Luke, Jayne and Mali at the market

Luke and I went to Queen Victoria Market to do our fresh food shop again today. To be honest, I don't really enjoy the experience - mostly because of the crowds and the noise - but the variety of produce and lower prices make it worth tolerating. 

We bought loads of fruit and veg, most of it way cheaper than the supermarket. Our fridge is chockers and I had to get out the big fruit bowl to find room for all the fruit. 

I bought artichokes for the the first time ever. I've eaten them, but never cooked with them. I found a recipe on Pinterest for cooking them in the slow cooker, which I'm going to have a crack at tomorrow. I've also never eaten grapefruit. Really! It wasn't something we had when I was a kid, and I've never had the urge to try them. I bought one today and I have a recipe from Pinterest for that too...if you can call "chop it in half, sprinkle with brown sugar and grill it" a recipe. 

We also saw (but didn't buy) Thai eggplant and jicama. And a big onion. 

After yet another failed attempt at completing that infernal allergy elimination diet, I've decided to just eat well (in the 'normal' sense, as well as avoiding my known trigger foods), exercise more and put up with the symptoms. I've been living with them for so long anyway...  So I'm eating less crap (not that I ate a lot to begin with) and more fruit and veg. 

I  also saw three Mali sculptures at or near Vic Market, although I only photographed two. 

 Eye patch

A close up reveals a trio of birds

Luke ordered something online that came wrapped in bubble wrap. I found the bubble wrap in my handbag, where he'd put it for me to play with. 
  

Good pain, weird fruit, yummy muffins

I had my massage this morning. It was painful, but in a good way. The massage therapist said my muscles were very tight, especially my backside. Yep, I have tight buns. She spent quite a fair portion of the  one-hour appointment pummelling my posterior with her elbow. Ow. I'm going to start having regular massages. After I finish this post, I'm going to have a soak in a hot bath. 

After my massage, we went to Victoria Market to buy our fresh produce. As we were parking the car, I spotted an old sign on William Street. 

It's not as fun going to the market when I'm doing my low-allergy diet* because everything looks so delicious and tempting, but I can only eat a very limited range of fruit and vegetables. We did get a couple of weeks worth of meat though, including some lamb shanks for the slow cooker. 

We saw some Buddha's hands, a yellow citrus fruit with long fingers. I'd never even heard of them before, much less seen one. They're weird. 

* I can't remember if I mentioned I'm doing the Friendly Food diet again as part of a research project conducted by a pair of Monash Uni honours students. My dietician put my name forward to participate in the hope it might shed some light on my problem foods, since previous attempts at completing the diet have ended in frustration. This time it's only for about a month or so and I don't need to wait for my symptoms to clear up before I start the testing phase on Wednesday. They also supplied me with some snacks to make it a bit easier.  

Among other things, they gave me a dozen vanilla muffins which were scrumptious. I also got the recipe, so this afternoon I made some of my own. They're tasty. That's my morning tea sorted for the week. 

Fit, Queen Vic, frisbee fun

Street art in a city alley

I was expecting a dreary, wet day when I got up today, but it was another perfect winter's day. It was clear and sunny, but very chilly, as cloudless winter days often are. 

I had a fitness assessment at my gym this morning. I was hoping I would fall somewhere in the average range given my gym attendance has been sporadic over the years, but I'm more active than the average office worker. I was pleasantly surprised with my results -  my fitness is excellent compared to other women my age. EXCELLENT! EX. ELL. ENT!!! 

I'm kinda wishing now that I'd had an assessment when I first went back to the gym so I could see how much I've improved in the past six weeks. I'll definitely be booking them in at regular intervals from now on.  

To celebrate, I bought some new jogging shoes (which I needed). They're very bouncey. Boing! Boing! I'm looking forward to taking them for a run. 

Vic Market (the bit without food)

After the gym, Luke and I went to the nearby Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne's foremost fresh produce market, to buy our meat, fruit and vegetables. It's quite an experience - so much activity and noise and colour. And the deli hall... The bread! The cheese! The antipasto! It's a  droolworthy feast for the senses.  *drools*  

The meat is definitely WAY cheaper. We got lamb backstrap for $22 a kilo - it's $40 a kilo at the supermarket, which makes it a special treat, rather than a staple. 

We also got a 600g punnet of strawberries for $4. That's a LOT of strawberries. I'm going to freeze some so they won't spoil before we can eat them. 

And look at these teeny tiny bananas! 

The lemon and lime are average sized. Apparently they are called señorita or monkey bananas. There's certainly a lot more variety of fruit and vegetables at the market. I don't think we'll go weekly, but I'd like to go more often. 

In the afternoon we went over to Gosch's Paddock (the sports grounds next to AAMI Park) to throw the frisbee. Luke bought it last year, but it only made its maiden flight today. I was pretty rusty to begin with since I haven't thrown a frisbee in a long time, but I soon got into the swing of it. There were a few running, leaping catches. Definitely a fun way to get some  exercise. 

We could see very dark clouds coming towards the city as we played, and eventually it started to rain so we headed for home. The frisbee doubled as a (rather small) umbrella. I put it on my head and pretended I was at finishing school learning how to walk with good posture.