In My Kitchen: October 2026

Wow October was insane!  We had a holiday in a Canberra, medical appointments and lots of Halloween fun.  As the school term started, Sylvia got her school laptop repaired so she could power through her curriculum.  I had a small mole cut out of my heel because it was bothering me (but not cancerous) and learnt how slowly it takes to heal a heel.  My mum was in hospital with cellulitis, which is also taking some time to heal.  And our cat, Shadow, had a couple of collapsing episodes. Despite all this and work being busy, I was pleased I managed to try a few new recipes. I will write more about being out and about in My Monthly Chronicles, October 2026.

One morning late in October summed up some of the craziness of the month.  I heard from a former colleague that she had tested positive for covid after we had a cuppa outside a cafe the previous day, then booked our cat in for a heart ultrasound, set off to ride to work (past the back fence that is on the verge of collapse while I spent time getting quotes) and then fell off my bike when coming to a stop and hit my head.  All before getting to work at 10am.  Thank goodness for bike helmets, modern medicine and vets!

The top photo is of a Halloween soup that Sylvia made.  She spent some time painstakingly carving faces in the potatoes and mushrooms and cutting out the carrots into pumpkin shapes.  It was great fun, though the whole potatoes were hard to cook through.  The soup was really satisfying with tinned tomatoes, cannellini beans, peas and little pasta tubes.

We spent a week in the national capital,  Canberra.  The old parliament house gift shop had lots of good stuff so I bought the Dismissal postcard and a liberty handkerchief.  The weekend was chosen because Floriade was on.  so many flowers!  I was excited to by dried dragonfruit and Quandong chutney.  The chutney is so delicious with lots of peaches as well as quandongs.  It is great with cheese and crackers.

Our fridge is looking very cosmopolitan with magnets from around the world.  The green tulip is from Floriade in Canberra.  My brother bought the adorable bag of baguettes from Paris.  My older sister bought the magnet form Sweden with cakes superimposed on the flag.  I would have loved one from the ABBA museum but Sylvia was delighted, especially with the princess cake.  And my middle sister brought us home a couple of brightly coloured round hats from Vietnam.

We quite enjoy the Health Lab sweet treats.  They have a lovely Dubai Choc choc covered protein balls.  I love them as they are a very pleasing chewy chocolaty ball of coconut and ground nuts with a swirl of creamy protein centre and a coating of chocolate.  The packaging is fun with each individual pack having the tongue-in-cheek note: "sharing, never heard of it".  They make Sylvia sad because she would love to have one but they have peanuts.

Instead of the protein balls, Sylvia has developed a taste for Health Lab's smaller Dubai Chocolate "diamonds".  These don't have peanuts nor do the Dubai Choc cheesecake protein bars.  We tried one of the bars but it was not as good as our protein balls and diamonds.  With sampling pistachio treats, Sylvia also tried a snackboy protein ball which are described as "A white choc dough ball with a creamy pistachio core, finished with a sprinkle of pistachio crumb."

If only I had more energy for this olive brine and cashew feta.  Above is the blended mixture before it is cooked on the stovetop.   It is not the quickest recipe but it gives a lovely finish to so many dishes.  It goes really well with what Sylvia calls Zucchini Orzotto (from the Plant Bowls where they call it Creamy Courgette Orzo).  We have loved it so much that a couple of weeks ago she tried a Creamy Miso and Mushroom Orzo.  It is every bit as amazingly delicious as the zucchini version and also goes very well with this feta.

On a whim, we went to Croixssant Bakery (185 Mt Alexander Rd, Flemington) on a day when the rain had dampened our plans to go elsewhere.  By the time we got there they were closing in 15 minutes so it was slim pickings.  I had one of the specials, Mi Goreng Brulee croissant.  There were Mi Goreng noodles inside with a bruleed cheese topping.  There were also some crunchy noodles on top.  It was as delicious as it was unusual.  All the vegan specials had gone (including the vegan version of the Mi Goreng Brulee) so Sylvia had the pain au chocolate.  It was not so unusual but who turns up their nose at excellent pastry with a chocolate filling! 

After a hospital visit, I needed comfort food.  Parking is like finding a needle in a haystack and I had taken time off work for what ended up being a long wait for a very short consultation.  We headed to the nearby Baguette Studio (15-27 Wreckyn Street, North Melbourne).  It was busy with many hospital workers in scrubs and others seeking refuge from the clinical landscape.  My cheeseymite pastry twist and pumpkin honey scone were excellent.  They don't have much in the way of vegan baked goods but Sylvia was happy with her vegan bacon baguette.

I am interested to try more vegan fritters that Sylvia can eat.   These Vegan Pea Patties  from micadeli seemed an easy alternative.  The mixture was pureed and so soft that it was hard to flip the patties on the frypan.  I added more flour which helped a little.  If I made them again, I would try to only puree a little of the peas and chickpeas to give more heft and texture.  More successful the potato salad that I made to go with it.  The salad was delicious with - potato salad with lots of peas, asparagus, spring onions, cornichons, pickled onion, some onion brine, lemon juice and oil.

