Welcome to the redesigned site. After many months of hard work by Jason & Sean, the new redesign is finished. Other than the frontend look, we have switched from the very very slow Movable Type platform to the faster Wordpress platform. To comment on a post, you will require an account which you can create within a few seconds. There’s a lot more features that we are still going over and a few bugs that are still in the system (my pictures have disappeared :( ) but all in all, it’s a change for the better. Give us a few days to go back to “business as usual” while we all adjust.

Update, Day 2: Feeds are back baby! Welcome feed readers.

Melburnians or Melbournians?

I’ve always thought Melburnians was the right way to spell it, until someone corrected me over lunch yesterday. It was a good lunch, full of debate.

So which is correct? If Melbournians is right, I’d have a lot of spelling errors to rectify!

neomien has dropped into the ether of the net…..

Not quite, I’ve been working hard at putting a little birthday party together!

It’s going to be huge……have a look at the program.

There’s an Interfaith Prayer Ceremony at 1pm on Saturday 19th, a Baby Blessing Ceremony at 2pm on Saturday 19th, a huge World Peace Blessing Ceremony at 10am on Sunday 20th at a special Buddha’s Stage in the centre of the Square.

Vegetarian delights on the River Terrace and a free program of events in BMW Edge called The Ch’an of Tea, Flower and Music.

Check out the participative art installation The Bodhi Tree - Field of Enlightenment and the kids Ch’an Tea Ceremony and art exhibition Friends from afar at ArtPlay.

phew!

Where else but in Melbourne…………….
2007 Buddha’s Day and Multicultural Festival

Headline: Traffic smooth after peanut butter spill.

Punchline: “Police spokesman Senior Constable Leigh Wadeson told ABC
radio he did not know whether the peanut butter was crunchy or
smooth.”

That’s in today’s top 10 articles on The Age. Only reason I’m there (I normally like the dead-tree edition of the newspaper) is because of John’s interesting post about how the learner lost his $110k Mercedes. Yes, read the comments, they’re fun.

Metroblogging DC is covering the events which occurred yesterday at Virigina Tech University. The last I heard from Channel 9’s news was that there are at least 9 Australians studying at the University. I hope all is well.

I wonder, if the Universities in Australia have a contingency plan for such incidents. I can’t imagine what I would do if confronted …

Its a very very sad day.

I’m going to go ahead and apologize on behalf of the blog for being unposty so far this week. I figure most of us are on holiday, prancing around in the fine weather or writing media reports (guess which I’m doing!). I’d love to have something to say that doesn’t have to do with the Walter Reed media scandal in Washington, but I just don’t at the moment.

As part of a democratic process, anyone who has a life this week want to recommend something for the blog? Send me an email if you’ve got an idea you just have to see blogged. Because, clearly, a blog reference is the most any of us can hope to achieve these days. Keep strivin’, guys.

For my part, I have to go back to writing something that involves the phrase “ontological security.” As part of my commitment to you readers, I pledge never to discuss this again. That’s how much I care about your brains not melting from boredom.

Too late!

’twas at Joe’s Garage. Was fun. Was all Sunday afternoon. The others had various reports: best cafes, meetup (photo!), grub eating, live blogging.

The MetroBloggers

I’ll share a bit, via photos. The Melbourne Metblogs Meetup at Joe’s Garage set. I have a video that needs to be YouTube-d soon…

John helps a lady find sarees on Brunswick St!

Image taken by toolmantim on flickr

Noticed today that Lamb’s on Commerical Road, South Yarra is all boarded up. A group of lads filled a skip with bricks two skips from the drycleaners.

No more delicious late night souvas to soak up all that drink or give you that extra boost before you pass out on some flat, preferably soft surface.

Mind you, in my old age - I’ve found that consuming a full souva at 3am a little too much.

So my late night fav has been the deconstructed chicken souv, a mid sized foil container crammed with melt in your mouth, freshly shaved chicken pieces dripping with jus and a generous squeeze of fresh lemon; a round of toasted pide, conveniently cut into quarters and a tub of garlic sauce. Mmmmmmmm

I know, I know, protein and carbs - not the most balanced meal - but in the early hours the salad just doesn’t do it for me…..

Seems to be a bit of action on Chapel ole Windsor way.

Building opposite Husk (?) cafe - I’m an Orange gal - is up for lease. Think it’s zoned for retail…….Mulatto has a strong following.

Looks like Prahan/Windsor is up for a makeover.

Fingers crossed the amazing shoe man, that all good Melbournian gals who love their shoes swear by, doesn’t get booted out!

neomien has been kicking round the city, dealing with life offline. Not much of an excuse, but you know how it goes.

One of the most wonderful things about melbourne is the food glorious food.

Literally.

The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is coming to a close, replete with well satisfied swollen bellies and tastebuds tantalised.

An aunt of mine was in town recently and I took her on a mini tour of my favorite spots, eating and drinking that is. Yes, I’m a bit of a f**die - I suspect most of us are…..it’s a melbourne thing.

We’re spoilt for choice, so spoilt.

And the beauty of it is that it doesn’t matter what your budget is, you’re bound to find something delish to suit……and no, fastfood does NOT count…….unless you count a quick fresh soft shelled crab hand roll from Kenzan @ GPO or a reviving lamb souv dripping with garlic sauce in the early hours from Stalactites.

In my next couple of posts I’m going to reveal a few of my favs for all occasions……I’d love for you to share your favs with me too……cause there’s nothing I love more than finding a new haunt.

ps. The above pic is taken from the kitchen table of ole skool establishment Pelligrini’s Espresso Bar, home of killer coffee - the good stuff and pasta just like nonna makes.

in keeping with john’s and my attempt to spam the metroblog with constant updates of our meet up

Charles and Gala!