My Monthly Chronicles: June 2024

We had a busy month in June.  Despite the cold, we have been out and about a bit.  We went to Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula for the long weekend, celebrated the Winter Solstice at CERES with a bonfire, and had a panna cotta teddy in a drink when we caught up with friends at Zero Mode cafe.  I've enjoyed some nice bike rides, joined the local historical society, failed three times to get a covid vaccine, and have tried to keep up with elections news out of the UK and USA.  More can be read about the month in companion post: In My Kitchen June 2024.

Helping Hands Mission Op Shop, Preston
We have done a bit of op shopping lately.  Above is a gorgeous display at the Helping Hands Mission Op Shop in Preston.  I bought my mum a cake tin for her volunteer lunches with refugees.  Sylvia is always drawn to the cheap jewellery.  E meticulously checked over the books and CDs.  I had my eye out for items for our current backyard project.  I hope to tell you about it soon.

Luthers Scoops, Brunswick
It seems crazy that in a cold month we were at Luthers Scoops again but their ice cream is so good.  I had the apple buckwheat crumble ice cream and Sylvia had two half scoops of dulce de leche with coffee ice cream and redcurrant orange sorbet.  We both enjoyed ours but did not envy the other.  Sylvia is not enjoying the aftereffects of buckwheat and I don't know why anyone would add coffee flavours to anything (ok I do understand some like coffee but I just don't understand it).  My apple crumble ice cream was quite interesting with lots of texture from the crumble and lovely apple flavour.

Krispy Kreme doughnuts
When Sylvia saw an online advertisement for free OG doughnuts for National Doughnut Day at Krispy Kreme she was determined to be there.  I am less of a fan but took her anyway!  There was nothing about the free doughnuts in the shop so it felt like we were after an forbidden alcoholic drink during Prohibition.

Death of Michael Mosley: I was among the fans waiting to hear about what happened to charismatic BBC medical communicator, Michael Mosley.  It was so sad to hear he had died in such tragic circumstances on the Greek island of Symi.  Like many, my predominant memories are of him promoting the 5:2 diet.

Kings Birthday long weekend
On the Kings Birthday long weekend, I was still not feeling great thanks to a cold triggering my asthma and was sad that I had to cancel my plans to do volunteer work at the National Celtic Festival.  I was glad I was well enough to drive to Geelong to stay one night at my parents' home.  We had a good weekend of it visiting the Sirens seaside kiosk and the National Celtic Festival as well as a pleasant brunch at Van Loons Nursery Cafe before heading home.  

On the Saturday night, after fish and chips for dinner, my mum poured me a lovely glass of Altina Sparkling Sansgria.  That is not a typo.  Although it is described as sangria, the name is spelled "sansgria".  I much prefer a non-alcoholic beverage these days and am heartened at how much better alcohol free wine has become.

Olmates, Thornbury
I had lunch at Olmates (779 High Street, Thornbury) with Sylvia and E before op shopping (see top of post).  It describes itself as a sandwich cafe and was pretty laid back.  Sylvia had the Roast Cauliflower Toastie: roasted spiced cauliflower, date + tamarind chutney, pickled red onion, provolone cheese, and green chilli sauce on sourdough. ($16).  I had the Vegan Chickpea Salad Sandwich: crushed chickpeas with tahini vinaigrette, pickled jalapeños, beetroot, carrot, cucumber, onion, lettuce with alfalfa, on fresh sourdough. ($16).  E had the Egg Fritatta Muffin: House made egg frittata with chipotle mayo and American cheese. ($7.50).  We were all very happy with our choices and I was interested in playing with the ReFlex conversation cards while we waited.

Eureka Tower
I went to an end of centre function for my former workplace.  It was nice to see familiar faces and catch up with a few people.  I was very happy to see a graphic recording of the end function by the same person I had organised to record our launch.  The spectacular view of Melbourne from Eureka tower was too cloudy to see the sunset but some of the geeky members had fun with a competition to guess the time of sunset on the 89th floor of the tower (highest event space in the Southern Hemisphere) which is different to the sunset time on the ground!  And the finger food was very good - dumplings, ravioli, arancini, brownie and Greek doughnuts.

Melbourne night skyline
It was lovely to be in Melbourne CBD on foot at night.  Usually we are home by the time it is dark or driving through on the way home at night.  The view of the skyline reflected in the Yarra River was stunning.  

Blog header updated and blog reflections: I have updated my blog header.  It has been good to play with online design programs (especially Fotojet) and had a little more time for blogging lately.  In fact I just noticed that by the end of June, I had published as many blog posts as I did for the whole of the previous year.  The increase is partly due to the spike in my Europe trip posts but, as life continues to change, my time on the blog goes up and down.  More change is ahead so I must enjoy the blogging while I have the time.