Another new recipe I tried was a Vegan Filipino Pancit Bihon from Sweet Simple Vegan.  I am not familiar with cuisine from the Philippines.  It particularly appealed because Jasmine writes about how she had this about once a week as a child.  Traditionally it is made with bihon or rice stick noodles but she suggested substituting vermicelli.

It was not the easiest dish to make.  There were so many steps: frying the tempeh (she used vegan chicken), chopping all the vegetables, soaking the noodles, frying the onions, frying the vegetables, cooking the vermicelli noodles in soy sauce and stock, cooking it altogether and adding lemon and spring onions at the end.  

One useful shortcut was frying the tempeh in the airfryer.  I sliced the 300g slab of tempeh into a two thinner sheets of tempeh that I could chop up and fit in my airfryer basket if I crowded them in.  With a spray of oil and a pinch of salt, it came out (mostly) uniformly golden brown and I could do other things while it fried.

This is how my vegan filipino pancit bihon turned out.  My noodles looked darker than Jasmine's but they were delicious.  I can see how she could eat them often and how they could be comfort food.  They were even great cold for lunch the next day.  Sylvia is already requesting them again.  I am sure I will cook them again.  The main change I would make is to cook the vegetables a bit longer and remember to add a drizzle of sesame oil.

October is Halloween in our house.  One of the seasonal purchases was this can of Fanta with The Scream on the label.  Sylvia also put up some decorations and bought a new witchy bunting from Friends and Enemies at 639 Plenty Road, Preston.  This is the shopfront for Gold Street Press who held a Halloween film night at True North (with a spooky themed menu, a bingo card for the film (The Craft) and a door prize.  Sylvia and her dad really enjoyed the food, the film and the ambience.

One night after work I was greeted with a spooky jack o lantern red pepper filled the pasta salad that Sylvia had made.  She knows how to make food fun!

In Canberra we were excited to discover the Dibble cheese sauce in a bottle with the instructions: squeeze, heat, melt.  It seemed such a great idea.  Unfortunately we were disappointed with the melt and the flavour. 

 

We had a great opportunity to try out the Dibble cheese when Sylvia made Halloween pizzas.  It looked really promising when she used it to make spider webs and eyes with olives for irises.  When both pizzas came out of the oven the cheese had not held its shape when it melted.  I know this is often a problem with cheese but this sauce really spread.  Despite this the pizzas looked spooky with the olive pizzas on the spiderweb one and on the other Sylvia had also added mushroom skulls and she made pumpkins with orange capsicum and asparagus stalks.

On the night of Halloween Sylvia gathered the vegan candies she had from Smith and Deli (raspberry and banana jubes), the supermarket (Sour patch gummy kids) a random bowl of freebies at My Dream Cake shop in Sunshine (the Eyeball pack of small candies), the Friends and Enemies (small pumpkin candies), Tylers Milkbar (the warhead) and the lollypops she was given when we stopped to photograph impressive Halloween decorations at a local house. 

I am sending this post to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen event. If you would like to join in, send your post to Sherry by 13th of the month.  Or just head over to her blog to visit more kitchens and enjoy her delightful spring greenery hand drawn header.  Thanks to Sherry for continuing to host this event that brings together some wonderful bloggers who share glimpses into their kitchens.   

Remembering Alex and Ian 19

Today we remember our sons, Alex and Ian, who were born and died 19 years ago on this day.  It's been many years now of wondering about the lives they could have lived, considering the lost possibilities and wishing I could live those lost moments with them. We have had cake which I will share soon.

As I do each year, I am sharing articles relating to stillbirth where experiences are shared and many have generously worked to make life easier for those who have had stillbirths:

Woman's miscarriage and stillbirth prompt 900km walk to raise awareness and money for cuddle cots ABC News 22 November 2025. 

Mie nurse aims to provide coffins to grieving mothers of stillborn babies, The Japan Times, 20 April 2026.

Couple set up charity for grieving parents after daughter's stillbirth, BBC News, July 2026.

Parents of stillborn baby channel grief into advocacy for health system improvements, CBC News, 23 December 2025

Wedding dresses become angel gowns for babies lost to miscarriage, stillbirth, AL.com (Alabama, USA), 8 January 2026.

Ashleigh was 39 weeks pregnant and getting her final scan. Then the obstetrician went silent, Mama Mia, 7 February 2026. (great insights into how one family handled bereavement)

Aussie mum and influencer Danielle Mitchell shares heartbreaking update with fans after difficult pregnancy, Perth Now, 23 June 2026.

