Sunday 13 October 2024

Street Art in Melbourne city (CBD) 2021 with covid images


I decided to collate some old and new street art photos from the city today.  There were so many from this one bike ride back in mid April 2021 that they deserve their own post.  
 
It was a memorable day.  Back then we had survived our first long covid lockdown in Melbourne and still had restrictions.  Yet it was a moment of hope that we were dealing with covid well and would be ok.  It was before all the deaths, the ugly politics over vaccines, the peak of the terrible toll on the health system, and the minimising of covid by the mainstream that left many vulnerable people feeling left behind.
 
It was a day of rediscovering whimsy and fun in the lanes near Spencer Street but also finding politics in the street art, especially in a sobering photo exhibition of health care professionals with reflections that brought me back to reality of what we had been through.  The exhibition is long gone and I am not sure how many of the other artwork remains.
 
I am presenting the photos today with minimal text so that I can post them and go on my way with so many other things to do.  Other city street art photos will come soon, I hope!













There was very little street art in this lane but I loved that it was called Equitable Place/  It was near a lunch at Seedling that I wrote about in my April 2021 post.

This is the Information board on the Surge exhibition by Pheobe Powell and Kate Disher-Quill.  This outdoor exhibition was held on the hoardings around the construction site on the City Square on Collins Street where the new Town Hall Metro station is still being built.  The last photo gives a big picture of the site.  The reflective quotes in the artwork show the exhaustion and the hope that was about at the time.










More Melbourne city street art photos on Green Gourmet Giraffe blog:

Friday 11 October 2024

Just Loved, Blackburn South and Lazy Cat Cafe, Box Hill

A few weeks back we went to a cat cafe in Box Hill before moving onto the Blackburn South next door for lunch at Just Loved cafe for an amazing lunch.  Sylvia liked the cats more than me but we were both wowed by the food.  When we arrived at Just Loved, they were closing early for a function but we had poured over the menu enough online that we could put in our order straight away.

I ordered the Miffy's Comfort Curry Rice.  It was irresistible.  Not only was the food gorgeous to look at and delicious but even the menu description was a joy to read: "Miffy invites you on her second adventure
This Curry Rice is a hearty and soothing dish, featuring a rich and creamy Japanese-style curry sauce served over a bed of fluffy white rice, accompanied by a crispy and golden Curry Potato Croquette.
$22"  The only problem was that we took so long taking photos that the shallow curry sauce had cooled quite a bit by the time I ate it.  But the golden potato croquette was so hot and crisp that anything would taste great with it. 

The drinks were also fun and unusual.  I had the Yuzu Paradise which combined Butterfly Pea extract with Yuzu to make a delightful purple drink. ($6) You can see above that there was a bottom layer of citrus zest that made the drink a little textured.

Sylvia had the Lotus Dream Latte: "Cozy up with our Biscoff Latte, a velvety and indulgent treat, a luxurious blend of rich espresso and velvety Biscoff goodness $6.50".  She loved it.

For Sylvia it was the Jap Curry Udon: Slurp up the comfort with our Jap Curry Udon. Thick and chewy udon noodles are smothered in a flavorful Japanese curry broth ... Every bite is a cozy hug for your taste buds, transporting you to a warm and fuzzy place."  She had it with Aburi Tofu. ($22).  This didn't look as beautiful as mine but it tasted amazing.  That sauce was so tasty and creamy.

We both wanted to try the Hello Kitty Creamy tomato Rice with a cute kitten made of rice but it had prawns in it and did not seem to have a vegetarian option.  Maybe just as well because it might not have been a good to look to be eating a cat soon after visiting the cat cafe!

Before Just Loved we had been at the Lazy Cat Cafe.  It was in a little laneway off Whitehorse Road.  We had discovered it when we went to the nearby Zero Mode cafe.  It was just as well we had had time then to look for it so that when we arrived with no time to spare, we could go straight there.  Upon arrival we paid and then went into the cat room where we were welcomed by this fine lady, Gigi.

