Sometimes I forget how great our city is. In planning for my upcoming trip to New York City (or as I and my boyfriend and travel partner like to call it, “Newww Yawwwk) I have rediscovered the beauty in my hometown. Out with a friend on Chapel St today, there were some beautiful shops and one-off items, and definitely more than a few eccentric people. Ahh, Melbourne.
As I’m saving for overseas it was a purely window-shopping experience, but that did not detract from the day one bit. One personal highlight was a sweet shop with vintage-style dresses in beautiful floral prints, with mini cat calendars (who doesn’t need one of those?!) and lipstick pens, as well as Hello Kitty hair clips. Yes, I have a thing for cats. But even if you didn’t, the shop still had beautiful, carefree items and just the right amount of retro.
After walking for a while, both my friend and I felt like a sit down and a chat. We went to this little place just off Greville St called Babble. I have seen it when parking for my weekly dance class nearby, and it had always looked maybe a little too trendy, but I wanted to try it. And I was impressed! I ordered a mocha, despite it being well into the PM, and my gorgeous friend had a fruit salad and a soft drink. The mocha was a large size and incredibly tasty (although I had to leave some of it because, quite frankly, I believe it was more milk and coffee than anyone should be ingesting at 2:30pm) and my friend’s fruit salad came with passionfruit as well as your regular, run-of-the-mill “fruit salad” fruits. There’s fruit salad and then there’s fruit salad. It was reasonably priced too, and they do breakfast until 4pm. Win win. They definitely have a fan in me.
I love small surprises like this. I was quite prepared for this place to be a little too snobby, and we weren’t served straight away. However, our waitress was nice and the place had a nice relaxed vibe to it. We were able to have a good old yarn by the window, with a cyclist ordering a bowl of porridge on the same windowsill. He may well have heard our whole conversation, but I’m sure he was as amused by it as I was by his afternoon tea of choice. In short (or long, as the case appears to be), I was well impressed.
It was lovely seeing my friend. She is in the throes of a new romance, and it is so exciting. He is good for her and this makes me happy. She deserves someone who treats her well, and he seems to adore her. And he is nice to her friends, which shows his character. It’s so exciting being in the early stages of a relationship, the courting stage is so much fun. That may sound old-fashioned, but courting is still what happens and I love it! As long as she is happy then I like him.
We had a lovely day, and finished up with some $3 punnets of blueberries (for me) and blackberries (my friend). Can’t get much better Australian value than that! I headed out for a walk in the evening with my lovely mother, who is unfortunately still recovering from a work-related accident. She was recounting how a colleague had called her the ‘Cafe Queen’ – now you know where I get it from! We enjoyed traversing around our local shopping strip, and it was the perfect night for it.
Today:
- NYC flights were booked
- Visa waivers were applied for
- Anticipation continued to build!
I am so excited about our trip to NYC, as is my partner. I can’t wait to be inspired by Manhattan, another melting-pot city. So so excited. Eeeeee!
Goodnight all, I hope you too had a marvellous day doing what you love with people you love. If not, tomorrow is a new day, so remember to make the most of it.
Night night!