I’ve now been for two years out of consulting. And where am I now? Monday morning 6am at Munich airport.
Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?
However, in my head I’ve got Chris Rea on infinite repeat (‘flying home for Christmas’).
Another one of those posts, that has sat in the folder of drafts for more than half a year. In the meantime Pellegrini’s has established itself as a permanent fixture in my lunch breaks. It’s such a nice atmosphere, the food is good and the short waiting times are very convenient. But here’s my view as I wrote it down in August last year:
#44 – Dare to ruin a white shirt at the communal kitchen table of Italian Melbourne at Pellegrini’s – Friday, August 9, 2013
One of the 111 things I was anticipating most was having lunch at Pellegrini’s. Not that I had especially high expectations, but it was more an unexplained fascination with this place. Pellegrini’s is a Melbournian institution and full of stories. About its long history since the opening day in 1954 … or that it was literally the first coffee place in Melbourne, which is synonymous with the fact that it had the first espresso machine in Melbourne … or the rumours about its friendly atmosphere.
However, having read up before our visit, I was kind of confused. If you look at their page on UrbanSpoon, you recognise a lot of raving reviews next to a number of devastating reviews. My curiosity sparked, me and Olga went for a Friday lunch. The first thing I noticed was the long bar and the absence of separate tables. That’s what the talk about “Melbourne’s communal kitchen table” was all about. It’s a very nice place to go with one or two friends. For larger groups I’d recommend the round tables of the Waiter’s Club. The long, narrow room does not leave much room for speculation about change since the 1950s: There has been none. The menu on a wooden board hanging from the ceiling has the patina of six decades, which is all part of the charm.
The long bar provides a good setup to get into conversations with strangers. We sat next to a girl from Europe who was visiting Australia and traveling the continent for a couple of weeks. The gentleman behind the bar made sure that there were enough conversation starters. It’s a busy place, so rather get there shortly before 12 to beat the start of rush hour.
The guy behind the bar was old enough to have witnessed Pellegrini’s opening day himself. Instead of a menu he gave us an oral run down of the day’s specials: Gnocchi and lasagna. For every meal, a couple of different pasta sauces is available. A selection how it should be: short and to the point. Pellegrini serves every dish with some buttered Italian buns, that you shouldn’t eat directly. Better wait save it for the end, when you will need it to soak up the richly supplied tomato sauce – no difference here between the lasagna and the gnocchi.
We finished lunch with two slices from the extensive variety of home-made pies. Full and happy we went back to work wishing for an afternoon nap. Pellegrini is a very special place for Melbourne. It’s very unpretentious, very traditional and combines a lot of qualities. I’m looking forward to getting back there. Since it’s not even five minutes walk from work, it should become a regular venue for lunch breaks.
#9 – Swallow salt water by trying to kite surf at St Kilda beach, April 12, 2014
While Melbourne is not as blessed with natural beauties as Sydney is, it has a lot to offer in terms of culture, coffee places and life in general. Nevertheless, we have a beach and I like it. One of Harriet’s biggest complaints is, that it is not a surf beach. Fortunately, some clever person came up with an idea of surfing without waves: kitesurfing, which “… combines aspect of aspects of wakeboarding, windsurfing, surfing, paragliding, and gymnastics into one extreme sport”. Maybe calling it an “extreme sport” is taking it too far, but judging by the number of kites that you see on a windy summer afternoon in St Kilda, it seems pretty fun. By the way, just last week I’ve been told that if you want to be part of the in-crew in tech venture funding, it’s no longer enough to wear Happy Socks (that’s so 2012), but you need to be proficient in kitesurfing.
This post has been sitting so long as a draft that I barely dare to publish it. In the meantime we’ve even seen that particular movie again. Nevertheless, it was such a nice experience that it should be shared. So, here you go:
#80 – Go 1930s grand and watch a movie at the Astor Theatre having a choc-ice – September 20, 2013
Life leads you in unexpected ways. Few things turn out what you thought them to be and only by looking back you can connect the dots. Sometimes its best to go with the flow and see what happens. In terms of spiritual depth this blog post already punches way above its weight considering what’s about to come.
Last Sunday Melbourne hosted its annual City2Sea run, a 14km fun run that leads from the Arts Centre through Albert Park to the finishing line in St Kilda. It was the perfect day to run. Melbourne has been quite grumpy in terms of weather in the last few weeks and “Where’s the summer” is a common conversation starter these days. But Sunday it showed itself from its most behaved side. Sunshine, temperatures in the mid to upper teens and no wind. Perfect running conditions for the ~14,000 runners. The route is very scenic and leads through the wide alley of St Kilda road, via Fitzroy Street, round Albert Park Lake, back to Fitzroy Street leading to a final lap on Beaconsfield parade.
While Sydney is battling bush fires, Melbourne is sporting it’s brightest greens.
#84 – Visit the Centre for Contemporary Photography, October 13, 2013
#64 – Practice your landscape photography at Hanging Rock, October 12, 2013
Sometimes it’s nice to reflect on your day when you go to sleep and discover that your day turned out totally different from what you expected when you woke up. It’s fair to say that I’m not the most spontaneous person. Lists run my life and I feel good about it. The fact that this very blog post is part of a list that runs my free time activities for a year should be evidence enough. However, yesterday was one of those instances where I benefited from going with the flow.
Spring has arrived in Melbourne – at least officially, the weather tends to disagree from time to time, but we have the occasional sunny day that lifts the mood. Being my parents’ son, spring means I get restless and look for projects to do around the garden. The only problem is, that we don’t have a garden and the nearby parks don’t qualify for personal projects.
The closest we come to a garden is our balcony, which suffered quite a bit throughout winter. We’ve never really taken care of our “outdoor area” since arriving and slowly clutter accumulated. But yesterday the day finally arrived where we put an end to this madness and unfucked our balcony.