Pretty much a month has gone by and it's been pretty busy. And it was also the Age Good Food Month and we attended an event a The Lincoln pub with Jon and Shern.

It was a charity dinner for FareShare who provide food for people in need and for this dinner, all produce and ingredients were donated so the cost of the meal went to FareShare.

There was even an interesting beer brewed by local brewery Barrow Boys, made from leftover malts from other beers and a blend of different hops. The wine was an eclectic collection again, of donations and we enjoyed several bottles of rioja which is rare and expensive in Australia for around $40 each and with the help of Vivino, we discovered the RRP was around that price too so a bargain and all for charity too.

We shared shoulder of lamb with different sauces and condiments and the fish course was inspired and cooked by Frank Camorra himself of Movida fame.

And continuing with the theme of food, Steve and I hosted a Sunday lunch and invited Nat, B, Spinners, Mof, Kirsty and Stevie B round. This was following the success of roast chicken night by Mof and lasagne night hosted by Spinners so it was our turn.

For a Sunday lunch that was meant to be casual and not a big one, we managed to build up an impressive stash of empties and that was with two drivers in the crowd!

​I started a new job this month but had the Monday before day 1 off and I had a lovely day. I am good company, I must say!

Started off the day with a massage and then had lunch at Tipo 00 at the bar and enjoyed a decadent truffle risotto.

We hadn't caught up with Ling, Noah and Bunty for a while so had a little get together at a new restaurant in a new development of a shopping centre. They gave us a private dining room for our reservation which worked out great for us as there was room for Bunty to stretch her legs. 

Then we ended the evening with ice cream next door and by this time, on a sugar high, she was Steve's best friend!

I mentioned earlier it's been the The Age Good Food Month and one of the biggest events is the Night Noodle Markets and I attended twice; once with Kirsty and then a quick visit with Stef for dessert.

It's vast and busy but the atmosphere is fun. I think that it's more about the festival feel as the food is stuff you can get in the actual restaurants that pitch a stall but it's nice to be able to have a few things from a few places and sit in the sunshine. By the time you buy a taco here, a bun there it all adds up to the price of a meal in a restaurant too but again, the price is about paying for atmosphere and party.

Hipster food and party atmospheres...lead me to the next food adventure. Lune has had so much amazingly positive publicity about it's croissants and it recently closed its Elwood operation and opened a new place in Fitzroy just round the corner for us.

We drove by the first weekend it opened quite early in the morning; around 8am and the queue was snaking down the street and it hadn't even opened!

I read later in Broadsheet that people started queuing from 4am! That's insane! Can a croissant be that good? Well Steve has been intrigued and so following that scene, made another visit the next week and again, queues that caused him to give up.

Finally one morning he decided that he'd join the masses and he took his place in the line at 7:45am. I didn't even realise he'd gone until I received a text from him that informed me of his whereabouts! And he returned 90 minutes later with a box of treasure!

So were these goodies worth 90 minutes of wait time? Maybe not for just the croissant. Admittedly it was a perfect croissant with crispy flakiness, light as air dough and buttery flavour but 90 minutes is a long time. The Luxembourg cruffin convinced me it's worth the time commitment though with it's mandarin curd and custardy filling. Oh just joy really!

Since then we've whiled away a sunny afternoon sat by the window (with a view of our apartment block) with newspapers and other reading fodder enjoying some great food.

And in the time we have been enjoying food and wine and good company, Amelia is welcoming the Christmas season with a visit to Santa, an introduction to bowling and plenty of baking. She also loves going to soft play and my mum and dad take her most weekends and this time Aunty Carine showed up too. She likes to call Steve and I for a short chat (aided by my mum actually making the call) and we've had conversation about holidays and how she wants to go swimming in the deep pool as well as favourite ice cream flavours. Such a grown up now!

So in October we had a public holiday for the football and this month's public holiday is for a horse race! In spite of not being an avid follower of either, I'll take the benefits of the day off from work. Given Melbourne Cup falls on a Tuesday, it's fairly common for folk to take the Monday off and have a super long weekend and we chose this course this year.

The Melbourne Cup holiday weekend also marks our Melbourne anniversary. We arrived in this welcoming and wonderful city 5 years ago. That's 5 years of blogging and over 500 restaurant reviews! It's certainly been an adventure and it's continuing. 5 years also marks our application to become citizens and we're waiting to hear back regarding the next step - citizenship exam!

We headed to Port Fairy which is 3 or so hours West of Melbourne and is one of the small towns at the end of the Great Ocean Road. Taking the coastal route makes it a 6 hour journey though so we went inland. 

I'd booked us accommodation at Drift House which is like a boutique B&B but the room is more a suite with a kitchenette and outside terrace with a fireplace. We had suite 3 with timber cladding on the ground floor and it was a lovely relaxing place to spend 3 nights.

