Archived: Melbourne 2005
I'm heading over to Melbourne (again, I know!) in October 2005... It'll my first (and long overdue) holiday this year, and really my first since the last trip to Melbourne in 2004, which feels like years ago.
Got suggestions of things to do? Leave a comment, or email me!
A busy month means a bullet-list highlights reel towards the end of the month.
- Was my holiday really just six weeks ago? It feels like months ago. I've still got a stack of photos to post. Like, say, this one. It's definitely not from around Perth.
- Designing and building a site showcasing the entries for the new performing arts centre in Perth was fascinating work for someone who really digs architecture.
- Going through boxes of stuff from high school the other weekend brought back a stack of memories. In related news, if I see the phrase "don't ever change!" scrawled in pen one more time, I'm going to go postal.
- Going through a bunch of photos from high school makes me feel old. Well, at least old-er.
- Moving our office real close to a coffee shop will be my undoing.
Posted on Wednesday, November 23, 2005
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I left Melbourne a little over a month ago and already it feels like an age since my holiday.
I mention that because this hot chocolate review is a little late and may be a little sketchy on the details.
Max Brenner. Where to start. If you were slightly giddy at the option of either Hot Chocolate or Italian Hot Chocolate on the menu at L'Aperitivo or Brunetti, you'll pass out when you see the menu at this hot chocolateria (okay, so I made that up).
Page after page after drool-soaked-page of different types of hot chocolate.
Going from sketchy chocolate-fuelled memory, we're talking at least five pages of different types of hot chocolate. Five. I'll wait for you to contemplate that a moment longer.
Right.
They've got your traditional liquid-state hot chocolate, mixed with a variety of amazing-sounding flavours (that photo's blurred because I'm about to chug some dark-chocolate-and-orange flavoured goo). These are served in the hug-mug, which is "specially-designed for the chocolate drinking ceremony."
Yes, they said ceremony. They take it that seriously. If Mr Brenner starts a religion, I know a lot of people who'd join.
They've also got a decidedly elaborate DIY option called Suckao, which involves an egg-shaped mug with a tealight candle underneath being brought to the table along with some freshly-mined blocks of chocolate and a small jug of milk. You're then free to mix up your own hot chocolate, which is drunk through a metal straw-spoon.
I've left that option for next time I happen to be in Melbourne. Or Sydney. They're in several convenient locations in either city. Just not in Perth.
Posted on Monday, November 21, 2005
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Statues beside the Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne.
Posted on Friday, November 11, 2005
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If this last trip to Melbourne had a plan (which it didn't - the whole thing had a lazy aura of unplanned-ness about it) it would be Mission Hot Chocolate 2: This Time With Added Pizza. My 2004 trip to Melbourne started out with the stated aim of trying a stack of gourmet hot chocolate places, but the first one I made it to was so mind-bendingly good that I kinda forgot about the rest.
Or when I tried they were closed.
Which happened surprisingly often for a cosmopolitan, 24-hour-trading city like Melbourne (and to the one that made malteaser hot chocolate, just to make things worse) but it was mostly that I kept going back to L'Aperitivo for another hit of the thick molten goo they called Italian Hot Chocolate.
This time around L'Aperitivo was closed for the first week of my holiday, so I had no choice but to get my hot chocolate hit somewhere else.
One of the stops on my hot chocolate tour of Melbourne was Brunetti City Square in the CBD, for their Italian Hot Chocolate. It's not as thick as L'Aperitivo (ie you can't stand the spoon up in the middle of the glass) but it's still disgustingly rich and slightly bitter. If you're after something sweeter, you can get some whipped cream in a little jug on the side which you can add to taste. Or just use the teaspoon to scoop, dip and eat as Mot recommended.
Brunetti's Italian Hot Chocolate: perfect for the mid-afternoon chocolate hit. I'd be a regular if they were in Perth or I were in Melbourne (sigh).
Posted on Tuesday, October 25, 2005
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A portrait of a very trusting seagull (which could be anywhere, so you'll have to trust me when I say it was taken somewhere near Southbank, Melbourne).
Of course I was also using a 200mm zoom lens at the time, so I didn't have to crawl on my stomach to get the shot. That also makes things easier.
Posted on Monday, October 24, 2005
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Another view of the Shrine of Remembrance, looking through the new visitors centre and up to the shrine proper.
Posted on Thursday, October 20, 2005
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I'm back in Perth now, back at work and back to waiting for the weekends. I've still got a few photos to sort through, and some hot chocolate reviews to write... once I've cleared the deluge of emails to deal with at work.
This is the view back towards Melbourne from the top of the Shrine of Remembrance, which is a must-visit each time I'm in Melbourne. It's a beautiful building, and the view from the balcony is well worth the climb up the stairs.
It closes somewhere around 5pm so you can't catch the really golden light just before sunset this time of year... That's one of the security guys on the right coming over to kick me out so they can close the balcony for the night.
Posted on Thursday, October 20, 2005
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At last -- a cityscape! Melbourne CBD from underneath the Arts Centre, Southbank.
Posted on Thursday, October 13, 2005
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Krissy's been complaining about all my arty-farty abstract photos of Melbourne, and the lack of cityscapes. So here's another weird abstract photo.
That's a weird, abstract photo of Webb Bridge, over in the Docklands area of Melbourne. I believe it's nominated for some architecture award, which would be quite deserved. It's a muchly cool bridge, as far as pedestrian bridges go. It's also vaguely over-engineered, which is a pleasant change from Perth's it's-a-straight-line-over-a-river approach to bridges.
Docklands is also home to some of the most whacky public art I've seen lately, like the cow mentioned previously, and a large glossy black rabbit.
There's also a giant 3D version of the Channel 7 logo, which is really quite strange.
Posted on Thursday, October 13, 2005
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A sculpture of a cow. In a tree.
Apparently it's art.
Posted on Wednesday, October 12, 2005
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Another from Fed Square yesterday.
Right. The sun's out, I'm off to walk along the beach.
Posted on Wednesday, October 12, 2005
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It doesn't feel like I'm in Melbourne until I've posted about how cool Fed Square is.
There. Now I know I'm in Melbourne.
Posted on Tuesday, October 11, 2005
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I've been in Melbourne a few days now -- there's plenty going on, having a ball, etc, etc.
It's rapidly becoming a foodie type holiday, with what looks like at least three gourmet pizza meals to be consumed over the ten days, and I'm going to cram as many hot chocolates as I can into this holiday.
Anyway, I'm on holiday, which I think technically means I should be avoiding this whole website thing...
Posted on Tuesday, October 11, 2005
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So now my puny web developer arms are complaining about lifting all that furniture yesterday. A little. They're used to pushing pixels, not real things.
My Melbourne holiday snuck up on me again -- I head over there this Friday for just over a week. It's going to be a relaxing break, there's not much planned at the moment so I'll just take each day as it comes. (Some italian hot chocolate is a given).
Any suggestions for things to do in Melbourne? Want to catch up and say hi -- leave a comment or email me.
Posted on Monday, October 3, 2005
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And the rest...