Coming on Tuesday. Just in time for the trip home. Blegh.

Bacchus Marsh is getting hit hard. Would not be surprised to hear of flooding there by morning.

Cool breeze coming in from the west here in Thornbury. Very welcome. Still humid and too hot for my liking. Some lightning off to the west.

EDIT: first drops falling - gonna be epic!

On reflection, if I’d washed the windows AS WELL as watering the garden, maybe it would have come sooner …

Same here. Low grey threatening clouds, wind gusts but so far no rain. And I watered the garden too so here’s hoping.

Baaaad weather down the Bellarine - fishul warning Hope our bottom racer is OK plus anyone else down there.

Grampians and Colac getting hit with small but intense funderstorms. Hope no bushfires are ignited. radar

The standard recipie is salted fish roe (any sort), bread soaked in water, and lemon juice blitzed up with some olive oil. Dip comes out pinkish and creeeeaamy and loaded with umami. Lovely as a dip, or an emergency pasta sauce. Easy to get wrong, bloody delicious when done right. Would go OK with paprika on top I reckon.

Shout out to Pilpel for making one of the nicest taramasalata dips I’ve ever had I think. I will even forgive them for putting ‘DAIRY FREE’ and ‘GLUTEN FREE’ on the label. Had some on buttered bread and more on some lettuce leaves. Mega delicious - they’ve got the balance of fish roe and lemon juice just right. Seriously moreish.

Self portraits have a long history in the arts - no modelling fees is the main attraction I suspect.

Bacon & eggs on hash browns please chef, and a nice cup of tea.

Feels. Stress manifests itself in so many weird ways, and big decision time is classic for long buried stuff to emerge in my experience. You got this.

Context?

I bought a portable air con from Appliances Online. Rare delivery fail - didn’t get notified until the guys actually rocked up to deliver. First time this has happened to me.

Mega dramas hooking it up to the outside to vent (we all gotta vent from time to time). At the moment it’s held in place by repurposed cardboard and the magic of duct tape, which will do until it rains. If it continues to do well over the next few days, then will invest in a proper window fitment.

Unit works well - has shrunk the temp in my bedroom from 30 plus to 23 over 1 hour. Methinks this was money well spent.

Will be keeping an eye on the power bill, but my last one was $45, so I think I can splurge a bit on personal comfort.

Yep, that’s what I want it for. Instant sorbet. And no mucking about with an ice-cream maker.

A cherimoya and half a watermelon please.

Have you heard John Farnham’s version of this? Another absolute banger. his pre-concert warm up song apparently

Can confirm Reservoir used to be a hub for cannoli - opposite the new council library there’s still a couple of places … Mind you, it’s been a while since I went up there but the cake shops and the good butcher were legit.

Some things should NEVER have chocolate chips inflicted upon them. HCBs and panettone are top of my list here. The lemon sauced ones are so damn sweet as to be inedible imo. Just lop off the top dome horizontally and eat as toast, then pull off the giant paper muffin wrap bit by bit as you eat the remainder.

Panettone is a sweetened bread - very like brioche, but it takes much much longer to go stale. Soak a 3 cm thick slice of panettone in milk, or a mix of 1 beaten egg and milk, let it sit for half an hour to absorb the liquid. Then fry in butter until golden brown. Enjoy with jam and icecream on top or even bacon & egg. Or cut a 2 cm thick slice and just have it plain with coffee. Maybe a bit of butter on top if you are feeling fancy. Or just toast slices for breakfast. All this applies to the ‘normal’ panettone with fruit in it. If you’ve been given the chocolate sauced sort or the lemon sauced sort - then just cut slices and eat with coffee or a glass of something. I prefer the ordinary sort as more flexible. Intended (and ideal) for providing a quick snackette when unexpected guests come over - just cut up and put on a plate.

Eeep.