Because I'm a girl...

On Thursday night, a very close friend of mine and I went to the monthly meeting of the Melbourne chapter of the Young UN Women Australia - A group of young women whose "aim is to engage young people in raising the status of gender equality and development issues, advocating on behalf of young women, and supporting the work of UN Women through fundraising events". I was surprised at the diversity of the women in attendence, most were under 25 (of course) but there were students, and business women of all shapes, sizes and ethnicities and all of them had killer style! We were lucky enough to catch the meeting in which the group's activities over the past few months were being summarised. Three sub-comittees make up the Melbourne chapter: one organises fundraising events, another organises workshops at schools and the last works on policy and law reform. Currently, the team has been working on their Spring campaign, fundraising for the Pacific Facility Fund which targets violence against women in places such as Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Samoa (the Pacific...duh). They've made an ample contribution to the fund and their work has been recognised by the Federal Government.

We were also lucky enough to have women in attendance from Plan Australia an organisation that works at the "grassroots to empower communities to overcome poverty so that children have the full oppurtunity to reach their potential - and children are encouraged to be actively involved in the process". We were lucky enough to have two teenaged girls from the Plan program their to speak to us - a fifteen year old girl from Zambia and a twelve year old from Bangladesh. They were incredibly inspiring, speaking from the heart about issues such as early marriage, poverty and gender inequality. They were both spritely, and positive and so strong. Their stories were so inspiring and they definitely made me feel more motivated and encouraged to join the Young UN and participate.

It was a wonderful evening and I look forward to meeting and mingling with the other women of the chapter. I would encourage young women to get involved and look into your own local chapter and see what you can do to get involved. I will most definitely be attending more meetings and trying to help out on a sub-comittee.

A change...

I am excited. Why? well, because yesterday I met the woman I would like to supervise my honours thesis, Elizabeth. I went to the University of Melbourne, we sat down together, and she proceeded to blow my mind. I went in with a fairly vague notion of what I would like to research next year and left with a completely different focus. Upon entering the meeting I had my heart set on working on English asylums at the beginning of the twentieth century and the influence the introduction of psychotropic medication made to the lives of the patients.

However, a long discussion with my asylum expert revealed that my topic would be exceedingly difficult to execute as the tangible records would be near impossible to acquire. So, I was back to square one and feeling miserable. But Elizabeth and I talked a little more and she convinced me that it might be a good idea to work on asylums in Melbourne as not much secondary literature exists in that field and the records are easily acquirable as they're located in North Melbourne (!!). I would be able to go to the Public Records Office and actually look at the original documents, and patient case books and registers. How amazing! I'll be able to really delve into asylum life as opposed to working on English Asylums where I would have no contact with the primary resources I needed.

I have already narrowed my research ideas down significantly since yesterday. I would like to work on women in Kew Asylum in the late nineteenth century. Now all I need to do is get to reading and work out the fine details. I am so happy that I listened to a good friend's advice and went to speak with Elizabeth. She helped me so much and she would be the perfect supervisor for what I would like to do. Now, let us just hope that I actually get into the University of Melbourne...


Image: Kew Asylum Melbourne, circa 1885.

Good food is Green Food...

Yesterday, Karl and I finally tried out Yong Green Food on Brunswick Street. The last time we tried to nab a table it was impossible so we went a little later this time, and luckily, a table had just opened up! We persused the menu, which took ages and was very overwhelming due to the sheer amount of choice. I settled on a delicious raw cacao smoothie made with, as the name suggests, raw cacao, vanilla, agave nectar and almond milk...

When I took the first sip I was absolutely blown away! The smoothie was super thick, almost like semi-melted ice-cream, and it was incredibly sweet and chocolatey. It was seriously one of the best things I have tasted in months. I would recommend it to all! I also ordered the rawsagne - Layers of zucchini and mushroom with lashings of cashew cream and tomato sauce.

This was absolutely delicious. The cashew cream was thick and creamy and the garlic flavour was sensational. It was quite filling but not as heavy as a regular, meaty lasagne. I will definitely be going back to try more of the delicious raw options as well as some of the raw desserts! The raw cheesecake and pecan pie are definitely on my "To eat" list.

So, if you're on Brunsiwck street and you want to eat food you can feel good about, I highly recommend Yong Green Food!

I could have danced all night...

My birthday was wonderful. Karl took the day off work and I awoke to a stack of gifts wrapped in my favourite coloured paper...

I ended with a tonne of books that I have wanted for ages, t-shirts from Threadless, a beautiful vintage dress and vanilla perfume...

We spent the whole day together. We had a lovely breakfast at Monk Bodhi Dharma in Balaclava and walked in the sunshine...

I then dressed up in aforementioned vintage dress and we headed out to Blue Corn Mexican restaurant in St. Kilda for dinner...

All of my favourite people were there...

and they brought me presents...Like a zombie head pinata...

and a GHD hair straightener!!

And other naughty things...

After much laughter and too may margaritas we headed home where I blew out my candles and devoured a piece of delicious chocolate cake...

Demon Mania

As part of the Melbourne Festival gigantic, demonic babies have been installed on Swanston Street and St. Kilda Road by avant garde Russian arts collective AES+F as part of their Angels-Demons Parade, one of the highlights of the festival's 2011 program. I took the above picture this morning; this is just one of the babies on the corner of Collins and Swanston Streets in the Melbourne CBD. The babies were installed "under the cover of darkness" so they would shock commuters the following morning. I must admit, I was shocked, and I fucking loved it.

