Halubki

When we were in Adelaide, my dad translated a Russian recipe for Halubki - aka freaking delicious cabbage rolls, like my grandma used to make.



I made them last week on my day off. I carefully dismantled a whole cabbage leaf by leaf.



Because my hands were covered in a delicious (to Tess) mixture of pork, beef and onion, I neglected to take photos until the rolls were getting a little pan fry before going into the pot.



All piled up and with tomato sauce on top to stew in, then more cabbage leaves on top to seal them up.



A couple of hours in the oven later, voila!



Ah, delicious! Even more tasty a couple of days later, mind.



In other news, I went to visit Joey at work. Mike had put up a poster of Joey riding around on his bike in Paris.



Joey had returned the favour by putting up a picture of Mike and his dog.



We went for a romantic drink by the beach in Joey's native St Kilda. He's on the mineral water, which, according to Joey, tastes like piss. I had a beer.



The next day, Tess looked like she was sizing up this tree to chop it down. Turns out there was a possum up there.



We met up with old friends Ben and Elissa and new friend Sammy, over from Brisbane town! Rosie was in Sydney for the weekend, by the way.



We went back to St Kilda (I know, I've lost my marbles) to go to this off-leash dog beach Joey has been telling me about. Utopia!



Staunch north-sider Tess was not keen at all.



Joey and Mem's hound Gigi on the other hand, was in her element.



Later on, we met up at the pub for dinner. Sammy was dressed for the occasion, with some locals mistaking him for a visiting hip-hop performer of some description.



Unfazed, I engaged Sammy in a red hood staring competition. He won.



It was great to make his acquaintance. Awesome to see you guys!



Sam and I continued to 99 Problems, where Dion furnished us with exotic drinks. That spiced rum is delicious!



We continued from there to the Gem, where it was Sarah and Andy's engagement party!



To be safe, I had skated to the pub instead of my usual bike ride. Didn't stop me from having a couple of minor spills on the way home.



The next day, Pete freshened my wheels with his belt sander.



We went shredding in Melton, where lo and behold, we bumped into Jordan! Here he is on his way towards trying a trick.



Then on his way back again. What a guy.



Oh, my new jeans are up on the NTS site - have a look! I'm trying to set up a web store at the moment, but please drop me a line if you're interested in buying a pair from me directly.

Animals and kinfolk

Last weekend, we jetted over to Adelaide - the home of my kin. We went because Rosie had to write a story about a house there for a nice architecture magazine. We felt very fancy and professional, but still found time to hang out at my dad's house and play with Mandy.



We were only there for one night, so we assembled for a family dinner. It was great.



We visited our old friend Cate, who has built her own house up in the hills. Very inspiring stuff!



Cate was looking after a motley crew of dogs. This one had a crazy unhinged tongue, apparently acquired from an obsession with licking furniture.



We visited the zoo, where Pij and his girlfriend Tess are basically running the place. Here we have one of the Pandas sitting in a moat, eating a branch of something, looking at Pij.



Here's Tess feeding some red pandas. Her phone started ringing while she was in there and Pij told her to answer it. She nearly answered it before he told her he was joking and not to answer it, because a bunch of people were standing there taking photos and such. Turns out it was her brother calling her to tell her he was engaged!



These monkeys were amazing. Swinging around like incredible skaters.



Then they sat there staring at us like the fools we are.



Back in metropolitan Melbourne, where trends are hatched and tended to, Tess and I headed to 'the Compound' to make our next assault on the world of fashion. Levi (Jeremy's dog) had seen the photos of Tess in her dog coat and, understandably, repeatedly tried to rape her. Tess was amused.



Meanwhile, Scottie and I were setting up an incredible fashion shoot.



Tess took a seat on one of Scottie's special red chairs and looked on.



Understandably, Scottie put a white sheet on the special red chair.



The (hot) photos are of my new jeans that you can buy if you so desire. I will be putting them up on the Note to Self site shortly, fingers crossed.



Went to the pub to say goodbye to Jason, who has gone to Canada for a month. Jason took this photo.



Here he is, clutching the orangutan toy Rosie and I bought him from the zoo. Bon voyage Jase! In other news, many other people have gone overseas for exciting trips. In other news, it's a year since we went to New York. Oh, the depression!



To get myself out of the non-travel funk, I went for a big skate on Saturday at the wonderful new park in Fawkner. God it's good. We got there early, while there were but a sprinkling of overly confident scooter wielders. Duncan amused us all at lunchtime by attaching his luxurious moustache to a huge lamington.



Next stop was the polar opposite of the icy smooth curves of Fawkner: Reservoir. I battled a 360 ollie for an hour or two, rendering me basically disabled for the next 40 or so hours. Mike Martin, in the meantime, prowled about the place like a laconic panther.



Checked out Duncan's backyard mini on the way home.



It has a deadly feature of a missing part of platform, which has already claimed a couple of poor souls. Should be a great spot for some springtime shreds.



Went and had a burger with Condor and Bonnie Bee, who is impossibly cute. Bonnie aint bad either.



When I got home, Rosie had given Tess a bath.

Behind the scenes

As shown in my previous posting, Tess and Soph were in the Herald Sun on the weekend. It was the result of several hours planning and me taking the morning off work. We arrived early so Tess could get a feel for the place (take a crap) and noticed that Molly had been there before us.



Sophie arrived next, which Tess was very happy about. Soph happened to be staying the night at our place when the gig came up, so was basically trapped into doing it. Thanks Soph!



The photographer was pretty nice, really. He got them to do some pretty lame stuff, but we all knew that was on the cards, didn't we.



In between takes, Tess would break into brief bouts of crazy chase with Christina's dog Walter, defusing all on-set tension.



There's Christina, wrangling Walter as Tess is doing her thing. The best bits were when Sophie would hold Tess and let her run to me, so the photographer could get action shots.



She got a bit knackered by the end of it and kept trying to go to sleep on the bench. Job well done!



Later on, it was the opening of the denim exhibition at Mr Kitly.



There were all kinds of artistic interpretations of denim, including this crystal type structure that I was quite taken with.



My Woody Allen jeans were a big hit, of course. However, the hook they were suspended from fell out and we had to get a big ladder out to fix it. All part of the show.



Later on, Scottie attempted to insert Fia into a dumpster.



The next day, we decided Tess needed to get away from it all.



We went to Castlemaine, the home of many antique shops with many office chairs.



And nicely worn in saddles



Graffiti HQ



Tess was loving it.



As was Rosie.



Me too. I love the inside of hedges!



These canons scared the hell out of Tess. She barked at them for quite a while.



We decided to stay there for the night and found a b&b that let you have a dog. It was pretty awesome, a bit like 60 minute makeover with a porn vibe.



Indeed.



Massive spa bath!



Statues and candles and such. The scene was set.



We slept ok, though Tess got us up three or four times due to all the rabbits hopping around outside. The next morning, we went into town to check out this truck and also go to the farmer's market.



We bought the shit outta it and reflected upon our yuppie lifestyle while heading to a winery for a tasting.



A little bit pissed, we scoffed down pies and prepared for the journey home.



It was raining.