Sydney in June with the 'rents

Bondi Beach

Sydney Opera House at dusk.

Parents came for a visit. First stop - Sydney. Caught two of the most iconic spots of the Country. Great start to the tour.

St Kilda in Winter

One of the many cake shops on Acland St.

by the bay

The Palais Theatre

Look how gray it is these days. :( How depressing.

Autumn visit to the wineries

It was so gorgeous when we went for a day trip to the Yarra Valley wineries back in May. Autumn was in full swing and all the colors were swirling about on the vines and throughout the country landscape. I forgot how much I love fall, not having experienced it for the past 3 years. Usually it signals the start of a holiday season, but alas, here its Autumn in June and Christmas is a long way off. 

Again, this was an excursion with Lindsey during her visit, a trip made possible by my new friend and fellow expat-turned Melbournite, Lisa. Hi Lisa. This was a great day - perfect weather, good company, I am inspired to repeat the trip again with my parents when they come. 

Yarra Valley is one of Australia's wine regions, just an hour or so out of Melbourne. Our destination this trip was Healesville, a little town with a few shops ranging from gourmet/expensive to crafty/kitsch. Along the way we stopped at the big wineries Domain Chandon, Dominque Portet, Giant Steps and Innocent Bystander and some others, eating tasty cheese along the way. We finished up at Yering Station and on home before rush hour traffic, each carrying 2 bottles of something yummy with us. Not an expert wine taster I am slowly developing my palate, but I definitely know my preference for Sav blanc and Cab Sav, and starting an appreciation for Pinot Noir. Now thats is winter time, I am all for a cosy glass of red.

Trip to Philip Island (and more Roos)

With Lindsey we ventured out to Philip Island for the first time to see if we could see the Penguins out there. Yes, there are penguins in Australia. They are mini penguins, Mostly found in the southern coastlines, the final frontier before the South Pole. Penguins come out at dusk, out of the water to settle into their nests for the night. It was a cold night, but totally worth it to see the little ones emerge from the waters and scuttle back an forth along the beach, making up their minds about whether to make the potentially dangerous trek across the beach into the sand dunes where they are vulnerable to bird predators. Picture taking was not allowed, so there is no evidence of this adventure. It was False mating season in May so there were a fair number of penguins to see. It was funny to watch them slowly emerge from the water, carefully approach the shore gathering as many of their friends to join them, only to decide, no - not ready yet and scoot back into the water. back and forth, back and forth until making the big leap to risk it. Back and forth with many different groups. Very cute.

Also on Philip Island is an Animal Park with every imaginable strange Australian marsupial available to feed - but don't try to pet the wombat, they can bite. There were so many kangaroos, I felt outnumbered and vulnerable. They would approach us and try to grab the food out of our hands with their scary clawed paws. It was pretty amazing though. Koalas, Cassowaries, Dingos, all kinds of birds, Cockatoos, wallabies, wombat, tasmanian devil, ....

Dedicated to the Roos

It's that cold

We've got the fire going these days. It's that cold outside (40
degrees f tonight). In June!! And our house is like a colander. Seems
to be so many holes sucking all the expensive heat out. Masking tape
to the rescue. Now I just wish we could get some floor rugs.

Date nights in chinatown: Hutong Dumpling Bar and Bubble Tea

Hutong Dumpling Bar                               Xiao Long Bao

Chili Wantons

These days we like to venture into the cbd to cheer ourselves up with tasty Asian treats - that I would never be able to make at home. We've found our favorite spots:

Hutong for Dumplings
a little Asian bakery on the corner of Swanston and Little Bourke St for Egg Custard Tarts (Richard's favorite)
and
InfoBooth for the best BUBBLE TEA

We finally we made it to Hutong Dumpling Bar a few weeks ago and we have since gone back a few times. It is absolutely the best for dumplings, specifically the Xiao Long Bao, which we often crave on a dreary, cold rainy day. These are steamed little dumpling sacs filled with a pork/ginger meatball and its delicious/piping hot broth. Dip it in soy + fresh ginger and it warms you to the core. Its like soup wrapped up in the delicate dumpling pastry. Its a bit tricky to eat, you need a few different utensils, chopsticks, soup spoon, dipping bowl. Take one bite, suck out a bit of the broth before eating the whole thing otherwise you'll end up with a scalded mouth as the broth explodes in your mouth all at once. And you have to eat them while they are fresh and hot. Don't eat too many or you will overdose on pork fat.

