Lights Festival

What a great idea to dress an ugly building with beautiful light. The Light Festival was on this weekend in Gertrude Street, Fitzroy. As you walked along the street you could see different surfaces being used as projection screens. Shop windows, walls, and buildings showed a variety of images. By far the best were those projections on the face of these ugly old housing buildings. The Festival runs till the 29th July. The photos are blurry cause I only had my son's camera with me.

Que buena idea la de usar arte para vestir un edicificio feo con luces. El Fesival de luces y proyecciones abrio este fin de semana en Gertrude Street, Fitzroy. El festival utiliza superficies de todo tipo para usar como pantallas de proyeccion. Vidrieras, paredes, pisos y esculturas cambiaban su apariencia mientras uno caminaba. Una de las mejores fueron las proyecciones sobre este viejo edificio de alojamiento el cual se transformaba delante de nuesstros ojos. El festival esta hasta el 29 de Julio por la calle Gertrude. Las fotos estan todas movidas porque solo tenia la camara de Anton conmigo.

Wet and Cold and Sick of Traffic

What a dreadful day it was yesterday! Wet, cold and very unappealing. I went with Ric to Chapel Street in Windsor to take his guitar amp back to the store to get it fixed. The way there was tolerable (at 2.30ish pm), still quite a lot more traffic that what one would like on a wet day. We found a parking spot easily (to our surprise) and once the amp was sorted we headed back towards Punt Road to come back on the Eastern Freeway, thinking this will be the quickest way to come back home. Man! How mistaken we were! The traffic crawl all the way from High Street to the freeway and then once on the freeway it kept crawling like a struggling metal snake trying to find a warm spot. It was simply awful. I really don't understand how people can cope with this everyday of their lives whilst commuting to work. Please Melbourninans, let's do something about it. Hours and hours of your life are simply lost inside your little metal cube.

Mandalay Bay (Vietnamese food)

We love this restaurant. It's called Mandalay Bay and it is on Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. The place is nothing special, the decor very bright and simple, but the food is delicious and so cheap!!! We went twice this holidays and tried different dishes. The good thing about Vietnamese food is that is spicy without being too hot and it is not very oily.

Nos encanta ester restaurant llamado Mandalay Bay en Brunswick Stree, Fitzroy. El lugar no es nada especial, la decoracion muy brillante (verdes y amarillos) y sencilla, pero la comida es deliciosa y tan barata! Fuimos dos veces estas vacaciones y probamos cosas diferentes. Lo bueno de la comida vietnamita es que esta bien condimentada pero no muy picante y no es para nada aceitosa! 

Boredom leads to Gastronomy

One thing is for sure, cooking helps get rid off the boredom blues. Not sure what is going on this holidays, but I feel quite unmotivated and very house-bound. I don't feel like doing much and three times I cancelled plans to go to Lorne. May be that I simply need the rest and my body is making me listen to its needs. I have been busy re-decorating my home. Bought a couple of new things, re-arranged furniture and cleaned some cupboards in my kitchen. That has kept me busy, except of course for the odd afternoon when all was done and I didn't know that to do. It just so happened that Anton was in the same boat, so we decided to bake choc-chip cookies. Here is an easy recipe. It is just worth making them for their baking aroma.

Una cosa es segura, cocinar ayuda a sacudir los blues del aburrimiento. No estoy segura que me esta pasando estas vacaciones pero me siento bastante unmotivada y muy apegada al hogar. No tengo ganas de hacer mucho y tres veces cancele la salida a Lorne. Debe ser que simplemente necesito el descanso y mi cuerpo me esta haciendo que lo escuche. Me mantuve ocupada re-decorando mi casa. Compre un par de cosas nuevas, di vuelta los muebles y limpie algunos armarios de la cocina. Eso me mantuvo bastante ocupada, exceptuando la rara tarde cuando todo estaba hecho y no sabia como ocupar el tiempo. Se dio justo que Anton estaba en la misma situacion y nos pusimos a hacer galletitas con pedacitos de chocolate. Puedo traducir la receta si alguien lo pide. Vale la pena hacerlas solo por el aroma que dejan en la cocina.

Choc-chip cookies recipe:

200 g butter (softened, but not melted!)
1 tin condensed milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
self rising flour (not sure the amount, but you will
know when you don't need anymore)
1 pk choc-chips (I prefer Cadbury)

Precedure

Pre-heat oven and butter a few trays

1- Soften the butter in a bowl
2- Stir in condensed milk
3- Add vanilla essence
4- Sift flour in and mix with a wooden spoon until it becomes too hard to stir
5- Fold in 3/4 of the choc-chips
6- Add flour until the dough resembles playdough and you can knead it with your hands
7- Roll into a thick cylinder
8- you can cut 2cm slices with a knife or alternatively you can break pieces of the dough with your hands, roll them in the palm of your hands and place on tray
9- Add the remaining choc-chips on top of the cookies
10- Bake in a moderate oven aproximately 10 minutes or until golden

ENJOY

Walking around Melbourne in the Freezing Cold

What a cold day today! I think I saw the sun for about 15 minutes and then it hid behind a thick grey cloud, leaving only the blue hue of a freezing day underneath. Rugged up and armed with a strong will I left the warmth of the house, caught the bus and headed to the city. Got off at Fitzroy Gardens and walked across to Federation Square. The park looked so winterly with fresh new mulch just laid out and no leaves on the boughs above.

Que dia frio hoy! Creo que vi el sol por solo 15 minutos esta manana y despues se escondio detras de una capa gruesa de nubes grises, dejando por debajo solo el color azulado de un dia helado. Abrigada y armada de una enorme fuerza de voluntad deje el calorcito del hogar, tome el colectivo y fui hasta la city. Nos bajamos en Fitzroy Gardens y lo cruzamos hacia Federation Square. El parque se veia than invernal con tierra fresca recien puesta y ni una hoja en las ramas de los arboles.


At Fed Square we visited a gallery and bought a couple of funky key-rings at the ACMI shop. I love the design of that new space, it looks so modern and awesome. It made me think that I would really enjoy designing interior spaces like that. Maybe in my next life.

En Fed Square visitamos una galeria y compramos unos llaveritos copados en el negocio de ACMI. Me encanta el diseno de ese nuevo espacio, se ve tan moderno y colorido. Me hizo pensar en cuanto disfrutaria si mi profesion fuera disenar espacios como ese, quiza en mi otra vida.


On the walk back through Fitzroy we had a coffee and crepe at the French Fraperie and stopped at Casa Iberica for some yerba mate, dulce de leche and quince paste. Now watching The Tour of France to finish the night.

En el camino de vuelta a traves de Fitzroy tomamos un capuccino con un panqueque en la Panquequeria Francesa y paramos en Casa Iberica a comprar yerba, dulce de leche y membrillo. Ahora miro el Tour de France para terminar la noche.

A little sunshine

I guess I was lucky to have been at the right place, at the right time to capture a little ray of sunshine as it filtered through the thick grey clouds above. No Photoshop, simply good camera control :)