Oh no, I'm late.

For those that log in on a Monday, I apologise for my non-blog Monday. Life is hectic with trying to get all things work, home and family in order before we fly out for Paris next Monday.
I must admit though that our Sunday arvo was very relaxing after mowing lawns. We decided to enjoy a balmy early autumn arvo with a bottle of Sav/Blanc on the deck and enjoy the backyard. It was a low 30s day with the sound of the occasional light plane flying overhead and doves cooing in the Gum Tree.

Do you know how difficult is is to capture a photograph of a plane (in focus) after a bottle of Sav/Blanc? But didn't the Gum Tree come up well?

We live near an airport for light planes. Both Sue and our oldest son Andrew have enjoyed flights in a Tiger Moth over Port Phillip Bay.

Not for me, I get nose bleed on the ladder.

The grass is turning green again after recent rains and the Jacaranda offers a filtering of afternoon sun, almost like an umbrella.

Gem enjoys the autumn sun.

But the Dove enjoys the sunlight from the safety of the Gum Tree branches with Gem below.

The cats, especially Gem, our Burmese suns herself on the outdoor setting as if she is royalty. (I thought I was, she said).....

I've built a new bike to bring to France for this trip and I'm looking forward to the thrill of playing in the traffic, but before that, we visit friends in the Loire. Firstly a night in Paris to get over 20 plus hours of movies, iPod and airline food - gosh I hope they upgrade us again. Sue, tell them it's my birthday - it worked for you last year.
We then TGV it to Tours and another overnight stay before picking up some sort of Mr Bean minicar and toodling down to the Cher. A few days catching up with people and then settling into a Paris apartment for two weeks. How good is that?

The new bike for this year's trip to France - a simple single gear in matt black. Sue has nick named it, "the Shadow". Are there any other thoughts out there?????

We maybe might just have another Funky Friday and a weekend blog before we fly out Monday.

Funky Friday

Last night I was returning home from Thursday night racing at our indoor velodrome when a large wall poster attracted my attention, well not so much the poster but the car parked in front of the poster.
I must have driven about 200 metres down the road with my mind thinking about the scene that stirred my imagination before taking a U-turn.
I'd actually been thinking what Funky Friday had to offer today and inspiration came at 9.30 pm tonight.
I think I'd like some help with a caption. I'll start the ball rolling. Feel free to chuck in your own captions.

"Let me tell YOU something about life young fella"

Cooking up a Storm

The storms have past but as I mentioned yesterday, Sue was cooking up her own storm in the kitchen.
Friends of ours are about to embark on a journey across the Nullabor to Western Australia by motorbike. Chris and Ellen have matching ex-police BMW bikes. They tell me they take great delight in scaring the daylights out of people who break the law by using a mobile or speeding because their bikes look just liked unmarked police bikes.
Both have upgraded from sweat wheels, pedallies, you know, push bikes. Ellen and I had previously been trained under the same coach for the Master's World Titles over a couple of years. I guess you could say last night's dinner was to celebrate both our impending journeys later this month.

The book was a Donna Hay best of from the Donna Hay magazine  http://www.donnahay.com/

As storms raged across Victoria, Sue and I were shopping for shoes, not one of my passionate pursuits in life but I understand that there are fundamental differences in the male/female psychy. I'm the sort of "get in there and get out" shopper. After trying on an uncountable amount of shoes, Sue left barefoot so to speak.
BUT, she did buy a new cookbook despite that her cookbook bookshelf has now caused the foundations of our house to sink under the pressure. Anyway I digress - she was inspired by a few of the recipes for our desert in the book but instead of following the recipe by the book, she used an idea and did her own thing.

What's on the menu, did I hear you say - Hmmmm, I should let Sue explain.

The Entree: A favourite. Figs with blue cheese melted into them with proscuitto and a balsamic glaze. Just with a little bit of rocket.

Main course: A spicy lamb tagine served on preserved lemon and orange cous cous with a layer of roasted parsnip, carrot and sweet potato and sweet chilli and coriander yoghurt. Also a little bit of spinach and rocket to feel virtuous.

And the dessert: Roasted nectarine tarts on a brown sugar/sour cream base with a raspberry coulis to cut the richness a little (a very little, hah)

The Wine:

Chris and Ellen walked in the door with one of our favourite sparkings, a Grant Burge Pinot Chardy Brut. Since the French became all precious, we can't call our wines Champangne, Hermitage or Burgundy. This is a sparking made by the Methode' Traditionelle and a lovely drop it is, very dry and perfect with our nibblies. I remember riding by his vineyard at Tanunda in the Barossa Valley, South Australia.

To compliment the entree we had a rediscovered wine from a few years back - Nepenthe Sauvignon Blanc is another South Aussie wine from the Adelaide Hills which overlooks the city from the highest points of the area. Back in January when visiting the Tour Down Under we decended from Mt Lofty at speeds above 60 kph, exciting stuff.

