Category Archive: LIFE
Bitings on a Complimentary Basis.
Get your bitings here
In 2004, while staying in a converted monastery in wild, windy, Avignon, we read an invitation to “bitings on a complimentary basis” at 7pm . In some trepidation we donned evening garb, strung garlic around our necks and descended to the ancient hall for what turned out to be “free nibbles” and not of the flattering, cannibal sort. The European grip on English translation had not improved by 2013, when, in the train station at Sorrento we read a sign which frightened and confused us.
Continue Reading →The Elgin Marbles
Image courtesy Andrew Dunn
‘And so this is Christmas and what have we done?’ Have we been friends of the earth and enemies of the people; open to change and closed to knowledge; fighting for peace and appeasing terror? Tu se’ pagliaccio! The squabbles over the Elgin marbles continue. There are many arguments pro and con; some ingenious, some tosh. Legally, you can paraphrase Mr Gutman from the ‘Maltese Falcon’ and say clear title rests with Pheidias, so how can another claim prevail except by right of possession? The only edifying aspect to squabbles over title is that it reveals a hitherto latent love…
Continue Reading →The Athenaeum Library – Melbourne
First Floor, 188 Collins Street, Melbourne. Literally a Melbourne Institution, the Athenaeum Library is an oasis among the desert of commerce in the heart of Melbourne, a quiet place to sit, read, reflect. More power to it!
Continue Reading →France Soir
Google Maps suggested that we could walk to this restaurant from our Melbourne central hotel. Wrong. Luckily we chose to cab it through the leafy suburbs to this hole in the wall gem. France Soir is a treat. The provincial French theme may not suit those hardy souls who prefer minimalism and modernity but it suited TVC right down to the butter (butter!) served with the bread. The garlic snails were too garlicky for words and the bouef bourginon was black and unctuous. Pommes frittes come with the main courses. We were invited to have another drink despite the diners…
Continue Reading →Jamie’s Italian – Adelaide (with a Minority Report)
TVC ventured with friends L and M to Jamie Oliver’s eponymous restaurant in a restyled bank – an immense vault – on King William Street. Having valiantly resited the Jamieabilia for sale in the lobby shop the diner is then assaulted by a tsumani of sound and the unappetising sight of a sea of cafe-like booths. However, the further end of the restaurant is slightly more impressive, with individual tables and banquettes, low lighting and tall, bare windows. The “marble” bar, hung with red peppers and sausage lights, is an imaginative (if not authentic) rendering of an Italian lunch counter. People who…
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