One mother's story of stillbirth, miscarriage, and the courage to try again, Daily Nation (Kenya), 15 July 2026 

‘Grief becomes a routine’: Farhana lost five babies. A ‘culture of silence’ exacerbated her pain, The Guardian, 6 September 2016.

New $100 Million Initiative to Halve Stillbirth Rates Launched by Gates and Wellcome Leap, Health Policy Watch, 13 October 2026.

Clunes: Bottle Museum, Cafe 52 and shopping including Opsessed

After we visited the Vegemite Museum and Creswick in August, we drove on to Clunes.  Of all the places I had wanted to see, Clunes was the most special to me.  After spending time researching my great grandfather, it was special to be in the town where he grew up.  It is no longer the mining town that he knew as a youngster.  The the above impressive Clunes South Primary School building (above) is still there to make me proud of his association with the town.  This was our first port of call.
 

 

The Lee Medlyn Home of Bottles Collection (70 Bailey Street): The old school, built in 1880, now houses this bottle museum.  It arose out of Lee Medlyn's collection and now has over 6 thousand old bottles.  It doesn't sound that interesting but we were pleasantly surprised.  The museum is creative in the way it displays all the bottles and provides the insight into bottles I never knew I needed.

Clunes has a special place in the history of Australian gold mining because it was the site of Victoria's first registered gold discovery in 1850.  The museum has a darkened faux-rock tunnel you can walk through with displays of life during the gold rush dimly lit to imitate conditions down the mines.  My great grandfather came to Clunes to mine gold so I really enjoyed this evocative display.

A school room is set up with a display or ink bottles, old wooden desks, a blackboard and a diorama of a gold town.  This reflects the Clunes gold-mining township from the 1870s when the school building built. I also really loved the wall of artwork by Clunes Primary School children in 2008.  

We could not resist writing on the blackboard as had many other tourists before us.  In looking back, I realise that kids these days don''t have blackboards with dusty erasers that teachers throw at kids who aren't listening!

 

The diorama showed pride in Clunes' mining past.  It made me a little proud of my great grandfather who had hope for a new life in a new country full of gold!   The shops on the main street look so little compared to the mine snaking underneath it.

The above photo is a close up of the tiny details right down to the cat gazing up at the tall poppet head.  This was the framework at the top of the mineshaft.  In school we were taught that at first miners just used pans or cradles but as the surface gold grew harder to find, companies got more sophisticated in the gold mining techniques, as you can see in the photo.

 

Between its past life as a primary school and present life as a bottle museum, the building housed a knitting mill.  The mill, which started in the school building in 1923, was important to the town when many were leaving as the gold mining dwindled.  It lasted for many decades with a handful of different owners.  The current museum has a small display of the industrial history of Clunes.

History is also represented in many of the bottle displays.  I particularly enjoyed this set up as an old bar with beer taps, glasses and mats in from of a large mirror and of course shelves of old bottles.  This represents all the pubs that would have been in Clunes during the gold rush.  My favourite bottles in this room were the Vintage Soda Siphon/Seltzer Bottles with Wire Mesh and the fish shaped bottle.

There were stories of Lee Medlyn's collection of bottles that was behind the museum, including some of his finds such as the old stock at a chemist.  There were tales of other finds.  However one noticed warned us to leave old bottles where they were found so that archeologists could understand the context of artifacts.

Clay bottles were fired in a kiln with a salt glaze.  The manufacture of clay bottles was outlawed in the mid Nineteenth Century because it was impossible to see if the contents of the opaque bottles were contaminated..

The elegantly thin old salad dressing bottles were presented in a way that made me marvel at their beauty.  Or perhaps they just looks so lovely compared to our chunky bottles that salad dressing is sold in with their loud clamouring labels.

There was much to learn about the history of bottles.  The discovery of how to make clear glass was followed by solving the problem of ink fading in a clear bottle.  Jacob Schweppes' brilliant idea in 1792 to keep air in water, despite not being able to keep the gas in a bottle.  Hiram Codd winning the British Post Office award for inventing a bottle that would stand up and keep gas in the bottle that kept the water fizzy. These bottle resulted in the Australian companies beginning to produce aerated water in 1873.

Not only were there pages here and there about the history and science of glass but there were also some really cool heritage labels on these beautiful bottles.  While I love history, Sylvia's passion is for the beautiful coloured glass.  There were so many amazing shaped and coloured bottles as you can see above.  Sylvia loved the coloured bottles so much that she bought one from the shelves of bottles for sale by the counter.

We spent so long at the bottle museum that we didn't have time for the Clunes Museum in the main street.  (see the building with substantial verandah on the left  of the above photo.)  That will have to wait for another visit.    

Cafe 52 (52 Fraser Street): We were too tired for the museum but ready for some food.  So instead we headed to Cafe 52 for lunch.  It was good to rest our feet.  By then it was was after 2pm and the cafe was fairly empty.  It was so lovely to sit in the quiet and admire the archways, wooden furniture, exposed brickwork and greenery.  

