Recently in Melbourne Category

Can you get a more sport focussed town than Melbourne? This week the newspapers  are alternating between stories from Beijing (just a few) and a tawdry drunk driving incident (page after page in both newspapers) involving 2 AFL players from the most popular and most disliked team in Melbourne, lies, being caught out in lying in a very public manner (read maximum embarrassment to their club)

This latest incident will mean that two Collingwood (Magpies) stars will not be available to play for the rest of the season. And many football followers will ponder the difference in penalty imposed for drunk driving on the one hand, and lying to the club and team mates on the other.

My beloved Saints have not been immune to messy incidents either, but they have the misfortune of coming up against the Pies this weekend. Who knows what the effect of losing two key players will be, sometimes, to confound rational and logical thought, a team who has gone through a disaster will win their next game despite all the odds.

And Robert Harvey, the Saints' dual Brownlow Medallist has now announced he will be retiring at the end of the season. At least the positive reminiscences on a sterling career will turn people's attention away from the irresponsible behaviour of others towards unselfish and team spirited behaviour, from a player who has always been an ornament to the game.

"Once you get to 25 you realise there isn't long left - especially when you started at 16. Your body gets such a hammering each week. You wonder how long it can hold up." - Robert Harvey 1997

I recall summers when I was a child: hot, sleepless nights, bedroom windows wide open, trying to suck in the smallest amount of breeze, from an anticipated cool change on the coast line some 250km south, but the only thing that I could hear moving was me: my chest, as I breathed in the warm air, and as I unsuccessfully rolled around trying to find a more comfortable, cooler position on the bed. It was necessary to have a sheet on, to keep the occasional mosquito from biting, so it was a navigational task: hold the sheet up, roll around, settle down... In those days, there was no airconditioning, fans were reserved for waking hours, and what is the point of circulating hot air anyway?

When morning finally came, I would wake to the hot stillness of the air, heavy with sleep but the bright sunshine beginning to reheat the air again . Appetites disappear in this climate, especially if the preparation of meals only makes the house hotter. Even now, on the hottest of days, my favourite meal is freshly prepared tomato sandwiches on white bread with a strong cup of white tea.

In those days, we usually drank copious amounts of tea, the effect on the body of drinking several cups of tea meant that a sweat would break out, and provide a natural cooling effect to the body.

If we were lucky, on a hot day such as this, there would be a test match broadcast on television, and at 11 am it was permissable to find a comfortable spot in the lounge room, to lie in comfort and watch the flickering black and white display of the battle for the Ashes: marvelling at the energy output of the fast bowlers and grace and power of the batsmen.

Even today, with air conditioning home, car and workplace, I like nothing better on a hot day to find a comfortable chair, a cool drink and to watch some cricket on the tv.

One of the pleasures of living in Melbourne is the opportunity for a range of culinary experiences drawing from a number of different food cultures. Add to this an opportunity to dine with friends visiting from the Middle East, and you have the ingredients for a lovely evening. Even more special when the dinner is the result of a wager that is being honoured, albeit not quite the one that I was expecting. And I acknowledge that making assumptions may not always be the wisest thing to do, but reading between the lines, and reaching a considered conclusion on the basis of known facts will often reap rewards.

Approaching the eve of the Melbourne Cup weekend is not an easy one to find a restaurant with bay views in St Kilda, as most of the signature restaurants were already booked out by mid week, however, a recommendation from a colleague saw us heading to Mirka at Tolarno in Fitzroy Street for an early dinner, with G rostered for a 4am start the next morning, and our companions still to recover from jet lag after arriving in the morning. This restaurant has a menu which is strongly influenced by French and Italian cuisines with some classic dishes like Bouillabaise,

The restaurant has kept the murals painted by the artist, Mirka Mora, and windows overlooking Fitzroy Street, where you can watch the world go by

As I had perused the menu on the internet before we went, I had pretty made up my mind by the time we got there to have snails, served as an entree, without shells but with garlic and parsley butter and a flaky pastry topping, which proved to be absolutely delicious. Other choices for entrees included oysters, black pudding with scallops, and mussels marinière.

Other delicacies included Pork with crunchy crackling, the afore mentioned Bouillabaisse, Sword fish and a range of other yummy stuff too numerous to mention.

