a beautiful day

Nathan's and I have visitors from Sydney hanging out with us this weekend. We started the day with breakfast on Elizabeth street. We took the dog with us. She is not a fan of the horse drawn carriages in the city and went a bit crazy when she saw one.

Nathan then took the visitors to see the dresses exhibition at acme. I took the dog home and then headed to Johnstone street to get a canvas stretched. I ended up taking a walk along smith street and up along Gertrude before catching the tram to meet up with the others for a late lunch.

Nathan is cooking chicken curry tonight. We've invited the visitors over for dinner. Should be a nice, relaxing evening. The perfect Saturday.

sunday roast

I seem to be regressing with my jet lag....I actually slept in (and only woke up because the dog was licking my face).

I went to look for a gift for my friend who is visiting from Canberra. Awkwardly, I bumped into his ex (who is now also living in Melbourne). What are the odds? Such a coincidence.

After the catch up session with my friend on Sydney Road, I decided to drop into Woolworths in Brunswick to pick up some pork belly for a sunday evening roast. I had been inspired by the sight of roasted pork belly and perfect crackling on Master Chef earlier in the week. Alas, it seemed that everyone living in Brunswick had similarly been inspired and Woolworths was sold out of pork belly; so I got a pork leg instead.

I am now waiting for the roast to finish cook. So far, the crackling is looking really. I've now turned the heat right down so the skin doesn't burn. Wish me luck.

first week back

Got back to Melbourne last Sunday. I don't ever remember Melbourne night time temperatures getting down as low as 2 or 3 degrees. What's with that? Going from long sunny days in Finland to short wet ones here in Melbourne has been tough.

I went back to work on Tuesday and found out the uni is going through another round of job cuts. I ended up spending part of the working week consoling a senior colleague who had been tapped on the shoulder. By Friday arvo, I was glad I had survived the working week (physically and emotionally).

Despite the crappy weather today, I decided to make the most of my saturday by dragging Nathan and the dog out for the day (rather, the dog dragged us out...she loves her walks). We made our way over to Rathdowne Street and had a wonderful lunch at The Kent Hotel before letting Truffles loose inside a dog park where she had an absolute ball chasing after the other dogs.

We then wandered to Brunswick Street, walked down Gertrude to Tarlo and Graham (to introduce Truffles to the store manager), before making a stop over at Dianne Tanzer Gallery (where I bought a sculpture..retail therapy is the perfect anecdote to a shitty week).

Truffles and I left Nathan in the CBD (the poor bugger has to work tonight...he had his own issues at work to deal with this week). The dog and I headed bck home. Truffles is now snoozing on the couch and I'm about to settle into a quiet night at home in front of the television a– with a warming bowl of lentil soup.

the clean up

Ahhh...the clean up has begun. My student and I have been busy finishing up the last of the experiments and cleaning up all the stuff we have been using. I smell like algae and detritus.

Tomorrow we head off to Tampere. My student and I will be staying with my friend's parents. His dad does the most amazing hot-smoked fish.

meanwhile, back in Melbourne...

It looks like the dog has been learning how to drive. I think Truffles will get her license before Nathan.