Sunshine of your life...

So, it's cold and it's grey and it's miserable here in Melbourne so I decided to brighten up the gloom by wearing my sunniest outfit. I felt like spring time personified in this outfit. I wore it out on a dinner date with Karl, his brother, and his brother's girlfriend at Venezuelan restaurant. I was a ray of sunshine in the midst of all the grey and black that Melbournites do so love to enrobe themselves in in the winter time.

Headband - Alannah Hill
Floral Skirt - Princess Highway
Shoes - Imagination
Pearls - Grandmother's
Sweater - Random store on Chapel Street, Melbourne

Taking my chances...

I've been thinking hard lately about the honours program I hope to undertake next year. Which I should be thinking about seeing as I have to apply very soon. I hope to do research concerning medicine/psychiatry in the Victorian era but ay, here's the rub: Monash only has one lecturer who remotely knows anything about medical history and his specialty is medicine during the reign of the Third Reich. Which, as you may be able to tell, is not the area I am concerned with.

So, I did some research and found that there are some lovely ladies at the University of Melbourne who actually specialise in the history of psychiatry and medicine in...THE VICTORIAN ERA! So, my allegiance to Monash is wavering at the moment. I have contacted the lecturers at Melbourne and they seem happy to meet with me and discuss my research. Which is promising news for me. I am hoping that I will be offered a place at Melbourne as it is much closer to my home, I know some lovely people there and (most importantly) my honours project will turn out much better.

So, that's where I am academically at the moment. Trying to manage getting awesome grades at third year level, while trying to prepare for honours.

Destination: Melbourne

Tomorrow is my fiancé's (Karl) last day of work before he takes a much anticipated, and much deserved, nine days off. In a previous blog I mentioned that Karl and I wanted to take a holiday while staying in our wonderful city, we wanted to explore what we have not explored, eat things we have never eaten and pretty much become strangers in an un-strange land.



With much planning and researching we have planned an exciting and adventurous nine days in (and around) Melbourne. Each day will bring something new and different: Mexican food and brunch with a monk for our anniversary, a sojourn in the mountains indulging in s'mores and spas, and a day of retail (and jerky) therapy in a Downtown Hong Kong style shopping plaza.



We planned this week around food, we wanted a culinary adventure, in which we challenged our preconceived notions about certain foods and challenged our taste buds to go along for the ride.



It's going to be a fun week. I really feel as if we are going on a vacation to a new location, I guess we are in a way. I will keep y'all updated on our nine days of Epicurean exploration.

And my heart was beatin' fast...

I had a sleepless night. An abrupt awakening left me feeling lost and dreaming of the past. I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling. I rolled again, out of the bed and onto my feet. I stood swaying in front of the mirror, sleep in my eyes and sorrow in my soul. Kittens purred and rubbed against my legs. Grey clouds absorbed the sun's lights and kept me in darkness. I dragged a brush through my tangled hair, threw on a coat and left. On my way to another boring something or other, trapped on a humid tram filled with sweaty school boys and their sweaty thoughts.

But then you called me.

You told me not to worry,everything would be okay. We'd grab a coffee and go for a walk. So I peeled myself off the tattered tram seat and trudged towards you.

There you were. Smiling. And we went for a walk. And we grabbed coffee. And everything was okay.

Around we go..

One day we were bored. We went walking. These are some of the treasures in our beautiful suburb in Melbourne.

To Live...

On the 2nd of July, my fiancé and I are celebrating our anniversary. We’ve been “together” for six years and engaged for one. On our anniversary we usually celebrate by eating decadent French food by candlelight or sipping cocktails by the ocean. Last year, Karl whisked me away to Olinda, a small town nestled amongst the Dandenong ranges far from the drone of Melbourne life. There we stayed in a fairy tale cottage (no, really, it was even called ‘Gretel’) and we strolled through the mist at Cloud Hill. Then he proposed, in front of the fire place, after a beautiful dinner. He slipped the ring on my finger and we toasted with champagne before cuddling on the couch with ice-cream sundaes and watching the remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It really was a beautiful and memorable way to spend our fifth anniversary together. But it makes celebrating subsequent anniversaries difficult. How do we top our fifth anniversary? I mean, we got engaged. That’s kind of a big deal and is incredibly hard to top.



So we’re not going to bother topping it. We’re just going to have an awesome time. And we plan on doing that by having a holiday…in Melbourne. Melbourne? Yes, Melbourne. And, yes, I realise that we do in fact already live in Melbourne. But between work and university commitments we actually do very little “living” in this city.



We spend the majority of our time cooped up in a small, artificially lit office or library reading, and writing and revising. We’re lucky to see the outside world for longer than ten minutes a day and even then we keep our heads down and hurry to where we have to be. We rarely look around, inhale, and absorb this amazing city that we live in. And we should. When we live somewhere as awesome and surprising as Melbourne, we really should. When we know where we’ve come from and don’t know where we’ll eventually end up we really should suck the life out of this city like marrow from the bone.



So, Karl has taken a week off work, beginning with our sixth anniversary weekend, and we are going to take back Melbourne. We’re going to shop and eat and explore until we just can’t shop or eat or explore anymore. Just like you do when you live in any great city, we’re going to sip coffee in damp lane ways; wander through gardens and parks and museums; talk until dawn and sleep until dusk.
It’s going to be the most wondrous holiday we’ve ever had. And we don’t even have to go anywhere.