Didn’t have the chance/care to internet much whilst I was away. But now I have returned! And have much to write about the food and the funfunfun.

In summary, Melbourne is fnu. It has food. And I saw Asian flavours of ice-cream[1] in the Crown complex, amongst other generic food court type places. The range and quality of dimsum there is far superior to anything I have seen here (or Sydney for that matter). Although… I suppose that anything is really a step up from here… There’s food… open late. I could quite feasibly have a nagging desire to have a chai latte and perhaps a slice of cake at one in the morning, and be able to satisfy said nagging desire at more venues than I could count on one hand.

The car culture in Melbourne is also much more pervasive than I ever realised. I just thought the people in Melbourne whom I chatted to on IRC just happened to belong to a group of gear-heads. No… they belonged to a city of gear-heads. As I told Marcus and Chris, I saw the whole gamut of car mods from a beat-up old 80s station-wagon in that lovely generic brown colour with blue underlights, to so riced you could slap a fish on top and call it nigiri. I think I also saw a hot pink hot hatch with a full body kit and custom vinyl decals… *blink* And the vanity plates… I lost count of the number I saw on the first day.

Sydney was Sydney, I’d been there before. :P But it was nice to catch up with friends, and I had missed Passionflower. Although I’m a bit disappointed that they don’t have wasabe ice-cream anymore and their black sesame is inconsistent in colour and deph of flavour.

Throughout the trip I did lots of walking (more in Sydney than in Melbourne), lots of eating, and lots of shopping. I don’t clothes shop often[2] so I thought I’d take the opportunity to find some new items for my wardrobe. Found a couple brilliant tea shops to which I know I will be revisiting on subsequent trips.

Over the next few posts I’ll be posting more about stuff I did and places I went. It’s too much to put into just one or two posts, so I’ll also be experimenting with different formats, specifically more review style.

Oh, and I wish I didn’t have to go back to work tomorrow, can’t wait to go back, etc etc.

[1] Like durian and taro… nomnomnom.