The time

As a fun prize for being ‘best supporting actress’ in my Business Economics class, our course director Tom awarded me this watch-bangle, which he bought from the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

V&A watch bangle
V&A watch bangle

I wore it on the final day of our course, when we presented our projects to the Directors in our London office. We had a lovely lunch afterward, with tasty food and good conversation.

All good things come to an end, though. I needed to meet up with Damjan in the afternoon.

‘What’s the time?’ I asked one of my colleagues.

‘It’s 10 to 2,’ he said.

‘Oh,’ I laughed. ‘It’s not a real watch!’ I lifted my arm to show him.

He looked serious ‘No. Really. It’s 10 to 2.’

I looked at his watch. So it was!

Nice Lexus

Cycling up to a traffic light, I had to stop. The space between a van on my left and car on my right was too narrow to squeeze through.

That was until the Lexus in front of me folded in its left side mirror. It was as if it was beckoning me forward.

Surprised, I wheeled throught the gap and once I was through, the Lexus’s mirror poped back out.

A quiet one

One of my friends sent me a Facebook invitation for ‘a quiet drink’. Which sounds fine until I noticed that he had invited 120 people.

Real Aussie

I was on the phone with mum.

‘Do you eat vegemite, Joan?’ mum said.

‘No, I don’t. But Damjan eats it sometimes,’

‘I didn’t like vegemite too,’ she continued. ‘But a while ago, you left a jar of vegemite at our place and I tried it. Now I like it.’

‘It’s just like putting soy sauce on bread!’ I exclaimed.

‘I like it.’

‘You’re a real Aussie now, mum.’

‘Yes, I’m an Aussie.’

Grand Prix

The sounds of the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix are filling our home. The noise is coming through our windows rather than the TV. High pitched car engines are the soundtrack of at least two weddings that we saw at the Botanic Gardens. They are like angry wasps.

Snail derailed

It was night time when I came home yesterday. The ground was wet with rain.

I spotted two snails halfway across the garden path, one behind the other. They were moving to a grassy patch.

Carefully, I stepped over them. Then another step later… ** CRISP ** As soon as I heard the light crunch, I jerked my foot back.

Oh no! I had stepped on another snail and crushed its shell. Even worse, it was still moving.

I rushed home and almost cried. The poor snail! Naked and homeless. Would it survive? Can it survive?

A few minutes later, I thought of going back outside to euthanise it but didn’t.

This morning, I found its shrivelled body next to broken bits of shell.

I am an indicator species

Women are considered an ‘indicator species’ of the health of the riding environment—the more women who commute by bike, the better the bike facilities.

What a fabulous quote from Bicycle Victoria’s report on the annual Super Tuesday bike count.

I feel safe enough to ride on central Melbourne’s streets, although that may be an indication of my foolhardiness rather than road conditions. I like riding on the clunky Melbourne Bikes, as cars and other cyclists seem to give me a wide berth. I’m obviously a novice, wearing a dress, the deeply unfashionable $5 Melbourne helmet and riding a Melbourne Bike.

Silverbeet sarma

Sarma is an Ottoman Empire dish where leaves are stuffed with tasty fillings like mince and rice. The version I like best uses pickled cabbage for wrapping. There are all kinds of variations in Greece, Turkey, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Wikipedia says:

Minced meat (usually beef, pork, veal, or a combination thereof, but also lamb, goat, sausage and various bird meat such as duck and goose), rice, onions, and various spices, including salt, pepper and various local herbs are mixed together and then rolled into large plant leaves, which may be cabbage (fresh or pickled), chard, sorrel, vine leaf (fresh or pickled) or broadleaf plantain leaves.

Silverbeets have been in season so we decided to try out a vegetarian sarma of fresh silverbeet stuffed with rice, silverbeet, dill, onion, garlic and capsicum. It was tasty, healthy and colourful.

Silverbeet stuffed with rice and peppers
Silverbeet stuffed with rice and peppers

Close up of a 'sarma'
Close up of a 'sarma'

Living the life

We had just finished a long meeting when the chairperson David invited us all to lunch. The seven of us went to a pub, ordered some drinks and got to know each other.

‘How’s inner city life?’ David asked.

‘Really good,’ I said. ‘I’m really enjoying being able to ride the Melbourne Bikes to work.’ I explained to the others on the table, ‘We moved into our new flat a few months ago.’

‘Does your husband ride to work as well?’ Theo asked.

‘Yes. He has his own bike and goes in the opposite direction.’

Theo held his hand up to stop me. ‘Do either of you have a car?’

‘No. No, we don’t have a car.’ I said.

‘Wait, wait… You don’t have a car? You walk and ride everywhere?’

‘Yes…’ I wasn’t sure where he was going. Theo looked a bit shocked.

‘You’re doing it!’ Theo said. ‘You’re doing that thing we all talk about but don’t actually believe! Living the life! Not having a car. Working near home!’

‘I don’t have a car either,’ Andrew piped in. ‘We sold it last month. I ride to work from Northcote. It’s faster than the car and public transport.’

Theo looked at us both in awe.