It was quite different to a lot of cat cafes we have visited.  There were a lot more cats than people.  There were no cat toys to play with the cats (when I asked for toys they thought I said toilets and when I got there I was very confused).  And there was no human food or drinks.  We paid $25 for an hour which included a free drink but the drink was never offered.  As it was, I didn't want a bottle of water or soft drink.

Sylvia sat and patted the cats straight away.  They loved it.  This is Obuy enjoying some scratches under his chin.

Meanwhile I eyeballed the cats and Milky eyeballed me back.  I found it hard to remember the cats names but Sylvia knew them better.

This ragdoll cat was called Butter.  Perhaps that was short for Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.

The one was called Bubble.  When we first arrived, he lay on his back on a table in front of Sylvia and tried to play with her hands.

This little cat had a long body.  It amused me how she stood at this table.


There were some places for the cats to play but like typical cats they didn't often use them.  When they did it was pretty cute.

This was the one time I saw a cat walking around these cat steps.

The cats loved it when they were fed.  This happened when someone purchased a little tub of dried food.  The cats would flock to this person until the food was finished.

Sylvia sat on the futon on the floor and fed the cats.  The one who stayed the longest after she had no more food to give was Mr Shy.

Sylvia bonded well with Cash (or Cashew as she called him).  He got a little confused when she fed him and was biting her hand rather than just the food.  Either that or Sylvia's hand looked tastier to him than the food.


Cash was interested in this large soot sprite.

MaoTai liked to lounge in this seat.  When I tried to pat her, she nipped me.

I enjoyed the cats but after an hour I was ready to leave.  Sylvia begged for one more hour but I had no more time for cats inside me.  We headed out into the wind and in search of lunch.

Lazy Cat Cafe
g03/830 Whitehorse Rd, Box Hill
https://lazycatcafe.com.au/

Just Loved
8 Hunter Drive, Blackburn South
https://justloved.co/pages/cafe

Sunday 6 October 2024

Royal Melbourne Show 2024

We had a brilliant day at the Royal Melbourne Show last weekend.  The glorious sunshine.  The nostalgia of showbags.  The creativity in the craft and cakes pavilion.  The cute animals.  The views from the ferris wheel.  We even stayed for the fireworks.  It was the day of the AFL Grand Final public holiday and school holidays so the crowds were there too.,  You will see the crowds in many of the photos that I share here.  They were hard to avoid but it was hard to resent others wanting to share the fun.

 We got there for a late lunch so we could stay for the fireworks.  It was our first time at The Show since 2018.  Last time the main place to find a meal was the fresh food pavilion which had both meals and products.  This year the "eat street" was in the same pavilion as the showbags rather than with the Gourmet Pantry and Cellar.  It made it harder to avoid the temptation of showbags which we usually visit later in the day.  So we bought a couple early: Old Style Liquorice and Chupa Chups.


As an aside, in previous posts when I have mentioned Showbags, I have found that they are quite particular to Australia.  These are like promotional bags with samples of food and branded merchandise.  They often are packed with chocolate bars, crisps and plastic toys for kids.  There are also more and more showbags such as tv shows, sports and beauty products aimed at tweens, teens and adults.  Examples I saw included such as Bluey, Perfume, AFL footy teams, Brooklyn 99, Slime, Gudetama, Minecraft, Barbie and Tools.  Something for everyone!  The amount of showbags in the pavilion is sickening but the nostalgia of showbags make them hard to resist.  Yet the showbags today seem more miserly, more expensive, more junky and lacking the excitement of my childhood.
 

I wanted something quick and easy so I bought a cheese pretzel.  It was nice.  Not as nice as the corn, jalapeno and halloumi muffins that Sylvia had made (which I had brought along to snack on) but it was not the place for innovative food.

Sylvia was more wowed by the food.  She could not resist the burrata on gnocchi and napoli sauce.  She loved it.  She was excited to see foods she had read about but never seen in real life.  The Chimnuts looks fun but really indulgent.  She was also tempted by the watermelon juice with mint iced tea.  And most exciting for her was the tanghulu in the Gourmet Pantry and Cellar.

