To market, to market

It's been an interesting weekend. Yesterday I changed my shift times to take a client to the footy. This had the potential to be a great outing despite the fact that I really couldn't have cared less about the match itself. It was actually a complete disaster which won't be entered into here. Moving on. Finished work at 6.30 and headed home. Chris had wanted to cook me dinner, I suspect as much to prove he could as anything else, but as we desperately needed to do a shop he settled for taking me out to a nice Chinese restaurant.

After dinner we headed round to Fi's parents place, who were away for the long weekend, for drinks and general carry on around the fire pit. It turned into a really fun night, despite Ross going home early. I was expecting Chris to pike fairly early on given he had to work today, but he actually got comprehensively drunk and stayed on until we all crashed around 3.30. Chris and I wound up sharing the single bed in the spare room, so needless to say neither of us slept particularly well, and the following morning he dragged himself up, rummaged in my bag for my car keys and somehow made it home and then to work

About half an hour after Chris left I made it out of bed, freshened up and headed off with Fi and Dan to the Queen Vic Market, which has become a regular haunt of theirs on a Sunday but which I had never been to. The reasons for never having been to this integral part of Melbourne life are varied. I suspect having a mother who has an intense dislike of crowded shopping centres and markets bordering on mild phobia has something to do with never having been as a child. Of course she was usually busy with my Autistic brother so it might not have made any difference. As an adult I simply don't as a rule spend that much time in the city, although Fi having moved to Fitzroy is changing that.

The apartment Fi and Dan have moved into is a stones throw from an abundance of pubs, cafes and trendy little boutiques, but lacking in anything resembling a local supermarket, so hitting the produce section was a focal point of the expedition. First though, general browsing of the stalls. It was fairly crowded because of the long weekend, and we got there late so we didn't browse many stalls closely, however from what I saw I know where I'm doing my Christmas shopping, and have earmarked several stalls for a closer look next time. I did make some totally unnecessary purchases; This floppy hat was my first purchase for the grand sum of $18. It's a bit big but sits nicely on my ponytail.



Next stop, $7 for toe socks. I've always liked them but never found the right pair. Fi got the same socks in hot pink stripes.












Finally a funky bag. The writing is a much clearer blue than it looks in the photo, and again, Fi got the same bag in pale pink. The damage: $5.

After the stalls it was on to the fruit and veg, where I grabbed whatever looked good that I was likely to use, then meat where I got some lovely fresh salmon cutlets, steaks, mince, diced lamb and for something different, calamari. I then followed along to the deli section, but as I don't eat cheese or much in the way of cured meats I didn't get anything there. Some of the dips and the sun dried tomato looked nice, but by that stage I was laden down with bags and not inclined to get more stuff on a whim.

All in all, a good way to spend the day. Dan dropped me home around 4, and since then I've just been relaxing, debating whether to shower, have a nap or look through my recipes.