"No, you can't say cock."

I reached a point in Melbourne today. The point of being able to walk through the city and bump into someone you know. New places always bring the joy of anonymity, but over time that will certainly dissolve. You reach a point where you occasionally see people you know when you go out, and as you spend longer somewhere these interactions will become more frequent, until you reach a point where it seems impossible to go out without bumping into someone you know.
For now Melbourne will remain for me a place where I occasionally bump into someone I know, because I am temporary in this place. My flights are booked and in a little over a week I move on. I will find anonymity again in Perth, but then I will return to the intense familiarity of HB where I do most often bump into acquaintances when I go out.

This past week I certainly continued finding the phenomenal food around the city, but I have also returned to my happy place which counteracts the food addiction and found a wonderful pole and aerial studio to immerse myself in. With a special offer 2 week unlimited casual class entry deal I have been taking all the strength and stretch classes I can. My muscles are sore but so happy to be working again. Time off really effects the fitness level.

But back to food! I've been introduced to Lentil as Anything, a fantastic organisation which works on pay as you feel and volunteer staff. I have been to the Abbortsford branch, twice for dinner and once for breakfast. The atmosphere is great and the concept fills me with warmth and joy. Everyone should be able to eat and Lentils is an embodiement of this. The second dinner I had there was on friday, world poetry day, and I even did some open mic. I am still distressed by that however as the poetry event was run by a youth organisation I was told I had to be PG, which ruled out rather a lot of my writing.
I also had my second taste of vegie bar (Brunswick St, Fitzroy) where I got a great tofu burger sandwiched between roti bread. We followed this up with frozen yogurt at Berrissimo which unfortunately was in its last week of trading. Definitely discovered that one too late. But I still have La Panella. Look out, food porn!

Situated on Preston High St, 30 mins train ride from the city, this bakery is a vegan heaven. Super cheap, everything was about $2. Pies, cakes, slices, pizza bread, and donuts, delicious and vegan. I will definitely be going back before I leave Melbourne.

I will shut up about food soon, but since I mentioned everything else I will mention Panzerroti (Flinders Lane). These are like pizza pastie kind of things, and they have a vegan on demand option, so you just pick ingredients from a list and they make it fresh. Delicious, and just round the corner from where I am staying, so no doubt I will sample another combo of ingredients before I go.

Also worthy of a mention from the past week was seeing Cock, the current Melbourne Theatre Company play. It was moving and amusing, and suitably raunchy, much to the shock of the two old ladies seated by me. What did they expect from a play called Cock?