Cheap Eats for Staying Warm in Winter

Winter is a time for delicious food that spreads that winter warmth all the way down to your toes! Favourites discovered lately include: Sahni's Indian in Hawthorn (delicious!), The Soup Place in Centre Place (pictured, next to Hell's), and The Oriental Spoon.

If you fancy some takeaway, but want to get out of the cold, visit Gibson's Wine Store, on Burwood Road, in Hawthorn. I stumbled upon this little gem a few weeks ago, during a flaneuring trip through the suburb. You can order in food, and can even bring your own wine! We had a sip of some nice Pinot, but a sign on the wall assured me it was true!

Bar of the Week: Lala Land

My ideal bar:

*Long Happy Hour - check
*Comfy couches - check
*Music not too loud - check
*Decent smoking area - check

Where?

Lala Land, in Hardware Lane. And I've found my haunt for the winter. You can't beat the Monday - Friday 4pm - 8pm Happy Hour. And a covered smoking area? WTF??
Awesome. (Pic courtesy of Nightlive.com.au)

Autumn in Melbourne Brings Plenty of Fun

It's cold, you say. It's comfy inside with my heater and DVDs and soup.
Bah! How about one of these worthy pursuits to heat up your Autumn?

The Melbourne Jazz Festival has a bevy of wonderful events running, many of them for free. Witness their daily lunchtime, and post-5pm concerts.

Their opening concert in Fed Square on May 1 between 3pm - 5pm is also free, and features some of the finest acts of the festival.

There's also an all-day festival, The Overground: A Festival Within a Festival, this Sunday May 2.It's only $30, and is a groundbreaking multi-stage event, held in the stunning innards of Melbourne Town Hall. According to their website:

'Overground celebrates the rich diversity of underground musical culture in Melbourne in a day-long event set in the many lost spaces of Melbourne Town Hall. It will be an event where new sounds can be made and heard as the outer limits of jazz and improvisation are explored, incorporating avante-garde, grindcore, big band, expanded cinema, contemporary classical and performance installation.'

Sounds awesome. Will most definitely be there.

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Also coming up, the annual Zombie Shuffle. Operating under the tagline of 'promoting nothing other than the simple pleasures of being undead' this free event will run this Saturday from Carlton Gardens to Flinders St Station. Dress up in your best un-dead attire, smudge on a bit of fake blood and come join the zombie hordes from 12.30pm - 3.30pm this Saturday!

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Mary and Max: The Exhibition has just opened at ACMI in Fed Square. This is an interesting little showcase of the technical and creative processes behind the film. Get along if you are interested in animation, or even if you just need to kill and hour in the city. Good stuff.
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Half-Tix Bulletin: The Man in Black - The Johnny Cash Story - 7pm - Atheneum - $30
Dracula's Dinner and Show - Carlton - 6.30pm - $40
MTC - The Grenade - Playhouse - 630pm - $46

Coming soon: A guide to the best uni bar nights in Melbourne. Cheers!

Festive Season Madness!

The Festive Season is fast approaching, and with it comes a whole raft of things to see and do for nil to nearly nix! With all that Christmas shopping ahead, you have a few excuses for being skint, after all.

Summer Fun in the City is about to start again - there will be dance lessons, free music, art classes, walks, acrobatics and lots more to do! There's also plenty of activities for kids, so bring along your minors as an excuse to indulge your inner child for a day.

Check out the discounted meal deals and some top restaurants on That's Melbourne's website. There's 2 for 1 lunches, drinks specials and more.

The Sidney Myer Music Bowl holds the well-attended Carols by Candlelight every year - but if you can't afford the $125/45 entry fee, you can attend the rehersal night on the 23rd of December, for a mere $5. Get there early though, as seats go fast!

As for the big day itself, I'm plan on getting a Christmas Orphan's Club together. Yes, all we whom have to work the day before or after, and whose family live too far away to make the hike, shall come together on an undoubtedly boiling hot day in the park for food, wine and god times. There shall indeed be champagne and mezzo aplenty. Tis the season. It's a great way to ensure nobody is left out of the festive madness.

All the $ you save can go towards Boxing Day sales craziness! You know what it's like... every year, never again, then it all happens again.

Guide on gift buying on the cheap is soon to follow.

Pizza Ahoy!

Melbourne has always been the spiritual home of Italian food in Australia.

Lately, though, there's been a trend towards yummy thin-crusted slices of wallet-friendly delight. Often found in the scruffy chic confines of student/artist haunts citywide, now there's no excuse for skipping dinner.

There's the delightful fare of The Espy Kitchen, in St. Kilda, which has nightly specials - including $5 pizzas on Friday and Saturday nights after 11pm... just the thing for some inter-gig partying. Considering the music often rages til 3am, this is an absolute gem.

The Hawthorn Hotel has delicious $4 pizzas every day of the week, lunch and dinner, plus great student discounts on drinks.

The sister drinking holes Lucky Coq (in Windsor) and Bimbo Deluxe (in Fitzroy) boast an exciting array of $5 pizzas, between noon - 4pm (Mon - Thurs) and after 7pm - 11 (Sun - Thurs).

My favourite is in CBD, tucked away in Snider Lane - dodgy around some smelly bins and you'll find the op shop chic of Sister Bellas is a major drawcard for RMIT students. Witness their $4 pizzas (noon til 4pm, $7 afterwards til midnight)

Festival Vollies

I've absolutely FALLEN IN LOVE with festival volunteering this year.
There's so many benefits.
Including:

1. Meeting Cool People - People from all age groups, backgrounds and parts of town put their hands up for these things. You'll also be likely to meet people with similar interests to you. It's a great way to meet new people if you're new in town, or break out of a social circle that's suddenly decided to go all boa-constrictor on your arse.

2. Giving back to your community - C'mon, it gives you a warm fuzzy feeling inside, you know it! Be a part of Generation Generosity and lend a helping hand to an event or festival you care about!

3. Learning new skills and getting job experience - This is a great way to learn about opportunities in the field, gaining new skills, improving your confidence, and even getting a good reference or two. Make sure you whack all of this on your resume. You'll get brownie points for being involved in your community, and if you're unemployed you are showing initiative for not just sitting on your hands.

3. Getting free stuff - Oh yes.

So far, I've volunteered for The Melbourne Writer's Festival, Fringe Festival and Overload Poetry Festival. All have been exciting, challenging and stimulating events to work for, and I've gotten to experience some great arts events that I couldn't have otherwise afforded in my wildest dreams. Also - they tend to throw not too shabby volunteer parties afterwards. :)

These things usually start searching for vollies a few months before, so you have to be onto it, as demand is usually high, especially for the particularly popular events.

Just FYI: Some of the events are so exclusive that they require quite a bit of experience before they'll accept you, so if you get some work under your belt around this time of year, you'll have a better chance of succeeding in them. These events include: MIFF, The Melbourne Festival, ANY music event, and The Food and Wine Festival.

It's a good idea to do your volunteering in 'chunks'. I've just done mine: I put my name down for Midsumma and The Food and Wine Festival.