The Jamjar

Longrain

Longrain is on Little Bourke Street, just down at the end of Liverpool Street. Apart from incorrectly calling this restaurant "Long Grain", I've been in love with this restaurant since Fox first introduced it to me early in my life here in Melbourne. Since then I've been there 3 or 4 times and it has become one of my favourite places to dine in the city so it seemed, to me at least, the choice for dinner to celebrate 6+ months at work.

While there are times, if you are prepared to wait a few hours, to drop by Longrain and get a seat - but by far the safest way, especially for a Friday, it's best to book ahead. We booked several weeks ago for a 9:15pm table, giving us enough time to gather ourselves after work, and have a drink in one of the lovely bars in and around Liverpool Street.

Double Happiness was our first choice, but it was very busy (which wasn't a surprise) so we climbed the stairs to New Gold Mountain for a few pre-dinner drinks in the quiet, cool surrounds of the Green Bar.

New Gold Mountain is quiet. It's easy to hear what your companions are saying, and conversation is the name of the game. So few bars let you do that. Background music is a misnomer and often dominates small bars and pubs. When we were at The Carlton the week before, the music got louder and louder until we were yelling at each other - no fun when the music was just piped, and frankly: shit.

We walked the short distance to Longrain for our dinner and were shown straight to our table. Sometimes, if you arrive a little early or your table isn't ready, you will be seated either at the bar, or at the small side-tables and given an extensive wine and cocktails list. Very well worth spending a little bit of time sampling the creative cocktails on offer. At the table, I ordered a Thai Bloody Mary, as Fox had recommended it from an earlier visit. It was spectacular!

Longrain encourages sharing. We each ordered a main dish, and had it delivered to the centre of our round table for everyone to sample. The food will blow your socks off. The flavours, the smells, the textures, the sauces. Just as well too - as Longrain is a very noisey restaurant - it's quite difficult to have a conversation with anyone not sitting directly next to you - but once the food comes out - no one is interested in conversation.

There were seven of us, so that gave us as many main dishes. Longrain decided we needed their spectacular tofu dish so gifted that to us as well. We had a _lot_ of food on the table and my stomach gave up long before my desire to eat it did. I think the new formula for ordering would be 5 dishes for 7 people in future though I'm not complaining - I spent most of Saturday dreaming about the caramelised pork hock with chilli vinegar and deep fried eschalots that stood out as my favourite among all the favourites.

While Longrain offers a beautiful restaurant and knowledgeable and friendly service - it really is all about the food. It will shut you up. It will make you make those mmming groaning omgoding noises and stop any other conversation until the food is done.

I highly recommend Longrain.

I thank the lovely Craig and Suzanne, Dave and Jen, Willo and Fox - especially Fox for organising the whole deal - for a wonderful evening, delicious conversations, and a very lovely birthday.

[melbourne foodie blog] Comprehensive Review

[the age] Bar Review one and two

The Big Lebowski re-visit

No one fucks with the Jesus - Thanks to Dave for reminding me of this great movie.

Take a look at YouTube's The Big Lewbowski remix - F_cking Short Version and The Dude's Version.

Earth Hour

I had this idea about Earth Hour. I had this idea that if I went to Federation Square, I would share this moment when the lights of Melbourne would go out, and we would feel a sense of community and awareness of the planet.. or something. I thought it might even be moving, and worth doing, worth sharing.

Fed Square had a fair turnout for the Earth Hour. Some had candles, most were just standing around. But as 8pm came and went, it was very difficult to determine that anyone knew that it was time to turn the lights out. As time passed it seemed that more lights came *on*. It got lighter, and brighter, then a choir of Baby Boomers on stage began singing *really* old songs like Michael Row the Boat Ashore and Rock My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham and other such classics your elderly teacher might have made you sing on school bus trips.

Boom: 8:30pm we were heading out of there. Earth Hour was just really lame.

Walking home, we were pleased to see bars like Spleen and Lanes Edge were bathed in candle-light, and the flower vendor on Swanston Street had all his stall lights out. A fair number of civic buildings including the Melbourne Town Hall's clock tower and Cathedral were in darkness but mostly, the town was full of people and as bright as ever.

[Update] It looks almost spectacular, but that wasn't the experience on-the-ground.

Favour

Look - I wasn't going to do this for several reasons - mostly because there are actually only 7 of you out there (and I love everyone of you - you are all special in different ways - even you, Bob) and publicaddress.net has at *least* 20 (million) readers who vote them in every year as New Zealand's favourite blog (they are good but that's besides the point!)

