The House(s) of Fran_mart

 I read in The Age about plans for the St Kilda Festival on 15-16 February.  It seemed to be a massive event with talk about 350,000 people attending, many acts and the whole suburb being closed off.  I didn't recognise many of the acts: Troy Cassar-Daly stood out on the first day (devoted to indigenous performers) while Peter Garrett fronting a new band called the Alter Egos was about the only one I recognised on the Sunday.  I decided, with Frances encouragement, to have a rubberneck at Peter Garrett (PG) on the Sunday. It seemed that tram was the way of getting there, with information available early on suggesting a need to walk from about St Kilda Station (say 1.6 km to the main stage).  On the day it appeared that in fact the trams were stopping at St Kilda Junction meaning a further 400m on the hoof.  Despite the promise of "extra trams" when I got out to the stop it seemed that the next 16A wasn't due for 23 minutes so I might as well walk the whole ...

 On 12 February as we went into Fawkner Park at Arthur St a balloon retrieval truck went in beside us. So we spotted the landing zone and wandered over.  The first sight was this balloon being dragged so that it wouldn't block a path. The top is then pulled down to the ground. We then saw another balloon incoming ..... .. and decided to shelter under a tree. It really was that close! Talking of close... Packing up.