Industry Beans, Fitzroy
We visited Industry Beans (70-76 Westgarth Street, Fitzroy) on a busy weekend morning when we were thwarted in our attempts to have the monthly special at Lune (see below).  It was a lovely modern cafe with such interesting food and drink.  Sylvia had the Matcha Blueberry Latte with wattleseed panela syrup  and I had Yuzu Cascara Punch.  I'd never even heard of cascara before but loved that it was a refreshing non-alcoholic drink that is neither alcohol or caffeinated.  To eat Sylvia had the porcini nest and I had the Quinoa and Pomegranate Salad.  They were both more amazing than they sound.  I hope to write more about our visit soon so will not go into too much detail here.

Dights Falls mural
After our lunch at Industry Beans we went to Dights Falls to walk beside the Yarra River.  I really liked the 90 metre mural along the walkway.  It had lots of local flora and fauna.  I liked that the artist, Tom Civil, paid tribute to significance of the place to the indigenous Wurundjeri people who were here long before Europeans invaded.  The artwork is really lovely but a bit worn given it was painted in 2014.

Dights Falls walk
I loved the walk from Dights Falls in the glorious winter sunshine surrounded by the river and the interesting trees under a blue sky.  It was a busy place with walkers, joggers cyclists and even a man in a kayak.  Sylvia was not as keen as me but I really loved finally seeing this part of Melbourne that is so green and peaceful.  A lot of work has been done to clean it up since the Yarra River was polluted by industry in the 1880s.  Even now the walk is overseen by midrise flats, graffiti covered walls and concrete bridges where cars cross the area.

Pancake Parlour, Preston
While everyone else is complaining about how cold it has been this winter, the accountant at the Pancake might be disliking it for another reason!  We were fascinated when we read that the Pancake Parlour (Northland Shopping Centre 2 - 50 Murray Road, Preston) was charging half price for items on the Winter Menu every time the temperature falls to 10°C or below!  So in a week when the temperature did not get above 13 C and often dipped to 1 or 2 C at night, we planned our meal at the Pancake Parlour.

It was very cold so we were looking forward to a warm meal.  For drinks we had the Biscoff Hot Chocolate ($9.90) and Sylvia had the cold Milo Swiss Malt ($13.90).  Mine was nice with the spiced hot chocolate but too much cream on top.  We ended up sharing this and could have probably done without the Malt.  To eat I had the Mediterranean Cheese Pancake ($29.90).  I often like the Cheese and Potato Pancake and eat half with salad and half with butter and maple syrup.  This version of that pancake had olives, feta cheese and semi-dried tomatoes, as well as the salad and a scoop of sour cream rather than whipped butter.  It was really good but not suitable for maple syrup.  Sylvia went to the specials menu for her Chocolate Chip pancake ($24.5) - not on the Winter Menu but also half price.  It was vanilla ice cream, hot fudge sauce and choc chips on two buttermilk pancakes and just what she was after.  The prices I have given are the full price ones.  I was glad to only pay half price for each.

At the Cinema: IF: After the Pancake Parlour we went to the cinema to see IF.  I enjoyed it for its whimsy and magic.  The he plot was a bit conrfusing but it was fun to watch all wonderful Invisible Friends (IFs) antics, as well as the poignancy of the ending.

Lune Bakery, Fitzroy
Sylvia was very keen to visit the highly regarded Lune Bakery (119 Rose Street, Fitzroy) to sample the June special of the Honey Joy Croissant ($15.50) that filled the bakery with a warm fragrant aroma.  It was an indulgent towering twice-baked croissant  with cornflake frangipani, topped with more frangipani, honey joys, honey cream and honeycomb sugar.  (Honey joys are an Aussie childhood treat.)  I went a more savoury route and had the mushroom and blue cheese danish: a traditional Kouign Amann shaped danish filled with mushroom duxelles, bechemal sauce, sauted mushrooms and blue cheese.  It was amazing like all of their baking.  No wonder it was so busy that there were none of the honey joy croissants when we visited around lunchtime on a weekend.  We had better luck during the week.

The Boot Factory, Coburg
I met my friend Jo for a walk to the Boot Factory (19 Pentridge Boulevard, Coburg) after first admiring her fantastic Merri Creek inspired curtains.  She had the raw Jaffa Cake and I had a raw Snickers Slice.  My slice was wonderful with a thick layer of peanut butter filling.  Jo had tea and I had peach kombucha.  It was great to catch up in a favourite local cafe.

Reading: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Tara Reid. I read this book until 4am one night because I wanted to find out what happened.  The story of a hollywood star was interesting for being able to recognise ambiguities in characters rather than black and white judgements. 

