Easter in Elwood
Easter Daisies
Hot Cross Bun from one of the top 5 Hot Cross Bun bakeries in Melbourne
Ripponlea Easter picnic
Autumn sky
Milky Joe’s
Milky Joe’s is new. It’s a hole in the wall coffee place in Elsternwick on the way to the train station. They celebrated their lunar anniversary yesterday, as in one month. I pointed out that it was a full moon anniversary. The barista and the owner both stopped and thought about that for a moment. And then they just nodded. The coffee was good.
the orchestration of available light
I didn’t come up with that phrase, the orchestration of available light, but I wish I had. I read it today and for whatever reason, it resonated with me. I keep picking it up and turning it over and it is growing in its potential in my mind. It sounds magnificent…as though there is wonder to be had from whatever you have at your disposal. And perhaps that is it. Or perhaps it is the suggestion of timing that I like. It’s not about waiting for the right moment, but about appreciating the moment as it is presented to you and orchestrating wonderment in spite of…or perhaps because of what is being offered.
This must be the place
Today I played tourist. It’s a funny thing being a tourist. It’s funny being a tourist in a city you are calling home. And it’s funny being a tourist on your own. Or perhaps it is funny having experiences on your own that would perhaps take on a different hue if they were shared. If I had been with someone else at on the 88th floor of the Eureka Building, I might have said, isn’t this high? or Isn’t Melbourne massive, look at it sprawling all the way out in all directions or there are the Dandenongs, I must go there one day. And then later, some years from now, we could say, remember that day we went up the Eureka Tower. But none of that dialogue did or will happen.
The solo experience feels a lot more cinematic. Especially if you have an overactive imagination and heightened sense of observation. The Eureka tower is ranked up alongside the world’s impressive buildings. I have been in another of the listed impressive buildings, the Eiffel Tower, and I have to say, The Eureka is no Eiffel. But then it was never going to be. The Eureka Tower is 297.3 metres tall. It was the tallest residential building in the world when it was completed in 2006 and it is now the sixth tallest. The lifts travel at 9m per second, which means that it takes 38 seconds to get to the top, with some ear-popping on the way. It is named for the Eureka Stockade, a rebellion during the Victorian goldrush of 1854. The design of the building reflects this historical event with the gold representing the goldrush, the red stripe is for the blood spilled during the revolt, the blue glass cladding is for the blue background of the stockade’s flag.
Listen:
This must be the place
There’s no I in team…
What would Jesus say? I think maybe he’d like this.
Sal Cooper’s observations on life, although out of the ordinary, do reveal an appreciation of life and fun and the little things that make us stop. And think. If you are someone who stops and thinks. Which clearly Sal is.
Her exhibition, Breakfast for Heathens is, quite appropriately, showing in all its glory at the Abbotsford Convent. The Foosball table is only just the start…there are also works on paper; variations on a little plaster man in a spam can and an end-of-room mosaic-like piece featuring large and small, gold and plain framed illustrations and thoughts.
Listen to: Interview
What do you get if you combine sibling bands, indie folk, R & B and country?
…First Aid Kitty, Daisy and Lewis….
…ok, ok, so clearly I won’t be giving up my day job to do stand up comedy…
Swedish folk duo, First Aid Kit, played at The Corner Hotel last night. They’re sisters. From Stockholm. Amazing voices. Lovely presence. Sparkly tops. Meaningful lyrics. And they are young.
I loved hearing their music live with an ardour far exceeding moderation.
And then some.
Superfoods
The term, superfoods, gets bandied around a lot. You could be forgiven for thinking that superfoods is a fancy pants name for a new fad…the latest celebrity diet. The underwear-on-the-outside name is a bold one, and yet, there are early references to superfoods as a term. However, these references are tenuous and not entirely relevant. I include them because…well, basically they are funny and not everything that is rewarding need necessarily be relevant.
1915 Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 24 June 18/2 He had changed the tenor of his mood, And wisely written wine as superfood
1949 Lethbridge (Alberta) Herald 3 Feb. 14/3 Mr. LeBourdais extolled their [sc. the muffins’s] worth as a superfood that contained all the known vitamins and some that had not been discovered.
Not a month goes by where some other food isn’t added or removed from the superfood list, but generally speaking, a superfood is one that is rich in antioxidants and phytonutrients. It is an unprocessed, or minimally processed fruit, vegetable, grain and/or protein that is known to improve well-being and longevity.
Why wouldn’t you want to embrace the superfoods way?
In the midst of my melodramatic juggling of being Jacqueline by night and shaping young minds à la francaise during the day and, generally, flouncing all over the place tiring myself out, a wise man quite simply said, get into the superfoods. So I did.
Then, quite by chance, while searching for a relatively cheap and accessible event during the Melbourne Wine and Food Festival, the superfoods had their way and embracing them was the only choice. Superfood cocktail and canape match. How could I say no?