The drinks were as good as any you can find in inner city Melbourne cafes.  We ordered drinks.  Sylvia had an iced soy blueberry matcha.  It came in pretty layers and was an amazing blue when she stirred them together, as you can see below.  I had a wonderfully refreshing Fever Tree ginger beer.

Our meals were excellent too.  I had the Green Bowl with quinoa, avocado, spinach, roasted sweet potato, grilled broccoli, pickled onion, and house-made hummus.  All these vegetables were exactly what I needed.  Such a good meal.  And so beautiful and colourful.  

The soup of the day was leek and potato.  Like my meal it was presented with style and tasted lovey.  Sylvia was delighted.

By the time we left, the cafe was closing.  It quite a big space.  In addition to the tables and chairs we sat on with the long view of the cafe, there were old leather armchairs by the brick fireplace and a long communal table complete with globe of the world and a Swiss cheese plant.  This was the pick of the cafes in Clunes and would no doubt fill up earlier in the day.

Clunes Shopping: After lunch we enjoyed a little bit of wandering around the shops.  The 

I quite enjoyed the many rooms of Timeless Harmony (65 Fraser Street) across the road from Cafe 52.  It had a delightful abundance of bric a brac, clothes, jewellery, books, crockery, candles, cushions, garden pots and decorations.

In the above photo you can see some of the offerings of Opsessed - best second hand shop name (55 Fraser Street).  It is a treasure trove of eclectic and whimsical bric a brac crammed into the an attractive display.  I loved the vintage dressers full of retro and fun gifts.
  

While Sylvia was looking at the shops, I had a walk along the main drag, called Fraser St.  Clunes time of neglect when the gold started to run out meant that the heritage facade of this street is pretty much intact. Many vintage shopfronts and the below grand buildings.  Above is the Madam Saddler Guest House that looked very impressive from the outside.  Maybe we will stay there one day.  Then we were ready to set out on the 2 hours drive home.  

We will be back to Clunes.  Maybe I will even get along to the Clunes Booktown Festival one year.  At one stage in Clunes' history it was in steep decline.  Today, many years many after gold was discovered here, it is impressive that this little country town is thriving with magnificent heritage buildings, great museums, good food and excellent shopping.  

More from the our roadtrip:

Creswick: museum, farmers market, pizza and the American Hotel

Cyril Callister Vegemite Museum, Beaufort

Quick pickled onions (and ABC top 100 Australian Books)

 

In a busy weekend, one of the best  things I did was pickle red onions while listening to the countdown of the ABC Top 100 Australian Books.  I wish my life had more of these moments.  I really want to be able to slow down my life to create and embellish.  This was a double whammy with home made pickled onions making every meal better and books making life better!  So here are some reflections on the good things in life!

I have been making these quick pickled onions a lot lately.  It is fairly simple but I still need to just check my notes.  It has made this one of my essential posts to get published.  Above are my ingredients: red wine red onions, vinegar, salt, sugar, mustard seeds and black peppercorns.  The photo of these together illustrates the hotch-potch of containers in which I keep my pantry ingredients.

Making the pickled onions is very simple.  One of the most challenging parts is to slice the onion thinly.  Firstly I need to remember not to chop the onion in half first.  Whole rings of onion are so satisfying.  I love seeing the disk of sliced onion with the many rings telling a story of growth, just like the marks on a cross-section of a tree does.  After I had made my pickled onions a few times I saw that Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes blog, who inspired me to make these, pulls her onion rings apart.  I couldn't bear to break up those gorgeous swirly slices.  They come apart easily enough without help.

The pickling brine is easy.  Chuck a few things in a saucepan, bring it to the boil and pour over the jar of raw onions.  We have found that the colour of the pickled onions depends partly on their hue when raw.  I think that the colour might deepen over time too.  Pickled onions look so beautiful and brighten up any meal.

Pickled onions have added flavour and flair to thesen meals (listed in order of the photographs below):

• Rice bowl with Mexican spiced rice, chickpea tofu, marinated tempeh, tofu scramble, lettuce, grated carrot, cabbage.
• Snack plate with vita-wheat crackers, cheese, celery and red capsicum.
• Pizza with tomato sauce, mushrooms, red capsicum, olives, pineapple and cheese
• Bean Miso Pasta with peas, roasted pumpkin, broccolini, pickled onion.
  
  

The brilliant colour of pickled onions pops out from a bowl of coloured vegetables in such a pleasing manner.  It is such a simple way to really jazz up a meal.  I could have shared so many photos of meals here.  We add them to so many meals.  I limited myself to just a few.  You can see many more throughout my blog over the last few months.  In fact, I am worried my meal photos are getting a bit samey with wanting to put pickled onions on so many.  But that is a first world problem!

