The far northern end of Fitzroy St near Alexandra Parade has a lot of relatively new street art. I love the colour in these works.

I worked in Carlton for 3 years and used to know it well, but that was nearly 3 years ago. Despite its wealth and style, I get the impression that Carlton has lost some of its cool. Compared to Fitzroy and Brunswick, where bloggers document the street art and review every new cafe within days of them opening, Carlton is significantly underblogged although there is much to write about and review.

I knew that a bar called Markov Place had opened behind the cleanskin wine shop on Drummond St, but despite buying wine there regularly I never went to the bar. Then I started working in the city and the wine shop stopped stocking an amazing Victorian Durif, so I stopped going there.

Recently I read the Words and Flavours review of Markov Place and put it back on my mental list of places to visit. It’s the only blog review review I can find, though the Age has reviewed it here and here. An exceptional dinner there recently with my girlfriend convinced me that Markov Place is possibly the best bar restaurant in Carlton, and the full room on a Wednesday night indicated that it is not a secret.

We started with glasses of Spanish Albariño and Verdejo, and ordered some small dishes to share. Below are the eggplant and anchovy bruschetta (the board is drizzled with golden syrup), the scallops with spinach and garlic, the eggplant fritters (containing sultanas and goat’s curd) and the calamari salad. These dishes were all wonderful - flavoursome with very fresh ingredients.

We finished the meal by sharing a serve of the St Agur French blue cheese, which comes in a generous serve with quince paste and dried muscat grapes. Like Words and Flavours, we were highly impressed with the service. Questions about ingredients and whether the wines had been oaked (we had guessed correctly yes for the Albariño and no for the Verdejo) were easily answered and there was no attitude, unlike some comparable city places. At $100 for everything described here, it is also good value given the quality of the food and service. Markov is a delight and we will be back.

This large work is on the wall of a laneway that is the closest parallel laneway west of Brunswick St between Cecil St and Alexandra Parade.

The Johnston St Spanish Fiesta celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2008. The fiesta on the weekend of 15-16 November was incredibly busy, with thousands of people filling Johnston St on both days. During the day it was so packed you could barely move. On Saturday night the music pulsed loudly and could be heard from blocks away, though I had no problem with it.

I was going to critiques the marketing because their website is not very informative, though it has lots of photos of previous years. The more professional looking brochure was only available on the Yarra council website (1.76mb PDF), but as the event was so well attended none of this matters.

I was away in 2007 and missed it but the 2008 fiesta seemed far busier than in 2006. Some excellent pics by Goony and Atariboy capture the flavour of the 2008 event.

There was a good variety of food available, though the Dutch and Indian stalls were confusing. I gather that all Johnston St businesses could have a stall, which why the Indian food was included, but why Dutch cakes? I also went to the Polish festival in Federation square on Sunday morning, and the similarity between the Polish kransky sausage in a white bread roll to the Spanish chorizo sausage in a white bread roll left me suspicious about the authenticity of both.

It was sad to see the ‘for sale’ sign on the Spanish club given the ongoing popularity of the fiesta, and this got me to thinking about the future of the Spanish precinct on Johnston St. It survives as a strip of Spanish restaurants and the amazing Casa Iberica food shop.

The Spanish club is owned by community group Hogar Espanol and has, in recent years, been leased out to professional bar operators who rejuvenated the venue. There were significant problems with noise and liquor licensing, and there was also conflict between the youthful bar culture that emerged and the aging community over the appropriate use of the venue. Now it is closed and for sale and its future is unknown.

The fiesta is focused on food, drinking and music. It’s more of a street party than a cultural festival. It seems to make no great claims to bring cohesion or identity to the Spanish and Spanish speaking communities in Melbourne. It seems the bigger the fiesta becomes, the less cultural relevance it has. Unlike the declining Greek precinct in Lonsdale St, Melbourne, however, at least the Spanish precinct in Johnston St seems stable and viable.

Spanish food is increasing in popularity in Fitzroy. In recent times we have seen the arrival of Los Amates Mexican restaurant on Johnston St, Añada tapas restaurant on Gertrude St, and the De Los Santos restaurant and Juanita’s latin cafe on Brunswick St.