Three tasters, three cocktails and three savoury/sweet canape matches. I am hazy on the absolute consensus as to the winner…but as the reporter, I’m going to go with my winner-at-the-end-of-the-day as being the Apple Crisp Martini. Beautifully combined with the duck and then the certain je ne sais quoi of the macaron on its bed of persian fairy floss. There was also something fairly marvelous about the combination of the chilli in the cherry tomato and chilli padi martini and the valrhona tart, although not all of our party were won over by the savoury/sweet mixing of this tasting.
So with a multitude of superfoods coursing through our veins, we went off into the Melbourne night, happy in the knowledge that we had consumed many of ‘all the known vitamins and some that had not been discovered’, assured of longevity and alive with hope and an innate sense of well-being.
APPLE CRISP MARTINI
Vodka, green apples, cinnamon, mint & lemon
Served with:
Crispy duck salad with baby herbs, fried shallots and orange caramel
Apple pie & cinnamon custard macaron
CHERRY TOMATO & CHILLI PADI MARTINI
Chili padi infused vodka, cherry tomatoes, lemon & Angostura bitters
PINEAPPLE & GINGER MOJITO
Bacardi Superior Rum, pineapple, ginger, mint & lime juice
Served with:
Blue swimmer crab burger with lime, ginger & pineapple relish
Yogurt & coconut panna cotta with gingerbread & caramelized pineapples
You are the music
For most of us, there is only the unattended
Moment, the moment in and out of time,
The distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight,
The wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightning
Or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply
That it is not heard at all, but you are the music
While the music lasts.
T.S. Eliot
Scandal in a book-lined room
Heide…no, not a variant spelling of a blonde-haired girl in the alps (although pronounced that way) but a unique indoor and outdoor space for showcasing modern and contemporary art and design in Bulleen (near the suburb of Heidelburg) in Melbourne.
John and Sunday Reed bought the property which they would affectionately refer to as Heide two years after they married in 1932. During revolutionary years in Australian art – the 1930s, 40s and 50s – the Reeds created an idyllic refuge of inspiration for artists and intellectuals. Heide and the Reeds became synonymous with the creative friends they attracted, most notably, the leading exponents of Australian modernism, Sidney Nolan, Albert Tucker and Joy Hester. Nolan’s famous Ned Kelly series were painted in the dining room of Heide.
Sunday, in particular, was very taken with Nolan’s work…and the man, himself. When Nolan finally left Heide after a long stay, she built a heart-shaped garden in celebration of their love affair.
The Reeds lived to see their vision fulfilled for Heide to become a public museum when Heide Park & Art Gallery opened in November 1981. They both died shortly afterwards in December 1981, ten days apart.
Being Jacqueline
“Having lived in the south of France, gained a PhD in medieval French literature, been Head of Languages at a private girls’ school in Christchurch, New Zealand and now teaching French at Melbourne’s Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar, it is fairly safe to say that Jo est amoureuse de tout ce qui est français.
It is this passion for ‘all things French’ and Jo’s sense of adventure that has found her in her acting debut in the role of Jacqueline. ‘Dr’ Rittey sees this as an opportunity for her to entertain others with all the melodramatic fervour she can muster, speak French, gesticulate wildly, and channel the Parisian she knows lives inside her.”
A little show-offy, perhaps, but such is the actor’s bio…and unbelievably I AM currently an actor…actress…treading the boards…all the world is a stage…and other such thespian-type quotes…
Having attended a surreal audition night where I was convinced that everyone would see me for the fraud that I am…not French…haven’t acted since I played myself in my brother’s short film and he told me I was ‘too big for the screen’, by which I believe he meant I over-acted and was not actually a comment on my physical stature…I was chosen for the role of Jacqueline. The Melbourne French Theatre is putting on Pyjama pour Six or Don’t Dress for Dinner, a French farce involving a country house and six completely loopy people who seem to involve themselves in ridiculous dialogue and a multitude of misunderstanding. Given that my life is often reminiscent of a French farce, this should be a walk in the park.
I am immersing myself fully in the role of Jacqueline to the point where I no longer know where Jo ends and Jacqueline begins. I believe they call that method acting.
The concern is, of course, that I spread myself too thinly over the multi-faceted Melburnian life I am leading…teacher…aunty…blogger and now actor. It’s a challenge, I tell you. Not, of course, that I am worried that I spread the frenchiness too thinly…oh no, I am all for spreading frenchiness like a thick slab of roquefort on a crusty piece of baguette…it is just that the intense rehearsal schedule and the full Jacqueline immersion process…not to mention actually having to learn lines…well, you know, it is pretty immense.
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| This is a hideous photo…but there we go… |
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