Best weekends

Are there any other publicist / chef relationships out there? If so, please knock on my door and have a beer with me as I'd love to hear your stories of logistics, shift work, balance and options and how you find ways to pump up the jam.

Hubster and I totally pumped up the jam yesterday. We had a freaking RARE as fuck Saturday DAY AND NIGHT off together, but as we have an almost three year old, there was no sleeping in. Instead we pre-planned the night before a seriously rad beach trip.

Our favourite beach to head to is Indented Head because it has a funny name and one shop called a General Store and no phone reception. It's very cool.

We packed badly (only one nappy and no shoes for the kid + a broken beach tent) but it didn't matter. It was a pearler of a day and shoes are overrated in summer.

If you have never been to Indented Head before, it's time to try it. Especially if you have a toddler. There's a shipwreck, rock pools and sail boats. And it's just so goddamn quiet you can hear yourself think. Only about an hour and a bit from Melbourne-town too. Leave your phone at home.

But it came time to leave the beach and grabs some snacks which meant pick up some shoes for the kid thanks to the superbly hot ground. We could only source Haviana thongs in Portarlington for $25 a pop (kill me - for thongs!) which meant the extravagant lunch we had in mind turned to pies, Oak flavoured milk and jelly slice at the local bakery. Which turned out to be pretty excellent if you're into 1990s-style baked treats.

It's these weekends, half planned, half winging it that turn out the best. Flicking on the radio to hear Foreigner, spotting a pirate ship at the pier, grabbing a kilo of muscles from a boat, and my favourite, scoring freshly picked fruit at the local Williamstown Farmers Market and watching my kid sit on the ground and devour piece after piece after piece until all my coins ran out.

Happy Valentine's day to all the loved up people out there. May you be eating the food my man is cooking up today while he works or listening to the sweet sounds of the orchestra while I work tonight.

I hope next weekend is filled with just as much love, if not... .find yourself a jelly slice and discover love at first sight!

The Welcome Mat

The inner west has only been home to me for four years. When I told my inner Eastern suburban pals that we were moving to the west, they had great concern for me: “But you don’t do drugs? How are you going to get to work in the City? We will never see each other – Yarraville is hours away from Richmond, I will have to catch a V-Line.” And so on.

It was weird only knowing a handful of people in this new pocket of Melbourne we had barely visited before we bought our house. We renovated our shack, got knocked up, had a baby boy, then started sorting through the mountains of stuff that we had held onto for years, not knowing what to do with it all.

Miniature worlds lead to an urban CWA

I have to admit, being on maternity leave sometimes feels like every day is a Saturday. I have found that having a kid means that I am more likely to go out and explore my local hood. And it just so happens that today is a Saturday, a rainy one at that, and go out and explore I did!

I have been pretty pumped for the annual Bonsai Festival since I heard about it a couple of weeks ago. Alfie and I got up early knowing that the first 100 visitors to the festival would receive a free maple bonsai (it's more like a stick, but I'll give it to Reg to get all creative with).

Old and Newport

Today I took the boys down to the Newport Folk Festival on the train. I love Newport for three reasons: the Vinnies, the bakery and the library. But today I found a couple more excuses to visit this cute suburb.

Folk Festival in the park

Each time I visit Newport I visit Sammy's bakehouse. This middle eastern bakery makes the best range of sweet bagels that I have ever tasted. My favourite is the custard bagel which at only $3.50 is totally worth the embarrassment of it leaving a mess around your mouth.

Amazing custard bagel

I have mentioned the Newport Vinnies several times in this blog because it is seriously one of the best op shops in the area. The store is colour coordinated and has a very high turnaround.  If you like retro goods or just a treasure hunt, you could spend hours in this place (and I did today).

Re-use it baby!

Today is totally renovation day. Tradies bumped in at 7am ready to get cracking, tool belts and all.
I feel slightly ill knowing that I am going to come home to a house skeleton.