Noodles
So, having spent the day in Elwood, making the space my own, surveying my work with a very self-satisfied smugness, I had to leave it all to cross the city to my other home away from home: West Footscray where Noodles awaited.
Bluff Avenue
I spent the day making the flat mine. I think I’ve done it.
Needs a rug, maybe…
Friday Sunset
Cross the road from my place and this is what you get…
Happy Birthday Mr Tickle!
Mr Tickle, and all the other Mr Men celebrate their 40th birthday today. It’s funny to think that I was a month and a half old when Roger Hargreaves looked proudly at the fruit of his labour and saw the ideas from his head, not only on paper, but on the shelves of bookshops.
Roger died in 1988, but his son, Adam, has continued the Mr and Miss series, writing and illustrating new personality adventures, which is appropriate, given he was the reason the books came about. Little Adam had asked what a tickle looked like and his dad drew the first Mr Man.
The series of 49 Mr Men and 36 Little Miss books has sold 120 million books worldwide since their first appearance, an average of one copy sold every 2.5 seconds. In the last decade Roger Hargreaves became one of the best-selling British authors alongside J.K. Rowling.
Moving Day
Moving Day….or moving day packed very tightly into 2 hours. I had been told by the removal company that the men could be at my place no later than 1.30pm to start unloading because they had to finish by a certain hour or they’d turn in to pumpkins or something. So I rearranged my day and did the big dash from Moonee Ponds to Elwood and got there right on 1.30pm. No removal men. By 2.30, still no removal men. When I rang the company, the woman told me that they had been ‘holded up’. Once I got past the grammatical side of things with that sentence, I had visions of guns. But they eventually arrived at 3.30pm and very quickly had things ticked off the list. John and Phil totally redeemed themselves for their tardiness when they took all of the packing paper and boxes and even some extra rubbish away for me. So I’m in. Needs fine tuning on placement. But I’m there.
My kitchen, lit by the christmas tree before my fabulous brother arrived with a fancy circular bulb for the kitchen light.
Big red. Mid-life crisis red sports car red. That’s how Mark described it. It’s still going strong. I’m not a bit sick of it!
Voila…chez moi!
Sunset Blossom
A cocktail? A shade of nail polish? A stripper’s stage name? Or a really lovely moment which made me smile at the end of a Monday…
Coffee
Finding the right place for morning coffee is vital. Fraught with peril. This morning, I cracked it. Fix Espresso in Moonee Ponds. It was like coming across an old friend. 1 Everage Street, as in Dame Edna. Apparently Edna is a daughter of this illustrious suburb.
Shabby chic, cosy wood, fantastic coffee, friendly staff. The perfect post-swim, pre-school moment. Next 6 weeks, I’m all over Fix Expresso.
Saturday night
Dave and I headed in to the city. Danna had prepared a list of must-try restaurants for us to dine at before the film at 9pm. Top of the list was Coda. Below street level just off Flinders Lane. As we walked down the cobbles to the entrance there were 2 seat s left at the bar. Just for us. The food is described as French-Vietnamese, although the chef himself would describe it more as a long term relationship with good produce, blending an appreciation of local produce, a love of Asian cuisine and a nod to Europe. I think we must always nod to Europe. They specialise in small plates of sensational flavours. The guy behind the bar suggested that he choose a selection for us and we gratefully accepted. And there ensued plate after plate of exquisiteness. Perfect choices.
Quail Lettuce Cup
Ha noi style crisp rice paper rolls with nuom choc
Eggplant and Tofu Lettuce delight
Roasted scallop with pearl tapioca and champagne sabyon
Spanner crap with roasted chilli and betel leaf
Amazing.
Then we went to the Forum to see a festival film, The Kid with a Bike. A belgian film. Seeing a film at the Forum is the complete cinematic experience. Very grand.
It was a story of youthful enthusiasm betrayed. The kid with a bike was an amazing young actor. It was one of those films which didn’t even feel acted. It felt as though we were voyeurs looking in on someone’s life as it unfolded. Excellent. Excruciating in its emotional journey.
Mouthfeel
This morning I set off on the train and the tram to North Fitzroy, The Green Grocer and a cooking class.
The class was called Flour Power and was held in the upstairs section of the shop in the commercial kitchen. I loved the kitchen with an ardour far exceeding moderation. I want one for myself. But for now, I enjoyed it from 11-2. I joined seven other women and chef, Tony Chiodo, to learn interesting ways with different flours: spelt, buckwheat, brown rice, mexican maize flour, cornmeal. We were each in charge of a different recipe. I made the polenta, pistachio and cranberry biscotti which meant I was finished fairly quickly and moved on to sauce duty: an amazing 3 mushroom ragout to go with the spelt pasta, and a beetroot and cream sauce to go with the buckwheat spaetzle. We also had tortilla and refried beans and dosa with potato curry.
Tony said we need to eat with mouthfeel. Love it. I’m going to use that term on a daily basis.
TTYL
Today I heard a student in the corridor say to her friend TTYL. She actually said the letters. As though it was an oral text. To be honest, I had to think about what that might mean. Talk To You Later. Of course. And it’s not the first time I have heard this. On the train, two girls were talking and one said LOL. And she didn’t even laugh out loud. Her friend had said something funny and the response was an unlaughed LOL. I don’t understand. Is it because I am 40? Why are they speaking text language? When did this happen? OMG, I can’t believe it.
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