Yet another South Australian wine was selected for the main course. Several weeks ago I took a Coonawarra Cabernet from the wine shop shelf because I liked the simple label and the quirky name. I can't remember ever having a bad Coonawarra red. The district, close to the Victorian border produce a unique flavor from the Terra Rossa, limestone soils of the region.

I went back to the shop several times buying a bottle two until recently I discovered that they only had four left, and they were all mine, mine, yes mine..........ahahahaha!!

The storms have now passed by and already the grass is turning back to green and as the sun hits the backyard, we can see, what's more even hear the grass growing. Out with the lawn mower this afternoon.

The Workingman's College - RMIT

Late last week I had a need to meet a client in the CBD of Melbourne. I‘m not fond of going to the City for work. It’s not that I don’t like the City – It’s finding parking that stresses me out.
On this occasion I was fortunate to find a 2 hour non-metered parking spot opposite the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT). From there it was only a short walk to meet my client. As I walked to meet him my eyes were attracted to the various styles of architecture of RMIT. The early Gothic style from the 1800s is followed by many Art Deco style buildings from the 1920s, the steel, glass and concrete of the 60s to todays very innovative architecture of the last few years.

The original building of the Workingmans College

I promised myself to return on the way back and investigate the College. With the meeting over, I went back to my car to get my little Canon pocket camera and battled my way back through the multitude of students enjoying the sidewalk cafes and most probably taking a break between classes.

Francis Ormond, founder of the Workingman's College.

The first thing I noticed was a recently completed modern façade of Story Hall on Swanston Street. It contrasts dramatically with the other buildings around the corner that date from the late 1800s and early 1900s.

The history of RMIT is an interesting one as described by Wikipedia;

Entrance to Story Hall The Working Men’s College of Melbourne was founded in 1887 by a prominent grazier and philanthropist, The Hon. Francis Ormond MLC, who donated £5000 toward the establishment of the college. The Council of the Melbourne Trades Hall then matched Ormond's initial donation through rallying its members. On June 4, the college opened in a purpose-built building on the corners of Bowen Street and La Trobe Street in Melbourne, with a gala ceremony, becoming the third official provider of higher education in the Colony of Victoria (the Melbourne Athenaeum was founded in 1839 and the University of Melbourne in 1853).

Enjoying the sunny afternoon weather, I took a wander through the Colleges laneways back to the car which passed by some ruins of the “Old Melbourne Gaol” where students were playing basketball.

A mural depicting students at the Workingman's College from the 1900s.

And a more recent mural from today's art students at RMIT.

Between the turn of the 20th century and 1930s, the college expanded dramatically over the former Melbourne Gaol site with the establishment of an art school, an engineering school and a radio school. In 1934, it then changed its name to the Melbourne Technical College. During the 1940s, over the course of World War II, it trained a sixth of Australia’s service personnel (mainly Royal Australian Air Force radio communication officers), 2000 civilians in munitions manufacturing and was commissioned by the Government of Australia to manufacture parts for the DAP Beaufort Bomber. In 1954, it was awarded royal patronage by Queen Elizabeth II for its service to the war effort – becoming the only Australian university to receive the honour – and it was renamed the Royal Melbourne Technical College. (from Wikipedia)

From here I passed by a small student market place where books and vinyl records were on sale. Unfortunately my time was at a premium as I had another appointment.
I was glad that I took that 15 minutes to discover part of Melbourne that I had long forgotten.

Its Sunday now and the second day into our Labour Day long weekend - Melbourne and most of Victoria has been hit by torrential rain storms along with hailstones said to as big as golf balls. We were caught in it yesterday when driving home from shopping. The end of our street was covered in knee deep water however we could negotiate the shallow part to get to our home.

Cnr of Flinders and Swanston Sts, Melbourne (Herald-Sun)

Neddy racing at Flemington Racecourse was cancelled with hail putting a damper on the day.

Sue purchased produce for a dinner party we are having tonight. It was going to be a casual BBQ however with the rain, she decided we would have a sit-down dinner. She's been cooking up her own storm but more about that in tomorrow night's blog
Stay tuned.

FUNKY GUYS

 

How Funky Friday are these guys. This small section of artistic graffitti is on the outside wall of warehouse used for the arts.

This weekend looks like a wet and cooler one - which is a bit of a shame really as we have a long weekend with Monday being our labour day celebrations. I wonder if our younger workers realise that it was in the late 1850s that an 8 hour working day was introduced.

These days of course hours seem to be all over the place with varied shop hours and part time employment. I'm fortunate that I have a flexible working life and can balance my work and private life although sometimes they become one of the same through design. On Monday I'll probably check my work emails and do some paperwork just to keep on top of things.

I can feel a few rides coming up this long weekend and some entertaining as well, let you know on Monday's post.