Yum

I've been enjoying The Wheeler Centre's Thursday Lunchbox/Soapbox series, not only because of the diversity of its speakers (Peter Singer one week, Toni Jordan the next), but also because it is soooo close to Camy Shanghai Dumpling and Noodle Restaurant. They charge just a little over $5 for 18 pork dumplings. Not surprisingly, I wasn't tempted to go there after hearing Mr Animal Liberation himself, Peter Singer, discussion on processed meat. This week is Stephanie Alexander, and Mum's loaded me up with 20 kilos of Stephanie's books to get signed (that's only two books, mind you). Somehow I don't think I'll be eating at Camy's after hearing Alexander, either.

Display Windows

Sure, this might be how the model in the display window of Preston Salvos wears this particular top, but I strongly advise against it.

Breaking Febfast

It wasn't too hard to break Febfast. All it took was barefoot bowls at Fitzroy Bowling Club. Febfast - my month without grog - was over, by the way, but I was taking my time getting back into the swing of things.

Barefoot Bowls is seriously good fun. It's also seriously good value - $15 includes two games of bowls, BBQ dinner and a big beer. Ohhhh, what a lovely beer. We lost both games big time, but our team, two of us and David and Daniel - two random New Zealanders, won prizes for making an awesome random team. Nice.

The Humble Vintage

Last sunny Thursday these bikes were spotted being ridden quite maniacally around Melbourne's CBD. Did you see them? Did you have to get out of their way quick-smart? These are just three of The Humble Vintage's twenty-or-so bikes for hire. I got to spend a couple of hours on the aqua ladies one, dodging cars and buses and equallly-manic cabs (or is it their drivers? not sure) around Melbourne. Terrific fun, especially cycling around the wide paths of waterside Docklands.

Paris may have its Velib', Dublin may have its Dublinbikes (two point five stars for creative name) and Spain's Seville has Sevici, but we have The Humble Vintage (btw, ours is operated by mere mortal Matt Hurst, rather than corporate giant JCDecaux). They cost $30 a day to rent and can be picked in da CBD, Fitzroy and St Kilda. Matt's mug and story is in the current edition of hotspots guide (http://blog.thatsmelbourne.com.au/category/hot-spots/).

Viva la Vintage Bika! (www.thehumblevintage.com)

NEW! YUCK!

Milo bars are 99c at Piedemontes, North Fitzroy, this week, so I bought one (first time in ages), salivating at the thought of those tiny pebbles of Milo spilling out... But no! Its new formula is a soggy mess of "Milo choc brownie, smooth caramel and crunchy Milo balls". No crunch, no joy. Oh Nestle, why?

Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes

Ahhhhh, a newly re-hard-drive-ed MacBook. Thanks MacFolk on Flinders Street, Melbourne, for their hard work. It's not really called MacFolk (but it could be).

Had two bits in M Mag in The Sunday Age yesterday: one on Dear Gladys, a sweet second-hand retro clothing shop in Northcote, and a travel piece on the Blues Train. In the company of friends I've been calling it the Booze Train, but that's more to do with my drinking habits and the following day's hangover.

Which reminds me, FebFast is almost over. I was at the launch of Queen, The Unseen Archive in Ballarat last week (Queen fans will love it, and, just so you know, Peter Hince, the ex-roadie/photographer, is a truly lovely guy) and, launch being a launch, there was plenty of free alcohol. Thankfully, Ballarat is close to Hepburn Springs and I've been enjoying drinking the locally bottled mineral water (from the Daylesford and Hepburn Mineral Springs Co.), so I drank it throughout the evening. The message on their website says: "From the other side of Melbourne not the other side of the world" (www.dhmsco.com.au), and I say "About time". It's yum.

MacBook

My new MacBook (delivered last October) has been causing me nothing but grief. Oh, okay, there were some wonderful times, including being able to watch DVDs on my laptop again (my old MacBook had run out of 'DVD regions', which is very boring, and no matter what program I downloaded, I was still only able to watch the US zone thanks to an imported copy of Flight of The Conchords), but generally, that rainbow circle of doom was appearing way too often for my liking, and the blue screen of doom at start-up was also a reoccurring reality.

I sent my MacBook off to surgery last week, and the surgeons diagnosed a bung hard drive. Mild panic. I did attempt to back up my data, but we'll see. Nothing like a fresh start! Here's a picture of my older computer (circa late 2006). I didn't realise how much I'd missed it until I started typing on it again.

x x

p.s FebFast is going well! Seventeen days in, and pretty happy about that. Sure, I'm a little more uptight (just ask my editor), quite paranoid and taking life a little more seriously, but that's life without alcohol. Bring on AlcoMarch!