It was our last week together with my hubby in town until we are reunited again in April with our cat, I so miss my Bella girl! She will spend 10 days in quarantine before she is released to us when they both come home. I am so looking forward to patting her again. The plan was to spend some quality family time together and we went out to dinner for the CERES Tamil Feasts in support of Tamil men from Sri Lanka currently seeking asylum in Australia. It was a delicious spread of Sri Lankan food with fish as the highlight of the meal, and for the vegetarians, there was a vegan option. The fish was just how my mum makes her mackerel fish curry with a side of parrippu and other delicious goodies. It was hot for me but as I am not used to eating a lot of hot food so anything with a bit of chilli is a challenge these days. It was a 3-course menu and was so filling. We also celebrated with some alcoholic beverages on the side. The bonus too is that there was a chai tea the men make up that we bought to have at home – delish!
It was insightful to hear the men’s stories of how they have fled Sri Lanka in search of a better life only to be in detention for 6 years in Australia moving from state to state until finally, they came to Melbourne. Countries around the world all have their shame and this is Australia’s shameful contribution with their treatment of people who travel over here on a boat, crossing oceans not even knowing how to swim and risking their lives only to be locked away for arriving undocumented in this country. It would be a good thing for Australia to come up with a solution but the politicians are too busy infighting to even consider anyone else? It is such a shambles!
Enough politics, for now, the Tamil feast was at one of my favourite places in Melbourne CERES – the Centre for Environmental Research in Environmental Strategies at their cafe The Merri Table. It is such a special place to visit with chickens for the kids to enjoy and their market on the weekend plus the cafe which serves incredible food – I think I need to arrange a meet up with friends there soon.
As we were so full we decided to walk around at night for a bit to digest and who did we find – a cat called Gato who followed us for many blocks until he decided, these people are not giving me any more pats I will find someone else!
My hubby and I took a pic outside the Treasury building where we got married! 
Saturday was a great sunny day and I met up with a friend at another lovely cafe in Fitzroy Gardens called Kere Kere Green where I enjoyed this flat white with a vegan toasted sandwich – yummo! The playing cards they give for your places are kept until the end of your visit and you use them to vote for a community outreach initiative that the cafe organises. Such a super idea for giving back to the community and such a friendly and happy place on the edge of the most gorgeous garden where I spent a lot of my lunchtimes contemplating cube life when I worked for a corporate company. I have so many peaceful memories where I felt so connected to nature balancing the boredom of a day in an office – we did make our own fun though!
This week I have found time for my creative streak to shine on where I have taken some of my old clothes and a fave fabric from my stash to make a couple of new pieces. I was realising my lack of clothes for winter and have made some layering pieces the top is from an old skirt originally kimono fabric and the dress is some fabric I kept from my fabric stash from 12 years ago (the rest of the fabric I donated on Gumtree). It has been so good to get out my old Janome machines and get busy. I only have 2 more weeks of freedom before my time is devoted to studying again, so I gotta make the most of it. The bonus was that my overlocker was already threaded and ready to go – now I am going through clothes that I originally threw out and I am going to repurpose them into new items for my winter wardrobe as the shipped goods will not be arriving until the end of April, so my leather coat will arrive just in time before winter.
poppypeach 