We also had a really nice fresh lemonade with our lunch.  It was really nice to get a cold drink that was not sickly sweet.  We saw a little of the horse jumping.  I really wanted to see the wood chopping but by the time I remembered it was on, it was too much hassle to navigate to the Rural Pavilion.  We were sad there seemed to be no cats at the show this year; we had enjoyed the cat judging so much at our last visit.



One reason for a small lunch was that we were planing to go to the Gourmet Pantry and Cellar next.  It is more fun than the showbags because although the products are more expensive, there are often tastings and quality food on offer.  We tasted chocolate, smoked olives, truffle mayo, blueberry juice, cheese, nougat, spice mixes, etc etc.  Lots of good food. 


Sylvia was tempted by the "Flurrito (a fairy floss ice cream burrito) but what she could not resist trying was the Tanghulu.  These are a traditional Chinese snack where mostly fruits (but there were also chicken nuggets tanghulu on offer) which are coated in melted sugar that hardens once it cools.  You can see a photo of her mixed fruit tanghulu (the "fruity ninja") on a stick in the middle of the above collage.

I am not usually a macaron fan but was wooed by the Milo macrons. Bright green with a malty chocolate centre called my name!  They were nice but more chewy meringue macaron than malty chocolate flavour.  Sylvia loved the sound of the biscoff and the creme brulee macarons.

Next was the "Spotlight Makers Pavilion".  We started in the craft area.  I loved this knitted Bluey.  So cute and that smile was the Bluey smile that makes me want to smile back.

This ceramic cup of noodles was really cute.  The way the chopsticks are stuck into the noodles looks cute and is acceptable in Western nations but I have read that it is considered disrespectful in Asia.

Lots more impressive knitting included a nun, a platypus and a sheep jumper.

Some of the categories were unexpected.  This crocheted rug with covers of Taylor Swifts "Eras" or albums, was in the Pop Culture Craft categories.

I loved this dress sewn out of crisp packets.  Surely nobody would want to wear it but it is such a fun novelty item.  By now, Sylvia needed a break.  The craft section was busy and she was itching to go.  Little kids in the crowds with toy machine guns (yes they sold them at the Show) that had a very annoying "ack-ack-ack" shooting sounds made the throng even more irritating. 

We had good chance to de-stress at the dodgems.  Nothing like a chance to get out your frustrations in a little car with the safety of well-cushioned shock absorbers.  This is the sort of cautious thrill-seeking that I can handle on the fairground rides.

After a refresher, we headed back into the Makers pavilion to check out the decorated chocolate and have a brief tutorial from the CWA on how to do Japanese braiding with a notched disc of cardboard and strands of wool.  The we started to view the entries to the baking and preserving competitions.

One of the most impressive piece of competitive cake decorating was this depiction of Miro's The Kiss in cake form.

This Baby Grinch cake was so cute.

The detail on the Corpse Bride cake decorations was wonderful.

More noodles!  This ramen noodles decorated cake was getting into "is it cake?" territory.  It also evoke the plastic noodles on display in the windows of some Japanese cafes.  The suspended chopsticks seem to be held up by magic.

This possum riding on the back of a emu decked out in native flowers was just amazing.  The detail, the creativity, the humour, the majesty, the wonderful ode to the Australian bush!

And more noodles.  These fondant decoration depicting Asian meals were my favourites among numerous impressive displays of decorated cupcakes that were too gorgeous to eat.

I love the bread baking.  So many wonderful loaves but the cut section, where the judges do their taste testing, gets dry so quickly that it makes them look less inviting.  The decorated focaccias were fantastic because they looked like something I wanted to eat rather than food that has been destroyed by testing.

The amount of ANZAC biscuits to be judged was impressive.  Like many of the bakes, there were quite a few categories for younger bakers as well as gluten free versions.

I enjoyed looking at the art, mostly by school kids, around the walls by the baking.  That avocado drawing is so lifelike and green.

We came by an old Clydesdale that was by a fence so that the public could pat her.  But as we arrived, the lovely Princess Peach was ready to go.  It is a tiring day for the animals at the Show!  We saw more Clydesdale horses and some sheep and goats.