This above snack food photo is a good one to segue to the leisurely idea of listening to the ABC top 100 Australian books.  People were texting in how they were listening.  I too would have loved to have been crocheting with a cuppa tea, like some of the listeners.  Instead I grabbed moments when I could turn on the radio while driving to and from a family afternoon tea in Geelong and doing the dishes at home.  It was great to be part of a rare national moment that wasn't sport or politics.  

It is sad less and less people are into reading these days.  Busy lives and screens leave little room for picking up a book.  Last year I found I read an alarmingly small number of books (4).  I was so sad at the idea of a life without books that I have made more of an effort this year to read more.  There is nothing so satisfying as reading a book in bed before getting up in the morning.  I don't have time to read in bed all day until I finish the book as I used to when younger.  But I feel that reading makes me feel calmer and (mostly) more optimistic about the world.  It focuses me on our humanity rather than the terrifying apocalypse of angry politics, AI and violence in the news.
 

I also love a list.  The ABC has done quite a few top 100 book lists of different themes.  I particularly loved that this one was Australian authors, even those who are now ex-pats.  I poured over the BC Top 100 Australian Books list and counted how many I had read.  I think I have read half of them.  There were some books I am unsure if I have read or just seen so often or seen them on screen but I did not count these.  There were others I had meant to read, even one or two in my pile of books to read.  I had read 8 of the top ten, had to stop midway through one and always meant to read another.  

The idea of listening to a countdown of 100 books seems a bit dull.  I was impressed at how entertaining the ABC broadcast managed to be.  It was fascinating to hear them speak to the author or talk to those who knew them or played archival clips of their reflections.  I found it quite nostalgic to hear about books that were part of the story of my life.  The number one book was Cloud Street by Tim Winton which I marvelled at the evocative language and ramshackle family life when I read it as a student.  

These books were part of my childhood (Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner); written about at school (Tirra Lirra by the River by Jessica Anderson); studied in university literature tutorials (The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead), discussed in book club (The Narrow Road to the Deep South by Richard Flanagan), loaned to me by my mum (The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams).  It made me proud to see some of the amazing Australian authors with multiple books in the list: Helen Garner, Hannah Kent, Geraldine Brooks, Anna Funder, Ruth Park and Mem Fox, to name just a few.  It makes me want to just sit and read for hours.  Which of course I haven't had (made) time for!
 

These pickled onions reminded me just how easy and satisfying it is to have picked vegetables in the kitchen.  They pep up everything: sandwiches, rice bowls, salads, pasta, risotto, casseroles, anything!  We have had them in the fridge most of the time over the past few months.  When I have been busy recently I didn't make them for a couple of weeks.  Then I had a sandwich with cheese, roast pumpkin, lettuce and mayo.  It was good but would have been so much better with pickled onions.  After that I whipped up a batch and wondered why it had taken me so long to make something so simple.  I know many people make these regularly and I am delighted to join the pickling posse!

More brown onion recipes (that could be converted to red onions) on Green Gourmet Giraffe:

Beetroot and caramelised onion galette with vegan mozzarella (v)  

Cheese and onion beer bread

Cheese, onion and potato pasties (Tiddly Oggies) 

Gravy (gf, v)    

No Tears Onion Soup - Turkish style 

Quick Pickled Onions
Adapted from Love and Lemons and Tinned Tomatoes
Makes about a 500ml jar

2 red onions
2/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black peppercorns
1/4 tsp mustard seeds

Trim, peel and finely slice onions.  (I do this with a chef's knife but it would also work with a mandolin).  Pile onions into a clean 500ml jar and set aside.  Heat remaining ingredients over high in small saucepan until it boils.  Pour slowly into the jar of onions, use a spoon to press the onions down into the liquid to make sure they are fully submerged.  Screw on the lid tightly.  Once cooled, store  in fridge for a few weeks.  Eat on everything!

Notes:

• You will end up with onion flavoured vinegar (brine) but it is a bit watered down.  
• My favourite thing so do with leftover brine is to reuse it for more pickled onions more than once.  The vinegar has lots of flavour but has been watered.  When I reuse it I usually add in some extra red vinegar.  If you want to measure, top it up with vinegar until you have 1 cup and 1 or 2 tbsp.  I then heat it until it comes to the boil and repeat pouring it over a jar of raw sliced red onions.  
• The leftover brine can also be used for salad dressing: I like to add some vinegar and olive oil and am still playing around with this.  I have also made a small amount of salad dressing when I have had a tablespoon or so that will not fit into the jar.

On the stereo:
Picaresque: Decembrists 

My Monthly Chronicles: September 2026

September was a fun month with a formal, fathers day and a focaccia platter.  It ended with a beginning as we headed on a road trip to Canberra.  And more in between.  It was a lot!  More about that next month.  Above is a photo from our road trip stop in Wangaratta with a wonderful spring park that we looked over as we had lunch at Paulie's (see more about it below).

