My Monthly Chronicles, February 2025

February was another crazy month but in a different way to January.  Less cafes, less outings and less holidays.  There was still fun.  I enjoyed seeing A Complete Unknown (Bob Dylan biopic) and I wrote about the excellent Macbeth in the Botanic Gardens, and we had some nice eating out for Sylvia's birthday as well as making purchases at op shops for her presents. Mostly it seemed that I was busy with work and sorting out the start of the school year so we were eating at home more (see In My Kitchen - February 2025).  On top of that, international politics were dire but I was loving a new Sunday morning panel show called the Sunday Shot with some great insights into current affairs. 

Coburg Farmers Market

We had a lovely visit to Coburg Farmers Market before a birthday lunch for me with my parents.  We used to go so much and now it is not that often.  Every time we go, it is wonderful to get outside and see the beautiful food, friendly faces and hard work of local producers.  With the world gone crazy, a farmers market is the perfect way to remind oneself that community and hope is still possible.

Merri Creek bike path

Another way of enjoying the outdoors is my regularly bike rides.  I took this photo of the sun breaking through the trees to create a gorgeous reflection in the Merri Creek by the bike path as I ventured the furtherest North on the path than I have ever been before.  No matter how long I live in the inner North of Melbourne, there are always great surprises.

Wabi Sabi Salon, Colliingwood

We had a lunch at Wabi Sabi Salon at 94 Smith St, Collingwood to try out the vegan Wabi Sabi Signature Teishoku (set menu).  The above photo is of our trays of food.  It was a lot for the two of us.  The bottom tray is Sylvia's who got the Agedashi tofu with eggplant, zucchini and shitake mushroom.  I had the Grilled sweet potato with crispy chickpeas at the top of the photo.  The slab of half a sweet potato was huge and covered in a spicy kewpie mayo.  I really loved the crispy chickpeas.

In addition to each main we both had lots of side dishes:  curried cauliflower, rainbow chard, marinated eggplant, potato salad, rice, pickled cucumber (so refreshing) and amazing miso soup.  The soup was beautifully flavoured.  I love how, when stirred, the sheets of seaweed and chunks of tofu swirl through the cloudiness.  Often miso soup is not available to vegetarians because the broth is meat or fish.  So it was a treat to have a good one.  Sylvia ordered an Onsen egg as an extra and I ordered some Natto as an extra because I have never had a chance to try it.  I wanted to love the natto, the fermented soy beans) but they were so slimy and the stretchy strings reminded me of saliva hanging from an old man's mouth.

The meal was wonderful.  So many flavours and textures.  I liked my sweet potato but next time I would love to try the Pumpkin stuffed mushroom tempura with teriyaki balsamic.  At $31 for each of our set meals, it was not cheap but it was a great experience.

Wabi Sabi Salon, and Smith Street

It was a warm day so we ate inside but the entrance to the courtyard was really enticing.  The Japanese signs and orange wall and plants made it feel very Asian and tranquil.  I couldn't resist a quick photo, once the instagrammer in front of me had her friend photograph every variation of her pose!

Then we headed up Smith Street towards the Bead Centre.  Smith Street makes me nostalgic for life in a student household nearby.  So much has changed since then but I am always happy that Friends of the Earth (FoE) co-operative is still there.  At the top of the post is part of the colourful mural with the giant broccoli on the side wall.  There were so many places on Smith Street we wanted to stop and browse.  Lots of new cafes and interesting window displays.  We had a quick look in the op shop (St Mark's recycling).

The Bead Centre, Collingwood

The Bead Centre (348 Smith St) has been on Sylvia's wish list for some time.  It has a huge range of beads - plastic, metal, crystals - in all sorts of colours.  It also has lots of cute pendants and earrings.  And reasonable prices.  Sylvia bought a pair of apple core earrings for $5. 

Merri Community Shed Craft Market, Coburg

This is the old Coburg Bowling Club that closed recently and now houses the Merri Community Shed which was formerly the Men's Shed but now is open to everyone.  So much change!  I went there to a Craft Markets to see my friend Karin's stall.  The market is for community crafters and the makers from the shed to hold stalls.  There was a display of blacksmithing and tours of the shed. 

Merri Community Shed Craft Market, crafts

Above are photos of some of the crafts on offer: plants in recycled and cut glass bottles; old table cloths in embroidery hoops remade into jewellery holders; crochet sunflowers; and mystery books wrapped in brown paper with clues to the type of book inside.  There was also jewellery, woodwork and swirly resin platters.  It was a good place to buy a couple of presents for Sylvia's birthday.  I hope to get to more markets.  The next is in May.

Hunter Gatherer, Fitzroy

Just before Sylvia's birthday we visited some op shops and second hand shops along Brunswick Street.  Hunter Gather (274 Brunswick Street) is a BSL op shop but on a hipster street so it is fancy prices. I still rue the day I found my most adorable green teacup ad saucer but didn't buy it due to the high price.  I found a belt that seemed quite expensive for an op shop so I searched the brand online.  At the counter, I asked for a cheaper price that was more in line with the online prices and got a discount.  This is not something I usually do but the prices these days are so crazy that I wanted to say something!

