Monday, August 31, 2009

Happy Anniversary

It was my parent's 39th Wedding Anniversary at the beginning of the month. It's a good thing I sms'ed a photo or two to them, because it's taken me forever to get these pics off the camera.

Happy Anniversary 1
I can't believe they're making me do this!
Happy Anniversary 2
Hey, this smells good...
Happy Anniversary 3
...and it moves too!
Happy Anniversary 4
Mmmm... tasty!
Happy Anniversary 5
Chomp Chomp!
Happy Anniversary 6
What? What did I do? It wasn't me, I swear!
Happy Anniversary 7
Dammit! I can't resist!

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Idea in Chinatown

I'm sure I could come up with a funnier/catchier/cleverer title to this post, but I don't have the brain power at the moment.

Megs was in Melbourne last night because of work. So we decided to do dinner at Idea Fine Food and Wine in Chinatown. I'd originally wanted to go try Coda, which had been featured in my Gourmet Traveller, but unfortunately because it was a Monday night, Coda was closed along with what seemed like half of Melbourne. So I flicked through the pages of my Entertainment Book and found this restaurant. Turned out to be a great choice. A fine dining, Chinese restaurant with a decent wine list and food/wine matchings. As it turned out, it was a very good choice.

The food was really yummy and pretty good value. We had tasty Wagyu beef dumplings, Peking duck that was both tender and crispy, tender, peppery lamb, succulent pork cheek, and I couldn't resist the fried red soybean icecream for dessert.

Nazi's and Pompeii

On Saturday afternoon, Paul, Tash, Donna and I went to see Inglorious Basterds at the cinema. I booked online to make sure we got tickets and this was one of the cinema's that had allocated seats. I took their "best available" which should have been awesome as only a few other seats had been sold. Bah! Not even close. They were too far back. I'll have to remember that for future.

The movie was good though. I liked it. It was a typical, quirky Tarantino flick. Definitely not for someone who doesn't like graphic knife violence though.

Afterwards we went to a Prahran pub, the Flying Duck, for dinner. I had a really tasty piece of pork belly on truffle scented mash. Mmmm...

On Sunday, Matt, Stefania and baby Giorgia came over. We went down Swan St for lunch, then Stefania and I left the boys in charge of Giorgia while we went to the Pompeii exhibition at the Melbourne Museum.

I enjoyed the exhibition. Much of it was about the way they lived in Pompeii - food, shops, businesses, leisure etc. I guess because it had all been so perfectly preserved, there was so much that could be learnt about the culture. The jewellery and frescoes were gorgeous. It's amazing how vibrant the colours were in the frescoes.

There was a brief 3D animation at the end of this section that showed the progression of the volcano and what you would have seen if you were in Pompeii at the time. That was pretty cool. Then the rest of the exhibition was about Mt Vesuvius and it's various eruptions, and the excavation of Pompeii and nearby Herculean. It's a shame that so much of the antiquities were taken before proper archaeological methods of documentation were developed.

The most confronting/disturbing part of the exhibition was the section that had the full body casts. When the volcano erupted, most of the inhabitants managed to flee, but some remained behind. These people were suffocated by the toxic gases and ash. They were then buried by ash from the volcano. Their bodies decomposed over time and left a cavitiy in the ash. One archaeologist developed a method of making plaster casts from these cavities so they could make plaster casts of the people who died in the disaster. You could see these people cowering and covering their mouths with their clothes and some even comforting other people. Oh, it was so sad.

The exhibition finished with a slideshow of pictures of Pompeii as it is today. Wow - it's so beautiful and amazing. I want to visit.

While Stefania and I were out, the boys had a good time taking Myf and Giorgia to the park, before settling down for an afternoon of footy watching. So I think a good day was had by all.

The most amazing thing I've found about this exhibition and Dali is how busy they've been. They're running for 4 months, but both exhibitions were packed to the point of queuing the whole way around the exhibition. If I'd gone to something like this in Adelaide, I would have been one of 20 people in a room.

Friday, August 21, 2009

A Lost Credit Card Rant

A few weeks ago, while my sister was visiting, I somehow managed to lose my credit card. I'm not sure quite how or when I lost it. I can remember the last time I used it. I didn't discover it was lost until several days after that. Fortunately no one had racked up loads of charges on it, so it probably wasn't stolen.

When I discovered it was gone, Paul called the bank to cancel the card and reorder a new one. Unfortunately because we have the same cc numbers, they had to cancel both cards. When Paul went into the bank to collect the cards 5 days later (as instructed), he was told that the cards had been cancelled and new PINs had been ordered, but not new cards!! Okay, so he ordered new ones.

Another 5 days later and he was told that they had actually been ordered the first time, but they'd been sent to our old bank in Adelaide. No they couldn't send them to our home address but they could be sent to a bank in Melbourne for us to collect them. So that was done.

