Bunga Arm is one of those great out of the way places to visit. With no car access you need a boat to get there and there’s plenty of spots to moor away from everyone else, especially if you take the time to go all the way to the end. Over the sand dune the seemingly endless expanse of the Ninety Mile Beach will calm any restless mind. Just don’t get caught in a rip in the surf

Had an ultra bizarre afternoon on Saturday. Decided to go to a ‘free’ ‘blues’ festival in the city. Turned out to be a bit of a dinky free concert hosted by an animal rescue charity so they could ask the audience for donations.

When I arrived there was a jazz pianist (quite good) with a female singer who sang the whole first number at least a third lower than the key the pianist was playing. Excruciating. The rest of the set was more or less in tune but still excruciating. Then she played solo violin (quite well) while a tall muscular eye candy black man did an interpretive dance (!!!!!!!). All a bit art school.

I thought I’d stick around for the next act, really wanting to hear some blues. Instead a five piece hard rock band from Scotland got up, pretty good music, all black clothes, studded belts, you can picture it.

As soon as they started playing, a group of old fogies, well into their seventies, jumped up and started grooving VERY ENERGETICALLY. Three of the gents wore lurid 70s shirts, two sporting large gold sunnies and WIGS. Yes, wigs. And they thought they were HOT!

Pretty soon there was a bit of a crowd, attracted by the music. We were all looking on with our mouths open, lots of people taking photos. Just wish I’d remembered to take my camera instead of having to make do with the crappy mobile phone camera…sigh! Those photos just didn’t work out.

With an elbow fracture is it takes an hour or so to start swelling and hurting. So we kept on riding, discovered we could get down into a creek canal and shortly came across a whole tree up against a bridge, covered with trapped trash and other debris. Notice how absolutely jammed full the shopping trolley is. Must have been quite a torrent the day this came to rest.

Good for when you need a dose of vitamins and to use up some veg in the fridge.

I tried to make some pappadams to go with this, you know those small ones you can get at the supermarket, but this first ever attempt was, sadly, a total fail. First one under the grill quickly burnt black, tried two in oil in a frypan yet both didn’t expand as expected (still tasted kind of ok though!). Any tips on successful pappadams creation would be much appreciated as I lurve them.

This recipe serves one.

INGREDIENTS

• half a large carrot, sliced into thin 1 inch sticks
• a chunk of sweet potato, sliced into thin 1 inch sticks
• 3 or 4 large broccoli florets, cut into smaller florets
• 3 or 4 large button mushrooms, sliced into chunks
• 6 snow peas, sliced
• oil for frying
• enough rice for one person (3 and a half handfuls works for me)

For the sauce:

• 2 tsp crushed ginger (from a jar)
• 1 to 2 tsp chilli paste (I found 2 tsp was well hot enough)
• 1 and a half tbsp tamari (or soy sauce)
• 2 tsp honey
• water

METHOD

For the sauce, mix together the ginger, chilli paste, tamari and honey in a measuring jug then add enough water to make 150ml, stir together well.

You should be able to cook this while the rice is cooking. In a frypan that has a lid, stirfry the mushrooms, carrots and sweet potato for a few minutes, until the mushrooms start to colour. Add the broccoli, cook for a minute (for chrunchier broccoli wait to add till the last few minutes of cooking instead).

Add the sauce, bring to the boil, reduce the heat, cover with the lid. Simmer for about 3 or 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the carrots and sweet potato are soft. Add extra water if necessary, or take the lid off if necessary towards the end to help the sauce reduce. Add the snow peas, cook one more minute. Serve immediately with the cooked rice.

$5 for a box of ripe mangos at Prahran Market on Saturday = delicious mango icecream suitable for vegetarians and still heaps leftover to find something to do with

This recipe makes enough for about a litre and a half.

INGREDIENTS

• 400ml can unsweetened coconut milk (not light or cream of)
• half a cup sugar (any sort will do)
• half a cup soy milk
• 1 and a half cups chopped ripe mango
• 1 tablespoon Grand Mariner or other orange liqueur
• half a teaspoon vanilla

METHOD

Blend all the ingredients together until smooth. Refrigerate till cold (4 hours or more). Freeze into icecream using an icecream maker, following the manufacturer’s instructions.

Apparently the liqueur stops the icecream from freezing as hard as it would otherwise once in the freezer. Nonetheless the next day I had to leave it out for a while before I could scoop it. Maybe should have sloshed in a little more!

This is a variant on a basic biscuit recipe found in a Bush Nursing recipe book my mother bought in the early 1970s – I believe the recipes were all submitted by ladies from the Mornington area (south of Melbourne). Tell you what, that recipe book is gold. It’s on my list of things I hope to inherit (mum’s been worded up).

INGREDIENTS

• 125g butter
• 125g castor sugar (finer sugar works better than standard sugar, brown sugar would work well also)
• 1 egg
• 125g self raising flour
• 100g plain flour
• 25g Dutch cocoa (any cocoa is fine but Dutch is worth the extra expense every time)
  NB the cocoa measurement is approximate – if you think some more cocoa would be good go ahead, just take out the same amount of plain flour to compensate
• dash of vanilla
• 3 or 4 tablespoons of crushed walnuts (as much as you like really)

METHOD

Cream the butter and sugar. Crack in the egg, lightly beat it then mix well into the creamed butter. Stir through the vanilla and crushed walnuts.

Mix through the flour and cocoa until everything is well combined.

Now you can knead the dough, roll it out and cut to shape as desired. Alternatively (and this is what I do), just roll a spoonful into a small ball in your hands and flatten slightly.

Lay out the cookies on baking trays lined with baking paper and cook in an oven preheated to 180°C for 15 minutes. Makes 16 to 24 depending on size.

Great eaten warm from the oven!

Also good with chocolate icing

Late afternoon view of Melbourne from Mt Dandenong.