It’s notoriously difficult to artificially manage culture. Cultural beliefs, values and practices survive ruthless oppression and also dissipate despite comprehensive efforts to maintain them. The future of the Spanish precinct in Fitzroy is unknown.

I’m not one for reading cute animal stories, so I’m surprised to find myself writing one. Resting on the grounds of the Cape Horn winery near Echuca these recently shorn alpacas were rather endearing. I was there to secure some of their fabulous Durif, and made the wonderous discovery that is their late picked Zinfandel, an intense and delicious dessert wine. The only thing I’ve had that can compare is Scion’s sweet Durif from Rutherglen.

Cape Horn can be challenging to find (it is at the end of several kilometres of unsealed and poorly signed roads) but it is worth visiting if you enjoy good Victorian wine or cute animals. While I was there the owners were suffering from two bridesmaid bus tours. Drinking generously and making lots of noise is one way to demonstrate appreciation, but I think they liked having someone ask them about their wine and the craft of making it.

On a recent trip to Echuca via Heathcote my girlfriend and I tasted some excellent white wines and then had lunch at Flynns wines. We love their Verdelho and Viognier and the Sangiovese is also very good. We wanted a light lunch and the menu was enticing.

My girlfriend had the asparagus and salmon and I had the roquefort, pear, walnut and pancetta salad.

The cellar door experience is relaxed and informal and the owners are welcoming and informative. Having visited many cellar doors, I can say that Flynns is better than many in terms of describing their own wine and wine making process without simply being focused on making a sale. Flynns is easy to find just off the Northern Highway and makes what we consider to be some of the best wine from the Heathcote region.

One of the great victories of people over government in 2008 was the successful campaign to save Condell park. Socialist Party councillor Steve Jolly led the campaign, which is typical of his pragmatic approach to local government policy. None of the other councillors made much of a fuss about the park. The Labor party clones on council did nothing to contradict the state Labor local MP Dick Wynne, whose office was spreading misinformation about the future of the park. With no members in state parliament, party unity will not prevent the Socialist Party candidates from dealing effectively with Fitzroy issues.

Drawings by Kat McLeod form the latest exhibition at Lamington Drive called The Tiniest Spark, which is on until 29 November. The small delicate fashion illustrations drew a large crowd who crammed into the tiny gallery for the opening night (above). Fortunately a larger area out the back provided space (below) for people to talk, drink and eat the icecream from sponsor Trampoline. Examples of her work are posted at Jacky Winter and The Design Files.

Like Gorker gallery, Lamington Drive has made exhibition openings into exciting social events that draw people keen to be part of the crowd. These galleries have staff whose networking and marketing skills draw sponsorship and provide art lovers and potential customers with regular email invites to attend openings and exhibitions.

I go through the emails I receive from Lamington Drive, BSG, Sutton and other Fitzroy galleries and try to see an opening a week. The short life of exhibitions in places like BSG and Gorker means there is always something new on.

In the never ending search for unique breakfasts in Melbourne I read somewhere about Enni on High St in Thornbury, and got a table quite early one Saturday morning. In the dynamic Melbourne breakfast blogging scene, it is surprising how some places get all the attention and others get far less than they deserve. In the case of Enni, it has only previously been reviewed (as far as I can tell) by The breakfast blog a year ago. Once breakfast devotees read this, they will be rushing to Enni to taste the dukkah poached eggs (above) and the Indian scrambled eggs (below).

The dukkah eggs includes mushrooms, spinach and fetta on toast with a sprinkling of delicious dukkah. The Indian scrambled eggs are made with a curry spice mix with bacon and yogurt. Both are amazing but the curried scrambled eggs are magical. The spice mixes are from the owner’s family connections in South Africa and are definitely not something you could easily replicate out of a packet. The coffee is very good and while the service was a bit slow (it was busy) the wait was definitely worth it.

Mozilla Geode and Google Gears Geolocation are browser plugins that can determine your location via wifi triangulation. This is a technique iPhone users will be familiar with but which has not been used a great deal for wifi devices generally.

Geode and Geolocation allow wifi enabled devices (such as smart phones and laptops) to find, store and share details of their location. If you install either on your laptop or wifi device, your browser can determine where you are, and then share that information with other services.

