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Mince-on-toast pizza (with shortcrust pastry)

If that Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot goes nicely with meatball pizza then it will most certainly be an exquisite wine-match for this new treat from Dominos:

Dominos chief marketing officer Allan Collins says it is "the next evolution of not only meat pie, but the pizza industry as a whole"

(Personally I prefer my pizza and my pie separate, and I apologise for barging back into the jar unannounced)

ANZAC Day

She Said, She Said

Trentham Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot 2004 (>$20 from Safeway Supermarket)

Mish: so like, are you drinking that cab sav... ahhemm merlot?
Fox: the what?
Mish: the wine that was open on the bench?
Fox: yeh!
Mish: good, cos it's hard to do wine tasting when I just drink all of it on my own.
Fox: drunk! so, what do you think?
Mish: um.. think? ah.. it tastes good with meatball pizza*
Fox: ha! well I think it tastes good, I give it four stars!
Mish: yay!

Verdict: We both liked this wine very much - and it didn't last long around here at all.

Sacred Hill Shiraz Cabernet 2006 (>$20 from Safeway Supermarket)

Fox: This wine smells funny. Fishy. Like cat food.
Mish:*sniffs*
Fox:Like.. like.. jellymeat!
Mish:You're right.. it does smell like jellymeat.
Fox: It doesn't taste like it though
Mish:Thank god.
Fox: Dear Wine Company, your wine smells like cat food. *drinks*
Mish:*tips wine down sink*

Verdict: Much better the next day - the strange jellymeaty smell had gone the next day and it accompanied Mish's salami, roasted capsicum and chilli pizza very well indeed. So make sure you let this wine breathe a while before consuming.

* while the pizza base can carry many different toppings or combinations thereof - meatballs at no time is ever a good idea. If the meatballs are really good, they deserve a comfortable bed of spaghetti not the unforgiving surface of a pizza base. Mostly, people don't know how to make meatballs and the maker of this particular pizza was no exception - this resulted in what essentially was mince on toast (pizza base) so thank goodness the red wine helped out.

Poached Eggs

There're a bunch of things I can't do:

I can't remember the wines I drank at the vineyards this weekend

I can't say "I've been watching your Flickr" without sniggering

I can't txt message gracefully/quickly/while walking

I can't stop buying The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger* (bought it for the sixth time the other day)

I can't understand accessories/handbags/dares/Australians who speak quickly

Fortunately, I can make perfect poached eggs.

[* 2008 movie ]

Romeo and Juliet - The Killers

How the hammer is broken

A million years ago, my new boyfriend took me to the Auckland Art Gallery. I suppose he was enamored with me at the time because it took him over 20 years to feel the urge to accompany me there again. Both visits were to see the works of New Zealand painter, Colin McCahon. Well, I was interesting in the paintings, he may well have had different reasons - I'm not going to presume to assume, and all that jazz.

But it was very nice of him to do so, and I appreciated the company very much for both the Gallery visits, and for the lifetime in between.

Anyway. He took me to the Gallery all those years ago, and it seemed fitting (in retrospect) that we made that visit to see McCahon's works again on the last weekend I spent in Auckland before moving to Australia.

A million years ago in the 80s, McCahon's huge canvases hung from the ceilings at the Gallery, gently moving in the quiet air, like huge painted sails in sombre, flat colours with fraying edges.

Or that's how I remember the experience.

The works that I remember were huge. I found it hard to take in what was painted on the surface of the canvas as I was more distracted or bothered or busy negotiating my way around the space they occupied. I remember mostly their pressence, the way the floor sloped sometimes, the coolness of the blank white walls, but not much other than the earthy, flat colours of the works.

Which is why, upon seeing Towards Auckland in my final week in Auckland I wasn't at all prepared for what I found. As I entered the Gallery space, and I saw the works on the walls, so did my knees because they failed me in such a slow motion weakness that I had to sit, for what ended up being quite a long time, while the paintings soaked into me. I sat there in a room surrounded by works by Colin McCahon and realised I was looking at the most beautiful paintings I have ever seen.

I had been told way back in the distant past, by teachers who I pretty much dismissed as white noise, that paintings such as Victory Over Death 2 had to be seen to be appreciated and reprints didn't do it, or other McCohan work justice. But now, I understood. Now, I understand. Properly. With both eyes open. How, apart from the importance of his work, apart from the messages of his work, apart from the significance of McCohan as an artist; how absolutely beautiful his work is.