Sylvia gave up an dreams of taking a lamb home and turned to the Barnyard Buddies game.  It was a game of chance where she used a net to pick up toy ducks and cows from a pond.  The numbers on the bottom of each catch were added up to tell her what groups of prizes she could choose from.  She had two goes before she got enough to walk away with a little toy stuffed sheep.  

(Note: within a day of getting him home, he had a hole in his seam that needed to sew up.  At the least the stuffing is more robust these days.  I remember my mum winning me a little toy dog in a fairground attraction that leaked lots of polystyrene beads when he got a hole in him.)

Sylvia was determined to stay for the fireworks and thought it would be nice to go on the ferris wheel just before sunset.  It wasn't easy to take photos with the annoying branding plastered across the pods but I liked this one of a ride in front of the Melbourne city skyline.  

We always go on the ferris wheel at the Show but this time was the first one that it was almost totally enclosed by perspex with a small gap at the top of the pod for airflow.  (See the top photo of the ferris wheel)

Sylvia was not keen on the animal nursery but we ducked into the exit and she was delighted to see a llama and an alpaca.  This llama seemed quite pleased to see us too!

We had a walk down Neon Alley as we were thinking about dinner.  It was entertaining to see all the weird meals on offer but they were either too meaty or sweet for us.  Unusual food included Dagwood Dogs with neon sauce, the Elvis burger with fried chicken between two sweet glazed doughnuts, Flaming Hot Cheetos on corn on the cob, gummy bear loaded fries and Tim Tam churros.  It was a series of crazy adventures in junk food!

En route to dinner we also found ourselves by the crowds whooping in disbelief at the BMX Stunt Show.  There were too many people to see what was happening on the ground but we could hear the banter of the MC and every now and again a bike would fly high about the crowd.  This was a different sort of thrill seeking to Neon Alley and even more scary but amazing to watch.  

The above photo looks like the bike is on the pavilion but it is just an illusion where a rider has actually flown so high off the ramp that he can be seen soaring higher than it.

We could not find much other than gourmet fairground food for dinner.  There was lots on offer in the Eat Street: Greek, Italian, Indian, Gozleme, Dumplings, Cheese Toasties.  They all had limited menus that could be put together quickly so the queues moved quickly.  I had a Beyond hotdog at the Kaisers Grilled German Sausages stall.  It had a vegan Beyond Meat Bratwurst in a bread roll with lettuce, tomato, red onion and sauerkraut.  Sylvia had some delicious falafels in pita bread with lettuce, tomato, red onion and tahini sauce.  She got some chips on the side to share.

Then Sylvia wanted coffee and I was going to get a hot chocolate but I got lost and found myself by the Cheeky Crumbles stall.  I could easily walk past the apple crumble but can't resist a peach crumble.  The stewed peaches were in one pot, the crumble in another and when they were together in a tub it was drowned in custard.  The peaches were wonderful but crumble is so much better when it is baked with the fruit and crispy on top than baked separately and put together just before serving. 

After dinner it was getting dark and we made our way to the Arena which by now was packed with crowds.  It took a bit of effort to get past the people standing around the edge to be able to even spot the few unoccupied seats and then make our way past more people to sit down.  

The main event was the fireworks.  While we waited, country singer Sarah Cantania was wheeled on a stage attached to a tractor.  Occasionally the Show feels like an old fashioned agricultural fair.  She entertained the audience with classic hits by well known country singers such as Johnny Cash (Ring of Fire), Dolly Parten (Jolene) and Taylor Swift (You Belong with Me).  This was followed by an upbeat modern show of lasers accompanied by Indigenous musician EmDee on a yidaki (the word for digeridoo in East Arnhem Land).

The fireworks finally lit up the sky.  They were loud and bright.  They went for a satisfyingly long time.  Finally the sky was dark again and the crowds flowed past the neon fairground rides, out of the gates and onto the trains that took us home. We were so tired when we got home 9 hours after leaving that the next day was a very quiet one.  It gave me time to sort out the photos.  There were so many that it was difficult to narrow them down to a selection to include here on the this post.  It is fun to go to the Show but I don't expect to go again for a few years because it is so expensive and exhausting.

Previous posts on our trips to the Show: