Spicy, decluttering, greenery

Ghost sign on Victoria Street, Albert Park

I made a tasty chicken curry from scratch for dinner tonight. I had most of the spices already (including fenugreek seeds, of all things!) so I thought I might as well make the curry powder rather than buy it. I used a coffee grinder that a friend gave me to make the powder - much quicker and easier than trying to make a fine powder in the mortar and pestle, that's for sure.  I love the smell of all the different spices. I made enough powder to make several more curries.  

I cleaned out my bathroom cabinets and laundry cupboards this afternoon and got rid of quite a lot of stuff. Well, all the half-empty products I no longer use are sitting in a box while I work out where to dispose of them. Although they aren't strictly hazardous chemicals, I don't want to empty them down the sink. Next weekend I plan to do the kitchen, including that one draw full of random crap that everyone has somewhere in their house (the one with duct tape, sparklers, a cigar cutter and widgets with no readily discernible use.) 

We bought some new indoor plants yesterday to replace the ones I bought years ago that eventually gave up and died a while back. We got a spathiphyllum (aka peace lily), a syagrus and a fittonia, which is the prettiest little thing.  A bit of greenery always brightens up the place, doesn't it?

Old signs and cute cottages in Seddon

That one yard in the neighbourhood...

Luke and I went west for brunch today, to the inner western suburb of Seddon, which is tucked between Footscray and Yarraville. We had a nice meal (with friendly service) at a Spanish cafe called Lola and then a wander around the streets...well, actually a drive because the wind was too icy for wandering on foot.

I might have mentioned before that we're a bit snobby (which I should be ashamed of, being a working class bogan from the bush, but I can't help it). We've never lived in the western suburbs and we've never want to live in the western suburbs because....well, it's the western suburbs. 

But let me tell you, Seddon is delightful. DE-lightful. We were utterly charmed by its streets of beautifully renovated little cottages with bullnose verandahs edged with intricate iron lacework. We drove along,  looking from side to side, exclaiming, "Oooh, that one's nice!" "Look at those windows!" "Oh, they're all so cute!" "IT'S ALL SO PRITTEEEEEE!" (Those last two were me.) I even liked the few the unrenovated ones because I like urban decay too.  (I didn't take many photos because I wasn't on foot.) 

We liked Seddon so much that when we got home we looked online at places to rent in the area, but sadly there were very few in our price range. Boo. (Not that we're looking to move now, but we'll have to sooner or later because the flats in out building are being progressively renovated and then rented at much higher prices.)

There was also some stellar ghost signage in Seddon and surrounds.  

 ETA peanut butter...makes you glad you're hungry 

The ETA sign has been retouched (regrettably, in my opinion), but the others haven't, probably because time has revealed two signs on top of each other  ('Grocer' up the top and 'TJ Cawthorn' underneath), which I'm guessing would be a trickier restoration job.  

 Drink Cinzano

I was pretty chuffed when I saw the Yarra Coffee Palace sign above. I got Luke to pull over and then I was thrilled to see this on the side of the same building: 

Temple Bar Tobacco...Mild & Mellow

Tense knee caps, fungus, Fitzroy wanderings

Awesome Collingwood ghostsign (or is it Fitzroy?)

At pilates today, while I was executing a bend over hamstring stretch thingo, the instructor told me to "relax my knee caps". I laughed instead. 

There's a crop of little mushrooms in the garden out the front of my flat. There's more of them today than there were yesterday. I'll check again in the morning. (I tried taking photos but they're too small and too far from my reach to get a decent one.) 

Luke and I had lunch over in Fitzroy today then wandered the streets and alleyways, looking at street art and ghostsigns. 

 Inward goods

 Manufacturing chemist

Mesmerising eyes

George Costanza

Then we went home and I napped for hours.  

A spontaneous Sunday adventure

Great Ocean Road from Teddy's Lookout, Lorne

Luke and I made an impromptu visit to Lorne on the spectacular Great Ocean Road yesterday. We had lunch in a little town west of Geelong called Birregurra just for a day out somewhere different, but rather than head back home on the highway, Luke suggested we head south to Lorne since it wasn't that far away. It's hard to say no to zooming along the GOR. 

With our bellies full of lamb snags (Luke) and beef burger (me) supplied by farms in the Birregurra region, we set off. The trip took us from farmland, through the forested Otways National Park to the coast.

Fabulous old petrol bowser at Deans Marsh 

A ghost sign on the building behind the bowser

While in Lorne we took in the view from Teddy's Lookout and visited the lush spendour of Erskine Falls - my first time there. It's not the mightiest waterfall we've visited, but the setting is beautiful. Cool, green and cavernous. 

 Erskine Falls near Lorne

Kookaburra sits in the old gumtree

We dropped into the secondhand bookshop in Birregurra (naturally) and while we were there, the owner dropped a bookstand on the floor near my feet. I picked it up for her and she said that meant I would get a surprise. Apparently that was a thing when she grew up - if someone drops something and you pick it up for them, a surprise will come your way. Country karma, I suppose. My surprise is due on Wednesday. I assume it's going to be a nice surprise. 

It might have come early actually. I thought the interest I pay annually in November for an investment thingo hadn't been debited from my account, but today I realised it had; it was just much smaller than usual. This means nearly all of my tax return can go towards other, more tangible things, like saving for holidays next year.  Yay. Oh, OK; I did buy some shoes too.    

Ghost signage

Here are some ghost signs I photographed today in Hawthorn East. I spotted them last Sunday when Luke and I were out and about, but I didn't have my proper camera, so I got him to take me back this afternoon.  

All are within a 100 metre stretch near the Burwood and Camberwell Road intersection, and they all look as if they've been uncovered by construction works. 

 Hard to decipher - a two in one? 

 Wridgway B  (Auburn) Ltd

 Dunno what the WB. 1234 means

Champion spark plugs 

I have loads of photos of other old signs I took while I wasn't blogging, so I will endeavour to post them and remember where I took them (obviously I haven't got around to creating that dedicated ghost sign blog...).

  

JBPM: day 13

 Brunch - crumpets with maple butter, creme fraiche

 and caramelised walnuts. Yum. 

 Old paint shop sign on Bay Street, Brighton

The city from Brighton

Yachts on the bay

JBPM: day 12

While I was waiting at a bus stop this morning I looked up to see a small dog staring intently at me from an open car window. Even when I met its gaze, its stare didn't waver. It was funny, but slightly unsettling. The lights changed and the car took off so we'll never know how long the dog would have stared at me. 

How many times have I walked along Bridge Road in Richmond over the past 10 years? Many, many times. But I've never noticed this splendid old mirrored sign with gold lettering before. It says 'Famous Reynella Wines'. Yes, that's my reflection. And a bonus Golden Gaytime ad. 

Luke's parents gave me a bunch of lilies for my birthday. The first bloom opened on Friday and now the sweet aroma has perfumed our flat . I love that smell.   

Road trip: day 5 - Meningie to Horsham

This is getting ridiculous now, isn't it? I've been back at work for more than a month and I'm still writing my holiday blog posts. I'm going to push on...

Before Luke and I left Meningie, the owner of the motel asked where we were heading. We told her we were going east on the Mallee Highway to Ouyen and she said there wasn't much to see on the way. We knew we weren't taking a scenic route - or what most people would consider scenic - but I didn't bother to explain the allure of a harsh environment, rural decay, ghost signs and old stuff. 

By that measure, there was plenty to see - a 330km stretch of sun-dried paddocks, bleached almost white in some areas, and tiny rundown towns that looked mostly uninhabited. I found only the second ghost sign of the trip in one of these apparent ghost towns not far out of Tailem Bend - I think in a place called Sherlock. 

Two-in-one sign on derelict garage

There was a truck parked at a grain silo opposite this old garage, but that was the only sign of life. That little contraption to the right of the photo below is a dilapidated old petrol bowser  with imperial currency on the measuring panel.   

Hay rolls

We stopped at the bakery in Ouyen for lunch (no, we didn't have an award winning vanilla slice. Cold custard. Gak.) and at the local council office for some advice on visiting the nearby Wyperfeld National Park, the third largest national park in Victoria.  Unfortunately, a four-wheel drive is required to access most of areas of the park, so we were limited in where we could go.  We definitely weren't going to throw caution to the wind here like we did on the beach in Robe. There was literally no one else around, it was stinking hot and we didn't have great mobile reception.  

We saw a big lizard on the road on the way in (a dragon of some type) and a mother and baby kangaroo shading themselves under a pine tree as we drove around the park. We nearly got carried away by flies when we climbed to the top of a small hill to visit the grave of the infant son of the couple who, in the 1860s, owned land that later formed part of the Wyperfeld National Park. (The baby was supposedly delivered by a caesarian section performed by his father!)  

It probably wasn't the best time of year to visit the park, but hey, we were passing by.          

                         

Cottage ruins in a paddock of post-harvest stubble

We decided to visit nearby Lake Albacutya, even though our map said it doesn't have  water in it most of the time. The road we took to get there wasn't the main road and we probably shouldn't have been on it in our Micra  (picture a dirt road, oddly a bit soft, higher on one side than the other and the middle almost high enough to maroon us), but we got there and, of course, the lake was completely dry.   

On the way to Lake Albacutya

We were going to go to Lake Hindmarsh as well, but because our map said it's also "usually dry", we decided not to bother. Naturally Luke later overheard fisherman talking about water in the lake. 

We continued south to Dimboola where we were going to stop for dinner, but there wasn't much on offer. It's a sizeable country town - population around 1,500 - but it looks like it's in a state of decline...or at least a state of no progress.  A big old hotel on the main street was gutted by fire more than 10 years ago and remains boarded up. 

Another derelict Dimboola building (with old signs)

Dimboola does have an awesome ghost sign though. I've never heard of Jellex jelly crystals before. 

 

Although I'm attracted to the aesthetics of decay and dereliction, we saw so many small and not-so-small towns in such a state of decline between Tailem Bend in South Australia and Dimboola that I ended up feeling quite melancholy. A lot of their young people have likely moved to bigger towns or to the city after finishing school and I can't imagine many families moving in to these areas. These places don't have much that appeals to the wine-sipping, cheese-nibbling, pamper-me set from Melbourne, least of all proximity. Small towns within an hour or two of Melbourne have been going gangbusters in the last 10 or 15 years, but sadly their northern neighbours are suffering. Perhaps this is just the way of the world. 

Anyway, enough melancholy. We continued on to Horsham where we stayed the night. The motel owner was leaving in the morning for Robe - "We just came from there!" - and then the Great Ocean Road - "We just came from there, too!". 

Next (whenever that might be): The Grampians

Not destroyed after all!

Happy news! The Bournville Cocoa sign in Armadale hasn't been destroyed! Turns out I was there before High Riser and the bit I thought was the ruined sign is actually part of the wall of the building that's been demolished. Hooray! The partial has knocked down after my visit, revealing the whole sign. I'm SO relieved! I will go back to take a photo of the complete sign soon...hopefully they don't actually destroy it or build the new wall before I get there.

The Octopuppy

I bought my quasi-nephew TJ a book called The Octopuppy for his birthday in September. I spent ages choosing the right one, and it's no surprise that I thought a book about an octopus was the right one. I chose well because his mum told me yesterday he loves it and gets his brother to read it to him "all the time". 

I was so taken with The Octopuppy that I later bought a copy for myself. It's cute and makes me chuckle, plus it has a lovely message. It's about a boy called Edgar who wants a dog, but he gets a very clever octopus called Jarvis instead. He tries to train Jarvis to be a dog, but things don't go to plan. When he commands Jarvis to play dead, this is what happens:

When Edgar tells Jarvis to sit...

...he thinks things are looking up (that's him jumping for joy with his head chopped off), but it's all to no avail... If you have a 3-5 year old (or a 40-something who likes octopuses) in your life, I recommend The Octopuppy. 

Only five working days until holidays. If this week so far is any indication, it's going to be a very busy five days. I smashed my to-do list today and left the office feeling pleased with myself. That doesn't happen as often as I'd like. 

A shop assistant at Dangerfield said my boots (the ones I bought recently on ASOS) were awesome. 

Bird in the city

I passed a rainbow lorikeet having an early evening snack on some exotic blooms in the Alexandra Gardens on my home.  When I first saw it, it was on a branch only about a metre from me and I pulled up suddenly to take a photo. I expected it to fly away, but it only skipped to a branch a little higher up and kept nibbling. 

This was about 20 metres from St Kilda Road, not far from Prince's Bridge. I think it's pretty amazing to see birds like this so close to the CBD.

Going...going...

You know the old Bournville sign I got excited about on Saturday? It turns out I missed out by mere days on seeing the full sign. Yes, part of it has only recently been destroyed. *sad face* I saw it in all its faded glory on Andrew's Higher Riser blog tonight. I'm glad someone got a photo of it. It was a brilliant sign. 

Stick football man

I didn't erase the picture of a stickman footballer that Luke drew on the Etch-a-Sketch a couple of weeks ago. When I got home tonight, he'd put it out for me again to let me know he was going to kick the footy.

Sign excitement, toy store fun, crunchy only

I nearly peed my pants with excitement when I spotted this ghost sign in Armadale this afternoon. I had half an hour to kill so I wandered along High Street looking for old signs. I saw a few relatively unremarkable examples and then BAM! I spotted this brilliant Bournville cocoa sign. It's one of those extra special ghost signs which have been revealed to the world again temporarily by demolition works. 

We went to an ace toy store, Honeybee Toys, in nearby Malvern to buy Christmas presents for Luke's niece and nephews. We had fun playing with the the musical instruments and finger/hand puppets - they had tortoises, a hairy spider, a big brown bat, a little black bat, a bumble bee, and a T-Rex with hilariously feeble arms that were just flaps of fabric. We bought Space Hoppers and a music box. 

I'm addicted to peanut butter on toast at the moment. Thick, melty, delicious peanut butter. Crunchy only. 

Day 30: Kensington spider, Little Prince, Proud Mary

Luke and I visited the inner western suburb of Kensington for lunch today just for something different. 

We each bought a book at the bookshop next to the station. I got an old Puffin paperback of The Little Prince, which I've never read before. It has a handwritten message inside the front cover:

For L.P Isaac Ricardo 

With best wishes for this week, and next month, and next year, etc, etc 

Leslie Oct 1969

I've started reading it and I'm quite charmed.

We ate at the White Rabbit Record Bar.  I had a strawberry spider (icecream soda) with my panini. I first ordered a lime spider, but they were out of lime, and they were out of raspberry as well, so I had to settle for strawberry, which tasted like raspberry anyway. 

Then we took our cameras and wandered around a bit looking for ghost signs. This Velvet Soap sign was the best find. 

Can anyone make out what the white lettering - a separate sign - says? Bleached something?  There was an Empire Cocoa sign on the other side of the building.

We saw the 20 Feet from Stardom at the movies. It's a documentary about the back up singers to some of the biggest musical acts of the 21st century, including Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones and Stevie Wonder.  It was a bit too long, but I really enjoyed it. It really iss a story that hasn't been told before. The singing is (not surprisingly) AH-mazing and the women featured are engaging and sassy. 

One of the singers featured is Claudia Lennear, who was part of Ike and Tina Turner's Ikettes. The doco included a bit of this clip of Ike and Tina doing Proud Mary. I've seen this numerous times before. I love it (the Ikettes appear around the three minute mark).

Day 29: Jolene and other old White Stripes songs

I've just found a bunch of old White Stripes songs on iTunes. B-sides mostly, if that terminology still applies - stuff that's not on their albums anyway. I'm sure the songs weren't there last time I looked. They are mine now. I will listen to them tomorrow. 

I've been listening to the White Stripes - my favourite band - today. I have many favourite songs, including the live Under Great White Northern Lights live cover of Jolene. It's just so damn raw. It gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it. I doubt another straight man has so convincingly begged a woman not to steal his man before.  

I had yummy lemon cheesecake gelati at Fritz tonight. We're still doing our Friday night Grill'd and Fritz thing (although we haven't had the gelati so much lately). Soon the weather will be warm enough for us to start walking there again instead of driving. 

I spotted a ghost sign on the way there tonight. I can't believe I haven't seen it before since it's on a road I've been down many times. I guess I've just been looking the wrong way every time.

I watched Masters of Sex after I got home from dinner. It was excellent, of course. 

Day 10: Not Monday, pink trunk, Richmond adventure

I thought it was Monday when I woke up at 6.00am and heard Luke getting ready for work. I groaned and rolled over and then through the sleep fog I realised it was Sunday. Woooh. That is one of the best feelings. (He works every Sunday. )

Look at the colours in the trunk of this eucalyptus tree a few blocks from my place. I haven't edited it in any way. It's pink!

It caught my eye when we drove past yesterday and I went back today to take a photo on the way to the supermarket. It was going to be a quick trip for cheese for a dish I planned to make for dinner, but I ended up roaming the backstreets of Richmond with my camera for well over an hour. I just can't resist wandering down streets I haven't been down before.

Upside down, Miss Jayne 

I found some old signs and since I haven't started my ghost sign blog yet, I'll share them here.  These are from several buildings comprising the old Rosella Preserving Co factory on Balmain Street, which is now a corporate complex. I've never been in this part of Richmond before so I was rather thrilled to unwittingly find it.  

The eponymous bird

 The main building

 I love how badly peeling the paint is

[Something] Pty Ltd Engineers on Goodwin Street

Excellent street art

I watched the Bill Bryson lecture this afternoon. A quote:

What a wonderful and wondrous place [Earth] is. What a lot we have done with a little atmosphere, some water, a warming sun and a few other healthful ingredients. Look around you next time you are out of doors in the open air and marvel. I beg you. Marvel at the staggering inventiveness, the elegance, the beauty, the utility, the exquisite...glory that is life on earth. It is hard to believe that anything could ever be better than this.

Oh, a quote by English novelist Margaret Drabble that I found on Pinterest, which captures what I was saying the other day about the appeal of my uncertain work situation:

When nothing is sure, everything is possible.