Moving office

A lot has happened around the world since my last post.

Fortunately, in my own little world, things have been fairly mundane.

I had been busy cleaning out my old office in preparation for moving into a new space this week. It's amazing how much crap I've accumulated in 10 years. And it's even more amazing how cathartic it has been to toss out a lot of that crap.

My new office is in an adjoining building. The office has been refurbished and it's a little bit fancy. I now have a desk that moves up and down and the lights are hooked up to motion sensors to save energy (so far, it keeps going off no matter how much I'm moving around). My new office is slightly smaller than my last but I think it's also a more functional space (and fortunately it's still big enough to house all the crap I didn't manage to throw out).

The actual building itself is old and crappy. I think it was build in the 60s and has a funky smell. The floors are uneven and you can see the patched up remnants of huge cracks in the walls where the building has shifted. I hope I don't plunge through the floors.

Saturday market and art surprise

My Mexican friend is in town. On Saturday morning we took her to the South Melbourne Markets for breakfast. I had to buy some flowers for a dinner party so we stopped by my favourite florist for some banksias (and a quick selfie).

 I took my friend to the NGV gift shop in the afternoon so she could buy some souvenirs. I was leafing through a book on aboriginal art and was surprised to see a painting from my collection reproduced in the book!

Ali

I met Ali 12 years ago. It was at a fancy Australian American fundraiser in New York. As a junior scientist, I was completely outside my comfort zone (It was only the second time I ever wore a tux; the first was at my year 12 formal). In a cavernous hall full of amazing people (from TV personalities to media moguls), he was by far the biggest star amongst a sea of stars. Ali was the one all the guests wanted to get a photograph with.

RIP.

Spicy

My colleague from Finland took over the lease from an Indian family in Carnegie last August when he came to Australia for work. The Indians left a bunch of stuff behind, including a pantry full of spices (many of which were unfamiliar to us).

A few weeks ago, my colleague returned to Finland, but not before inviting a bunch of us to his place for pizza. He needed to clear out all the things in the apartment so I took some of the spices (after getting some help identifying them from an Indian PhD student who also came for pizza).

I ended up cooking a delicious fish dish on the weekend with some of the spices (mustard seeds, coriander seed and tumeric). It was delicious.

Sunday outing

After a rather crappy (wet) Saturday, we took full advantage of the 'dry' weather today to go on an outing this afternoon.

After some shopping (I needed to buy some new undies), we decided to go for afternoon tea at the National Gallery of Victoria. The sweets selection looked pretty awesome. If we didn't go for the scones, I would have opted for the macaroon at the front of the photo and Nathan would have gone for the lemon meringue tart.

I had read that the NGV has rehung their Pacific Island collection so I dragged Nathan for a look. This display of highland shields was pretty spectacular.

Nathan was perplexed by this minimalist sculpture titled 'Antarctica'.

I want one of these...

No, it's not a clothes peg. It's a bench! The Moletta by Italian company Riva 1920.

What's the rush?

On my way to work, I find it amusing when people rudely push past others when leaving the train station – but still have to wait with the rest of us for the bus to arrive.

Bendigo

Nathan and I are off to Bendigo today to see the Marilyn Monroe exhibition with some friends.

I don't care much for Marilyn (I haven't seen any of her movies) but I do like Bendigo. Plus, Nathan and I are both curious to meet our friend's new boyfriend. His last boyfriend was a lovely bloke who, sadly, passed away a few years ago in a car accident. We are naturally excited that our friend has started seeing someone new.

Singapore

Nathan and I had a great time in Singapore. Alas, the holiday was over way too fast (and I had to go to work on the same day that I got back, which, in hindsight, was really stupid). 

Unfortunately, I did not find my pig intestine dish but I did have some amazing meals, including this chilli mud crab. Yum.

One of the highlights for me was the Garden by the Bay. 

The science geek in me particularly enjoyed the spectacular cloud forest greenhouse, dripping with rare orchids, ferns and pitcher plants.  

Off on a holiday

I'm going back to the country of my birth for a few days. The last time I went to Singapore for an actual visit (i.e. walk out of the airport) was in 2002. I'm really looking forward to it. The top item on my 'to do' list is to eat a dish from my childhood...stewed pig intestines with rice noodles (kway chap).

Tree house

How awesome would it be to have a tree inside the apartment. My double storey loft would certainly have the vertical space. Hmmm....let me think about it.

PK22

I've been spending my Sunday morning looking through design blogs. I am so in love with the Poul Kjærholm PK22 Lounge Chairs. They are slick and contemporary and a design classic dating back to 1956. I'd love a pair in black.

Poor Truffs

I had to take Truffles to the vet earlier in the week because we noticed a rash on her tail from her incessantly licking the base of her tail. It turn out her anal glands were full (eeeww) and was causing her some discomfort. The vet had to squeeze the glands and the smell (eeeww) was terrible. I had to walk Truffs back to the apartment with an Elizabethan collar around her head to stop her from licking her tail. She was finding it difficult to adjust to the collar. Poor girl...at one stage, she walked straight into a lamp post.