In my efforts to build a truly local news and information service for the Fitzroy community, there is one technical step left to be completed. Fitzroyalty is a Wordpress blog that uses the GeoPress plugin to geotag the locations of places discussed in posts to the emerging GeoRSS standard. By geotagging content I can provide location specific information. Read more about Geotagging for beginners with Mapufacture GeoPress.

Currently this information can only be manually correlated with the user’s location by searching for a street or browsing a map. An additional tool is required to enable users to automatically retrieve location specific information relevant to their current or preferred location. What is missing is a link between Wordpress and Geode or Geolocation. What is required is a Wordpress plugin that takes the location awareness data from the browser plugin and uses that to prioritise or sort the blog’s content by location.

Such a plugin would enable readers to automatically retrieve posts about places closest to them. Users could view content by location (the post about the closest location first) as well as by date (usually most recent post first). Sites like Outside.In (via its Radar function) already do this, but such sophisticated services cannot yet be provided by Wordpress bloggers.

The potential for these tools is immense. The growth of the semantic web, where content contains sophisticated contextual metadata, will be paralleled by the growth of the geoweb. The geoweb can be defined as the combination of location awareness and location-specific content. As more content is geotagged, Google searches could become like Outside.In’s Radar view of the world, showing users content about places nearest to them or for locations of their choosing.

I want Fitzroyalty to be the best hyperlocal blog in Australia, but that is for readers to decide. Fitzroyalty is probably already the most technically sophisticated hyperlocal blog in Australia in providing geotagged location specific content, and it may also currently be the most prolific hyperlocal blog in Australia. Read more about the current status of hyperlocal media in Australia.

Who will build the missing link between the Wordpress Geopress plugin and location awareness browser plugins like Google Gears Geolocation and Mozilla Geode? I have the conceptual skills to see how the tools create cumulative value, but I’m not a programmer. I have already logged this idea at the official Wordpress community and with Geopress on the customer service site GetSatisfaction. I hope someone will want to pursue this project.

On a recent visit to Echuca I had breakfast at the Black Pudding deli, which claims to deliver the best breakfast in town. If that is true, I feel sorry for the locals. Maybe they make their own breakfast at home and leave the cafes to the tourists. The coffee at the Black Pudding was watery and burned, with no crema or flavour, and the food was average.

My girlfriend chose the breakfast melt, which was avocado, bacon and parmesan on a toasted English muffin. Only one side had any avocado, and it was the most miserly spread of it I have ever seen. There could also have been more cheese on top.

My bacon and fried egg bagel was better, but it was merely good, not anything more than that. High St in Echuca was quite lively for a Sunday morning and the Black Pudding was one of the busiest cafes, which is usually a good sign of quality. I was surprised by how underwhelming the breakfast was and given the number of options available, I will try somewhere else next time.

I recently featured the Geronimo air hockey table window display, and now they have made a new display featuring the turtles from the previous display (but without the ponies). Most of them have joined the KKK and the loner in the centre is not happy!

Two friends of mine run a mini cafe called Obscura (site and Facebook) outside the Kensington train station on Bellair St. Their coffee is certified fair trade and organic and is sourced from Laos. It can be bought at the cafe or online and is incredibly delicious. You can SMS your order to them, step off the train and pick it up, then get on the next one!

Current chef at The Commoner Zoe Roy is featured in a new video (above) produced by the excellent food industry site ieatidrinkiwork. Her confidence is in contrast to the more apprehensive or shy manner of previous chef Matt Donnelly, who features in a previous episode of the series (below).

Beyond their individual styles on camera, the significant difference is that Roy speaks from a position of surety - since the video with Donnelly was shot The Commoner has become a hit with diners and is the most reviewed restuarant in Fitzroy. I’ve enjoyed breakfast and dinner there and owner Jo Corrigan was featured earlier this year at Breakfast Out.

The legislation defines a de facto relationship as an opposite sex or same sex couple “living together on a genuine domestic basis”. Closer examination reveals that the definitions of “de facto” and “living together” have been considerably widened from those currently in common usage. The SMH reports that:

Under the legislation, courts will determine whether a couple are involved in a de facto relationship by taking a number of factors into account, including the duration of the partnership, whether they are living together, whether a sexual relationship exists, the degree of financial dependence and the ownership of property.

