cumulus inc, melbourne, australia

who'd have thought that cumulus inc would have a good brunch crowd.  it doesn't have the waiting times of the outer city establishments, but its food is just as good and rivals cumulus' own dinner menu.  we arrived at around 10.00am on a sunday and easily found free on street parking (1 hour).

for breakfast, we had two dishes. the first was grilled lyonaisse sausages with beans and a poached egg.  the second was the cumulus inc breakfast, consisting of a boiled egg, toast with three preserves, berry yoghurt, organic orange juice and a coffee.  this came to a rescession proof price of $17.60.

if you aren't able to get into cumulus inc for dinner (no bookings unless you get the big table of 7), sunday brunch is a good substitute.

 

you can find other reviews of cumulus inc here:
almost always ravenous
gourmet traveller australia
time out magazine

hardware societe, melbourne, australia

hardware societe is tucked away at the arse end of hardware lane, away from the touristy restaurants and bars.  unlike many of melbourne's new hipster brunch places, the fit out at hardware societe is simple and modern.  in other words, no old wooden chairs or exposed brick in this place.  the coffee is great and the staff are attentive (perhaps too much).  the food is good but pricey for what it is... for that price, they should also accept credit cards... all up, a reasonable brunch place with good coffee and food, though i would personally question whether i got value for money here.

some hardware societe reviews can be found here:
Urbanspoon
Broadsheet
Sydney Tarts

mrs macquarie's chair, sydney, australia

going for a jog at 7.00am is made a lot easier when the sights are spectacular.  this is taken from mrs macquarie's chair, which has a good view of both the opera house and harbour bridge.  the run from the opera house through the royal botanic gardens to mrs macquarie's chair is around 5km return.  this is also the spot where sydney holds its moonlight cinema.  what an amazing background for an open air theatre.

hyde park, sydney, australia

walking through hyde park, sydney, after dinner in darlinghurst.

coin laundry, armadale, melbourne

coin laundry takes its name from its former use - as a laundromat.  nowadays, it pumps out some music, food and coffee instead.  my personal view is that the food isn't as good as many other brunch places in melbourne, but if i lived in armadale, i'd probably go more often.  otherwise, there's a heap of great brunch places dotted around melbourne that i'd go to first... though, their staff are all pretty hot...

some coin laundry reviews can be found here:

Broadsheet
The Age
Urbanspoon

crown atrium, melbourne

each year, crown casino puts something related to chinese new year on in its atrium.  a small light and sound show accompanies the display.  you'll be able to see a golden dragon near the bottom right of the photo.  2012 is the year of the (water) dragon in the chinese zodiac.

happy chinese new year!

duchess of spotswood, spotswood, vic

adrian and i try to get to a different brunch spot around melbourne each weekend.  the duchess of spotswood is located in (drumroll) spotswood.  its one of a few decent weekend brunch places in the western suburbs of melbourne.  like all brunch places, there is a sizeable wait on weekends (around 15 to 30 minutes depending on the number of people).  our food was pretty good and the coffee was great.

the duchess has been written up in the following places:

Urbanspoon
The Age
Broadsheet

australia day, melbourne

our fourth annual australian day bbq went off without a hitch.  hopefully others had as much fun as i did.

jewish wedding reception, melbourne

my second ever jewish wedding receiption.  i love non-christian weddings.  they have their own little cultural quirks such as hoisting the bride and groom on two chairs, throwing the groom around and lots of circular dancing.  the groom also brings about 3 changes of his shirt so he stays pristine during all the sweaty dancing. 

ajay

ajay is a silver abyssinian who we got about 1.5 years ago from a breeder in queensland.  meow.

carnival, midsumma festival, melbourne

midsumma is a GBLTQI festival held each year in melbourne just prior to its larger cousin, the mardi gras in sydney.  carnival is a picnic event where everyone comes to share some food, drinks and music and wander around the various stalls set up around birrarung marr.  luckily, 2012's carnival was held when melbourne was at its sunny best.