The chili wontons here are good as well. Wouldn't recommend the noodle soups though, the noodles are a bit like 50C ramen noodle packs. We've learned that we really only need the dumplings and then we make our way to the bakery for custard tarts (best when fresh out of the oven which we've only managed to get once) and then to InfoBooth for Bubble Tea. We eat our way through Chinatown in one night.




BUBBLE TEA! An amazing concept of tea with tapioca balls. It comes in many different flavors with a dollop of tapioca balls that make a warm milky tea so much more fun to drink. I like it because its Non-dairy and non-coffee. We found the best at this shop, its an Asian bookstore/coffee shop (tea shop rather) popular among the large Asian youth population that abounds in this city. I think its called InfoBooth, open late, just next door to Shanghai Village Dumpling. One step inside and you might as well be in Beijing (or hong kong as far as I can tell - Sorry). First time there, I just asked for "the good one" (milky and warm) which turns out to be oat milk fume tea with pearls. They use this cool machine to laminate a plastic film onto the top that securely seals the hot drink until it's punctured by the wide straw, wide enough to fit the tapioca pearls through. This drink is perfect in this cold miserable weather. Last Saturday, craving our cozy beverage, we were disappointed to find them out of the bubbles, so we ended up wandering around looking for another place. But InfoBooth is the best. And thats enough about Bubble tea.

When he was young

Look at how cute my husband was when he was little. And he still is.

While Lindsey was here

We match in our Black NorthFace Fleece

It really was a great distraction to have Lindsey here for a little while. Remembering what having fun is all about. Crazy Woman! We explored a lot and I have a ton more pics to depict this Island through a tourist's eyes. These are a sampling from Lindsey's camera. Stopped here to enjoy the last rays of sun on the way home from seeing the 12 apostles. It was just starting to get cold for the Autumn season. The lighting was perfect for these photos. Thanks for coming Lindsey! I really needed the break.

Procrastination

Just spent bout an hour playing with new template settings on this blogger thing. I've been wondering how to expand the frame view so that my posts weren't so narrow, and with a random click today, voila!. Now, with all that time invested in this thing, I figure I should probably actually use it. Which I have not been lately, for personal depressive reasons. The misery of this Melbourne life continues. Which is actually not the point of this blog, hence - no postings.

So big reminder for the day and some sort of mantra that I need to adopt - Life really isn't that bad, My career isn't going down the toilet each month I remain unemployed, no one is dying or sick, we are not destitute, there is plenty of time left in life and as Richard always tells me, "everything is alright"... Some people would envy the life I have.

So there you go, but motivation remains lacking and I procrastinate to avoid the seemingly fruitless tasks before me.

My day:
Sleep in
laundry, dishes from last night, tidying all around and making piles of things to take care of later (reading, recipes, mending, etc), ELLEN, checking my email every 15 minutes looking for good news, fiddling with my blogger but not really posting anything. And wow - its already 4 pm. Richard will be home soon. And I can repeat all this tomorrow. Or not.

It's turning into fall

Actually it's winter now. Not my favorite.

Saturday morning coffee at Nineteen Squares

Actually I go for a soy chai these days and after trying out different places, I've found my favorite here.

Situated just down the street from home, this is where I come to get out of the house. And its the first choice for our weekend coffee on a lazy weekend morning. We got the recommendation from the local funky people who work at the barber shop where they give you a free beer with your hair cut.  This is confirmed by a top 3 bean rating in the Melbourne Coffee Review App, though its not found on Urbanspoon at all. Food is supposed to be good here too.

It's a tiny shop, the name signaling the total square meterage of the place, only seating available is outside. It gets pretty busy at times that the only seats available are upside down milk crates. Now that it's getting colder it's harder to enjoy a hot cup at the outside tables. But it's still worth rugging up to get out of the house and to our favorite trendy coffee spot. Always staffed by funky Baristas who make up for their surly attitudes by adding a quick "darling" or "love" to their speech, they attract a large, loyal clientele.

Today is a rainy, cold Saturday and we're here after a quick trip to the Veg Out farmers market. Autumn leaves are everywhere and it feels like Halloween time. I've been looking for big orange pumpkins to carve into jack o lanterns but can find none. So by now it's probably akin to normal thanksgiving-time weather here while everyone back home is complaining about the start of sweltering temperatures and sunburn. The change in season here has sparked the desire to update my winter wardrobe. But I just
can't follow through with the outrageous prices here.

Downtown Melbourne art scenes

This alleyway is always changing. I swear these scenes were not here last time I ventured into this alley. I love the freedom and creativity that local artists have in this city. I am seeing more and more commercial (and even residential) walls given over to urban artists which only adds to the unique character of the city.