I have been rather slow with this post this month because life has been so busy but also because my edit view on blogger has gone a little haywire, making it harder to format than usual. 

To read more about my eating this month, read my In My Kitchen: September 2026 post.

Eat Pierogi Make Love
161 Lygon St, Brunswick East 

It made me very proud to see Sylvia dress up and have fun at her school formal.  There wasn't much vegan food on offer at the event so we went home via Eat Pierogi Make Love who offer excellent vegan options.  Their pierogi is so good with fun toppings and sauces.  We were so happy with our order: 

• Placki Frytki: potato and sauerkraut fries, based on a traditional Polish pancake recipe. Served with caramelised onion sour cream. ($12), 
• Ziemniak Pierogi filled with jalapeno, potato and mozzarella, boiled and served with vegan sour cream and salsa ($26).
• Kapusta Pierogi filled with mushroom and sauerkraut, pan fried, served with celeriac skwarki and celeriac, apple and onion purèe ($28)

It was a cold night so I was very happy to wash it down with a warming mulled wine.
 

Cornish Arms
163A Sydney Road, Brunswick

I had really looked forward to seeing my friend Alison for dinner at the Cornish Arms pub on Sydney Road.  Unfortunately Sylvia and I were tired after a busy week and were not at our best.  I was too tired to even order well when I agreed to her having Mac and Cheese Bites with  Fries as well as Vegan Katsu Chickn Sando which came with more fries.  That meant that leftovers were certain.  I also enjoyed my Nourish Bowl of sushi rice, tofu, miso roasted sweet potato, edamame, avocado and pickled ginger.

Father Day
Geelong

I drove down to Geelong for a Fathers Day afternoon tea with my family.  My mum made great scones with jam and cream and a sponge, and my sister Fran (who took the above photo) made deliciously gooey chocolate caramel slice with peanut butter in the caramel.

Trippy Taco
234 Gertrude St, Fitzroy

It was good to get back to Trippy Taco for some Mexican street food.  We shared the Mixed taco meal with two black bean tacos and two char grilled tofu (asada) taco.  I wasn't so keen on the tofu seasoning and much preferred the black beans but Sylvia swung the other way.  Both of us agreed that of all the savoury dishes the very best was the Heart attack trippy fries with salsa, vegan cheese, guacamole, and vegan sour cream.  I think nacho fries might be a more accurate name but nowhere near so poetic and scary!  The place was busy with a large group which gave it a nice buzz.

When I wrote about visiting Trippy Taco in 2013, I vowed to return to try the dessert tamale.  It has taken me 13 years but fortunately the place is still going strong and it was worth the wait.  The sweet tamale, steamed in a corn husk and served with vegan nutella and vegan ice cream was amazing.  Luckily we shared it as I was quite full by then.  It was so so good!

Melbourne Tram Blockage of 1990

Ever since I moved to Melbourne as an eighteen year old, I have loved the trams of Melbourne.  The cheerful and quirky conductors were as much a part of trams as the dinging when they start up and the screech of metal on metal when they turned a corner.  I was really interested to hear Greg Gardiner talk about "Melbourne and Coburg Trams" at the monthly Coburg Historical Society meeting this month.  I am not the only fan of trams; this was one of the most popular talks I have seen since I joined the society a couple of years ago.  I might have bought Greg Gardiner's tram history if the queue had not been so long.

One important moment about tram history that Greg touched on was the Melbourne tram blockade in 1990.  The state government tried to introduce scratchie tickets so they could get rid of conductors on 1 January 1990.  The tram workers responded by taking over trams and not charging passengers.  In response on 2 January, the government cut the power of the tram network.  Before they did, the workers drove 250 trams to part in the main street of the city as a protest.  It took 33 days before the tram power was reinstated.  I remember it well and was very angry that trams were no longer to have conductors.  I did not live far from the city and was amazed at the sight of so many trams nose to trail along Bourke Street that you can see in the above photo.  

You can read more about the blockade in The Age Newspaper in the articles From the Archives, 1990: Melbourne's tram blockade and Back to the days when the trams stood still.

Roadworks on Moreland Road

These days I ride my bike more than I take trams.  This above photo is of roadworks on Moreland Road near the train line.  The bike track has been detoured for weeks.  I am really tired of it and not knowing when it will end.  

Olivia Spring
637 Mt Alexander Rd, Moonee Ponds

We were in Ascot Vale for an appointment.  Moonee Ponds is only a hop, skip and a jump away.  Olivia Spring has such a huge menu, we wanted to try of their dishes for lunch.  When I ordered a noodle salad with lots of vegies and chunks of fried lemongrass tofu.  And Sylvia ordered spring rolls to share but she as less keen on them.  Fortunately there was also lots of good food to eat.  She was delighted with vegan barbecued pork bahn mi and I enjoyed my tofu and veg as well as the spring rolls.  

