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.

St kilda rose garden

Just across the street lies a beautiful rose garden. My favorite place
to unwind and lay out a blanket. On this particular day we received a
care package from Amy and I proceeded to sit here all afternoon
reading my real simple magazine she sent. One of our better days.

Brother baba budan

We made a trip into the city during the week, and what better excuse to try out one of the highly rated Melbourne cafes listed on the "Melbourne Coffee Review" iPhone app. Melbourne is a town renowned for its cafe culture, giving the city a European vibe, which can probably be attributed to its high concentration of European immigrants like the Italians and Greeks, bringing with them a fondness for exquisite espressos whilst situated under the sun on a busy city sidewalk. They also bring with them superior coffee-making techniques that only enhance coffee's amalgamating flavors. 

Having the highest rating of 3 whole beans, we decided to try out Brother Baba Budan located on Little Bourke Street in the CBD. As always, I ordered a soy mocha and Richard got a soy flat white as they are called here. No drip coffee in Australia, only espressos with varying amounts of milk. Strong stuff. The coffee was amazing, though I am not so much a coffee connoisseur to note the subtle flavorings. But I can tell the difference between good coffee and bad. This was definitely good, nutty according to Richard. And as the pictures show, the edgy decor provides a quirky atmosphere for the businessmen and students who nip in for a quick sip which is all that is allowed for lack of space to stretching out and camping as can usually be the case in American Starbucks establishments. I liked it, and out exploration into the city that day which allowes us to incorporate ourselves into "normal" society for a brief moment. I made Richard sit on the sidewalk afterwards just to watch all the people coming and going to work, to the tram, a shopping excursion, tourists, all sorts of strange people are out there. 

Coffee

Street art down a dark alley

Came across these while out in Chinatown for Chinese New Year. In Croft Alley to be specific. Pretty cool eh? I love the integration of really good graffiti artists into everyday urban life. And I must say that alleyways fascinate me, having grown up in the country these were never encountered, and they are actually pretty rare in the likes of DC or New York despite contrary depictions in movies. I am surprised to see so many in Melbourne cause it seems like such a waste of space in this town where real-estate is sky high.

Chinese new year photos

Happy Chinese New Year - Bringing in the year of the Tiger

It was also Chinese new year over the weekend. We needed to get out of the house on Saturday so we decided to spend our going-out fund the night before Valentines on something I've been craving for a long time. I've actually been dying to try Hu Tong Dumpling bar that everyone has been raving about, but they were only offering a $100 pp special New Years Banquet which was a little too much for us. So we settled on a more budget option just for an experience, at a recommended place on Urbanspoon. Shanghai Village Dumpling in the middle of Chinatown.

The place is nothing special, a quick chinese food causal hangout offering gobs of the same ole dumplings any way you like - steamed, fried, soupy - at cheap prices. We were definitely not complaining, I was commenting on how the simple concept is not common in the States, and it should be. Its would be so easy and so cheap. (I'm sure there are places like this in the States and I have just been too sheltered until now. Tell me where they are.) Lots of people seem to frequent the place before a night out, which is a great idea. They also have main courses of popular chinese food, but I have never had success deciphering the menu - being accustomed to American version of Chinese. Never heard of a General Tsao here. I was hoping for Spicy chicken in a brown sauce and instead got fried, crunchy dry chicken and rice - (no sauce). Still good though. And we ended up with way too much dumpling in our faces so we took the rest home. Photos are post dive-in with a fucked camera phone (I couldn't figure out how to un-zoom the touch screen til later on in the night - Its a 3 finger tap guys).

Caught the dragon blessing all the restaurants along the street and got some video that I can upload later. Firecrackers, and parade. Far from a New Orleans Mardi Gras (Which I am sorely missing by the way), but we were entertained for the night.  

St Kilda Fest - V-day

Finally ventured out on Sunday to find the St. Kilda Summer Festival taking place right on our doorstep. It had been going on all week, and we didn't notice, so we missed most of the events. But yesterday was the biggest festival day, all the streets were closed off, people started flooding in on the trams, and music was booming from all the stages along the route. A lot of up-and coming musicians were on display along with sporting events, stalls, food, promotions. The restaurants and bars altered their venues to accommodate the crowds and participate in the event. Turned out to be a big day out for us, sun-burning by the beach watching the Beach volleyball teams compete. Girls in their skimpy suits, showing off their six-packs (really!) and toned arms that allow them to get in a hard hit. I was inspired to get back into the gym, and maybe even get involved in a team sport (but that only lasted the few hours that we were sitting there and hasn't translated to me getting to the gym today). Richard wants to get into KiteSurfing, so we strolled over to the bay to watch their antics. Looks like fun, but I don't know how they all manage not to crash into each other. 

No snow here, while every one back home is hibernating. Despite the atmosphere and potential free fun day - this turned out to be one of the worst days because we just couldn't get into it, thinking about other depressing things, feeling alone amongst the amassed crowd, Just a huge cloud over us the whole day that wouldn't go away despite our attempts. Go away Cloud!

Melbourne Art Scenes

Some fabulous graffiti art that I've passed by while exploring the City. On a visit to St. Ali for brunch we found a whole project underway, decorating the entire alleyway (residential and commercial warehouse buildings) with mad skills - the purple tree house and funny tribal face are only part of the whole.

Mahjong for Dim Sum

Inspired by Urbanspoon reviews of Tasty Dim Sum joints in the City, I was craving little steaming dumplings of goodness. However, I wasn't prepared to travel all the way into the CBD from St. Kilda during rush hour to wait in line at the apparently popular HuTong Dumpling place that everyone is raving about. So that place remains on my wishlist. But to satisfy my craving in the short term we attempted the well-reviewed Mahjong Dim Sum Restaurant close by on Fitzroy Street. Only since coming to Australia did I come to understand the Dim Sum concept, though I am sure this simple idea of serving steamed/fried dumplings and wanton pockets filled with delightfully light Asian flavors is popular in the States as well and am surprised I haven't found good places there yet. Its on my To-Do List. I was pleased to find the Dim Sum subcategory in the Urbanspoon search options to easily filter through the masses of eateries in this city.

Once there, we dived into one of the preselected banquets which include steamed dumplings, peking duck, fillet steak, etc (The menu appears below) along with a few extra tastes. Let me just say that I love dumplings!, the way the secret steaming contents explode in your mouth with their subtle brothy flavors, though at this restaurant I found that I could not differentiate the fillings from one kind of dumpling to another and they soon became monotonous. I have a feeling that the dumplings and wantons are all filled with the same unexciting pork mixture. The fillet steak that followed was awesome and I am a big fan of the peking duck, lots of flavor and I wanted more. My biggest complaint however for Mahjong, was the slow service which, by the end of the meal, slowed down to non-existent. I think they forgot about us and we had to fetch our own bill to get the hell out of there. Rated fairly high, I was anticipating yummy goodness at this Dim Sum Restaurant, unfortunately I think my expectations were a little too high. Though I definitely won't give up on Dim Sum and look forward to my HuTong experience which I predict will come very soon.

Luna park

Iconic St kilda attraction just a stones thow away from my front door and the beach. No, haven't tried it out yet. Waiting for the weather to get a little bit warmer and for all the kids to go back to school.