Pancakes, puddle duck, Friday

I had pancakes for dinner. Yummy. This is the second time in two weeks I've had (sweet, not savoury) pancakes for dinner and I fear...well, sort of...that it's going to become a habit. But I'm in the midst of an allergy elimination diet, so it's nice to have something that feels like a treat.

I've been on the diet for 39 days now and I'm making a lot more progress than on my numerous previous attempts. I'm almost ready to start the next phase, which is adding foods back in one by one to test for a reaction. That's much easier than the initial stage where you cut out pretty much everything that's worth eating. One 'challenge', as they call them, involves eating a lot of strawberries and for another I have to eat dark chocolate. Gotta love being told by your doctor to eat chocolate! 


Puddle duck

The river that I walk along every day to work - the Yarra - is a tidal river and when the tide is low, a section of muddy river bed is exposed underneath the Swan Street bridge. Sometimes there's tracks of webbed footprints in the mud and today the low tide revealed a series of smallish round holes full of water. In one pool sat a small brown duck.

It's Friday tomorrow. Wooh! 

Sign time again

I spotted some more old signs today, including one on the side of an old building in Richmond I have walked past loads of times and even photographed before (always from the north side, not the south though). Today for some reason I thought, 'I wonder if there's an old sign on the other side?' and...

...there is, but I can't make out what it says.  

The building is on Lennox Street not far from Swan Street.

The other sign was on a building in Little Lonsdale Street in the city. 

I think the top line says D W Reddan...

...because the building has 'Reddans' on the top of it...

 ...which you can see above. I can't make out

 the rest of the wording 

Action, coincidence, change

Today I took steps to fix a situation that has been making me unhappy and cranky for a couple of months. It's amazing how much better I feel after doing something, instead of just moaning about it. 

I rang someone today whom I haven't spoken to in well over a year and she said she was just about to give me a call. What a coincidence! 

I walked home a different way after work - through the Treasury and Fitzroy Gardens and around the base of the MCG.  I haven't done that for ages. 

Spiegeltent, return of the plovers, perfect pillow

I bought tickets to see Clairy Brown and the Bangin' Rackettes at the Famous Spiegeltent this Friday. Wooh. It will be my first time seeing them live and my fifth or six visit to the delightful Spiegeltent. There's a lot of great bands playing during this season of the Spiegeltent. I'm hoping to go more than once. 

I saw Mr and Mrs Plover on my walk to and from work today. I haven't seen them foraging for food on the banks of the Yarra for months. I was worried something had happened to them...not that I can tell whether this is the same pair of plovers as before, but I prefer to assume it is.

I bought a new pillow a few months ago and I've only just worn it in now. It's juuuusst right. So comfy. 

Signs, signs

I spotted this walking to the gym after work on the corner of Lygon and Victoria Streets. It looks like the building used to be a pub called the Dover Hotel. I thought I could make out a Foster's Lager ad when I was taking the photo, but looking at it now I'm not so sure.  I think there might be two old signs. 

Here's a photos of a few other signs I've taken recently but forgotten to post. 

Guildford Lane in the city (I don't think

I've posted this one before)

 Guildford Lane again

Bourke Street Mall

Surprise bread

For the past three weeks I've been making yet another attempt at completing the RPAH elimination diet to work out what foods are making me feel crappy. I haven't had bread in all that time because there's almost no gluten-free breads on the market that meet the very strict requirements of the diet. I love bread and I miss it - and the quick, convenient light meals bread can make - so I decided to buy a breadmaker and make my own.

I got in on sale (yay!) at Target and lugged it home in the rain this afternoon. I whacked my first lot of mix in the machine without high hopes of success. I'd used gluten-free and yeast-free bread mix, but the gluten-free cycle on the machine assumes you're using yeast in your gluten-free bread. I expected it to turn out a heavy housebrick of a loaf, but I was very pleasantly surprised.

Yeah, it doesn't look great, and it didn't smell as good as 'real' bread, but the texture is almost as soft and light as real bread. It's certainly much better than commercial gluten-free, yeast-free brands. The crust is quite chewy, which I like. Pretty good for a first attempt, I reckon, and definitely good enough to satisfy my need for toast. Now I just have to try not to eat it all at once...

I got my eyebrows waxed and tinted today - the first time I've had the tint done. I wasn't sure about the darker colour at first - I thought they overpowered my face - but Luke noticed my haircut, not my brows, so they can't be too heavy. I think I'm used to them now.

It was nice having my hair cut after a couple of weeks of really needing a trim, but not managing to get around to visiting the salon.