A happy year is made of a thousand little happy moments. To help me be mindful of and remember the little things that will make 2015 great, I’m giving them some space and reflection time here on Wanderbug. Spending some time each Sunday processing the ups and downs of each week is a great way to stay present, grateful and dodge the dreaded Monday blues. 

l also love to share my favourite Melbourne finds to inspire your next adventure! 

Autumn may not officially begin until March 20, but the cooler weather has well and truly arrived in Melbourne! This week, the working week was short and sweet thanks to the Labour Day public holiday on Monday. After last weekend’s action-packed itinerary, it was nice to take things a little slower this week, although maybe it was a little too slow in the exercise department. Next week, less eating & drinking out and more exercise and exploring!

Bars in Melbourne

We kicked off the week with a few drinks with some friends who live around the corner from us – a couple from the UK and a couple from Minnesota. We went to Arbory Bar & Eatery, a new bar at the back of Flinders Street Station, along the Yarra River. It’s a shame it was opened a little too late to enjoy summer Sunday sessions, but it is really lovely in the evening, with fairylights strung up between the trees.

It also looks really cool from the other side of the river, as I found out walking home one night – the silhouettes of its patrons, all lined up along the long, narrow, deck, looks like an art installation from a distance.

I tried two new rooftop bars this week, Campari House in Hardware Lane and Aer Bar on Exhibition Street. Campari House is quite cute, with decent seating – I wish I’d discovered it before summer ended! Aer Bar is a bit more out of the way, and was quite quiet on a Sunday afternoon, but was a great spot for a drink. With $10 mojitos and virtually no queue for the bar, it’s a really nice spot to grab a drink with friends.

Once again, I ended up at regular Southbank haunts, Soho & World Bar, for delicious pizza, bruschetta and a drink or two.  Blue Train is my new favourite happy hour destination, with $5 wines during happy hour on Fridays. Surprisingly, the house white was actually delicious.

Chin Chin: Round 2

My boyfriend & I decided to give Chin Chin another go on Saturday. We went for dinner last year, when I was visiting him during his internship. The food was great, but the ambience wasn’t great for a date – I could hardly hear him speak, and the tables are super close together. Last time, the service also felt really rushed. When you wait two hours for a table, being rushed through your meal is that last thing you want!

This time, we went for lunch, which is definitely the way to go. While it’s an expensive lunch, I’d much rather go for a lunch date there than a dinner date. For a start, it was busy but there was no wait for a table. I didn’t mind being so close to the other diners so much and the service, this time, was really lovely.

Cheap Eats

Before Wednesday drinks, I took a friend to Red Silk for some cheap, delicious Asian food and the next night, before Giselle, my uncles and I went to the sushi train next door to Red Silk, on Bourke Street. Two cheap dinners out in a row, perfect!

Giselle

I saw the final dress rehearsal of Giselle on Thursday night and it totally ignited my interest in classical ballet. The Australian Ballet has Cinderella in June and Sleeping Beauty in September, I’m determined to make it to at least one of them, after Thursday’s stunning performance.   Read more about seeing Giselle here.

Melbourne

 

Wanted: Sunny, Beachy & Cultural Caribbean

Sounds like a no-brainer, right? In the first week of November, my boyfriend and I have one week’s holiday together. David works really long hours, so after working in New York he wants to spend his week’s break chilling out on a beach, drink in hand. I’ll definitely be looking to defrost after a Melbourne Summer, Autumn and Winter, followed by an NYC Autumn, but I also don’t want to check in to find a town that has had its own culture bulldozed by development. If it’s a cruise port or popular spot for all-inclusive resorts, I’m probably not interested.

I want to go somewhere beautiful and relaxing, but somewhere that still feels like a foreign country, where I can wander around town and see something new. Prior to that, we’ll be in New York, so we figured we may as well find a sunny spot somewhere in that part of the world, and Central America & the Caribbean are nice and close to the equator. This is a part of the world I’m not so familiar with, so if anyone has any experiences they’d like to share, please comment or drop me an email!

Help!

iPhoto decided it detected a mistake in my iPhoto library, rebuilt it and deleted everything except some old work photos …cruel and unusual punishment for a photo fiend like myself. I’ve got most of them backed up, except anything from the past four months – including my last Christmas at home and my trip to the South Pacific. My computer is still very full, so I suspect it’s just hidden my photos somewhere. I’ve tried searching for .jpegs and movies files, but only some come up – definitely not all of my photos. Anyone have any clever tricks for undoing or re-finding my photos?

Update: I have a Flickr account, and using their new, free app Flickr Uploadr helped my not only save all the files still in my computer that I couldn’t access, by uploading them all to Flickr, but will help me keep on top of backing up my photos. Yay!

Reading

I’m still reading Cheryl Strayed’s Wild and I’ve also just bought Beppe Severgnini’s La Bella Figura, which is a funny, witty insight into Italian culture.