Vegan Market
Coburg Town Hall, Bell Street

The vegan market at Coburg Town Hall lured us back with its delicious food and convenient location.  We met Faye there and bought lots of great food.  Again we took a tub with us.  By the time we left it was filled with Biscoff cheesecake from The Kindness Echoes, Raspberry cruffin from Alex a Baker,  Chocolate caramel tart from Gingersnap Patisserie, Dubai chocolate brownie from Sweet Little Tings,  In my photo you can also see the Kindness Echoes Cheesecake and Vanilla slice, and Alex a Baker's cruffin and Cinnamon bun.  

We took home so many delicious treats.  The vegan cheesecake was impressive.  Not all vegan cheesecakes are equal!  Our caramel tart melted by the time we got home but was very good and the brownie is a favourite of mine.

After our purchases, we went out the front to buy lunch from the food trucks.  As we waited I enjoyed the busker who was scatting with lots of warm and entertaining observations about the people about him.  Then we took our lunch inside where we caught up.  (I was going to say chewed the fat but that might sound like it was what we were eating rather than a turn of phrase).

Sylvia and I had great vegan toasties from Bean Brewed.  I loved how they were named.  My Vegemite and cheese toastie was called the Bogan ($10).  And Sylvia had the the Reuben Hood ($16) with pastrami, sauerkraut, mustard and cheese.  Faye enjoyed a massive Berlin Doner Kebab from Oh my Doner.  We picked at a little of sweet food and then took the rest home.

Green Man's Arms
418 Lygon Street, Carlton

I was pleased to try the vegan roast at Green Man's Arms last month.  I had promised Sylvia she would also get the chance to try it so we were back in September.  She had the roast.  I was very happy that she got the chance to try an excellent Yorkshire pudding after only having had one very stodgy one.  She thought the lentil and nut roast was amazing.  

I wanted to try more of the menu and ordered the Chorizo focaccia plate.  It was an attractive arrangement of slices of amazing soft focaccia, discs of their in-house chorizo, cashew feta in a lettuce leaf, lots of yummy pickled veg and a generous dollop of hummus with wonderful crispy chickpeas.  There was too much of the feta which I found a bit bland and not enough of the focaccia which I could have eaten forever.
 

 

For dessert we had the vegan Basque Cheesecake with lemon curd ($18).  I am not usually a fan of lemon curd but the cheesecake needed the tart fruity sauce.  It was good but not as great as the Kindness Echoes one at the Vegan Market.  But we really loved our mocktails.  Sylvia had a velvety fruity Baby Peach and mine was a refreshing mint and lime flavoured Ginger Julep with lots of fizz.

Ballards
915 High Street, Thornbury

When Ballards announced their pop-up sandwich Sunday lunch, Sylvia was excited and I had a voucher for their food as a leaving gift from my old workplace.  (Best leaving gift ever!)  We got there 30 minutes after they opened and queued for about another half an hour.  Then we were given a table in the sun and asked to change.  That was a lesson about changing tables because it confused the staff and our order was forgotten.  We were starving by the time we got our food but it was worth the wait.

The first dish that was served was The Seer: a Pear & almond frangipane tart ($10).  It was odd to get dessert first and made us think that something was weird with our order.  It was the last thing we ate and absolutely divine.  Frangipanie is such a treat and the pear was just perfectly soft and melt in the mouth.  Next we had The Burning World: Shoestring fries, pepper cream gravy & feta ($14).

Sylvia had the Filth: Marinated lion's mane, roast peppers, chimichurri, chili cheese sauce, rocket & pickles and I had the Holy Money: fried lemongrass sausage, mushroom påté, sauerkraut, cucumber. coriander & pickled red chili dressing.  Twenty dollars each seems a lot for a sandwich but these were generous fillings in huge slabs of focaccia with amazing textures and flavours.  I really loved the house made sausage and slaw.  It was not as spicy as I feared.  Sylvia loved hers too with the lions mane and accompaniments.  They were so filling we took half each home in a box.  Now that's what a I call a great sandwich.

Kevabs
89 Sydney Road, Brunswick 

 

When we were out all most of the day without eating and Sylvia suddenly found she was ravenous because she hadn't eaten since getting up, we had to make an emergency stop at Kevabs.  I could not resist the brownie.  Sylvia had a falafel kebab with a small pesto pasta on the side and a vanilla cupcake to follow.  She felt so much better after some good food.

Paulie's Corner Cafe
Shop 1, Corner Reid & Ovens St, Wangaratta,

On the last day of September we drove to Canberra.  We broke up our seven hour drive with lunch in Wangaratta at Paulie's.  It took a lot of research to find good vegan food in the country and this was excellent.  I think this was the only place along the way we could find with a vegan menu and lots of vegies.