This means that many people who do not consider themselves to be in de facto relationships may be legally regarded as such. These people face the possibility of being taken to the family court by former partners and potentially being forced to pay maintenance for them. You cannot now have a sexual relationship without it being considered a financial relationship by the government. This new law defines all sex as prostitution, and the cost of sex has undergone hyperinflation.

The full details of the definition of de facto are in two Acts of Parliament: the Same-Sex Relationships (Equal Treatment in Commonwealth Laws General Law Reform) Bill 2008 (report  485kb PDF) and the Family Law Amendment (De Facto Financial Matters and Other Measures) Bill 2008 (report 293kb PDF).

The criteria that the Family Court and the government will use to determine whether what you do in your private life can be legally defined as a de facto relationship include:

• the duration of the relationship;
• the nature and extent of their common residence;
• whether a sexual relationship exists;
• the degree of financial dependence or interdependence, and any arrangements for financial support, between them;
• the ownership, use and acquisition of their property;
• the degree of mutual commitment to a shared life;
• the care and support of children;
• the reputation and public aspects of the relationship.

I consider it practical in contemporary society to to define marriage in terms of its function rather than its form. Marriage serves a number of functions, including the expression of commitment and securing of legal and financial agreements and protections. I actually believe that in a legal sense marriage is irrelevant. The traditional  concept of marriage has no functional relationship to social activities such as shared living arrangements or having children. Marriage is merely a legal contract based on money and property that some people find useful and/or comforting.

Over time, various state laws have made cohabiting sexual relationships into de facto marriage relationships, and the the inconsistencies between them partially prompted the new federal laws. The problem with the new laws is that many people don’t want to enter into the legal contract of marriage or a de facto equivalent, which is why they don’t get married.

The new laws go even further by potentially enforcing legal de facto status on people in long term relationships who do not to live together, where they keep their finances and assets completely separate and where there is no financial dependence or interdependence between them. The advice from one law firm modestly states that:

This will be a significant problem for some people who have entered into de facto relationships to avoid the rights and obligations of property settlement and maintenance claims that are normally attached to marriage breakdowns.

Ironically, the federal government itself recognises that:

cohabitants who have expressly avoided marriage may be loath to have the legal obligations and status associated with it foisted on them after, for example, they have lived together for a certain period.

Exactly. Thanks for ignoring and undermining my personal relationship choices Rudd. Your nanny police state is becoming intolerable. I am appalled that the government has created the opportunity for one person to make a financial claim on another just because they have had an ongoing sexual relationship. Who I choose to fuck and where I choose to fuck them is no one else’s business. It is not economic activity. It is social activity. It has no economic consequences and should have no legal consequences.

A newspaper article contains the following advice:

family lawyer Paul Hopgood said the door was ajar for jilted lovers to seek maintenance orders.

“I get high-profile people from around town saying, ‘I’m having an (affair) with so and so. I wine and dine her and take her on holidays. I look after her and it’s been going on for five years. But I’m safe - she hasn’t got the key to my house’.

“You don’t have to live in the same house and under the same roof to be a de facto. A lot of people are living in de facto relationships and don’t think they are.”

Mr Hopgood cited a couple who might not share a home because of international business commitments.

“If everything else is there, apart from the common residence, they’ve still got a de facto relationship.”

This is very scary advice for anyone in a long term sexual relationship, whether you live together or not.

People who have chosen to live separately while maintaining relationships now find that they have been defined as de facto couples without their knowledge or consent, and the legal implications may be significant. Living apart together (LAT) relationships have been growing in number because, for some people, they offer the best balance of individuality and togetherness, and they neatly keep property and assets out of the relationship.

Martyn Pedler eloquently explored the benefits of LAT relationships in the recent episode of SBS’s Insight on the future of marriage. I agree with him entirely:

I think as much as possible you should keep practicalities out of your relationship because practicalities are the least romantic things there are. So I think having to make that little bit of effort to see someone - you’re still excited when they come over at night to visit you instead of them always being in your space whether you want them to be or not is actually a way to keep romance alive.

It is apparent that people in cohabiting and LAT relationships will have to prepare the equivalent of prenuptial agreements - called cohabitation and separation agreements - in order to securely maintain their individual assets. A newspaper reports that:

Lawyers are bracing themselves for a rush of couples who live together seeking to draw up cohabitation agreements to protect money and assets due to radical reforms to the Family Law Act.

