Heading to Melbourne, end November

Am heading over to Melbourne for the last week or so of November and would love to hear any suggestions on what to see or do.
Old favourites mean dropping by the Metropolis Bookstore in the Curtin Building, Sticky, the NVG (don't you love that it's called the 'National'?!). Planning to check out the Gorker Gallery too.
Thanks go to Sundari for posting a similar request and her readers for offering the following suggestions... Breakfast, Lamington Drive and a small Japanese bakery - Breadtop.

I can't wait!

** Edit: Thanks for the tips from Jo and Gregory.
• Burlesque Bar on Friday night or Sunday
• Red Door Burlesque
• The Ruby Review
• Australian Centre of Performing Arts

• Retrostar for an awesome collection of clothes

• Good guide for cool stuff in Melbs, www.norfguide.com.au
• G's favourite place was Galerie Montmarte for vintage French posters

• Guy Matthews at 54 Johnston St, Fitzroy

• Circa Vintage Clothing is excellent too - 102 Gertrude St, Fitzroy

• Good bar, Silk Road
• Very recommended for food: Nyala African Food, 131 Brunswick St, Fitzroy (03) 9419 9128

Little Space

 It's been over a month since the last post – slack? Yes. Busy? Definitely! I've moved into a new little space in Subiaco. The pic on the left, above, is the room as it was three weeks ago – bright blue window sills, canary yellow skirting boards and mouldings (is that what they're called?) and pink door frame! We painted the whole thing white, added some furniture and a light globe, and Bob's your uncle!

Still settling in and been busy with Semi-Permanent so hoping next week all is back to normal and I'm back into getting lots of work done...

Passionate Eggs

It's now spring and our passionfruit vines are still fruiting. We have a constant supply, along with eggs from our garden chooks. We get about two eggs a day, plus one more if Mrs Pecky isn't being her usual clucky self, warming the straw in her nest. With the wind blowing everything around we're getting 4 or 5 passionfruit a day too.. I can't keep up. Eggs and passionfruit - perhaps some sort of custard recipe beckons?

Comics and Fists

Went to an event at the Rosemount tonight featuring the works and presentations by Gestalt - including illustrators Justin Randall and Anton Mckay. Amazing stuff. Justin took us through some conceptual development and the process he uses to get his stories and imagery happening. Check out it out.

Commercial Rap Farm Style

I love the new look and website for City Farmers - I like that a local store made good can be a great example of decent branding (from their identity right through to their service in store).
I ducked into their Belmont store today to pick up dog nuts (B's endearing term for dog biscuits...). Everyone smiled at me, no one bothered me, the guy at the counter came and met me half way to the till when he saw I was laden up with 4 bags of nuts (they had a special on). They even helped carry the nuts to the car - scrub that, they didn't help - they carried, I watched. Anyway, enough of a rant and free ad - I like 'em fine.

Spec Me Up

I'm not usually one to promote 'spec' work but what the hell - this is for Triple J (government sponsored youth radio station), a brand I enjoy. It's a bit of fun. Limit yourself to 30mins and you have a nice little hourly rate. It's also part of the SemiPermanent exercise, which is kinda nice too.

"Come up with any design you like on the theme ‘triple it’ and submit it to tshirt@semipermanent.com (with your name & mobile). Please submit your entry as a low res JPG. If your design wins you’ll receive $1000 and have your design released as part of the triple j t-shirt range so everyone can see it."

Feel free to disagree.

Change Your Thinking

After being recommended the course by a lovely friend of mine, Mum and I started (and finished last night) a 10 week course in changing your thinking. It was surprisingly good - it exposed me to the whole 'rational-irrational' thought process which, though very obvious and logical, is amazingly applicable to handling your everyday life and emotions.
At the end of our last class we listed a few goals for the next five years. Mine included "to live in the moment more" and "to appreciate what I have and not take anything I love or anything I have for granted." After listening to someone else I added one of their goals, to "surround myself with positive people." I like this because it's similar to one of B's and my favourite ideas, to "work with people better than you".