Sylvia had the Poke bowl.  She was pleased she could substitute sushi rice for the soba noodles (because buckwheat allergy) which were served with  avo, pickled veg, cucumber, edamame, mushrooms, furikake, seaweed, Japanese sesame dressing and lime ($25).  It was not her perfect meal but had some elements she loved. 

My Nourish bowl of roasted pumpkin, beetroot hummus, avo, leaves, dukkah, falafel, tortilla, cucumber, edamame, cherry tomatoes, corn, red cabbage and green goddess dressing ($25) was really good.  Exactly what I needed after some wrong turns and to fortify me before I tried to check into the wrong hotel!  With a bit of luck I will find time to write more about some of the highlights of the trip!

Top: Yolanda's Bake Sale @ Queensberry Co-op: Spinach and feta scroll; Dong Dae Moon: Kimbap; Sister of Soul: Oreo cheesecake

Middle: True North: Cabbage Garden Salad; Flowers: South Melbourne Market; Times New Roman: Spaghetti with Napoli sauce

Bottom: Mr Nice Guys: Cinnamon scroll, Sister of Soul: Sunday Roast: Elektra: Matcha Milkshake

Died: Gloria Steinem, Richard O'Sullivan, Tim Read (Greens MP), Angry Anderson

In the News:

‘Timidity is a virus’: Paul Keating fights the fading of the light as he seeks to enshrine his legacy, The Guardian, 2 September 2026.

Lindsay Clancy’s case is a Rorschach test, by Moira Donegan,  in The Guardian, 7 September 2026.

Mamdani and Trump underscore a shift in 9/11 discourse 25 years later, Politico, 10 September 2026. 

Mary Kostakidis stared down the Zionist lobby, and courage won, Michael West Media, 11 September 2026. 

Data centres have existed for decades. So why are they so controversial now? The Conversation, 14 September 2026 

Victorian Greens MP Tim Read dies aged 64, ABC News, 19 September 2026. 

Donald Trump gave a speech that went largely unheard. It's part of a war with his press pool, ABC News, 22 September 2026. 

'We hear you, you were right': Ed Miliband addresses critics of Labour policy on Palestine, Middle East Eye, 28 September 2026

Trump's war, migration cuts and AI pull interest rates in all directions, by Alan Kohler, ABC News, 28 September 2026. 

This Labor government is the Ed Sheeran of Australian politics – There is more opportunity to push back against toxic centrism, Amy Remeikis in DeepCut, 29 September 2026.

Amid rising support for right‑wing minor parties, can David Shoebridge reinvigorate the Greens? The Conversation, 30 September, 2026.

The OpenAI Medicare breach exposes the dangerous gap in AI regulation. New Politics, 30 September 2026.

Listening, Reading, Watching 

Listening to the radio: Rearvision: Why Australian history has always had a revisionist edge ABC, 12 September 2026.

Reading: Collapsing Glaciers, Climate Change and Human Security, Lyrebird Dreaming, 28 August 2026.  An interesting reflect on the floods in Nepal and climate change.

Watching lots of great tv:

Goolagong: (ABC iview) a biopic of iconic Aussie tennis star, Evonne Goolagong Cawley.  The oddest thing that struck me while watching this was that when I was a child and she was a hero, I never know she was Indigenous.

My Brilliant Career: (Netflix) a great modern update of a1901 Australian classic novel and 1970s film.  I loved Philippa Northeast as the headstrong farmgirl who dreams of being a novelist but is being groomed for a conventional marriage.  

Tampa: the Turning Point (ABC iview): a powerful documentary about a key moment in Australia's 21st Century politics when Australia refused entry to asylum seekers rescued at sea by a Norwegian freighter.  I was not living in Australia at the time so this helped put together some of what I have heard and read.  Most shocking was seeing how the Howard government's attitude changed when the 9/11 terrorist attacks happened in the USA during the stand-off.  This led to not only Australia's draconian refugee policies but also has influenced refugee policies elsewhere in the Western world.

The Pitt (HBO Max): we finally watched this brilliant hospital drama that is amazing at how it handles nuances in social attitudes.  Noah Wylie is amazing.  I can see why it has gone viral and won awards.

Rolf Harris: Primetime Predator (ABC iview): this documentary about how the iconic Australia entertainer was found to be an unprincipled pedophile.  I loved him so much as a kid that it was devastating to watch and see creep behind the jovial grin.  Even more disturbing was hearing how people were often warned about him and to know that when I met him while working at the BBC he was so charming and gave me a hug.  Makes my skin crawl to think of it.

Read lyrebird by Jane Caro

On film we watched the Rocky Horror Picture Show, which was fun to see this classic musical comedy horror film from 1975.

Finally I enjoyed reading about U2's imprompu concert at the school my nephew attends in Dublin.  U2 celebrate 50th anniversary at the school where they formed, BBC News, 25 September 2026.  Such an amazing experience for him!