The colour depth is amazing, and subtle, and when I looked at the scanned images in the book I purchased at the time and online at a site documenting all his work, those luscious rich intonations of colour are gone. The gallery had set the Second Gate Series along two walls in a continuous breathtaking stream of panels and I couldn't stop looking at them. I felt like I could sink my arms to the elbows in the colour. Here I give thanks to Mondrian was so colourful in its whites, so rich in its brushstrokes, it felt like it was singing at the edges of the paint.

In 25 years time, when I remember this exhibition, I won't remember the floor or the walls or huge sails wafting in the cool air of the Gallery. I will remember the way the light caught the brushmarks in the oil paint. I will remember how the colour drew me into it with rich softness. I will understand even more clearly, that art can be an emotional, physical experience that affects both the heart and the knees.

Brunswick Street

She Said, She Said

Wolf Blass shrz/cab/mer 2005 ($9.97 from Safeway Supermarket)

Fox says "Grapey."
Mish says "Dry'y."
Fox says "Hmm."
Mish says "Tastes good with tomatoes, just so you know."
Fox says "Hmm"
Mish says "It got smoother as it sat out longer."
Fox says "Or as you got drunker."
Mish says "That too."

Verdict:

Fox: Dubious first few sips, bit nondescript, bit mediocre. After a quarter of a glass, started thinking it was all right, then I had a second glass and it was mediocre again. I would not buy again.
Mish: Tastes good with tomatoes.

(PS: we're wine tasting)

Seat, anyone?

and this little piggy had breakfast...in Melbourne!

Eating in Melbourne is fun. I'm in the right part of town for being able to stumble upon any number of cafes, bars and/or restaurants. My roomie, Fox, is showing me the lay of the edible land with sides of bars and tram lessons which is making my assimilation into my new home so much easier than if I were stumbling about here on my own. She was also kind enough to invite me to her work Friday drinks and let me wear her Easter Bunny ears which I forgot I was wearing so by the time the woman at the wine tasting evening we later went to said "nice ears" i tugged on my own ear lobes wondering why she'd said that to me.

The Melbourne sky has been so blue and big - Autumn is such a wonderful season with it's mild temperatures and beautiful colours. This was a very good time of year to start this adventure, I think - good thinking Batman!

Eroica's here too, and while she's living way across the other side of town at the moment, will be flatting a lot closer very soon. We've both decided that Tuesday is "job day" and we'll get more organised/active in seeking employment, but right now sitting here on a red sofa with coffee and hotcross buns, it's very hard to imagine I'll ever work again and this wonderful sense of holiday would be a much better state to maintain.

Last night, Fox and I went to a one man show by Charles Ross where he re-enacted the Star Wars trilogy in an hilarious one hour show at the Forum. I loved his Princess Leia best - a snippet via YouTube:

(I kinda have a lot to say but not finding it easy to say anything but felt I had to put something between the photo of my breakfast and that of the dead seagull)

I know the whole story...

Early flight

Not blogging again today

I've been trying to tell you I'm leaving.

It's hard though, being that I haven't blogged in ages and the words aren't coming out in a clever, entertaining way. So I sit here staring at a cursor that is blinking it's demand for words and I have nothing to offer.

I thought it would be easier than this. I thought that when someone left a job and a good steady income with no new job to go to, they might have a few thoughts that to share around the thought processes surrounding such a decision - a "freak out" post at the very least - but not me. But wait, there's more - how about we throw in more details like leaving the place they've lived in for nearly 20 years to move to move across the Tasman Sea to a new city, leaving their family in the old city, and you'd really be thinking that blog post'd almost write itself - but not this one.

No one could blame you for thinking that a post based on topics so life changing would be easier than this to write. That excited words'd be expected to fly off the end of a once-prolific blogger's fingertips in a sparkling tumble of nervous information that would keep the reader entralled until the very end, and looking forward - therefore returning to the site - to more posts to see how things panned out. Cos Lord knows we bloggers have written a lot more on a hell of a lot less.

But for some reason, right now and lately, that's not happening around here. So I decide to stop sitting here watching an unwavering blinking cursor with no words to feed it and not blog again today, but go watch Trains, Planes and Automobiles for the bazillionth time instead.

Because that, I can do.

(I'm sorry I can't write anything to catch you up on any of my news - I'll keep trying though, so don't give up on me just yet. Maybe when I get to Melbourne the words will come easier. The new sights and sounds, people and food, work and opportunities, frustrations and troubles I'm bound to encounter, will help get my blogging feng shui back. Or maybe it'll at least give you more photos to look at.)