Dry, dusty, style city

We've just got back from a couple of days in Melbourne, Australia's most stylish city, but also its driest and most smoky. Eighty klms out of Melbourne on the Hume highway we saw stark evidence of the 7 Feb. fires - with about a 15klms section burnt to a cinder on each side of the highway. The city was in a sober mood with the big memorial service on Sunday at the Rod Laver Arena. We guiltily took advantage of the free public transport provided to visit the Arts Centre and St Kilda Beach markets on Sunday. Everyone on the trams was talking about the fires, the weather, the heat, the drought.


St Kilda was lively, the streets crowded with a big kids' triathlon event and the Esplanade Markets. All the grass in the esplanade parks was like straw and even the agapanthus beds were dying! The kids at Luna Park looked happy enough though.

We caught up with Rob's friend David T. in Melbourne, spending a lot of time in restaurants eating wonderful food and catching up with David's very eventful life. We met up with him and some friends on our first night at the wonderful Neil Perry's Rockpool Bar and Grill on Southbank. We gave the carefully aged beef dishes a miss (a pity in a way because this is what the restaurant is famous for!) but enjoyed its exceptional seafood. I loved the visual impact of the smoke filled evening sky as we walked back to our apartment in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Sunday night we enjoyed wonderful Vietnamese food with David and his three gorgeous girls (and S-I-L Steven) at Richmond. Monday we did a long yum cha lunch at the Shark Fin Inn on Bourke St and Tuesday (yesterday) an even longer lunch at the stupendous Flower Drum in Market Lane. It didn't leave us very much time for other explorations of Melbourne!

We managed to squeeze in an afternoon in Fitzroy, wandering down the hip and happening Brunswick and Gertrude Streets. I found an old favourite: The Artist's Garden, still going strong and still with some wonderful ways of combining art in courtyard gardens.

It was 35oC in Melbourne this afternoon so we had to make a long stop in the beautiful old Provincial Hotel on Brunswick street for a long cool beer.

I was intrigued by the plaques on quite a few of the public buildings in Fitzroy describing their connection with the local Indigenous population. I discovered that they were part of the Aboriginal History of Fitzroy Plaques and Places Project, launched early this year. Another little link in the reconciliation process.

We drove back to Canberra today. The smoke haze followed us to Gundagai. The $800million Hume Highway upgrade is very impressive, especially now the Albury Wodonga bypass is complete. However the 150klm of remaining roadworks under construction makes for a slow trip in parts.

Black Friday

Jody got her first day's relief teaching last Friday. We were over at J&J's by 7.15am to ensure everything was as relaxed as possible for Miss E as her Mummy got ready to "go and teach those kids". As Rob and Ella were saying their good mornings Rob sat down on their glass coffee table, which gave way under him, in a spectacular fashion. Luckily no one was hurt, but it frightened the s___t out of all of us, especially Ella, who had never seen or heard anything like it before. She spent the rest of the day, being quite wary of what Rob would do next!

Jody approved some Play School watching time (only a little bit!) for Ella. Rob and I enjoyed catching up with Play School again after a 25 year break. Benita and Noni have long gone but I do like the current batch of mixed race, beautiful (young) live wires. I was a bit surprised to see them do the Cinderella story, but at least the women in it were depicted as being very strong.

We know we are so lucky to have had such a gentle week with so many of our fellow Australians suffering so much. The situation in Victoria is so much worse than I realised in last week's entry. Everyone here is overcome by it. It took days to get a line through to the Red Cross to donate money, the Blood Bank has been inundated with people making appointments to give blood and our workplace is loaded with bags of clothes, toys and non perishables waiting to be picked up by Allied Pickford, for fire victims in Victoria.

Swelter

It is pathetic complaining about suffering through four days in a row of above 37oC heat (just under 40oC yesterday and today). South Australia and Victoria have suffered much worse: terrible fires raging NW of Melbourne, resulting in up to 40 deaths; loss of animals, wildlife, homes and vegetation.

We're just inconvenienced: kids starting the school year in hot airless, classrooms, shopping malls, picture theatres and galleries crowded with people escaping the heat. Dendy Cinema was overflowing last night with queues of people and Oscar nominated films. We joined the longest queue to be transported to the casual brutality and beauty of Mumbai by the extraordinary Slumdog Millionaire. Outside, the rest of Canberra was wilting at the huge Food and Wine Festival opener to the annual Canberra Multicultural Festival.

Our favourite farmers at the Southside Farmers Market this morning were talking worriedly about fruit being cooked on the trees/vines in this long hot spell. Later we made our way to the Kingston Bus Depot Markets, hoping its multicultural focus would lift our spirits. These two young Indian dancers were spellbindingly beautiful. I like the way they are contrasted in the first picture to the mature aged Aussie square dancer!

It was back to school week for everyone and back to part time work for me too! Ollie started preschool successfully and Jody is gearing up to start casual teaching one day a week. Rob is still practising being retired! We had a play date with Ella on Friday morning to practise for when her Mummy is working. She interacts, plays, paints, draws, explores with great concentration and joyfulness. We had a ball. the only thing we will do differently next Friday is not get out so many play dough colours.

