Monday was all about a second birthday cake pour moi at work. Much needed on a Monday afternoon.
On Tuesday Steve and I went to Attica which we've been to before. Attica is Melbourne's Restaurant of the Year for 2011. Tuesday evenings are lovingly known as experimental evenings when chef Ben Shewry and his team serve dishes that are still being worked on.
We enjoyed some wonderful courses - some very simple like a grilled fillet of King George whiting, perfectly cooked and perfectly seasoned served with a lemon wedge. Others were more complicated including a snow crab dish with eleven different types of basil leaves all grown in the kitchen garden.
Dessert was pretty memorable too simply called Honey and Lemon but there was pumpkin, freeze dried apple, fennel, fresh raspberries, honeycomb crispy bits...
We enjoyed some wonderful courses - some very simple like a grilled fillet of King George whiting, perfectly cooked and perfectly seasoned served with a lemon wedge. Others were more complicated including a snow crab dish with eleven different types of basil leaves all grown in the kitchen garden.
Dessert was pretty memorable too simply called Honey and Lemon but there was pumpkin, freeze dried apple, fennel, fresh raspberries, honeycomb crispy bits...
Australia Day is a public holiday and fell on a Thursday. The sun continued to shine as it has done all week hitting temperatures of 34 at time.
We had a relaxed day and ventured into St Kilda and met up with Karly, Cam, Chris and Tanya for a leisurely lunch.
Karly and Cam brought my belated birthday gift which was something I wanted very much but even better was the personalised birthday wrapping paper! The gift was a new black Kipling bag which I have been wanting for a while but has proven difficult here in Aus as they don't ship here and no shop sells. Thank you Mr and Mrs Barnes for going to the effort of sourcing one.
Hot temperatures means ice cream and we called in at Cold Rock Ice Creamery where you choose a flavour and add stuff to smash in and mix up which the server does on a piece of cold rock. Here you see the scrummy combo of a mini Crunchie bar and a chocolate brownie smashed up with good old vanilla ice cream.
During our little jaunts out I saw this dog. Unfortunatel it scuttle by quite quickly that I couldn't get a better picture but look how long its fur is and its in dreadlocks...weird!
We also spotted this bikini clad biker who obviously attracted a lot of attention whilst stopped at the traffic lights on Australia Day. Note the occasion themed bikini!
On Friday as I walked home from work I stopped to watch this incredible balloon modelling guy. This was no children's magician making a poodle from one balloon. This guy uses many man balloons to make Homer Simpson, Elmo, Yoda, a gremlin, unicorns, monkeys, Pink Panther...it was fascinating to watch.
Kung hey fat choi! Chinese new year festivities took place in different areas of Melbourne this weekend. Steve and I walked through the hawkers market outside the casino in Southbank several times over the last 2 days.
On Saturday we took a walk (in very hot temps) towards South Melbourne where we stopped for lunch.
We then continued to Port Melbourne where we enjoyed the hospitality of Andy and Stacey in their apartment before heading to Princes Pier for the inaugural Two Piers Festival.
Before I go into the festival in more detail, let me mention the picture here. We walked past this on the side of a bus stop. Press the button and a fine spray of cold water comes out. Pretty cool! Unfortunately the wind meant the spray went upwards and away but we managed to enjoy some refreshment.
The Two Piers Festival was organised by Multicultural Victoria and there were various international food stalls and I assume entertainment from different countries on the stage throughout the day. It wasn't particularly big but it also wasn't too busy so was a nice place to spend a few hours in the evening. We arrived in time to watch the sunset and see the Macedonian dancers in action. They eventually managed to get lots of people involved in Zorba the Greek dance.
The Melbourne SKA orchestra then came on with lots of brass and steel drum rhythms and continued the entertainment until it was fireworks team. Their musical tones and the Summer evening certainly got people toe tapping and it was pretty fun for the short while we were there.
The Melbourne SKA orchestra then came on with lots of brass and steel drum rhythms and continued the entertainment until it was fireworks team. Their musical tones and the Summer evening certainly got people toe tapping and it was pretty fun for the short while we were there.
We walked through the Chinese New Year festivities again on our way home and saw all the pretty lanterns and lights.
Beers and bare foot bowls - apparently a great Aussie tradition so we indulged. We had wanted to do this on Australia Day but the bowls club was just far too busy so we made up for it today.
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