I’ve relished the Labour Day weekend because I think I’ve definitely been doing hard labour work-wise since the start of the year. An extra day of rest is something to be savoured.
I had booked in for a massage at Endota Spa Kew a number of weeks ago to use a Christmas gift voucher and had a pretty heavenly Surrender experience on Friday. I miss the Endota Spa Eaglement as parking is a nightmare in Kew. After driving around the local streets off High Street looking for a park, I finally looked up and drove up the ramp off Walton Street to the 2 hour supermarket rooftop car parking – a tip if you ever do the same and the whole treatment was a luxury in these times.
It was International Women’s Day during the week and while there is still so much work to be done, I did want to highlight the Women of Colour Executive Leadership Program recently launched by my friend Brenda Gaddi and her organisation. They also have a mentoring program – a number of my close friends have mentors and women supporting other women is just a good thing to do as we aspire to close the gender pay gap, reduce domestic violence against women and place higher levels of value and income to those in traditional female-centric occupations.
Speaking of women, I read this article on Heidelberg fashion designer Charlotte Blau during the week and for those into vintage fashion and antiques, The Melbourne Fair is on next weekend – I only wish it was staged on this side of town but it has been lovely to see the runway parades for the Melbourne Fashion Festival being held at the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton.
The A1 Darebin Art Salon at the Bundoora Homestead Arts Centre starts on the 18 March and our public art galleries are doing it pretty tough at the moment with reduced opening hours and delaying of conservation work. Over 60 public galleries and art museums in Victoria welcome more than 5 million visitors each year, deliver 1500 education programs annually and provide art therapy to communities after natural disasters. I hope the Public Galleries Association of Victoria is successful in its bid to have a new funding model introduced known as the ‘minimum art gallery service guarantee’. Art is for everyone, not just a chosen few.
Speaking of art, Alpha60 x Brendon Huntley’s Sense of Direction exhibition has opened at Heide Museum of Modern Art in Bulleen and there are two upcoming Heide Markets on 8 April and 13 May where you’ll see my friend local artist Lene Kuhl Jacobsen selling her ceramic wares.
Besides having a massage, I’ve mainly caught up with family this long weekend and had yum cha with my side at Secret Kitchen Chinatown in the city yesterday afternoon – a fairly dark and cavernous space unless you’re seated near the Little Bourke Street windows or upstairs. I’ve had dinner previously at Secret Kitchen Doncaster (which has lovely views). Meanwhile Mr Rosanna has been playing the traps, this time at The Thornbury Local the other week while I was mid-air flying home to Melbourne, followed by a night out with his mates at The Keys in Preston (see all pics in this post) which looks super cool.
People were lined up to see Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap at The Princess Theatre and my highlight this week was overhearing a conversation between a Venezuelan man and Indian man on the train- both of them not from Melbourne but talking about what a great city Melbourne is (despite the weather!) for its culture and its soul. A city with a soul – we’re very lucky to live here – enjoy the holiday today if you’re in Victoria.
Miss Rosanna 