01. Dinner at Hazel. Hard to pick a highlight because everything was delicious, but… the bite-sized crab hash (above); the trout with salted cucumber and horseradish; the beef with charred carrots; and the radicchio, orange and ricotta salad… would eat all of those things again in a heartbeat.
02. An amazing start to the Melbourne International Film Festival – laughed our way through the poignant Memoir of a Snail, and bawled for much of Daughters, a documentary about a program connecting incarcerated men in the US with their daughters.
03. Started the week hearing Caoilinn Hughes, author of The Alternatives, at Readings. My review of the book is on the way but notably, it’s my first five star read this year. I’ll save lots of what she said for my review but in regards to her writing process, Hughes said that she writes very slowly and does only one draft! – “…I trust in gestation periods and slow work…”
04. My last Scandinavian Film Festival outing – Songs of Earth (Norwegian): this documentary was absolutely glorious. Breathtaking footage and a beautiful meditation on the meaning of place. I loved the bits about a significant spruce tree, the subtle commentary about climate change, and also how the filmmaker played with scale. Related: the film was produced by Wim Wenders (whose recent film, Perfect Days, was also sublime) and Liv Ullmann (whose daughter, Linn Ullmann, wrote one of the most memorable books I’ve read this year, Unquiet).
05. The Wheeler Centre’s Spring Fling program has been announced. Tickets booked for a couple of events.
06. I have a weakness for stationery. These.
07. My Olympic highlight might be Hayley Lewis’s dedication to pastries. She’s thrilled, over and over again (and it seems the Dutch cakes are beating the French).
08. New songs from some of my favourite bands – Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers have released Dull, and The Buoys cover of Vampire for Triple JJJ’s Like a Version is now on Spotify.