Rosemary statue in Victory Park, Ascot Vale
We had some time to spare in Ascot Vale and spent it exploring the playground and statues of Victory Park.  This statue known as Rosemary was erected by the Women Caring for Veterans of War Association in 2015 in memory of woman who cared for veterans of World War II in 2015.  I assume it is to complement the War Memorial that was erected in the park in l922 that lists the local men who went to wars since the Boer War.  (It took almost a century to acknowledge the women's role in war!)  Rosemary was stolen 6 months after she arrived.  (Why would anyone steal a statue?  Was it by people who hate such woke acknowledgements?)  The local council replaced her with a sturdier replica.

Burrito Bae, Ascot Vale
We didn't get to Burrito Bae ( 413 Mt Alexander Rd, Ascot Vale) until our second attempt.  On our first time, we discovered the hard way that it was not open on Mondays.  It is quite a small eatery with a small menu and dining area but great vegan and gluten free options.  We shared the Jalapeno Poppers and the Churros with cinnamon sugar and chocolate sauce.  Sylvia and I shared a vegetarian cheese and bean burrito comprising Beans Mix , Brown rice , Vegan Cheese, Pico Di Gallo,  and Vegan Chipotle Mayo wrapped in a Flour Tortilla.  We chose the Load It option of including Guacamole & Corn Chips inside the Burrito.  E had a meat burrito.  It was all very good.  I loved the bits of crunchy corn chips in the burrito.  Having half each worked well to leave room to enjoy the excellent poppers and churros. 

Welcome to Thornbury
I have read about and driven past Welcome to Thornbury (520 High Street, Northcote)  a few times but I could not understand the concept until we visited recently.  I had expected it to be an outdoor place with food trucks.  Rather it was more like a huge rambling pub with indoor and outdoor spaces with meals ordered from the food trucks in an undercover space.  When we arrived, my concerns about eating in the open on a grey, wet day were unfounded.  It wasn't easy but I resisted the temptation of the warming mulled wine.

Welcome to Thornbury: Oh Boy It's a Food Truck and CDMX Taqueria
We ended up eating on a comfortable couch in the indoor area with toasty warm heaters nearby.  Sylvia had been very keen to go when Oh Boy It's a Food Truck was there.  She loves their food.  She ordered the poutine (chips and curds in gravy) to take home and had the roll inside the pub.  

I went to the CDMX Taqueria food truck and ordered a vegetarian Gringa Quesadilla: a corn tortilla filled with grilled marinated shitake mushrooms, house salsa, pineapple, coriander and onion - gf as well.  There was only a meat Gringa on the menu but I asked for a veg version with the mushrooms and they obliged.  I am not sure if they usually do this or if it was because we were there so early that it was really quiet.  You can see it above on the right hand side after I started eating it so it doesn't look so attractive.  I would have loved some guacamole yoghurt served with it, especially as it was quite spicy.

Fitzroy Mills Market
We went to Fitzroy Mills Market in Rose Street because I had promised Sylvia we would after I used her Bumi Botanicals business card in a craft project.  This is the Bumi Botannicals stall.  They do beautiful flower and plant arrangements with a focus on native Australian flora.  Unfortunately they did not have any business cards left so we might have another outing ahead of us.  We enjoyed browsing other stalls - crocs shoe charms, candles, dried fruit, baking and crochet flowers.

In the news: So much in the news, especially in the last week of June.  Here are a few items of note:

• The outcome on the Greg Lynn trial was followed by fascinating insight into how the police put together a case when the supposedly murdered bodies were burnt to ash.  
• Our Australian conservatives in opposition led a ridiculous discussion on their proposal of nuclear power to address clime change.  
• Former USA president Donald Trump was the first USA President to be given a criminal conviction when he was found guilty of 34 counts of falsification of business records.  Though the Supreme Court has called the conviction into question with the ruling on presidential immunity.  
• Julian Assange of WikiLeaks was finally a free man after years of fleeing conviction and doing time in prison.  
• Australian Senator Fatima Payman attracted a lot of attention in crossing the floor to vote in favour of recognising the state of Palestine.  
• Meanwhile Joe Biden's dismal performance at the first USA presidential debate has created doubts about his suitability to run for president. 
  

Articles of interest:

"Australia can fix its broken prison system like Norway did. But first, we must face up to the facts" by Linton Besser, following up the 4 Corners tv program, ABC News, 4 June 2024.

"The silence of the bland" a critique of Australian politics and media by Ronnie Salt in The Shot, 7 June 2024.

"Debating whether Julian Assange is a journalist is irrelevant. He changed journalism forever" by Margaret Simons in The Guardian, 29 June 2024.

"Muddled answers and outright lies: what the Biden-Trump debate says about the dire state of US politics" in The Conversation, 28 June 2024.

"Fact Check signs off today after 11 years at the ABC. Here's our guide to being your own fact checker", in ABC News, 28 June 2024.