And, yes, I found room for dessert, too...

And I'm looking forward to the next one...

We had been wondering why A, a friend of ours, had been insisting on going to a particular restaurant in Port Melbourne for some time, so when the opportunity came up to try out the Graham on Monday evening, we were looking forward to it.

Now, I mistakenly told a couple of colleagues that we were going out for a counter meal that evening, and it was only when we were on the Westgate on the way over, that our friend B, who was coming with us, remarked that it may have been a pub once, but that she seemed to think it was somewhat better than that...

We arrived at the restaurant just in time for our 7.30 pm rendezvous, which is situated a block or two away from the main shopping and dining thoroughfare in Port Melbourne. Crisp linen, shining cutlery, glasses of iced water at the table, and in a few moments our friends arrived.

Next, the menu, and we were intrigued to see stuffed pig's ears on the menu, the first time we have seen it on the menu since our visit to France in 2003, where G tried this delicacy out in a very good and favoured dining out destination for Aussie Lass's father in law in Paris, called Georgette. G had to restrain himself this time, as we opted for mains and a dessert, rather than having an entree to start, and he will have to wait until another time to experience this delicacy. Now according to the restauranteur, the pig's ear is merely a vehicle for carrying the filling. The pig's ear itself is marinated for six hours, to ensure a tender result for this dish.

Instead he opted to try the venison, served rare, while A had pork belly, and the female contingent all had whiting, done in a very thin filo pastry shell which was cut into slivers...

When asked, Peter, the restauranteur, suggested a white wine from Alsace which was a superb companion to our main courses, and when the first bottle proved to be corked- he picked this up, not us, he swiftly replaced glasses, and provided another bottle to enjoy with our meals.

The dessert menu was sufficiently unusual to cause us to take several moments to consider the choices, and I was very tempted to try the honeycomb icecream and blood orange sorbet. However, the rhubarb and apple mille feuille proved too tempting, and was delicious.

Next morning, when chatting with my colleagues about the night before, I had to admit that the Graham could not be considered a pub meal in any way, shape or form, and will be a venue worth returning to, for the quality of food, the service and the ambience of the place.

I've written here before about the sudden turn to cold weather, after a magnificent Indian Summer, which meant that when June arrived we had to turn to our winter woollies in a rush. But the up side to that is that it seems that the weather has only just got cold, and the winter solstice is here, which means that the days will now start getting longer.

This is a small comfort to those of us who are now leaving home in the dark to go to work, and getting home in the dark, and I realy shouldn't complain because this period lasts such a short time in this country.

Another kind of darkness in the streets of Melbourne this week, as a gunman took the life of a good samaritan who came to the aid of a woman who was being attacked. Events like these touch our lives in unexpected ways: Pink Ukelele experienced a lock down at her work place, and a colleague from my French class works in a building adjacent to the site of the shooting, and arrived on the scene at the start of the day, not long after the shooting had occurred to be promptly ushered into the work building which was then placed in lock down for most of the rest of the day. But for her, it was much more real than it was for most of us, with ambulance officers battling to try to save the dying man before her eyes.

The sombre week has been lightened in other ways, by the humour of colleagues in various forms, and joy in the simple things, once again.

Today is a public holiday in Melbourne, for the Queen's Birthday, one of the few symbols of the fact that Australia is still a consitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth the 2nd the nominal head of state, represented here on a day to day basis by the Governor General.

Despite the fact that many Australians are now confirmed republicans, we're still happy enough to accept a public holiday to celebrate the Queen's birthday, and it's the last long weekend until November, so we will make the most of it. And what better way to celebrate than by going shopping in the shopping capital of Australia.

Meeting a friend on the steps of Flinders Street Station, and commencing a stroll in the Degraves St/ Flinders Lane Precinct, a stroll up to the Paris end of Collins Street, and then back to some of the iconic arcades of Melbourne- the Block and Royal Arcades which stand as a testament to the grand vision of Victorian architecture in the 19th century.

Lunch at a cafe in a city laneway, and some serious shoe shopping later, it was time to head home to the warmth of home.

After a blissful Indian Summer, it has finally started to get cold in Melbourne. There is snow in the mountains, and the promise of a good start to the ski season, and playing of winter sports in unaccustomed wet weather.

