The Lair of the Emerald Serpent

Last Thursday was a glorious crisp and crunchy sunny spring day. Not too hot and not too cold. A veritable Goldilocks day. It was perfect weather for a picnic in the park at the top end of town. But that particular activity was already scheduled for the very next day.

Thursday evening would be spent at a discussion group on the topic of “What makes us tick”. So it made sense to find some place to lurk near the bus route. The first visit to the group’s new meeting venue way back in May had made it quite obvious that this was not a place to linger any longer than necessary. It too had been a beautiful sunny day but a bit crisper and colder than at this time of year. But being unsure of exactly where the new meeting place was and how long the bus took to get there, decided to make a day of it rather than just timing it to turn up an hour or so before the 6.30pm start

It took a week to recover a visit to the hell hole that is the Galleria shopping centre. Izzie hates large shopping complexes at the best of times but this place is just so enormous, so noisy and crowded and infested with rug rats and squealing rampaging beasties.

The group used to meet in a cafe right next to the train line in a pretty old suburb with lots of spooky little streets and interesting locations to lurk. Was most peeved indeed when they changed their opening hours to match the rest of the nanny cafes in the area meaning that the venue was no longer suitable for long and rambling discussions about life, the universe and everything.
So the grand plan was to lurk in a lovely old bit of the city and to catch the bus around 4pm in order to avoid the worst of the rush hour traffic. It would also be an opportunity to find some interesting locations for lunch.

Been trying out various cheap and cheerful Asian restaurants in the search for kosher cuisine suitable for vegetarian serpents. Figured it was time to broaden the horizons beyond dahl and basmati rice.
Chinese vegetarian food is generally bland. The only spice option seems to be chili and more chili. Malaysian and Indonesian seem to have the best of both worlds with both a Chinese and Indian influence along with one marvelous magical ingredient - satay sauce.

Found a pretty poky but seriously cheap and cheerful Indonesian joint on the north side of town. The owner is very friendly and the food is cheap but decent. In spite of the low prices it is not your average greasy spoon. It also happens to be a short walk away from a gorgeous little cafe on Lincoln Street overlooking a spooky art deco cooling tower.

Izzie likes the quiet quirky places that are just off the beaten track and these two are little gems. It is also wonderful to walk along the side streets looking at the gorgeous old houses and gardens.

( slinking and snooping )

Today was a simply gorgeous chilly crisp and crunchy day. In spite of a 1am bedtime all the omens indicated the best of all possible days. The weather and the delicate light at this time of year confer a special kind of magic and nostalgia for the pale faint light of Europe. This time of year is the nearest we get to it. In summer there is a bleached out effect as the brightness of the light is so overpowering

Winter time is porridge time. No Uncle Toby 30 second powdered oats for this ever so discerning serpent. The six dollar bag of biodynamic kosher deliciousness from Kojonup is down to its last quarter. The usual ritual is to soak the oats in water overnight and then add milk in the morning. Very tasty and delicious and dirt cheap.

Sat outside facing west lapping up the sunshine with the Izzie in one chair and the bowl of porridge in another watching the birds and listening to a fascinating story about Woodside and its collusion with our Emperor Colin Barnett to trash yet more pristine beaches and land.

This speaker Geoffrey Cousins used to work for the Lying Rodent so was especially impressed by his admiration of Bob Browne and his excellent demolition of every single argument in favour of the James Price Point gas hub. Especially disgusting was the bullying tactics of our emperor towards the original Aboriginal owners of the land in the area. Sign up and we will give you 33 pieces of silver. If you refuse we will take the land anyway and you won’t get a single cent.

Colin Barnett is a disgusting goblin with no concept whatsoever of the sacred or sublime and an extremely inflated sense of his own importance. He is not only happy to trash Aboriginal sacred sites but has no regard for those of the white people either such as Hale House and the Esplanade which he wants to turn into a mosquito infested swamp. Betty’s bog not Elizabeth Quay will be the most accurate description of this abomination. But worst of all is the murder of many old Moreton Bay Fig trees

If only the Dementors had never preyed on the previous Premier ‘Good News’ Geoff Gallop and replaced him with an utterly arrogant smarmy git, then Labour would have won the 2008 election and spared us the Monsanto invasion and the trashing of so many sacred sites.
But back to the present moment. It was a gorgeous day and Izzie was one contented serpent in spite of the premonition that the old toad would be once desecrating our owleries with more of her filthy stinking howlers this day or the next. With a bit of luck the bosses from state HQ would be keeping her otherwise occupied in preparation for the big bad government box tickers.

( back on the road )