Australia From Above

Yesterday was another Canberra day.  What does land look like between Canberra and Melbourne, you're wondering.  (No?)  Well, I had my camera with me, so I took some pictures of the Snowy Mountains, last seen up close and personal.

Snow!  In Australia!

The Mundane and the Hilarious

Into every Lady Traveller's life, some mundanity must fall.  What have I been doing since last Wednesday?

Working, sleeping, eating, working, yoga, working, running, sleeping, eating, working, working, working.

None of it the stuff of exciting blog posts.  I am working on a few, though, so keep your radios tuned to this station.

In the meantime, I leave you with these videos, which you may have seen before but are required viewing (especially coming up to Hallowe'en).  They remind me of this guy.

Sugar Rush

Happiness (on a Wednesday morning, anyway) is succumbing to the urge to drop into Babka bakery on your way to work and buy a rhubarb Danish.  And also a raspberry Danish, because those puppies are HUGE and it's nice to share baked goods with your workmates.

I would post a photo of this happy thing, but the crumbs are all that's left.

(Babka Bakery, 358 Brunswick St, Fitzroy, Melbourne.)

Shoes, Sisters, Sulking

If you don't have sisters, you may want to skip down to the photos.

If you do have sisters, the fact that there have been many intra-family squabbles about who gets dibs on certain items of clothing may not come as a surprise.  (You know: two of you buy the same dress/top/shoes - questions of who bought it first, who's allowed to wear it when are the subject of heated negotiations.)

Recently, there have been some discussions among HTLT's nearest and dearest about who has rights over which colour of a popular brand of runners.  I was told, in no uncertain terms, that I couldn't buy a pair of grey Converse runners because my sister had got there first.

FINE.

[Sulk, sulk, sulk.]

[Time passes.]

[Discover Converse have done a collaboration with Marimekko.]

I feel better now.

Canberra Style Notes

Most of the people you see at Canberra airport are wearing suits: grey, navy or black.  Being the nation's capital, you also see the occasional uniform.  I was intrigued to note that for women of the Royal Australian Air Force, black patent shoes are de rigueur (or possibly military issue?)

"A zebra rug even a zebra would own"

I am more than a little obsessed with lady traveller Osa Johnson, she of the zebra riding, zebra-print cover to her autobiography and zebra print plane.

So if I had $1000 to spare, I would snap up this zebra print rug.  Made of wool, it's described as "a zebra rug even a zebra would own."

Love.  It.

Available in many colours (in case you do have $1000 to spare) at www.jonathanadler.com/Zebra-Rug

The Silo of Yumminess

I think I may have found the key to contentment in Canberra: spend lots of time at Silo Bakery.  The best brioche I have ever (EVER!) had.  Conservative estimate - a pound of butter (or half a kilo for the non-imperialists) in every one.

http://www.silobakery.com.au

Rose St Market

On Saturday, I did something I never got round to doing in a year of living in Melbourne: I went to Rose St Artist Market.  Located in the back streets of Fitzroy, it's a space for artists and designers to sell their wares directly to the public.  There are some stronger stalls and some that are kind of dodgy, but that's part of the fun of the market, no?






I especially liked the stall belonging to Wendy June, artist, illustrator, printmaker.

Oh, and there's a good coffee stall too.  This is Melbourne, after all.
www.rosestmarket.com.au

Things I May Never Understand: Part 1

The Antipodean obsession with lawn bowls.  You might say there's a barrier between us.

Objective v. Subjective

First, I'd like to observe that if it's still Friday somewhere in the world (which it is), then I've managed to blog every day this week.

I was actually planning to post last night, but I came up against a philosophical obstacle.  No, really.  I was going to post about my supper, which consisted of one of my favourite quick-but-delicious meals: polenta with mushrooms and a fried egg.  While the polenta is cooking, sauté some chopped mushrooms with some herbs (I like tarragon best but last night I used chervil) and poach or fry an egg.  Pour the gooey mushrooms over the polenta, place the egg on top and season well.   Yummy.

Anyway, the obstacle was that by the time this was all ready, I was hungry and not inclined to delay the eating part of the evening by photographing and documenting the meal.

This morning, I enjoyed one of my favourite Melburnian experiences: the not-so-full-English breakfast at Pope Joan on Nicholson St.  This is a sensory delight, not least because it smells so good: the bacon is extra smoky and the tomato relish they serve with it is a combination of sweet and spicy.  But again, it seems just wrong to interrupt the experience by whipping out my not-exactly-small camera to take photos.

This is why I will never be a food blogger.  I want to enjoy these experiences while I'm in them ... not put them on hold while I take photos.  Or perhaps I can start a revolution in food blogging ... no pictures, just words.

Have a lovely weekend; I hope it's full of yummies.  xxx HTLT

KeepCup

For someone who drinks as much coffee as I do, it's just responsible to have a reusable coffee cup.  By that I don't mean the cup that I drink my coffee from at home (though I have particular views on that too - I'll tell you some other time) but one that I can bring to a café and take my coffee away in.

Enter the KeepCup: designed in Melbourne, seen all around Australia - plus I've spotted a few in Europe. You can choose from a range of colours and mix and match the different elements (I went for red and two shades of blue.)  In Melbourne, the best range of colours I've seen is at Urban Attitude on the corner of Johnston and Brunswick Streets; for anyone living further afield, you can choose your colours and have your very own KeepCup shipped from www.keepcup.com.

Spring!

I was braced for winter in Melbourne, but instead I found spring.  The air is deliciously jasmine-scented and the trees are covered in fresh green leaves.  Me likey.

Singapore Stopover

Good: The palm trees, the flowers, the people on their way to work sitting six to a converted trailer, the Singapore skyline ... all the things I saw from the taxi on my way from the airport to the hotel.

Bad: Not being able to go straight to bed when I arrived at my hotel, because the room wasn't ready.

Good: Finally getting into bed and lying flat for the first time in 24 hours in super soft cotton sheets.

Bad: Despite best intentions, lack of sleep ruling out much of the sightseeing I had intended to do.  (It's hard to see sights when you can't walk straight.)

Good: The queue to get into H&M, which opened on Saturday in Singapore.  Good because I wasn't in the queue and the signs were amusing.

Bad: Struggling to find Chocolate Research Facility, the one shop (among the thousands on Orchard Rd) I really wanted to visit.

Good: Finding it.  Mmm.

Bad: The humidity (I worried my chocolate purchases would suffer).

Good: The beauty and cool (coolth?) of the Botanic Gardens.



Bad: The sign for 'internal organs' on the menu that put me off dinner.

Good: The gin fizz I had instead in the rooftop bar of the hotel.

Bad: The in-room muzak with non-stop Michael Bublé that I couldn't work out how to mute.  (Finally discovered the volume control at 3am).

I really wish I had had more time in Singapore - I suspect that there's a lot more to discover but everytime I've been, the jet lag has just wiped me out.  One of these days.

Return to Oz

(image via newsdesk.si.edu)

Sadly, no ruby slippers were involved but I am writing this from Melbourne where the sun is shining and it is a balmy 20 degrees.

I am completely spaced and feeling very much like I'm having a dream where I'm back in Australia, rather than feeling like I'm actually here.  I have also had three flat whites already today and am contemplating number four.

I suspect that the above paragraphs sound very much like the work of someone both jetlagged and over-caffeinated so I won't attempt to wax lyrical any further on my current whereabouts.

Still, I think that when I wake up I'll be glad to be here.