Milestone

Celebrated a milestone birthday this past week (shhh....40). Had the day off and took Truffles to the dog park for a run in the morning, met up with Nathan for lunch at my favourite Japanese restaurant, and bought myself some cushion covers from Marimekko. Perfect week.

Korean fired chicken and bubble tea

You know those days when everything seems aligned? Yesterday was not one of those days.

Nathan and I were in the city doing some shopping and we decided to get some bubble tea. We walked past a Korean restaurant and decided that we'd much prefer Korean fried chicken (KFC). We took our seat in the restaurant. Things started well enough.... there was KFC on the menu. Yay.

Unfortunately, when we started to place our order, the waitress informed us that the chicken was boneless. What? Boneless KFC? No way. We decided to go elsewhere.

Now on a mission with KFC on our mind, we walked up Swanston Street to another restaurant I knew that specialised in Korean fried chicken. Alas, it was closed.

So...we walked across the road to yet another Korean restaurant and took our seats. I knew this place definitely had fired chicken on their menu. But...when I started to place our order, the waitress said they had sold out. F*&K!! We left.

By this stage, the appeal of fried chicken had waned (and I did not really find Nathan's alternative suggestion of Kentucky fried chicken particularly appealing...or amusing) so we decided to go back to our original game plan. We ditched the idea of going for fired chicken and made our way to the bubble tea shop.

I started to place our order at the bubble tea shop and was informed that they had ran out of the 'pearls' (i.e. tapioca for making the bubble tea). A bubble tea without the bubble. No way.

Dog day

Today was all about Truffles. She jumped on my chest at 7.30am this morning knowing that it was still the weekend. We took her to the Gasworks Park in Albert Park for a run. I nearly got pissed on by a very old golden retriever who lifted his leg up on the side of the park bench that I was sitting on.

Nathan and I met a lovely woman who was out with her dog. We really hit it off and exchanged phone numbers. Turns out that she works for a big bank and spends quite a bit of her time travelling. She will be in Singapore around the same time as our scheduled visit in early May so we are planning to hang out. Funny how you end up connecting with strangers.

We are now back in the apartment. Nathan is drinking champagne.

Kyneton

It was Nathan's 40th yesterday. We went to Kyneton for a nice lunch at a place called Source Dining. We went to the same restaurant last Autumn (on the day Nathan got made redundant) but it had a different name back then. Not sure why the owners decided to change the name of the restaurant. It didn't matter. The food was as amazing as our first visit. I ordered the roast hare. I've not had hare before and had expected it to taste like rabbit but it was more akin to a very tender piece of beef.

We also visited a funky shop on the same street as the restaurant called Stockroom. The shop had a gallery and there was an exhibition showing by a landscape artist called Greg Wood. Alas, I couldn't resist and bought one of his paintings. I have limited wall space left at home but have just the spot for it when I get it home after the exhibition is over.

After Kyneton, we made our way to Maldon to attend his Godmother's 60th birthday celebrations. I had not been to Maldon before but I think I'm going to have go back. It was a small little town but there were lots of interesting shops lining the main street.

We returned back to Melbourne in the early evening. It started to rain and I noticed the landscape looked just like the Greg Wood painitings we had seen earlier at Kyneton.

Flowers this week

I picked up this Cymbidium orchid after doing the grocery shopping at the South Melbourne Markets. I though the colours were beautiful for an Autumn display.

Cymbidium orchids bring me back to my childhood. I remember the first orchid I ever got was a Cymbidium. It was a dying plant that my grade 5 teacher, Miss Eccleston, gave to me when she really should have tossed it in the bin. Not surprisingly, the plant was soon dead and it would be quite some time later before I got my next plant...a bargain that dad picked up from the local Woolworths. It was the start of my orchid obsession.

Tassie

Nathan and I just got back from Hobart. It was a short trip away with one of our Finnish friends who had not been to Tasmania before. Hobart is a wonderful city and both Nathan and I talked about how we can both see ourselves living there. The houses are so much more affordable than Melbourne. The food is amazing. And everyone seems so friendly. I just need to get a job at the University of Tasmania!

Zaha Hadid RIP

I was saddened to learn that Dame Zaha Hadid, one of the world's greatest architects ('starchitect'), passed away a couple of days ago. Her futuristic designs may not be everyone's cup of tea but they really did push the boundaries of architecture. She was the first woman to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize, and was a true pioneer in every sense of the word.

Here are some examples of her amazing work from around the world....

Vitra fire station, Germany

Heydar Aliyev culture centre, Azerbaijan

Guangzhou opera house, China

Corones Museum, Italy

Here is her design for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which was unfortunately canned due to a budget blow out.

She has designed buildings for Melbourne too, but none have been realised – yet.

Here is her short-listed submission for the design competition to revamp Flinder's Street station.

And this is the design for a residential tower on Collin's Street that is still awaiting approval.