Three weeks after Paul first cancelled the credit cards, and much hassling not included in the description above, they arrive at the bank in Melbourne. The date we received the cards was 18th August. The date stamp on the front of the envelope, from when they arrived at the bank in Adelaide was 3rd August. We did not receive one phone call from the bank in Adelaide to say that our cards arrived. We were without ready access to money for 3 weeks and they didn't bother to let anyone know that our cards had turned up without notice at their bank! GRRRRR!!! It makes me angry!

So I suffered severe internet shopping withdrawals. But it's okay, I made a purchase online yesterday, so I'm feeling a little better now.

A Musical Weekend

Last weekend Paul's parents, Alan and Barb, came for a visit. They arrived on Friday and hung out with Paul and Myf during the day. In the evening we went to see Jersey Boys. Loved it! It was a very different musical to the ones I've seen lately. Basically it was just the story of how the band formed, became famous and eventually broke up, with their songs thrown in to the mix. But the music was so good and the story was actually really interesting. The only problem is that I've been singing She-erry in my head for a week now!

On Saturday morning we had breakfast at a Spanish Place in Degraves Street before heading off to the markets. I had a really yummy French Toast with Brioche (they had a spanish name for it). The other food looked really tasty too.

The day was spent relaxing before we headed out for another musical in the evening. This time it was Chicago. Loved it - again! The set was really great - the orchestra was incorporated into it. And the singing and dancing was fabulous. Great to see Craig McLachlan on stage - disappointed that there was no mullet though!

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

The White Album Concert

I'm behind in my posts again, so will be back-dating this and probably some other posts.

Went to the White Album concert at Hamer Hall on Monday 3rd August. Wow! The most amazing concert for so many reasons.

Firstly, there are so many awesome songs on the Beatles White Album. Okay, there are some really weird ones too, but lots of great ones.

Secondly, you can't go wrong with four of Australia's best rock musicians - Chris Cheney, Phil Jamieson, Tim Rogers and Josh Pyke.

Thirdly, the venue has to be one of the best in Melbourne for sound quality. I wish all gigs could be in a place like Hamer Hall. The acoustics were amazing!

The highlight for me was Chris Cheney. Full Stop. That guy is amazing! His guitar solo in My Guitar Gently Weeps has to be the best solo I've ever seen. I was open mouthed. I've never found Chris Cheney particularly attractive, but at that moment I wanted to marry him and have his babies. I may have told Paul that one too many times. lol!

The other guys were also brilliant. Phil Jamieson's voice blew me away. As did his energy levels. That boy cannot sit sill. Tim Roger's charisma was awesome. I've heard that he's a bit of a pretentious wanker live, but didn't see that at all. He interacted with the audience and looked like he was having so much fun. He and Phil played up to each other when they were on stage together. Josh Pyke was awesome, but so much more quiet and staid than the others. Even though he was awesome, his performance tended to blend because he doesn't have the same live presence as the others.

I REALLY hope that this comes out on DVD/CD because I so want to relive this night!

Photos are here.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Megsie's Visit Part 5: A Day at Monash, an Evening with the Flaming Lips and an early morning farewell

Megan decided to come in to my work on the Tuesday. I saved up all my filing for weeks, to give her something to do. Hehehe!

Megs came and saw what I did in the lab and played with some of the equipment:
Thoughful Hmmm...
I think she looks the part, even if she had no idea what she was doing! :)

We went for a walk at lunch time to have a look around the campus. My boss had given us a heads up about a few things I'd never seen before, so we went in search of those. We found the rare books collection in the library, which seemed to have an awful lot of early editions of Gullivers Travels. We also saw the art gallery, which had a really weird exhibition on at the time, that wasn't really my taste. And after some exploration we found this stained glass window.
Window 28/07/09

It's the Lindesay Clark Window by Robert French. The story goes that he had a falling out with the architect during the construction of the building, so instead of being the focus of the building, it's relegated to the side.

My boss hired a video from the library for us to watch over lunchtime. I'm sure this was for Megan's benefit, because it's not something we normally do. The video was a documentary about Rosalind Franklin and her input into the determination of the structure of DNA and how she was ripped off by Watson and Crick because she was ballsy in a time when women weren't meant to be. It was a real eye-opener. Probably a very one-sided account, but I'm sure there are many stories like this in history.

The following night, we went to see the Flaming Lips at Festival Hall. It was awesome!!!! They were fantastic! They're such great live performers.
Flaming Lips 1

Festival Hall was a real disappointment, considering it's been host to acts such as the Beetles and Bob Marley. I'm pretty sure the decor hasn't been updated since those times. The seats were maroon vinyl bench seats and were really rather uncomfortable and there was no leg room. I know that I'm getting old, because I'm at a gig and complaining about leg room! Hahahaha!!