We also found some great clothes at the Brunswick Street Vinnies.  By the way, I think of op shops as places for people to get cheap second hand goods while donating to charities.  It was interesting recently to hear from my mum that her local St Vincent de Paul gets the bulk of its money from op shop sales.  This was a good reminder how important op shops are to the community.  After all, we need charities to fill the gaps left by our government in helping the less fortunate.

Lost and Found Market, Fitzroy

After Hunter Gatherer, we spent a lot of time at Lost and Found Market (288 Brunswick St) close by.  A lot of time!  This is a huge space upstairs with lines of stalls.  Some have lots of clothes or jewellery or kitchenware.  I love the display above with all the retro jugs, teapots and plates.  We took so long browsing that I had to go and move the car because our 2 hour parking limit was up,

Good Daze Canteen, Fitzroy

Feeling very happy with our purchases and very hot due the mercury soaring, our last stop was at Good Days Canteen (316 Brunswick St).  Sylvia has wanted to go there for so long and so she had planned this as a birthday treat.  She loved her cone with a scoop of matcha and a scoop of mango sticky rice.  I had an amazing miso peanut butter caramel ice cream.  It was so good with chunks of chewy caramel. 

South Melbourne street art

We also had a trip to South Melbourne as part of Sylvia's festival of birthday.  This is an area we don't go to often.  If we had had more time, I would have loved to go to the South Melbourne market and stroll around the hipster streets of shady trees and busy pavement tables outside cafes.  As it was, we were busy enough with visiting two cafes that I have written about: Juniper Eatery and Meeya Cafe cake painting, South Melbourne.  Today I share a part of the some street art on Coventry Street near the corner of Clarendon Street.  It includes the South Melbourne Town Hall is a place I remember seeing from when we were little and my used to point out where he worked.

Noi Pizzeria, Coburg

The last celebration of Sylvia's birthday was at Noi Pizzeria with her dad and my parents.  Sylvia has wanted to go to Noi in Preston for some time but when we were planning we found there was a new Noi in Coburg at 18b Pentridge Boulevard.  The food was excellent.

I had the Eggplant parmigiana pizza (from the special's menu).  The crust was amazing but the toppings got a bit soggy though I guess that is the trade off of having beautifully cooked eggplant.  Alone it would have been nice, but I am learning that Italian food is best with sides and salads.  We shared Spinach arancini, Shoestring fries and Rucola salad of rocket, shaved parmesan and balsamic glaze.  I also tasted other's dishes (other than my mum's calamari).  The other mains were also really good: Cheese ravioli with cherry tomatoes and pesto for my dad, Sofia pizza that is topped with mozzarella, grilled zucchini, rosemary potatoes, mushrooms, garlic, chilli, and friarielli cream for E, and Spicy rigatoni with tomato vodka and fresh burrata from the specials for Sylvia. 

Noi Pizzeria, drinks

To drink we had alcohol free spritz, beer on tap, apple juice and chinotto.  It was my first time finding an alcohol free spritz and I enjoyed it.  It was on the special's menu.  I hope that they decide to move it to the regular menu.  So refreshing and very Italian.  Just right for a balmy summer's evening.  We didn't stay for dessert.  Instead we headed back to our place for the delicious caramel tart that my mum made.  (See it at In My Kitchen - February 2025.)

On the Telly.  My favourite tv show lately is The Newsreader.  It is set in a newsroom in 1980s Melbourne.  We just finished watching the latest series that was screened on the ABC this year.  It has been amazing at depicting interesting characters from underrepresented groups.  In the background to the drama were local and international news stories from the time that took me back to hearing these stories.  The last episode was so amazing and satisfying that I had to go to my room to digest it in quiet after it finished.  We've also enjoyed the eccentricity, whimsy and humour in Bob's Burgers.

In the news:

Lattouf, Lalor dismissals another salvo in attack on free speech and Creative Australia's shameful dumping of Khaled Sabsabi by Rosemary Sorenson in Independent Australia, 5 and 15 February 2025.

As any woman in the back of a locked taxi knows, Sam Kerr should never have been brought to court, by Suzanne Wrack in the Guardian, 12 February 2025.

Fact Check: No, Ron Howard didn't author 'I'm a liberal' letter (with letter in full), in Snopes, 12 February 2025.

Profiles of courage (in resistance to Trump) by Robert Reich on substack, 13 February 2025.

‘This is a coup’: Trump and Musk’s purge is cutting more than costs, say experts, in The Guardian, 17 February 2025. This is just the trip of Trump craziness but I don't have the energy to find links for tariffs, the Gaza Riviera, banning plastic straws, cancelling research funding.  

And here we are: not with a bang but a wimp (sic) by Tin Dunlop and MediaActive in The Future of Everything, 19 February 2025. 

Young Britons ‘to be given chance to live and work in Europe’ under Starmer’s plan for post-Brexit reset in the Independent, 21 February 2025.

Media negatively frames Labor’s achievements, by Jenny Hocking in Echo, 27 February 2025.