A Few Things... To Love About Melbourne

I was a very lucky girl turning 29 this year (shhhh!!).  Not only was I spoilt rotten with some beautiful, thoughtful gifts (some of which were waiting for me at home) and a multitude with phone calls, emails and text messages from friends and family all over the word, but I was in Melbourne - one of the coolest cities I have been to, and most definitely my favourite Australian city.  Sorry Sydney-siders, but it’s true.  How lucky am I being able to tack on a quick visit on the side of a work trip?  And to be wined and dined by some fabulous friends!

Here are a few reasons I love Melbourne:

1.  Coffee so good it can respark any flat battery... and for $3.50

2.  Vintage shopping – really, it basically doesn’t exist in Singapore and especially in my considerably-larger-than-devastatingly-petite-non-Asian size

3.  Graffiti street art – it’s around every brick-lined corner

Just one of the many graffiti art works around Melbourne - Flinders Lane is famous for it

4.  Terraced housing – so gorgeously cute

Row after row of gorgeous terraced housing - and so many renovation opportunities!

5.  Heidi Museum of Modern Art

My friend Kate and I (note warm winter clothing)

This piece hit a farm-girl soft spot - a cow, and corrogated iron

6.  Books for Cooks – mecca for anyone who likes to cook, think floor to ceiling and wall to wall shelves of culinary bliss (a thought: what’s the appropriate abbreviation for the cross between culinary and literary? Cliterary? Culiterary? Lickerary?!)

And here are a few things I love about winter (something I sorely miss in Singapore)

• Stepping outside to a crisp winter blue-sky day and seeing your breath fog
• Sitting outside enjoying a cafe lunch in the sunshine without breaking into a sweat

Smoked beans from De Clieu cafe, tastes even better in the chilly sunshine

• Drinking red wine which doesn’t need to be refrigerated to be enjoyed
• Actually feeling like a red wine
• Winter dressing – not many reasons to wear my leather jacket, a scarf, hat and boots in the tropics

In parting, you know you’re in Australia when a ‘warm winter’ male street style can be interpreted as shorts and jandals with longish socks pulled up (socks are the ‘warm winter’ part).

A Few Things...

... I'm loving about being home.

Aside from the clear highlight of being reunited with friends and family, being back home after more than a year away is fabulous. Here are a few highlights:

Crisp autumn afternoons

Is it just me, or is the light different in New Zealand? Somehow clearer, colours brighter? Living in the tropics is one big steamy season, so the golden autumn colours are looking even more beautiful in contrast to the lush green.

Beautiful autumn colours

Feijoas

Feijoas are among my favourite fruit, but outside of New Zealand (or even outside the North Island) many people haven't even heard of them let alone tasted their delicious goodness. And you know what? That's fine by me. The fewer feijoa-lovers there are in the world, the more feijoas there are for me.

Feijoas are best eaten by the bucket-full, sitting on the kitchen bench with a teaspoon in one hand and small knife in the other. Cut, spoon out, enjoy.

One scoop and you're in

They're fabulous with yoghurt and muesli for breakfast or as dessert with custard in an apple crumble (with cold leftovers the next day for breakfast of course!).

Secret green goodness keepers

Being highly seasonal, feijoas are around fleetingly and so I've never feel guilty when completely stuffing myself. This year will be no exception, especially as feijoas aren't available back home. Use it or lose it.



Honesty boxes

Rural New Zealand is a special place. One of the unique gems is the Honesty Box.

Avocados for sale, Gisborne-style

Fresh produce stacked in baskets with attached price tags in an elevated box on the roadside. Inside is a small lock-box with a slot in the top. Pick what you want, pay what you owe, off you go.

You can't really see it, but the lock-box has a "24-hour security camera" tag. Really?

Bluff oysters

Oysters are a fairly polarizing bite - I've never met anyone who thinks "they're ok". It's a love-hate relationship.

I'm in the former group - slippery, salty, perfect with a squeeze of lemon and a twist of pepper. Don't give me any if those fancy ingredients, oysters are best enjoyed naked.

Good coffee

Last, but certainly not least. I love how a small-town New Zealand cafe serves a significantly higher quality coffee than almost everywhere in Singapore.

A cappuccino is as it should be - one third espresso, one third foam, one third milk.  Coffee is strong, well roasted and doesn't cost $6 a cup.



Oh dear... Going back will be tough...