City to Altona by 2 wheels!
It’s Australia Day and I’m with Mum and Dad, we’re all riding our bikes to a place called Altona Beach! We’re at the beginning and riding our bikes through the Australia Day city crowds. People are dotted with tattoos showing the Australian flag.
We’re approaching a great ship (the Polly Woodside) which is a great landmark for the trip ahead. Melbourne is a colourful city when you think about it, because the footpaths are covered with colours and numbers. Taxis speed by and cars are errupting here and there with their bad waft of smoke from their engines.
Over ahead there is a statue of a rat on a bicycle! There is a lot of cool graffiti on the wall next to us.
We are over at Yarraville now. Not long till Williamstown. There are usually quieter streets in Yarraville, but today they are hard to ride. We’re passing the Westgate Bridge. It has a long tail like curve and the load of trucks and fences show that someone has been working here.
We head along to Williamstown and stop for a little rest under a big green tree. We sort through the supplies we bought – bottle of ch’i water, a loaf of honey cake and a packet of jelly-bears. After our satisfying snack we set off again.
We continue along the bike track in which we see lots of trees and rolling blue waves and rainbow coloured birds …. until we get to a track with no birds or views, just scrub and dirt. We ride along for quiet some time until we see the beauty of it again.
I’m at Altona (hooray!) and down at the bay collecting stones (oooops! I slipped, now my shoes are soggy). I’ve found a beautiful orange shell and lots of other small ones too. I do wish there is an empty patterned shell. They are all used up or full of sea creatures.
Time to go! We unlock the bikes. It is very windy, but we soon arrive at ‘The Punt’ (a small boat that takes bikes across the river). I’m exhausted. I load my bike onto the bike punt and sit down. I had barely sat when I had to get up again! Our next ride took us to St Kilda so we could go to Ichi Ni again.
After dinner, one last heave ho through Port Melbourne on the bike track back home … to bed!
Here’s some photos from our adventure!
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- Ready to go!
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- Love this bridge
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- The bikes take a break by the docks
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- I’ll eat you up!
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- Under the Westgate Bridge
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- Williamstown views of the city
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- Snack! Ch’i drink
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- Snack! Swedish honey cake
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- Snack! Cheery bears (no nasty gelatin)
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- Wide open road
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- Beachcombing
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- Letting the Punt driver know we are ready to go
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- Wheeling onto The Punt
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- Back under the Westgate Bridge in style
Hells Kitchen Heaven
It was a gorgeous warm night and we were just about to ride our bikes to the train station to go to Geelong. So, an early dinner was planned. We were walking as fast as we could to a bar called Hell’s Kitchen.
We came up to a halt at large flight of stairs. Up we went. At the top of the stairs there were some kegs (tins you keep beer in) and music was wafting down from above. We walked another flight of stairs and saw a small room with a bar and widows looking onto Centre Place.
I made myself comfortable on on a small couch and checked out the menu. Then I saw pea soup on the specials board. I looked back at the menu … vegetable pizza. Oh, I’ll have both!
Mum and Dad ordered the red bean curry and the chickpea curry.
When the food arrived, I gasped! I started scooping up food … it was demolished in seconds! The pea soup wasn’t very challenging at the start, but when you mix in the yoghurt you are in for a surprise!
The pizza was twice as full on! The sauce was actually made out of vegetable and cheese and had a very powerful flavour. All the same, it was beautiful!
At the end of the meal it was time to go back home. It was very quick, but I was allowed just one tiny peep out the window looking out onto the street. So I thought, there is one thing I certainly have to say about this place … Hells Kitchen is heaven!
Hells Kitchen
Level 1, 20a Centre Place
Melbourne 3000
(03) 9654 5755
Superfino is super!
Superfino, Superfino
Super-duper, super fine
They make their foods with love and passion
and leave all the bad stuff behind
Superfino, Superfino
Super mushrooms in super bread
Going into mushroom heaven
Thoughts swirling through my head
Superfino, Superfino
Super quick, super sweet
Stuffing all you can inside your mouth
All that you can possibly eat
Superfino, Superfino
Super sleepy, super yawn
Sleep well tonight little bear
And we will see you again in the morn.
zzzz.
Superfino
275 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Really incredibly fantastic food. Lots of vegetarian choices for breakfast and lunch
Mini Mart addict!
Mini Mart is the centre of heaven. Mum and I simply cannot draw ourselves away from this Asian food shop. Any girl or boy who is brave enough to go in there will suddenly find themselves trapped in a magical spell, and they will stride straight for the sweets section and buy all they can spot with their little eyes. Adults however are much more self-controlled and head for the tofu, udon noodles and miso soups.
Here’s a little list of the things we like to buy (all sweets!)
1. Crunky chocolate (big favourite)
2. Fizzy lollypop (like a whizz-fiz but you add a little water and it foams up)
3. Every Burger (chocolates, not meat!)
4. Super Lemon lollies (very strong)
5. Sakume fruit sweets
Mini Mart
You’ll find it on the corner of Swanston and Little Bourke Streets in Melbourne
The BFG by RMIT
The BFG is short for Big Friendly Giant an is a book written by Roald Dahl. It is the play that the RMIT students are putting on this year for us kids. The play is performed at RMIT which is a university and they do a play every year – usually one based on one of Roald Dahl’s books.
The BFG is a giant who is very friendly, but small compared to the other giants. This whizz-popping sensational play draws children in to hear the tale of a little girl (Sophie) and her fabulous friend as they set out to save England.