The Incomparable Leonard Cohen

He's now in his 70s and his concert last Wednesday night in Sydney was just superlative! A Jewish boy from Montreal, fringe dweller of Andy Warhol's New York Factory crowd in the 60s, inspiration for Lou Reed and Bob Dylan, a Buddhist monk, poet, writer, and author and powerful performer of the incomparable Tower of Song, Hallelujah, Chelsea Hotel, Everybody Knows and the familiar Suzanne. He performed for well over 3 hours.....elegant, gracious, sardonic, mesmerising, foggy voiced and generous, sharing the stage with his 9, just as superlative accompanying musicians. Rob and I floated out of the Sydney Entertainment Centre, enraptured by the show.


We spent some time with Miss E. yesterday morning, marvelling at her increasing capacity for thoughtful, considered play, artistic expression and interaction. The current spell of high temperatures is a great excuse for indoor pursuits.

Miss E always has to do an inventory of my handbag each visit, which usually involves applying any lipstick she finds. The photographs I take on these visits always show the signs of these obligatory make up sessions.

It is really obvious that she gets very involved with story and picture books. One of her fascinations is with hats and helmets. This is her sign for the helmet or hat reference.

But she is entranced with all aspects of the story.

For (London) Cath

This is another priceless image from Joshy's first decade book. It was taken in October 1980 on the verandah of "Wichard Wobert's" house at Broulee Beach. This holiday marks the first time that Joshy (aged 20 months) and Davey (aged 3) really became a pair of "lads" together having "sweating good fun". The most exciting day for them was when the Flick man visited the house and gave them some pest control stickers.

We were able to catch up with Sydney Clare and Miss Zoe this week over a long brunch at Digi-Kaf, St John's Road Glebe (Leo Sayer's fave local apparently, although he wasn't there the day we were). Miss Z is really thriving with lots of gorgeous curves and dimples where it really counts. She loved having her Dad look after her in January while her Mum started back at work.

While Canberra was experiencing wild storms and heavy rainfall Sydney just got hotter and hotter this week. We spent more time enjoying beautiful Coogee Beach this time - taking dips in the water (not too freezing at around 20oC) and just appreciating that gorgeous coastal walks. Jennifer Hawkins often takes the Sth Coogee walk too we have noted, although I suspect she must do a lot more activity than that to maintain her perfectly sculpted body.

We also spent some time exploring Surrey Hills on Thursday. We got so hot in the process we had to have a long stop at the Clock Hotel (Davey's old haunt) on Crown St for Redback beers and a bit of a recover in the aircon. Luckily I recovered enough to be able to try a vanilla and strawberry brulee tart later at the famous Bourke St Bakery, which I decided was even better than anything I had tried in France.

Despite the heat (It was over 40oC when J & J & Miss E arrived at Coogee today around 1.30pm) Ella was all smiles and in a great mood for a short Sydney break with her Mummy and Daddy. I have heard that the predicted cool change arrived late this afternoon so Sydney will be bearable again tomorrow for them.

J & J plan to steer clear of Australia Day celebrations in Sydney. Like us they don't feel Australian enough to drape a flag around themselves and drink beer all day, getting progressively more offensive.

30 years ago

I created a "First decade book" as a gift to Josh, for his 30th birthday. This was taken on the day we brought him home from hospital on 30 January 1979.


Josh was 7 months old when this was taken at the park in Braidwood with his Dad, cousins Claire & Davey and their Mum & Dad.



He was about 10 months old when these two shots were taken in our garden.

Maxie made the cake for his first birthday party (but that was 29 years ago).

It was a double celebration yesterday for the January birthday boys (Rob and Joshy) and a welcome back for C & J & O & A, from their action packed holiday in Italy. It was a special enough occasion to celebrate with Moet on a perfect summer afternoon, 25o and very mellow outdoors, which the little kids all loved. Ollie seems very grown up - way too mature all of a sudden for the little people toys here (After all he's been to ITALY already; he can even say his "L" sounds now as well as some Italian words!).

Miss E didn't find the big boys games (with the "dog ants") overwhelming at all. She thinks her dad is great even though he's no longer in his twenties.

Marrickville, Monet and Matt Moran

Using our 2009 Sydney Foodie Guide we headed out to Marrickville on a sunny, hot, summer day last week. We found the Vietnamese restaurant area and the famous Hellenic bakery and ate a very ordinary rare beef noodle soup for lunch. Rob recovered from his disappointment by finding this funny cubby hole Pork Roll shop - with delicious French style rolls.

I recovered when we discovered Serendipity Ice Creams on Enmore Road and was able to hoe into a fig, honey and pistachio ice cream. http://www.serendipityicecream.com.au

We had wonderful week in Sydney: beach walks, dangling legs in the Wylie pool (water was too cold for a swim at 18.9oC), movies at the Ritz , Monet and the Impressionists exhibition, dinner with our Canberra neighbours at Barzura's and then our celebration dinner at Matt Moran's Aria Restaurant at Circular Quay last Thursday night.

Somehow we managed to book the best table in the house......

The food, wine and company were exceptional but the view was absolutely amazing.

A slightly cheesy touch was the acknowledgement of our wedding anniversary on the petit fours platter - but it worked for us!

While we love our Sydney stays it is always a thrill to get back to Canberra and catch up with Miss E and the rest of the family, including their emails and photos from Italy and China.

Miss E gave us a lengthy trampoline jumping show this afternoon. Joy personified!

Even when trampolining Miss E has to wear her favourite shoes (present from Sydney Clare), still a tiny bit too big but currently irremovable from Miss E. Shoes are a bit of thing at the moment. Miss E demanded Rob change his yesterday as they didn't meet her expectations in some way. Of course he did it!

We are all looking forward to the return of the Primroses from their Itawee sojourn tomorrow.