Gertrude St Projections and The Good China

The annual Gertrude Street Projection Festival is currently on through this weekend, featuring a wide array of light projections on buildings and other objects throughout Gertrude Street in Fitzroy.  Last night was the first time I had been, and it was great to walk down the street and discover the different projections.  Here are a few of my favorites:

After checking out the Festival I walked up Brunswick Street to The Evelyn Hotel to catch The Good China play.  They started their set with "No More Maps, No More Roads," which allowed for some hand clapping fun.  We got to hear some of the new songs they have been working on as well as their recent single "You Looked Better A Brunette."  Mit sang lead on an awesome cover of The Temper Trap's "Sweet Disposition" and they finished their 40 minute set with the appropriately titled "We Knew That We Had To Leave."  It was good to see the Chinas live again and I am hopeful that their debut album isn't too far off.

Here's the video for "You Looked Better A Brunette" which was shot in Japan.

South Yarra Sweet Treats

South Yarra is becoming a bit of a foodie destination, especially for gourmet sweet treats.  Today Belinda and I headed down there to check out two of the top places in the area.  We started our afternoon dessert fest at LuxBite on Toorak Road and decided to have the Tea Set for 2 sampler which included 2 finger sandwiches, 2 desserts, 4 macarons and 2 beverages for $48.  For our desserts we went with the green tea cheesecake and meringue monster cake, and chose the green tea pistachio, salted caramel, bamboo oolong tea and heilala vanilla creme brûlé macarons.  Each little bite was delicious and the flavors were light, especially the cakes.  Of the macarons, the bamboo oolong tea was my favorite- the combination of tea and chocolate works really well.

After a bit of a walk we ended up at our next destination, Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio on Chapel Street.  They have a mix of prepackaged treats, cakes and other desserts on offer at the studio.  There were some very cute chocolate animals on display, including a Mr Potato Head one.  We ended up buying 3 little treats to share: a chocolate, pear, hazelnut, and caramel cake, a chocolate hazelnut and salted caramel tart, and a pineapple, mango, and chocolate cake.  Of the three the tart was my favorite.  I also got a couple items to take home with me: the explosive raspberry wheel and the popcorn and honeycomb rubble.  All in all it was a very sugar filled afternoon and I look forward to heading back to South Yarra soon, especially once Adriano Zumbo opens his first Melbourne patisserie in August.

Essendon v. Western Bulldogs

It's been an embarrassingly long time since I was last at an Essendon match so I dusted off my Bombers scarf and headed down to Etihad Stadium this afternoon to see us play the Western Bulldogs. While Essendon are having a great season and currently sit third on the ladder there is a dark cloud that has been hanging over the club since the start of the year around the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) investigation into the supplement program last year and whether or not players were injected with performance enhancing drugs.  Their report is due next month and depending on the results we may be facing some severe sanctions.

Today's game was a bit frustrating as we would get a comfortable lead only to let the Bulldogs kick themselves back into contention.  I think the team was missing captain Jobe Watson, who is out for the next 4 weeks with a broken collarbone.  There were some amazing goals, including one by Jason Winderlich which could be in contention for goal of the year.  And Tash came along to the match to see her cousin Nick O'Brien play his first senior game of the year (It's the only time she will be caught supporting Essendon!) as he came off the bench in the third quarter as our sub.  Thankfully we won comfortably in the end.

Final Score
Essendon: 18.13 (121)
Western Bulldogs: 14.6 (90)

Here's the Winderlich goal: