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Is there anything more glorious than an outdoor pool on a summer day once the festivities are behind us! December brought many joys with a swim at the local pool, festive markets and lights, the effusive farewells after catching up with friends for the last time before Christmas, helping clean the history society's Bluestone Cottage before it was closed til the start of February, summer, reading a P D James novel, a Christmas Day that was cool enough for me to wear an reindeer sweater. I have written posts on Christmas eating and outings but today am just catching up on some of the less festive outings that reminded us that life goes on beyond Christmas.
To read more about my Christmas, check out these posts:
- Christmas day, food and presents 2025
- Christmas sights and lights in Melbourne 2025
- Festive Art on Windows, Sydney Road Brunswick 2025
- Coburg Night Market 2025
- In My Kitchen: December 2025 (including New Year's Eve)
Lucky Little Dumplings (Coburg) and Wicked: for good
After an appointment for Sylvia, we went to Lucky Little Dumplings (T101/1 Champ St, Pentridge) for our favourite dishes: fried rice, pan fried vegetable buns, edamame and crispy eggplant bites in sweet and sour chilli sauce. Once full of delicious food, we went next door to the Pentridge Palace Cinemas to see Wicked: for good (part 2). It was very enjoyable with lots of beautiful views and plot twists but not quite as amazing as the part 1 Wicked movie.
Tylers Milkbar, Preston (So fresh and so green)
We had a lunch at Tylers Milkbar (656 Plenty Road, near the corner of Tyler Road). My lunch was a variation on an open sandwich. Named "So fresh and so green", it was a splendid green vision described as a "whipped cream
cheese, asparagus, smoked almond dukkah, radish, spinach topped upon an
English muffin - dressed with our magical green sauce". I also had a couple of slabs of their wonderful tofu bacon on the side. A lovely addition to their summer menu.
Tylers Milkbar, Preston (salad sandwich)
While at Tylers, Sylvia had the Sally's Right Ham Sanga. She swapped the ham for tofu bacon to add to the fillings of kraut, herb butter, dijon mustard, lettuce, cucumber, tomato and cheese. She told me it was a good basic salad sandwich but better!
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Coburg Night Market
We love going to the Coburg Night Market every year. It is great for Christmas shopping but also a great place for food trucks and the ambience of community gathering on a summer evening. You can read more about it at this post on the Coburg Night Market 2025.
Childhood memories
I saw this vinyl copy of Patsy Biscoe's 50 nursery rhymes in Zikkies Community Store in Coburg and had to resist buying it for sentimental purposes. We had that album when I was a kid and loved it so much. I still remember loving hearing the clip clop of the horse and Patsy's serenely talking to us about seeing the milkman's horse before singing about it at a time when such delivery horses were clearly remembered by my parents' generation. I used to have a copy of the album, that probably was the one from my childhood, but it got so tattered that it went put out some years ago. There is so much temptation and nostalgia in an op shop.
Pet store kittens
While buying our Christmas tree, we dropped in at the pet store for some turkey treats for Shadow. It was the time of year for cute kittens to be on sale to those who I hope know that a kitten is not just for Christmas. Sylvia would have loved one in her stocking but, even though Shadow is enough for us, he unfortunately would not fit in a stocking.
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Festival Art on Windows, Brunswick
I enjoyed checking out the Festive Art on Windows in Sydney Road. The above photo is of fun festive fruit on the window of La Manna Fresh fruit and veg shop. They remind me of Kevin the Carrot and friends in the Aldi Christmas commercials in the UK. You can see more photos at my post: Festive Art on Windows, Sydney Road Brunswick 2025
Mokum, Brunswick
I had a fantastic lunch at Mokum (359 Sydney Road), a Dutch cafe with swirling Van Gough inspired artwork and a Dutch proverb chalked on the wall that translated to English read "it's like angels pissing on your tongue". A tempeh sandwich had tempted me and I took along my friend Kerin for our last catch up before Christmas. I chose the "Weed Prtezel" ($19) from the Broodjes | In-Bread section of the menu. The waitress had to check if there was a pretzel roll left. I was very glad that it had. While I loved the wakame and hemp crusted tempeh with the satesaus, vegan mayo, crunchy slaw and roquette, the hero of the meal as the pretzel. It was wonderfully soft and chewy at the same time as great pretzels are. Kudos also to the satesaus (sate sauce) that give richness and flavour to the sandwich. I also paid $7 for a side salad which was the perfect accompaniment with lovely chopped vegies on lettuce leaves. And my ruby peach and camomile iced tea ($7) was pleasing and unusual. Kerin had a charcuterie board that looked attractive but was too much flesh for me.
Coburg Farmers Market
We went to Coburg Farmers Market just before Christmas and admired many more stalls such as this one by Cooking with Koji, which I had not seen before. It was beautifully displayed and although I avoided temptation, I hope to have opportunities in the future to buy from her.
Lunch in Geelong
After the market, we drove to Geelong to have lunch with my parents. My mum had bought some great salads from Pollo Patisserie in Packington Street: a pumpkin and couscous salad, a Persian rice salad with greens, and our favourite was a green salad of peas, broccolin and asparagus. I took down an amazing pumpkin sourdough loaf from the Inner West Swedish Baker at the Coburg Farmers Market. We also enjoyed mince pies made by my mum and cinnamon and cardamom buns from the Swedish baker. Sylvia went to check out a new Salvos op shop with my dad while I had a chat to my mum.
Hotel Lincoln, Carlton
On my last day in the office before my Christmas holidays I had a lovely lunch with a large group at the Hotel Lincoln (91 Cardigan Street, corner of Queensberry Street). It is a long time since I have been to that pub but was still stylish with an interesting menu. I had the Stracciatella, roasted beetroot, sweet potato crisps, walnuts and honey with toasted sourdough ($24). It was unsual and very good, albeit I wished there had been less creamy cheese and more toppings. At first sight it looked small but was very satisfying with the generous chunks of bread.
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Yoway Frozen Yoghurt, Highpoint Shopping Centre
On 27 December, when I was not keen to go out ever again, Sylvia dragged me out to the horrors of finding a carpark at Highpoint Shopping Centre, Maribyrnong. I was somewhat mollified when we found some great bargains in the sales and I finally got to replace my spare car key. We stopped for lunch followed by a visit to Yoway. All these frozen yoghurt places look alike but I was tempted because this one had a Dubai chocolate option for topping my yoghurt. I was most pleased with my chocolate yoghurt, dubai chocolate paste, oreo crumbs, strawberries, nutella, pistachio sauce and a wafer stick. It was the best self serve fro-yo I have ever had.
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Brunswick Swimming Baths
The rest of the days of Twixmas were mercifully quiet and relaxing with reading, bike rides, tv and a swim at the . A photo of the inviting blue pool is at the top but I also took some photos of the faded artwork on the brick walls (above and below). I wish I had seen this mural when it was new. These days it has faded and is partly covered by trees but I always find it intriguing.
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Listening and watching
- Podcast: The Making of Nazeem Hussain, Conversations on ABC Radio National
- Cinema: Gremlins at the Village Drive In
- Streaming: Love Hard - for the politically correct version of "Baby it's cold outside"
- Christmas song: "Marshmallow World" by Dean Martin
- YouTube: Donald Duck Corn Chips 1951
In the News
One of the biggest stories before Christmas was the tragedy of the Bondi shootings and the fallout. Otherwise it was mostly disappointing governments, fickle weather and round ups of the year. See more of the last on my Reflection on 2025 post. I dialed down my reading and listening to the news over December but here are a few choice articles:
Hate 2.0: The defining ideology of Trump 2.0, by Robert Reich substack, 31 December 2025.
Massacre as political theatre: our shameful national response to Bondi: Politicians and the media have seized on the Bondi tragedy to drag Australia further right by Amy Remeikis, The Point, 23 December 2025.
The welfare system isn’t just on fire, it’s burning out of control, Amy Remeikis, The Point, 11 December 2025.
The Year in Review: The paradox of Labor’s massive victory, by Eddy Jokovich and David Lewis, in New Politics, 31 December 2025.
Australia's favourite political test depends on who is at the pub, by Annabel Crabb, ABC News,
I called my recipe book Sabzi – vegetables. But the name was trademarked. And my legal ordeal began: The granting of patents and trademarks to foods and words from the global south is part of a long colonial grab, Yasmin Khan, The Guardian, 4 December 2025.
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