Madness and mourning

Sometimes I think I may be nuts... (I want NO comments agreeing with that statement please...) I am working 9-5 today, and then hitting the city to work 6-12 recounting votes (Thanks Bracksy). A fourteen hour working day. Yeah, good one Nai. Oh well, all that's on for tomorrow is blood donationin the afternoon, so at least I can sleep in. And then I have two interviews on Friday, so I won't be working then either. Which means today is my only working day this week. Suddenly signing on for fourteen hours work seems financially responsible, not completely insane.

So I've taken to hanging out at the local cemetery. It's not so morbid as it sounds, really. I actually find cemeteries very peaceful, and I love looking at gravestones and stuff. Ok, maybe I'm a little morbid...

I've become fascinated with a huge temple-tomb in the centre of Boroondara/ Kew Cemetery. It is the most amazing tomb I have ever seen- huge columns bearing a massive stained glass arched roof, over a beautiful marble sculpture of the mourned woman, an angel and 'human sorrow'. Poetry and inscriptions in English, Greek and Latin cover the Greek style tomb, two facing mourner's seats, a sundial and a gate. Yet nowhere is the deceased named: all that is listed are her dates of birth, marriage and burial; eerily all falling on January 26, 1867, 1887 and 1897 respectively. I had thought to investigate this site and write a blog about it, but it turns out that, unsurprisingly, someone has already done so. You really should check out this blog, if only for he great pictures of this beautiful structure.

Turns out that Melbourne doctor John Springthorpe commissioned the temple-like structure to mark the passing of his beloved wife, Annie, during childbirth. He spent a huge sum of money casting her image in marble and creatign the surrounding gardens, and the next twenty years of his life actively grieving her passing. You can read more about his obsessive and, frankly, creepy period of mourning in this article from The Age, or get the short of it from this wikipedia entry on the 'Melbourne Taj Mahal'

POSTSCRIPT: I actually worked 17 hours- til 3am! Ugh.