So now you have to be financially screwed by lawyers to prepare these documents to ensure you don’t get financially screwed by your ex partner in the family court as they seek maintenance and a share of your superannuation.

One of the unintended consequences could be the sudden ending of emotionally positive relationships to avoid negative financial consequences before the two year qualification period begins. Another newspaper reports that:

family law specialist Dean Evans yesterday said he expected a ‘disorderly scramble’ as men wanting to avoid maintenance rushed to end relationships.

The media reporting on this issue is typically patriarchal and anachronistic. It’s all about rich businessmen potentially being pursued for maintenance by discarded mistresses. For a country that is ranked in the world’s top 10 most gender equal countries, this is inexcusable.

Susan Maushart’s excellent article on serial monogamy describes how many people have several long term sexual relationships during their lives and how it is beneficial to graciously end a relationship before moving on to the next one. Her article will need to be updated, as I suspect that moving on from relationships is now going to be more difficult for many people.

Another unintended consequence of this law is that serial monogamy may evolve into speed monogamy as more people protect their individual assets by choosing not to fuck the same person for longer than two years. A neat analogy comes to mind.

The conservative anti-sex lobby promotes abstinence only sex education, which results in more unplanned teenage pregnancies instead of less. Similarly, the moral thought police in Politburo Rudd aim to create more stable long term relationships through this unnecessary social engineering but will instead create less.

The forgotten people in middle class society - non-married or single working people - who receive none of the middle class welfare of breeder families are who are already overtaxed are now having their preferred form of relationship over-regulated by a neurotic morally conservative government.

It is sadly ironic that these legislative changes are bringing Australia closer to realising the view of marriage espoused by feminist author and critic Sheila Jeffreys, who argues that marriage is a form of prostitution. This conservative blog agrees. By making all long term or de facto relationships like marriage, whether people want them to be or not, the Australian government is making them more like opportunities for people to economically exploit their partners in exchange for sex. Or is it the other way around? Whatever.

On Sunday 2 November 2008 the Rose hotel had a street party. The section of Leicester St between Napier St and George St was closed to traffic and was filled with people enjoying the afternoon. I didn’t find out who the band was but they were good.

You don’t have to be a socialist or have sympathy for the wider ideological platform of the Socialist Party to consider voting for Steve Jolly (Langridge Ward) and his colleagues Denise Dudley (Melba Ward) and Anthony Main (Nicholls Ward) in the elections for the City of Yarra council. The have a broad platform of pragmatic policies specifically focused on Yarra issues.

The Socialist Party candidates have been by far the most transparent and honest candidates during the election campaign. Fitzroy residents know exactly what they stand for and what they plan to do if elected. They also have no agenda to personally benefit from the policies they propose. I honestly cannot say this of most other candidates.

To give one example, the Leader and MCV report that the owner of Collingwood’s Peel Hotel, Tom McFeely, is standing for election in the Langridge Ward. As a publican, he wants to outlaw public drinking and reduce the opening hours of local bottle shops. These policies could drive more people into pubs to obtain alcohol. Conflict of interest? What conflict of interest?

What a joke. It is no wonder most people are disgusted by or indifferent to local government elections. Most candidates only run because they want to use a position on council to improve the business environment for their particular industry. It is so open and so blatant you can’t call it corruption because corruption requires sneaking around covertly breaking rules. What is the term for lawful but unethical behaviour?

Oh yes, it’s called politics. That also describes all the ALP and Liberal clones running - they are not interested in best serving the local community. They are merely getting some practice in screwing people so they have something to put on their CVs when they contest pre-selections for state or federal government seats.

You may call this cynicism; I call it realism. I hate politics.

I recently dropped in for a lazy Sunday breakfast and enjoyed a delicious apple and cinnamon crepe. The coffee was good, and my girlfriend also enjoyed her ham cheese and tomato crepe. The service was a bit vague, as we ordered crepes and the waitress turned to leave our table before we could even ask for coffee. We had to call her back. It was strange not to be automatically asked whether we wanted drinks to start with, which happens at most places, and even more so not to be asked once we had ordered. Maybe the waitress was also yet to have her morning coffee.

