I've been link-surfing many history blogs this morning. Academic blogs may be my new online obsession; they are more interesting than textbooks and I don't feel guilty reading them when I should be doing honours research. While browsing I noticed something rather amusing, they all seem to have a topic tag for 'cats'.

I've been up chasing my childhood with a pen. These are dreams old men dream.

So I have this problem. I want to study everything. Okay, maybe 'everything' is an exaggeration. How about this, I want to study everything about Europe between..oh, let's say 30th century BCE and the 14th century CE. Narrowing that down to a thesis topic is proving to be difficult.

Photo: Fergus Padel

New Gold Mountain.

Last month I finally got to visit a bar I have had my (online) eye on for a while now: New Gold Mountain. I basically did a 'Melbourne CBD laneway bar' google search and New Gold Mountain was definitely highest ranking in terms of intrigue - mine, that is. A door with no signage down a laneway; it just sounded so damn Melbourne.

NGM is right next door to its cousin? sister? mother? bar, Double Happiness, so in reality it wasn't really a mission to find - since I knew it was there. I took snobby Melbourne pride in the fact that tourists would not be stumbling in and making the bar feel tacky by taking a facebook album's worth of photos(which left me to do so undisturbed). For cute bartenders: A+! The cocktails were fantastic, but my student budget could only stretch to one. Sadly an eighteen dollar minimum for cocktails doesn't seem to shock Melburnians these days. Oh I miss the days of free-pouring Spanish bartenders.

After our first cocktail we headed up-stairs, where we were 'seated' (so effing posh, yo). There is no drinks menu upstairs, you just tell them what you want and voilá...it's created, and you can't afford to eat for a week. While we waited for our drinks we took numerous spazzy photos posing under the flowerbed ceiling (photos will explain).

Another bar visited and crossed off my ever-growing list. For me it was more of a novelty, the kind of place you take friends from out of town and nonchalantly say 'oh well yeah, I guess this place is okay' all the while gloating that they surely don't have anywhere near as cool in their lame-o town.

After our mature start (except for the spazzy photo-taking), we threw sophistication to the wind and headed to The Rochester Castle in Fitzroy. I danced 'til the lights came on at my favourite indie night: Black Night Crash.

Happy New Year! So many places to go and things to see in 2011.

My (three) readers may notice that I've changed my blog title from Melbourne anthology to anthology; this is in anticipation of the day I want to post a book review, a history essay, or a travel story. Can't be all about Melbourne, some of it has to be about ME. Me me me me me me.

Photo: Geoff Barrenger

Trunk Diner. What you gonna do with all that junk? All that junk inside your trunk? Im'a get, get, get, get you drunk.

A-strizzle and I went to the NGV the other day. It was closed though, so we didn't get past the water feature. Note to self (and others) NGV. Not. Open. Tuesdays. We ended up at Trunk Diner, I'd heard they do a great brunch - we were too late though, so lunch menu it was. It was packed when we first arrived, and due to our table being right next to the counter we got to witness the chaotic lunch hour. Kitchen was busss-ay. Waiters were rushed off their feet (but adorable). Food was running out left, right, and centre. We ended up waiting close to an hour for our meal, and by the time it arrived there were more sparrows feasting in the diner than snobby businessmen. I had a burger and 'strizzle tried a pumpkin salad. My burger was delicious, gone in half a minute, but delicious. I'd definitely go there again, I'd avoid the lunch rush though, the food and ambiance were lovely but not really worth an hour's wait.

Mamasita Restaurant and Bar. Mamacita. Oh my god I think you're on fire. Do you want me to get your water?

I have a friend who can eat hardly anything! Bless her. So, with my googleskillz I did a search for restaurants in Melbourne which offer gluten free food and came across Mexican Resturant and Bar, Mamasita. The entire menu is gluten free.

The title lyrics are by Pharrell by the way, I don't want to burn down the restaurant. The location is charming, interior is trendy and the food was great, especially the papas; the plates are ideally for sharing, so the bigger the group the less it will cost to split. The waitress scared us a little, but you can't win 'em all.

I like it in the city when the air is so thick and opaque

This crazy Melbourne weather!

This blog is off to a slow start, mainly because I seem to have fallen out of the habit of taking photos when I'm out having fun. Will fix that, pronto. I have been visiting some cute cafes/bars though - like Horse Bazaar in the CBD and Miss Jackson in St Kilda.

I dropped in to the Horse Bazaar on a weekday afternoon and we were pretty much the only ones there, all the better to have private conversations, my dear (that rhymed). The interior decorating is pretty damn cool, I kind of wish it were my house.

The staff at Miss Jackson were lovely - very chatty and attentive - and I had the most delicious ricotta pancakes. A-strizzle and I were already halfway through destroying our well-presented breakfasts before I remembered I wanted to take a photo, we decided it was too late. Fail.

So many plans for the Melbournian Summer. Oh, it is Summer now - officially, and all. Apparently this bi-polar weather is set to continue until Jan, so I guess my hair will just have to stop its childish bitching and embrace humidity as a challenge...how many ways can you style a frizzball? Anyhoo, back to Summer plans: dancing; drinking beer in beer gardens (screw you weather); high tea at the Windsor; Rooftop cinema; gigs, gigs and random gigs; giggles; books( I WILL start honours reading ....after some Historical Fiction, that's kinda educational); Byron Bay (okay, I know that's not in Melbourne but cut me some slack - our weather sucks!).

I'm ready.

Photo: Peter Guenzel