In this play, instead of one Sophie and one BFG, there were three of each character! One BFG was made of paper mache with a person inside of it and one of the Sophies was a puppet made of felt. The other ones were little stick puppet characters with Mr Rob The Sound Guy operated.
The BFG catches dreams in a butterfly net, then puts them into jars and writes labels for them. He is a vegetarian giant and has to eat snozzcumbers. Snozzcumbers are the most despicable black and white vegetables in the whole of Giantland. If you are ever willing to try one, then you may wonder whom will be willing to join you!
Bloodbottler is a rather bothersome giant. He eats small children instead of snozzcumbers. His hair sticks up all over the place and when the BFG offered him some snozzcumber he returns furious and spits the disgusting vegetable out.
Finally, for those who have read the story, here is a quick BFG quiz:
The Giant Quiz
What did Sophie stick into Bloodbottler’s foot at the end of the story?
a/ A pin
b/ A brooch
c/ A knife
Who was Sophie?
a/ A girl from an ophanage
b/ A maid
c/ A giant
What does BFG stand for?
a/ Bottled Frogs Guts
b/ Blue Fingered Goat
c/ Big Friendly Giant
Frobbscottle is a drink, but what is strange about it
a/ It is invisible
b/ It is from outer space
c/ The bubbles go down rather than up
You’ll see the answers after these photos!
Quiz answers
1/ b
2/ a
3/ c
4/ c
Bowl of Soul
A story of how I encountered a hot dog (alias Soul Dog)
I’m in Bowl of Soul, a cafe which serves fake meat. Soy! Soy! Soy! Did you know that most fake meat products come from the soy bean. They are delicious!
The Soul Dog
“How does it taste?”
“Weird”
“Is it good?”
“It feels like I’m eating a real hot dog. It’s freaky”
“Would you ever become a meat eater again?”
‘No, I like being vego”
Did you know that most of the juice you drink from cartons in the shops has only about 5% fruit in it? Charlie’s Honest Juice has more like 90% of fruit for a healthy drink.
Thumbs up for Bowl of Soul.
Bowl of Soul
118 Bridge St
Port Melbourne VIC 3207, Australia
(03) 9645 2470
Take the Port Melbourne bike track from the City. It’s great!
Foxy pizza!
Fantastic Mr Fox review
Fantastic Mr Fox is a Roald Dahl book about three farmers, Boggis, Bunce and Bean. They are terribly mean and as soon as they find out that Mr Fox is stealing food from their farms they throw out all sorts of plots at Mr Fox.
This story has now been made into a sweet animation.
Mr Fox, at the start of the film, made a promise to his wife that he would never steal again. But every night, he secretly slips out to Boggis, Bunce and Bean’s factories. His wife is so angry that she does not want to talk to him. Promises are best kept.
The story follows Mr Fox and his family and how they avoid capture.
One of the songs in the movie is by a gentleman called Mr Jarvis Cocker. In the film he is a musician called Petey. He follows Boggis, Bunce and Bean around, and while he does he sings his song and plays his guitar.
I liked the way that the film used puppets – they were so realistic. I can see there was a lot of effort put into the movie. It wasn’t a film for little kids, even though it was an animation. I could be very upsetting for them.
http://www.fantasticmrfoxmovie.com/
Pizza!
After the movie, what meal could I have to satisfy my hungry tummy? The word repeats itself inside my head … pizza. pizza. pizza. So we rode our bikes to ‘Bande a Part’ in Carlton North.
When we got to Bande a Part it was very quiet (we were early). The music was pumping out and the kitchen was buzzing getting ready for a big night. I noticed an Uno set (a card game). There were other games also like chess and dominoes. I brought Uno back to the table for us to play.
Next I took a look at the menu. I immediately spotted the potato pizza with truffle oil and a Pepsa Cherry drink. My favourites!
When the meal arrived, I tucked in with my teeth sinking into the potato. The buffalo mozzarella melted in my mouth. I then scavenged some of the other pumpkin pizza which was exceptionally sweet. I lay back in pizza heaven.
However these was enough room for the delicious chocolate pudding which I devoured Mr Fox style.
Bande a Part Pizza
749 Nicholson St
Carlton North 3054
03 9388 8950
Pizza is my favourite dish
Potato pizza, is certainly my birthday wish
Pizza, soup, pizza bread
Pizza filling all my head
Playing Uno in the pizza cafe
Eating pizza all day
In the medieval feasts
When knights were fighting vicious beasts
Pizza was their favourite snack
They stored it in their great big sacks!
Listen please the time has come
Ask you Dad, ask your Mum
If you can have a tiny slice
Of delicious pizza, yum, how nice!
Cafe Vue make good things for you!
For lunch the other day we treated ourselves to a Cafe Vue vegetarian lunch box. Here’s what was inside:
Petite baguette
Sesame bread and baba ganoush
Beetroot and rocket salad
Brownie
Petite baguette
The most tasty baguette in vegetarian history! No hesitations! With juicy tomato, gruyere cheese and basil!
Sesame bread and baba ganoush
The baba ganoush is creamy, going in for the hunt with the sesame bread as a dip.
Beetroot and rocket salad
Beetroot salad is a vegie mix of juicy beetroot and spicy rocket. Very powerful!
Brownie
This brownie is delicious – rich, deep, so chocolaty nice!
The lunch box came with excellent wooden cutlery. I’ve given it a wash so I can use it in my craft.
Cafe Vue
Normanby Chambers
430 Little Collins Street
03 9691 3899
http://www.vuedemonde.com.au/cafe-vue.aspx