The Wick features the almost obligatory jumble of op shop retro furniture (in this case so rickety we had to ask to swap the chairs at our table as they were broken). They’re also doing open mic poetry on Thursday nights and have started to offer vegan crepes, which have been positively reviewed.

The cost of the individual hard rubbish collection service could be reduced by reverting to the previous six monthly service, which most residents prefer. Perhaps if they considered a fairer and more equitable balance between the needs of businesses and residents, the local environment could be improved for everyone.

This is another wonderful work I have previously featured, but it deserves another post. This version is at the back of the Centre for Contemporary Photography on Kerr St near the Gorker gallery. There’s another on Gore St between Rose St and Leicester St near the Eleventh Hour theatre. The artist is Rone (website, wikipedia and Age article).

I think I love it because it makes me think of my first favourite band, Adam and the Ants, whose third album Prince Charming (1981) was the first I bought with my own money (the Rockwiz quiz). I was nine. It’s a perfect blend of post punk agro with new romanticism melodies and some world music thrown in. Seriously. I still listen to it.

The single Stand and Deliver has one of the best music videos of the era.

The buzz has been growing about the cafe Mixed Business on Queens Parade in Clifton Hill since it opened earlier this year. It’s been reviewed extremely positively in the Age, Breakfast Out, Craft City Melbourne and Oh What Larks. The premises used to be a furniture restoration business and briefly before that a skateboard shop. I can’t remember what was there before that. By the time I got there, my expectations were high and they were met.

The coffee is splendid, the decor and ambiance are cute and charming, the staff lovely and the food is divine. I chose the poached eggs (below) with the most deliciously addictive rosti I have ever had (even better than that at Una’s on Victoria St in Darlinghurst). Rosemary made it extra special.

My girlfriend loves avocado so she chose the avocado on toast with feta (below). Apart from not enough lemon to squeeze onto the avocado, it was perfect. There’s a lemon tree full of fruit in the courtyard so there should be no reason to skimp on the lemon! The bread is a multigrain sourdough that is amongst the best bread I have ever had.

The interior features many cute retro items including these signs. With the style and quality to match any cafe in Melbourne, Mixed Business is sure to become increasingly difficult to get a table at!

Update 17 November 2008: it should be noted by geographical pedants that as it is located on the west side of Queens Parade, Mixed Business is technically in North Fitzroy, not Clifton Hill. No one gets the address correct. Smith St and Queens Parade form the border between North Fitzroy and Clifton Hill. All righteous NorthFitzroyalty should be outraged that one of the best establishments in their hood is not not recognised as such!

The area needs a bigger library, but sacrificing park space to achieve it is stupid, short sighted, short term political laziness at its worst. In the forthcoming election, vote for a candidate that will represent your views about the North Fitzroy Library. Join the Facebook group and make your voice heard however you can!

Where the Dry Leaves Fall at Gorker gallery is an exhibition of delicate beauty and charm by artist Leah Bartholomew. Works in several media - giclée prints, wooden sculptures, watercolours and tissue collages - feature images in autumn colours of children at play, landscapes and the natural world. It finishes on 16 November so you better get there in time to see it! Opening night was well attended as usual, and I was not the only one to get there early enough to see the work and then go to Vibe to see Dave Callan at A mic in hand.

if you’re an adult who produces a film using other consenting adults, for the entertainment of still other consenting adults, which merely depicts fictional acts of humiliation and degradation, the DOJ will prosecute you and send you to prison for years. The claim that no real pain was inflicted will be rejected; mere humiliation is enough to make you a criminal.

This is contrasted with the behaviour of the executives of the current US federal government, who are widely considered in many parts of the civilised world to be the greatest group of war criminals in the free world:

if government officials actually subject helpless detainees in their custody to extreme mental abuse, degradation, humiliation and even mock executions long considered “torture” in the entire civilized world, the DOJ will argue that they have acted with perfect legality and, just to be sure, Congress will hand them retroactive immunity for their conduct… top Bush administration officials have been immunized and protected despite — according to a former U.S. Army Major General — being responsible for real sadistic obscenities…

This is the clearest indication that the US is a nation of the insane. Whatever intelligent life remains there should get out before the whole place implodes. Good riddance.