The Saturday we travelled there was a glorious day in spite of it starting off drizzly and grey. By the time we arrived in Port Fairy it was all gorgeous blue skies and sunshine in abundance. We spent some time watching the surfers at one of the beaches before checking into Drift House and relaxing for the rest of the day before heading out to dinner.

After some blissful slumber, Sunday was grey and there was a chill in the air. Steve used our breakfast provisions to cook up soft boiled eggs on smashed avocado on toast to fuel us up ready for a breezy walk around Griffiths Island. It's a pleasant trek across tracks some boardwalk, some gravel and over the beach, Lots of resting burrows for shearwater birds and a few dead ones along the way which I am not fond of.

We then headed East towards Basalt Winery which had a cafe where we popped in for elevenses (a fortifying shared sausage roll) before a quick wine tasting. We were there after all. The owner served us and encouraged us to take a drive across the road to Tower Hill which is an inactive volcano with a crater lake. It's quite a pretty view from the top across the water. We drove down and followed one of the walking routes and spied an emu in the car park as we headed to the track. Plenty of little lizards along the way too.

Sunday afternoon was then spent relaxing back in our suite and I used the beautiful bath tub and enjoyed a hot soak with a book.

How wonderful Sundays are when there is no work on Monday. And Monday was a day of very little. After another home cooked breakfast we drove into town to pick up some provisions for the rest of the day as we didn't feel like going out for dinner. Another afternoon soak in the tub followed by a massage at the local day spa combined with doing very little other than lie on the sofa was truly a restorative time and before we knew it, today arrived and it was time to leave...

The journey back to Melbourne was uneventful and we arrived back at the apartment in time for Steve to set up a Sportsbet account and for us to place a few bets. I recall the conversation, "Prince of Penzance for me please. Going to support the girls." as I chose my horse for it's royal title (I am a fan of royalty), nod to UK with Penzance, nod to a musical I am fond of (Pirates of Penzance) and what swung it for me was the female jockey. And Steve's response was, "That's truly an outsider so we will just go for a place." I wanted to argue but couldn't summon the energy after such a relaxing weekend,

And there you have it, Prince of Penzance and his female jockey, Michelle Payne were the victors! And I backed the winner but not enough to take the ultimate prize of an on the nose bet but this is sweet enough!

Amelia has spent this weekend at her great aunty Lillian's caravan in Cumbria with her mum and dad. She has been there before and loves the animals and the swimming pool and she even got into the spirit of the kids Hallowe'en party making friends and throwing some shapes on the dance floor. Apparently her costume of choice was to be an ugly witch. She's far from that to me but her little green face is funny. Poor mum and dad had to wash that out and I hear that wasn't easy!

​There at said pub we were educated in another Aussie dish known as the jelly slice. It's a biscuit base, some creamy in between layer and then topped with strawberry jelly. It's a poor man's cheesecake really.

I enjoyed a team dinner at Longrain. We don't do these enough but weirdly in October  we managed this twice! This is probably half the team as others couldn't make it. The second one was a better show with about 15 of us. Fun times and happy days! These are great work colleagues who are excellent at what they do. Sadly they're not going to be my team mates for that much longer as I am moving to a new role with a new team...From recruitment to procurement...

We hosted two dinners. The first was with Kerem and Stef and the menu was:

• Seafood bisque
• Parmesan and herb crusted lamb rack with sundried tomato and black olives accompanied by green beans and pine nuts and potato Dauphinoise
• Lemon and raspberry tart

Definitely a hit and what a wonderful way to spend Grand Final Day which was a public holiday in Victoria. As the boys watched the game, Stef and I headed out for pedicures. Perfect way to spend a Saturday.

The second dinner was with Rachel and Tim, Matt and Zoe and Chantal and we went with an Asian banquet:

• Red braised short ribs with daikon
• Asian prawn salad
• Wok tossed greens
• Steamed fish with ginger and spring onion
• Crispy belly pork
• Second attempt at lemon tart

It's always fun to cook for friends and throw in some love. Steve and make a pretty good team in the kitchen too.

There was another Private Dining Room event and this time it was in St Kilda. Simon Tarlington cooked a paddock to plate themed dinner and it was a real feast and true treat. Animals cooked on the bone were paraded out for a communal banquet where friends were made over bones and meat. Another excellent event from Private Dining Room and we are looking forward to the next one.

Soon after that weekend event, I caught up with Spinners and Nat on a school night for our annual visit to Dikstein's which is a wine bar that serves pizza. We seem to have managed to meet their every year and this time it was our third anniversary. And tradition dictates that we take a Dik pik or two!

We have definitely had a busy month but so as Amelia and my UK family. Amelia has enjoyed spending time with her mummy and daddy including a visit to Cumbria to stay in Daddy's Aunty Lillian's caravan. Baby Luke also came to stay with her for the weekend and there was a belated birthday celebration for him. Aunty Zoe's mother in law has opened up a little cafe called Sandra's Pantry and Zoe helps out there on a weekend so they went to visit and of course there was cake.