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Unfinished Melbourne: Day 3
Soundtrack: “In the Land of Make Believe”, Dusty Springfield I woke feeling almost human, if still a little not quite myself. It was a day for big decisions: do I go back to my regular breakfast place, even though the most recent menu change basically removed anything I found interesting, or look for somewhere new. I like to think I’m loyal, not a fair-weather fan, but this is breakfast we’re talking about. So when I walked past a laneway cafe offering Spanish-style coffee options, I was enticed into the strange doorway and offered a seat. Seems the price of my breakfast loyalty is a coffee bon bon, the Spanish equivalent…
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Unfinished Melbourne: Day 2
Soundtrack: “Under the Clocks”, Weddings Parties Anything I bounced out of bed carried on the wings of angels, full of vim and vigour and carpe diem. Or not, as reality may be. At some point, after too little sleep, I texted AJ and suggested that due to my intake last night, pushing back our brunch catch-up to after 11am might be wise. The next several hours were a mix of trying to sleep, trying to consume any non-alcoholic liquid I could locate, sitting under the shower, all underpinned by a horrific thought that I’d misplaced my tracking bracelet/smart watch at some point as It wasn’t on my arm and I…
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Unfinished Melbourne: Day 1
Soundtrack: “Hong Kong Garden” Siouxsie and the Banshees New trip, 5 days in Melbourne to shop, eat things, and most importantly, see Massive Attack. An early morning, and much inclement weather on my drive to the airport (the airline sent an email the night before advising of possible delays). It took some time to find a parking spot some distance from the shuttle bus, and I was a little damp by the time I got to the stop. After checking in and security, I settled in for an expensive coffee and breakfast based on a croissant (in the same way movies are based on a true story — Paris has…
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No Tour: Naarm Day 2 and change
Soundtrack: “Changes”, David Bowie After a night of excellent sleep (sassy tracking bracelet’s words, not mine, though I felt I slept pretty well) I headed down to my regular little laneway breakfast cafe. A place where I’ve gone most trips in the past few years, where I can sit in a slightly untidy corner next to various boxes of ingredients, enjoy a spicy and hearty Eastern Mediterranean style pile of eggs and other yummy things (though checking back to my last visit I went with eggs benedict as they’d started drifting more Mexican inspired). This time around it’s more change, big change, under new management type of change. gone are…
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No Tour: Naarm Day 1
Soundtrack: “Under the Clocks”, Weddings Parties Anything / “Reward” Teardrop Explodes Not really a tour, just a couple of days in Naarm/Melbourne to wander, shop, and celebrate old pals turning older. The day started in Perth, way too early, as I was on the 6am flight. As per usual I slept badly, but these days I have a monitoring bracelet/smart watch to give me a second opinion on this: it scored me a 57 “needs attention”. I’m taking that as it saying my sleeping needs to be better, rather than it being otherwise really shady. I’m likely to catch enough shade from the old friends, I don’t need a portable…
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Buns2025: Day 4 – Airports & Paris
Soundtrack: “This Flight Tonight”, Joni Mitchell It’s a 15 hour flight from Sydney to Doha, then another 6 to Paris. I’m not sure I fully worked this out when I booked the trip, I was more just being amused that the journey started at a Charles (Kingsford-Smith) and ended at a Charles (de Gaulle). I’ve done the 18+ hour Singapore to Newark, but that was Premium Economy, where this time around it was just economy of the common variety. Fortunately, between the early-ish night and the subsequent sleep-in, I got almost a human amount of sleep. This gave me plenty of time to pack and finish the b log, helped…
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Buns2025: Day 3 – Melbourne > Sydney
Soundtrack: “Best Years of Our Lives” – Richard Clapton Day started on too little sleep, what a surprise. At least part of the late night was me packing, so there would be no last minute panic there. Fortunately the reason for the early morning was to catch up with one of my oldest pals A, who is very particular when it comes to coffee so wherever he picked to meet would be good. He’s also vegan, so while I was guarded about any food recommendations, at least the coffee would be good. His pick was a little coffee and bagle place called Five Points, where a large coffee comes in…
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Buns2025: Day 2 – Melbourne
Soundtrack: “Under the Clocks”, Weddings Parties Anything Finally made it to day 2. Currently sitting in the airport departure terminal, watching a dog get unloaded from a flight and I’m only a little damp around the eyes. Day 2 kicked off with heading to my usual cafe, Euro Lane I think it’s called, tucked away in a little alley between Flinders and Collins, that for a number of years now have done some amazing middle-eastern/spanish breakfast options, piles of turkish bread, spicy beans, eggs, and the like. It’s been the staple for a few years now. I last enjoyed their wonderful plates of goodness when I was here in June.…
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Buns2025: Day 1.2 – Melbourne (again)
Soundtrack: “Flame Trees”, Cold Chisel Well shit. I wrote the Day 1.1 entry from the Virgin Lounge at Melbourne airport, while waiting for my flight back to Perth. Possible the less said the better about the food there: very ordinary machine coffee, a chicken wrap that looked to be 50-50 chicken to salad, but the chicken rapidly tapered out leaving salad, and a “Moroccan tagine” that was neither. MYO sandwich fillings were cheese and/or tomato. I was heading home to say a final goodbye to my unsung travel support, Billie the staffy-cross, who we’d always try to pack sneakily to avoid her inevitable disappointment when we went travelling without her;…
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Buns2025 – Day 1.1 Melbourne
Soundtrack: “Pink Pony Club”, Chappell Roan Mick Thomas wrote, “There’s no point writing postcards on your bad days” (and I probably owe him a fiver for the number of times I’ve quoted it) and as far as bad days go, today is on the list. But I have time to spare, a need for a distraction, so I’m going to write this about yesterday instead. Welcome to Buns2025, the next trip. Perth > Melbourne > Sydney > Paris > Dublin > Belfast > Singapore. A trip of much food, music, sights, sounds, smells, and much entertainment as I attempt the French language. In looking for a theme to tie it…
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No Tour, One night in Perth
Soundtrack: a Lady Gaga medley This one’s for the work folks who said I should write about going out on a Friday night, so blame them. Well, it sounded like a silly idea, writing a travel blog post about a night out in a city I’ve lived in for the best part of a half century, and maybe it is. To be honest, I spend more time overseas than I do Friday nights in Northbridge, so stepping out of the carpark onto James Street felt a bit like going back to somewhere I’ve been before. Sure the geography, in terms of the street layout is the same, but the shops,…