During 2008 the Royal Derby Hotel on the corner of Brunswick St and Alexandra Parade has been closed for a complete makeover. It opened on 25 October (I was away and unable to attend the opening party) and I went in a few days later to see the interior and to sample the $5 pizzas.

My first impression of the pizza is that it is good with potential to improve. Like Bimbos, the pizzas are not large but are of a good quality. I ordered one with sopressa, tomato and basil. The base pizza with the sopressa (a kind of salami from northern Italy) has been into the oven (the sopressa was deliciously crispy on the edges) and the fresh basil and tomato placed on top afterwards to gently warm them without overly wilting the basil.

The ingredients were very fresh and the result was tasty, but the juiciness of the ripe tomatoes was sufficient to make the centre soggy by the time I was half way through eating it. I think the tomato should have been put on before baking and only the basil put on afterwards.

There are numerous pizza to try including several vegetarian styles so there should be a pizza to suit everyone. There are some good beers on tap including James Squire, and the staff seem happy that locals have embraced the new venue so quickly. The $5 pizzas are available all day every day (this may draw punters on Fridays and Saturdays when Bimbo Deluxe is not as cheap as Sunday to Thursday).

The interior is dark and sombre (above) with touches of colour, and it contains large sofas and different spaces where people can mingle or create semi private spaces. The day bed (below) is an interesting choice for a pub.

One side of the front bar has a disco ball space ideal for dancing.

The other side of the front bar features high tables and stools.

The outdoor beer garden now looks like a deck and will be popular over summer.

An amusing marketing faux-pas is that the new website contains only the opening party information well after the event has passed (I wrote this post on 2 November), while the old website still has not been taken offline. The opening night party organisation was outsourced to a marketing company who seems to have finished their job. The new site does not have anything helpful like opening hours, menu, facilities or contact details.

Because I work in online marketing, I find this kind of error puzzling. It is so simple to get it right that I cannot comprehend how businesses can get it wrong. Coordinating your online and real world marketing is simple. Your site should be live when you open for business. Anything else is likely to lead to customer confusion and dissatisfaction.

On the Collingwood side, I’m looking forward to sampling the Japanese food at Wood Spoon Kitchen and the chocolate at Monsieur Truffe (formerly at the Prahran market, and blogged here and here). I’ve already looked at the wonderful Toolz boutique, and I will be looking through the newly expanded (to three levels) Tongue and Groove (more about the  expansion and the product range). On the Fitzroy side, new bars including Yah Yahs have opened, and Vibe has the new A mic in hand comedy night running every Thursday night.

Yarra Council has not made it clear why this is necessary. It provides some ideas in its proposal but does not justify the $1000 per six month fee mentioned in its own fact sheet (175kb PDF). There may well be public liability insurance issues (trainers must have their own insurance) - see the draft personal training policy (24kb PDF) - and other legal complexities that the Council must manage, but the potential cost to trainers and consequently their clients seems unfair and unnecessary. The Council should explain the costings and provide transparency about the process.

Whereas in the past people may have joined social or sporting clubs (which are exempt from the policy) to get exercise, many today use a personal trainer individually or in small groups because this is more flexible and convenient to schedule into their busy lives. They pay for the convenience, but should not have to pay extra for access to the local facilities they already paid for with their rates.

Trainers do benefit from using public facilities, but I would like to see some kind of analysis of what impact their activities actually have on parks and the public. Has anyone turned up at their local park to play with their kids or to have a picnic and found it full of trainers and their clients? It’s never happened to me. It seems licensing and some payment is necessary, but it should be a reasonable fee, not the enormous fee being suggested by the Yarra Council.

To me, the issue is less about forcing small business operators like personal trainers to pay to use public facilities, and more about how busy inner-city residents live their lives and try to manage their work / life balance. Hiring a trainer is for many people no different to hiring a tutor for their kids or taking their car to a car wash rather than washing it themselves - some professional assistance provides a better result and makes their lives a little bit easier. The Council’s actions seem to suggest that they do not understand how many of their constituents live their lives.

I love this simple statement, which I’ve seen in two locations (there are probably more) around the south end of Fitzroy near Little Smith St and Gertrude St.

After visiting the MINT toy museum I wandered further down Seah street looking for somewhere for lunch (the museum has its own cafe serving European style food like pasta, but that was of no interest to me in Singapore).