I know I've been slack around here for the last couple of years - making people come back to check comments instead of adding a comments feed; not posting regularly; not spell checking; pilfering conversations and passing them off as blog content. I know. I KNOW!! and it's not like I'm promising to change or anything.. I'm just.. you know.. asking you to do something and get NOTHING IN RETURN! no wait.. let me reposition that.

I am still here* and, more importantly (and thank goodness) so are you (you are still reading this, right?) good.

My favour is to ask if you could manage to find five minutes before April 14th (NZ time) to vote for thejamjar.com in the blog catagory of the NetGuide Awards. I know I don't have any chance of winning, and that's not the point anyway; I would really love to have more than the one (I voted for myself) vote (I got really embarrassed after I hit the "submit" button) in the system!**

(cos I know if you don't , there will only be one vote, did I mention that? only one. Mine. And a comment. I made a comment. One of those comments someone hopped up on cheese sandwiches might write after watching MiramarMike as close to butt naked as any woman outside his marriage would ever hope to see and is now suffering a big dollop of regret mixed with a swirl of whakama (about the "voting for myself" thing, not the "seeing Mike close to butt naked" thing))***

* August 2nd 2008 is this blog's 10th Anniversary
** Yes I am whining again
*** sorry. vote. thnx.

[edit] I spotted this and this advertisement (original size as displayed on site) over at stuff.co.nz

You do the math..

5

Thunderstorm

Last night, shortly after I decided to go to bed, there was a thunderstorm. As I'd manage to take a photograph of lightning last time there was a storm, I thought I'd chance my arm once again and try and take an even better shot.

So I padded bare foot out to the lounge and pressed my trusty camera up against the glass of the windows (to keep it steady during its slow shutter release) and started snapping away. Eventually, I caught a great burst of lightning.

Alas, due to the heavy rain, the lightning was all going on someplace else and its brilliance diffused through the misty cloud cover - so a lot less "fork" of lightning and a lot more "light" of lightning. I did capture it, though the one photograph of the event just looked like 'Collingwood during the day' rather than 'Collingwood during the thunder storm'.

So, for your viewing pleasure, and because I am a giant nerd easily amused, I've added a small interactive exercise so you too can experience the thunderstorm over Collingwood.

Roll your mouse over (and off and over) the image below and (patience is a virtue) you will experience the thunderstorm in all it's glory! If, like me (and unlike Fox) you feel that adding your own thunder sounds helps, by all means go for it.

Full Moon

2008 TED Prize Recipients

Dave Eggars: 2008 TED Prize wish: Once Upon a School

Karen Armstrong: 2008 TED Prize wish: Charter for Compassion

Neil Turok: 2008 TED Prize wish: An African Einstein

TED Talks: Jill Bolte Taylor

All God's Good Girls Fall Out of Trees?

I was thinking of a book I loved when I was younger: Hello God, This is Anna by Fenn. Yup, just Fenn. I repeatedly borrowed it from the school library. It was a paperback with a bright yellow cover, and energetic line illustrations every few pages. Anna was always drawn as this tiny child with a disguise of flowing hair. I loved those drawings - wished I could draw like that. I never did read the book though - apart from the few pages where Anna falls out of a tree and is impaled on fence palings and dies. Oops, sorry.. that might have ruined the book for you. That was the only bit I'd read. It was gruesome and I always cried - no, there was no illustration of the small girl gored by iron palings. She was a very good girl, by all accounts, one of God's favourites, you know?

That made me think of Pollyanna - the Disney movie staring a very young Haley Mills. Another favourite of mine as a smaller person - I did, this time, pay attention throughout the entire film. Upon seeing it again recently I was amazed at how long it was - though that might just be because Pollyanna is kind of annoying and Aunt Polly was honestly just trying her best (perspective is a wonderful thing) I still find the scene where Pollyanna falls from the tree and becomes a paraplegic a bit stressful. Oops.. oh noes.. that might've ruined the movie for you if you've not seen it yet. But see, she was kind of a favourite of God's too - daughter of dead missionaries, plagued with bringing joy into the world for all the miserable peoples of the town.

Then I realised, to make this a real, genuine theme, I'd need at least three examples of God's Good Girls falling out of trees to death or worse but alas, I don't know any more. Do you?

Movie: I am Legend

Original Ending

Saturday night's alright for fighting

a) find out Northcote is actually on the 86 tram line (my tram line)
b) go to Northcote Social Club and talk about 50cent artwork and underwater welding and drink beer <= no wait, is it called that?
c) listen to interesting music
d) come home to "A Fist Full of Dollars" go Clint Eastwood!!