barwon heads, vic

barwon heads is a sleepy beach town that is slowly turning into its larger neighbour, ocean grove.  it's a shame and hopefully it won't happen too quickly.  at the end of the pier is a great restaurant called "at the heads" where you can enjoy some good food whilst looking out to a magnificent vista.

state library, melbourne

ahh, the bookworms are out, but at least they're outside in the sun and not inside the state library itself.

kensington, victoria

i remember when these old petrol price signs showed 49.9c or less.  that was also when icypoles cost 10c and you could get 50c of 1c lollies. yes, im old.

ponyfish island, melbourne

in the middle of the murky yarra and underneath a little foot bridge lies a cafe called Ponyfish Island.  Great for a few drinks, but not so good if you want a coffee with a 5 year old.  We took some photos, including one of the various potplants dotted around the cafe and then left to go back up to civilisation

newmarket hotel, st kilda, vic

self dubbed a californian cuisine establishment, the newmarket hotel is a funky new gastropub in melbourne.  the food is delicious, the cocktails are inventive (though a little watered down for me) and the staff are friendly.  a great place to sit and drink on a lazy sunday afternoon.  well worth a visit.

carey grammar, victoria

xmas plays and pagaents have certainly improved at my old school since I was last there in 1994.  this is the backdrop for a 5 year old's xmas play.  very high tech.  the whole thing was pretty darn cute if i can say so myself!

perth, western australia

perth is a great city, kinda laid back but not. i can't put my finger on it though.  i wouldn't live there but i like visiting.  here's a view out to the swan river from the seventh floor of the hyatt.

johnson street, fitzroy, australia

each year, the spanish community in melbourne put on a two day festival in fitzroy.  the roads are blocked and there are food stalls everywhere.  mostly spanish or spanish inspired street food, but curiously, there is also this... korean spiral fried potato chips.  i'm sure someone has a more formal name for them.  the food's amazing at the festival.  i didn't each anything this year - trying to not eat when i'm not hungry.. but it was pretty hard to resist

melbourne, australia

its a mild night in melbourne and the full moon is out.  after a busy few days early in the week, its nice to sit back and look up at the stars (clouds) and the moon.

emirates stakes day, flemingtaon racecourse, australia

And so another year goes by, the last of the four major spring racing days.  see you next year, spring racing carnival.

circular quay, sydney

sometimes i really don't understand people. im sure this advertising blitz has a purpose, but whatever it is is beyond me.

auction rooms, north melbourne, australia

hangover breakfast, awesome coffee, hot staff, beautiful sunny day.. sunday morning all sorted i reckon.

port melbourne, victoria, australia

port melbourne beach on a windy cool spring day

windsor, melbourne, australia

a typical windsor walk - lunch at the windsor deli followed by a walk to a two storey victorian terrace that is a hairdresser's salon which is itself opposite an old antiques shop that was converted into a yum cha restaurant

hardware lane, melbourne, australia

AFL grand final morning on hardware lane

flagstaff gardens, australia

lunchtime in flagstaff gardens - spring has sprung!

melbourne, australia

i brought the awesome weather down from sydney. what a great day for a hangover bbq!

sydney, australia

another sunny 29 degree day in sydney.. meanwhile, in melbourne, 17 and rain....

di bellas, north melbourne and melbourne, australia

brunch at di bella's coffee house in north melbourne. two truffled poached eggs on asparagus and rye bread. brunch is such a melbourne thing to do - sydney just doesn't do it enough.  it's a lazy way to spend a saturday or sunday with friends and lets you catch up on the last week or twos happenings.  its probably one of my favourite parts of the week.

it was such a good day that i decided to grab my camera again to start taking random photos of melbourne town.. here's some of my favourites from the day:

back to one photo per day from now on - i figure this is only to make up for a lack of photos since i got back from frenchland