A few doors down I found Sin Swee Kee Chicken Rice and went inside. I ordered the traditional chicken rice, some green vegetable with oyster sauce and a refreshing lime juice.

The chicken rice was excellent, and came with a tasty chicken broth. I helped myself to the red chilli and the green ginger and spring onion paste, which I think is the best companion to chicken rice. All this for SG$7.90! No wonder Sin Swee Kee is highly rated by food bloggers. The staff are also very friendly.

At the October meeting of Council, it voted 8-1 against reinstating the hard rubbish collection (only Steve Jolly voted in favour). Even the Greens think allowing our streets to remain uncontrolled rubbish dumps is a great idea. I think not. I think having Greens on Council is a bad idea. They’ve made little effort campaigning in this election and their lack of pragmatic policies specifically about Yarra is underwhelming. It’s fine to have a genetically engineered organisms policy, but how does that help me walk down the street without tripping over someone’s old sofa?

Organised and sponsored by McIvor Estate winery, Shelmerdine Vineyards, the Tooborac General Store and the Tooborac Hotel, the 2 day event showcases rabbit dishes on the menus of each of these venues on Saturday and a rabbit cookoff on Sunday. The cookoff featured 13 European and Asian style dishes prepared by local residents including this divine rabbit sausage roll.

Held in the Tooborac Hall, the cookoff dishes were judged by representatives from two local wineries and chef Matthew Wilkinson from Circa at the Prince Hotel in St Kilda. Television chef and artist Peter Russell Clarke was also there and the competition was friendly but genuine. The meat was from wild rabbits caught specifically for the weekend by a local hunter that was shared amongst the cooks, and contestants were required to cook enough for six people.

An Italian or Spanish style stew with tomato and olives.

The event filled the hall and a great afternoon ensued. It was somewhere between a progressive dinner (albeit one where the food came to the people rather than the other way around) and a themed degustation. I’ve never been to anything like it and it was wonderful. The locals were extremely friendly and welcoming, especially once they learned we had come to the area to buy wine.

Rabbit risotto with spinach and lemon.

Lunching in the Tooborac hall.

The weekend started with a visit to the McIvor Estate winery, where we met Cynthia and sampled and bought some excellent sangiovese and cabernet merlot. Cynthia told us about the Rabbit Ramble and we thought the chance to taste a variety of dishes at the cookoff would be brilliant, so we booked space for two. We didn’t ask how much it would cost and were not sure how big an event it would be.

Rabbit jelly.

We then went to Shelmerdine and the staff there were also so welcoming and enthusiastic that we were convinced it would be fun. We thought we could easily alter our schedule to be back in time for lunch the next day and that was all that mattered.

Rabbit Vietnamese spring rolls.

When we arrived promptly at the Tooborac hall at 12.30pm the next day, we found it full of people and the food was just starting to be served. We greeted the man at the entrance and said we had a booking. He said it was $5 a person; we paid and went in, and found seats at the end of a long table. Yes, you read correctly, $5 for an all you could eat (there was plenty of food to go around) gourmet degustation of wild game and local produce. Food was plated and passed around so you could serve yourself from these, and you could also go the the cook and talk to them while they spooned you some of their dish from their pot on the table.

Rabbit salad.

Rabbit dumplings in broth with bok choy and mushrooms.

The food was all excellent and we would have happily paid $5 per serve, or $50 overall for such a unique and exceptional meal. Wine from McIvor Estate and Shelmerdine was also included in the meal. The proceeds go to the Tooborac youth group. We were embarrassed to have received so much for so little, and were glad that we had already bought a decent selection of wine from McIvor and Shelmerdine.

Velvet rabbit pasta sauce.

Rabbit terrine with pistacchio and witloff.

I’d like to thank the people of Tooborac for their charm and hospitality, particularly Cynthia whose sales expertise had us hooked immediately. As a blogger with an interest in place and also food, this was not only a pleasurable experience but a rare opportunity to attend and thus be able to write about and report on a wonderful event with local character.

With the Monday after the Grand Prix free to do something other than F1, I went through the various tourist brochures I had collected and the newspapers I’d bought, found some things that interested me and planned my day. First, I saw the photo exhibition Grand Prix: The F1 Legend thro