2025 Anzac weekend! Day 2 (Saturday)

May 22, 2025

Today was jam-packed! Originally I had a plan to see the Harry Potter exhibition, Titanic exhibition, then go to the 500th episode of podcast "Do Go On". Unfortunately, the Titanic experience got cancelled at the last minute.

I drove into the city and picked a carpark near both the exhibition and the theatre. Unfortunately, after walking from the carpark to the address of the exhibition I realised I'd gone to the location of the Titanic exhibition - the Harry Potter exhibition was 20 minutes away in Brunswick! No matter, I weighed up my options and decided an Uber was the best.

I arrived at the exhibition, joined the queue and went in a bit late, but without a problem. I had an audio tour as part of the exhibition, and entry included a bracket with a tag that interacts with different points throughout the exhibit.

I enjoyed the installation, particularly the interactive elements. The audio tour was a bit of a disappointment. The content was a bit too long and it was much quicker and easier to read the panels. The items on display were great, though, many from the movie as well as fun replicas.

After the most expensive drink in history ($17 for two sips of gross, cold "butterbeer") I took an uber back to the city. Things quickly started looking up in the cuisine department as I found an amazing Nepalese cafe. I accidentally ordered a dish that was spicy, but even through the burn I regretted not being able to fit more in.

My phone was getting incredibly low on battery and I had forgotten to bring my portable charger. I was due to meet my friend Maggie for dinner and the podcast, so I arranged to meet her under the clocks and went back to my car. I passed a massive police presence on the way, and got there with almost no battery. I plugged in and rested for a while.

I met with Maggie at the most appropriate location possible - under the clocks, of course! We found a nice spot for a drink and to charge my phone (Maggie was my saviour and brought a charger). We decided to visit the Art Gallery of Victoria and view an exhibition about cats and dogs. It was a bit dull, with a few very neat exceptions.

We then encountered a QR code that invited us to upload a photo of your pet to feature in the gallery. We did that, and kept wandering through. Imagine our joy at the end when we saw the room dedicated to protecting people's uploads. It was so much fun running from wall to wall trying to get photos of and with Taj and Pix. It totally redeemed the experience.

We took our time finding the venue for the podcast recording and decided to eat at a Chinese restaurant a couple doors away. The food was excellent, as you'd expect from Melbourne. I know Melbourne does great food, but I still somehow get surprised by just how good it is.

We took place in line fairly early, as the seats were not allocated. We bought some souvenirs, I spied Matt from the show buying some beers, and before long had claimed a couple of excellent seats near the front.

The show started with a fun video of the team and regular guests. It set the mood well and it was exciting to find out that each hosts was doing their own story, and each story had two guests. We were very spoilt indeed. The stories were fun, though the middle one was very difficult to sit through. If I were listening at home I would have skipped it for sure. But it was a fantastic night.