Today was my designated shopping day. Due to the wardrobe in our new house having an unfortunate tendency to shrink my clothes, I’d decided before this trip that I would buy a shrink-proof shirt while down here. This decision resulted from a 15 minute battle with another of my favourite shirts to get the top button done up prior to football presentation night. Anyway, before I could shop, I needed a good breakfast… so Eggs Benedict it was!
With our stomachs full, a tram ride into the city put us in Collins Street. The logical decision seemed to be to start at DJs and Myer, however after standing around waiting for staff to help, we gave that up and headed to some of the more specialised stores. It seems that the big department stores haven’t got the message that Amazon is here, and if they don’t offer some customer service, people will ‘vote with their feet’. Anyway, 15 minutes later the shirt was bought from TM Lewis, a tie from Guzman and some nice new shoes from Florsheim. With that job done … it was time to eat again. So, it was off to the laneways to find a cafe… and some dessert of course! (No more food photos today… promise)
We did a bit more wandering around shops, before trimming back to Fitzroy. We headed back to the apartment for a mid-afternoon break (maybe a wee snooze) before heading out again. This time we walked in the other direction to Smith St, which is the heart of Collingwood. This is an area that is trying to become funky, but is still full of Collingwood people, so the beautiful old buildings are covered in graffiti and are largely unrestored. More interestingly, on the walk we noticed several building with the MacRobertson brand on them and upon doing a little research there was a large chocolate factory in Fitzroy that made the Cherry Ripe and Freddo Frogs, starting in 1880. The business was sold to Cadbury in 1969 and all the old factories closed down. Many of the factory buildings are now apartments. All this walking made us quite thirsty, so we stopped for a drink at ‘Naked for Satan’, prior to a magnificent dinner at RICE PAPR SCRS, but no pictures!
Another walk around the neighbourhood in the twilight, to walk off the food. Fitzroy is also famous for it’s street art and there are some great pieces. There is an element of vandalism that affects them, but here’s a couple of samples that I’ve quite liked so far. Winter has come to the Ice Bar,
Many are making a political or social statement… like this one
Anyway… I’ll need my rest… Rehearsal day awaits!
Until tomorrow!
Rob's "Beats Working" Blog 