos later we were ready to head off to our next destination Camel’s Hump. The tourist buses however visit the place called Hanging Rock, made famous by a movie of the same name we decided to avoid it, thinking it to be too crowded. We parked in the Camel’s Hump carpark and then walked 500 meters up to the highest point in the Mount Macedon region. The walk is quite steep but beautiful with sunlight filtering through the greenery around us. My kids are above 10 years and could easily manage the walk. From the top most point we could also see the Hanging Rock in a distance. The view was unobstructed at the top. It takes 20 minutes roughly to reach the top, however once at the top you might want to sit and admire the view, it is so serene. The weather was great, there was a light, cool wind blowing and not at all crowded.

By this time it was almost midday and the kids were feeling hungry, however on our way to Daylesford we came across this private, historic garden Forest Glade Gardens. This is a beautiful garden with many sections inside it, each with its own charm, the entry fee for adults is $10, kids go free. The landscaping inside is beautiful and there are many areas to sit down with a picnic rug and enjoy nature. By this time we all needed some food so we sat down under the cool shade of a tree, and had our little picnic. There are no cafes inside the garden, however just outside the garden, some few minutes walk away you will find a couple of eating places. We spend a lot of time in the garden as there was so much to see, from the woodlands, to the Japanese gardens, many fountains and of course the fern gully. After an hour inside we headed off for lunch to this place called Mr.

Situated in the town, I came to know about this place from another blog, where it was highly recommended. We arrived at Mr, it was really busy and by looking at the number of patrons we knew the food was good. We were seated immediately, however after placing our order we had to wait for half an hour before the food arrived, the kitchen seemed really busy. This wait isn’t too bad if you are on your own or in the company of another adult, with kids however it was a different story! Anyway, the food arrived, it tasted delicious and by this time it was almost 3 pm. The cafe closes at 3 pm and also has a seating time of 1 hour, this I got to know on arrival. If you don’t have that kind of time there is a fish n chips right next door.

Our next stop was Lake Daylesford, the drive from Macedon to Daylesford is about 45 minutes. It is a scenic route through greenery, fall colours and farms on either side. We arrived at Daylesford village and decided to do a little recce of the place. The village centre is pretty as a picture with shops selling candles, homeware, books and even vintage items. There are beer gardens, bakeries and massage centres too!. We bought some apple cake from this quaint looking pastry shop, with old-fashioned wooden display cabinets and headed off to the lake.

Lake Daylesford is stunning, with tall trees surrounding it and a picturesque walk, very flat, all around it. There is a place for the kids to venture out into the water. The toilets however are a different story altogether. We decided to take a walk around the lake, have our apple cakes and click some views. The website had promised us paddle-boating but it was not on, on that day. To do paddle-boating we had to go to Lake Jubilee. However by this time it was already 5:30 pm and we had to head back home, a drive of about 1 hour 20 minutes. We decided to come back to Daylesford the next day!

All in all we managed to do everything in our planned itinerary and the kids loved it too! Daylesford is a beautiful part of Victoria and is known for its mineral springs and spas.