F Bombs

He said "I've tagged you in a meme."
She said "You did not."
He said "Hmhmm I did."
She mumbled something under her breath.
He chuckled.
She groaned and sighs "What do I have to do?"
He said "Well, the first thing you need to do, is post the rules to your blog."
She groaned again "Oh for fuck sakes, there are rules? plural?"
He said "Yup, just a couple. C'mon, rules are good - what are you always saying? Creativity loves constraint?"
She looked at him.
He cocked his eyebrow.
She sighs "Okay, what are they?"
He explained "The first rule of this meme is that you must post the rules of this meme to your blog."
She stared at him blankly "Do not do that Fight Club thing."
He rolled his eyes "As if I would!" and cursed silently under his breath, another chance to make a movie reference down the drain.
She moved him on "Ahem, you were telling me the rules?"
He continued "Oh yeh, the meme involves sharing six non-important things or habits or quirks about yourself."
She asked "Non-important?"
He nodded "Non-important."
She wondered "Are there even 6 non-important things about me?" She thinks for a moment.
He said "It's easy!"
She said "It's not easy - I can't think of 6 non-important things about me! listen - Thinks:I love peas - realises that's an important piece of information therefore ineligible. Thinks ah:furniture placement needs to be based on a grid and at the right angles to each other - very fucking important for one's feng shui and general directional relationality with the universe therefore - not a non-important point for the meme. Thinks:always carrying reading-matter, notebooks, pens and crayons in my bag - extremely important! and therefore you-know-what! see? even minor Michelle things like having stuff to scribble on while trying to explain stuff at the pub is miles from non-important. I can't think of any non-important things about me! I can't possibly do this meme."
He said "Sure you can!"
She said "I can't! I can't even think of 1 non-important thing about you let alone six! How the hell did you manage it?"
He said "Well, I was easy - I put stuff like my abysmal exam results in Form 7 oh and the mole on my chest."
She perked up a bit "You have a mole on your chest?"
He nodded "Yep, just under my collarbone - my mum had one too, in the same place, it's a freaky family heirloom."
She teased "You shared a mole with your mother? Did she have a hairy chest too?"
He growled something about not being cheeky about his mum, so she moves on.
She asked "Is that all? blog the rules and write 6 non-important things?"
He said "Then you have to tag people and leave a comment on their blogs so they know they've been tagged."
She threw her arms up in the air "Arrrggg I hate taggin' people!"
He said "Settle down! You only have to tag three."
She whined "Three?? I only know three and you're one of them and you've already done the poxy thing!"
He said "Is there anything you do in your normal daily life you don't complain about??"
She frumps and crosses her arms, mumbling "Stupid bloody memes."
Exasperated, he gave up "Look, you don't have to do it, I just thought you'd like to have a chance at some written content for your blog."
She frumped a bit more and says "But you tagged me."
He said "Yeh well it wasn't a Court Order or anything. Do what you like." Her whining is starting to get on his nerves.
She sulked for a while longer then mumbled something under her breath.
He asked what it is.
She said "Ok, I'll do it."
He brightened a little and said "There you go."
She said "But I won't enjoy it!"
He smiled "No. I know. But if it's any consolation..."
She looked at him.
He grinned "We probably won't either."

Poxy Meme: or how I stopped worrying and learned to love the game.. or something.

1. I like cutting raw liver and/or kidney - I love the texture as the knife cuts through the organ - though I don't like eating them at all - cooked or otherwise.
2. I don't find Monty Python particularly funny - and Fawlty Towers makes me cry - don't try to convince me otherwise or I'll make you cry.
3. While I can't remember my current telephone number, or my mobile number, or work's phone number, or my Post Office Box number, or my bank customer number - I can remember my family's phone number when I was 10 - I used to have to answer it "86404, Shelley Park speaking..." yes 5 digits.. shut up!
4. Scrambled words confuse me - questions asking if "noldon" is a city, a country or a continent stumps me - I just skip those ones in IQ tests. Naturally, I find games such as Scrabble difficult.
5. I don't mind if socks are odd but I do mind if socks are smelly.
6. I avoid any contact with caterpillars and butterflies as they they smell yukky - maybe it's their socks.

Hilarious Muppets Bloopers

Overheard

Tim: I think I'll go for a run after work. Yep. Sow my wild oats.
Craig: pardon?
Tim: I'm gonna go for a run after work - sow my wild oats.
Craig: I think you have your sayings messed up man.
Michelle (to herself because she is always so crass, but sometimes she is aware enough to regulate the volume): Naw, he's right.. that's why it's called "jogging".