The band went off though and that's all that really matters. The band members all entered through a giant, neon-coloured, psychadelic vagina on the tv screen. I'm not sure if that was a metaphor for the birth of the show or something, but it was fun nonetheless. The lead singer entered in a giant plastic ball, which he then crowd surfed in. I have to say it's definitely one of the most memorable openings of a live show I've ever seen.
Flaming Lips 3

Of course there were the dancing animals on the side of the stage like at all Flaming Lips Gigs. And plenty of balloons, confetti, streamers and smoke.
Flaming Lips 6
Flaming Lips 7
Flaming Lips 11 - 29/07/09

Their finale/encore was Do You Realise. I love that song! I actually nearly cried when they played it. Well, I had tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat, but no tears escaped down my cheeks, so I don't class it as actualy crying. It was just so good live and with everyone singing along.

The following morning, Megs had to leave early for her plane. So I got up at 5am to see her off at in a taxi. I'm pretty sure I've only just caught up on sleep from the busy weekend and early start!

Megsie's Visit Part 4: Beautification, Movies and Movida

I took last Monday of work so Megs and I could have a Girly Day together. For Megan's birthday, I bought her a voucher for the beauty spa nearby, so we spent the morning there having facials and hot stone massages. It was divine! I felt so relaxed afterwards and nearly fell asleep during the massage. I think I really need to have a relaxing beauty treatment on a regular basis. It's so lovely to be pampered and relax.

After the spa we went down chapel street to see Harry Potter in Gold Class. Because it was a Monday, it wasn't that much more expensive than the regular cinema, so it was well worth it. When the movie started, I realised that I hadn't seen the prevoius one, but I'd read the book. so I guess it didn' really matter. So much happened that I had totally forgotten about.

In the evening, we went for dinner at Movida. I had booked about 2 months in advance, and could still only get in on a Monday night. But you can understand why when you taste the food. It was delicious! It's tapas style, so tasting plates again. I think my favourite was the anchovies on croutons with smoked tomato sorbet. They were sooooo succulent and tender. Much better than supermarket variety anchovies.

I finished up with Churros and Pedro Ximenez cherry. Two of my favourites. The Churros were really tasty and the chocolate sauce was really rich. Paulie drank the chocolate sauce after I'd finished dipping into it.
27/07/09 Yum!

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Megsie's Visit Part 3: Footy

Sunday was meant to be a day for relaxing. I'd set aside some time in our busy schedule for us to have some relaxation time in the morning. Unfortunately our relaxation ran over time, so we had to walk to the football rather quickly. Poor Megsie only has little legs, so she was at a half run for most of the journey.

It was a close game, but in the end, Essendon just lost to Richmond. I enjoyed the match, but I get the feeling that Megs and Paulie weren't as happy as I was.

When Megs goes to Essendon matches, she likes to borrow Paulie's membership gear so she looks like an Essendon supporter. I prefer not to.
26/07/09 Ready for the Footy

Megsie's Visit Part 2: Dali, Drinks and Dinner

After we'd taken Myf to the park, we headed into the city to go to the Dali exhibition. While we waited for the rest of our party, we had an afternoon tea at the NGV cafe.

Gallery Entrance 25/07/09

I highly recommend the afternoon tea there. The teas are lovely and the food was really yummy.

I have mixed feelings about the Dali exhibition. On one hand it was really interesting to see some of his earlier work and see his progression in style from classical, through cubism and then onto surrealism and back to classical again. There were some great artworks there. However in my opinion, there weren't enough of the classic Dali works in the exhibition for my liking. I think we only saw a couple of melted clocks and one painting with the flower women and only a few ants. One of the best parts of the show was having a laugh at some of the titles of the artworks. There were names like "Portrait of Gala With Two Lamb Chops in Equilibrium Upon Her Shoulder". Haha!!

After the Dali Exhibition we wandered up Exhibition Street towards Tuscan Rooftop bar where we were going to have some drinks. When we passed Little Collins street, we noticed it was blocked off and there was a bit of a crowd. After a chat with some security there, we found out it was a set from Katie Holmes new movie. However Katie Holmes wasn't on set that day.

The Paparazzi

After Drinks at Tuscan Bar we had dinner at Seamstress. Wow! The food was so good and it didn't work out to be very expensive with our entertainment card discounts. The style of eating is share plates, so you order several dishes that go in the centre of the table and you get to have a taste of all of them.

When we'd finished our delicious dinner, we moved onto the Croft Institute, which is a bit of a novelty bar that has cool artifacts from old chem labs.
Croft Institute
The theme was very cool and the cocktails were tasty, but the bar staff were pretty slow and the music didn't quite suit the mood. The toilets are freaky and I think I'd probably scare myself if I was very drunk in there. Haha!

There are more photos from the day in my Flickr set.