• australia,  melbourne,  no tour,  oceania,  perth

    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…

  • australia,  melbourne,  no tour,  oceania,  perth

    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…

  • 2025 | buns,  australia,  melbourne,  oceania,  sydney

    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…

  • me and rodin's the thinker, thinking
    2025 | buns,  australia,  melbourne,  oceania

    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.…

  • a beautiful brown dog sitting
    2025 | buns,  melbourne,  oceania

    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;…

  • 2025 | buns,  australia,  melbourne,  oceania

    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…