It is therefore time to turn our thoughts to comfort food: chunky soups and casseroles, mashed potatoes, roast lamb and hot vegetables..., adorning ourselves in woollen jumpers, hats and coats and leather boots as we venture out into the cold mornings.

Winter also means footy tipping, and thinking of new, credible reasons for lack of performance of my beloved Saints. Political infighting and scandalous behaviour aside, there is a mounting list of injuries, which makes the decision to tip against them a pragmatic, yet painfull experience. If my tip is wrong, I will still be happy, because they have won.

This weekend, our team at work venture off in an end of financial year celebration, to dinner and to watch West Coast Eagles play Essendon in an AFL match at the Docklands. It's not often that I go to a match in which my team is not participating, so it provides the opportunity for a much more objective view of the game.

Watching football in the 21st century, at the Docklands, at least, is a much more comfortable experience than mid winter games in previous eras, as the stadium has a roof, comfortable seats, and an excellent view, even from the cheapest seats.

Note: the temperature during the day has been hovering around 14 to 15 degrees C with overnight temperatures of 8 degrees. It's hardly cold by the standards of other parts of the world, but despite this we still feel we have to grumble about chilly mornings, washing not drying and having to turn our heaters on.

Yesterday was an unusually windy day for this time of the year, with gale force winds following the warmest May night on record, then later in the day some more rain. Not enormous amounts in the catchment areas, but lots in the West of the State, which will augur well for the coming year's crops.

This morning, the weather has turned cold, for Melbourne, and I know that 12 deg C is not usually classed as cold, but when we've been having days of 19 deg plus for weeks and weeks, it feels very cold, especially in the wind.

If we had had substantial rains in the water catchments, we would be all breathing collective sighs of relief, but unfortunately, the rain we've had over recent weeks has made virtually no difference to water storages so far. All we can hope is that the rain we've had so far will have soaked in, and will allow the rain that falls over coming months to run off into the catchments.

We still get excited when it rains at work, and stand up and look out the windows, hoping against hope that this rain will be the one that starts building up our water supplies and providing hope for the farming communities who have been struggling for so long.

Tomorrow, more rain is predicted, so once again, we wait...

I am just beginning to recover from the weekend where I had two nights out on the town, the first a work related function, where we ended up in a bar at 4.30 pm after proceedings had finished, and finished around 11 pm (for me at least) after another bar and a restaurant down Fitzroy Street in St Kilda. Those of you who are familiar with Melbourne will know that Fitzroy Street does have a seedy side to it, but there is a cosmopolitan hum on Friday evenings with busy restaurants and bars, buzzing with conversations and of course a glass of something alcoholic or two or three...After three one tends to lose count.

Next evening, an invitation to a birthday party, with a seafood buffet, good company at one of the Restaurants in the Casino complex and this time it was around 2 am before we got home. There is an entirely different atmosphere to the taxi queue at 1.45 in the morning than there is earlier in the evening.

The taxi driver was quite relieved to have passengers who could string more than two words together at that hour of the morning, and who were able to stay awake and pay for the trip...

Coco the cat was a little cross when we got home, as she is not accustomed to evening neglect, and was hoping for a game of cat and mouse when we eventually did return. But, alas for her, it was not to be.

Yesterday morning, I awoke to the sound of rain again. Still not drought breaking, but very welcome, all the same. And, instead of my usual drive to work, we had a day long meeting off site, in a trendy bayside location, so I had made plans to take public transport in, with a cab home later in the evening.

Equipped with an umbrella, and dressed in a warm coat, scarf and leather boots, I set off to catch the train, and luxuriated in the unaccustomed sights and sounds of bluestone gutters backing up with water, water rushing down the stormwater drains, and street lights reflecting off the footpaths and puddles. It's so long since we've had weather like this. And when we've been looking for rain for so long, it's impossible not to be cheerful about walking through puddles and having my hair get frizzy in the rain..

The rains have fallen across vast areas of South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria with substantial falls in Western New South Wales, and the Great Dividing Range. It's too soon to say whether the rain will benefit runoff in the Murray Darling catchment, as once again, follow up will be needed in the next couple of weeks.

I must have got lost in reverie, because even though I thought I had plenty of time to catch the train, I missed it by just a few seconds. Even missing the train was not enough to dampen my spirits on such a day.