Working holidays

It's a half and half thing. A working holiday is neither work nor holiday, but will be more of one than the other depending on your outlook. Last weekend I was in Tasmania helping run a chess training camp. I had to prepare lessons, present lessons, oversee some activities and help to look after some of the kids. Some of the time I was able to do my own thing as well. I was pretty excited before going, and had a great time during the long weekend. The lessons I prepared went down well (I think), and I had some fun presenting them. The kids were great and it was a rewarding experience in helping them to have a fun camp.

We started off really early on Saturday morning flying into Hobart, and then went straight to Salamanca for an open air chess display. It was time to promote our sport to the public, and we all had some chance to go look round the market. If you've never been, it is a great treat. There is some great locally made produce, loads of great food and street entertainers, artists workshops and restaurants/cafes. My personal favourite is the Retro cafe which does a great coffee, smooth with a fairly nutty flavour.

Traditional buildings around Salamanca

After that we went to our resort which was on seven mile beach. Now Tasmania in the middle of winter is not exactly a hot spot, so no one took a dip (to the best of my knowledge) in the open air, though there was a heated pool in the resort. All the work took place at the resort but we weren't confined the whole time. On the penultimate day we took an excursion to historic Richmond and the nearby zoo. The zoo is small, but charming and we held a chess tournament for the kids at zoo while the traditional Aussie Barbie served as lunch.

The locals were pretty friendly

After the zoo, it was a short stop in Richmond which is a pretty little village with a 200 year history. The main attraction for us was the sweet shop, but I could easily spend a day walking around the old buildings (including the oldest Catholic Church in Australia) and the rolling countryside.

Historic Richmond Bridge nestled in the lush rolling countryside

The weekend was full on, starting for at about 4.30am Saturday morning and getting a flight back to Melbourne which landed close to 10pm on Tuesday. I was at work for 8am the following morning so I was feeling a little nervous about how tired I was going to be. However, the feel good factor of the weekend was a 'pick-me-up' and for the past couple of days I've been buzzing off the experience. Any exhaustion that I felt has been trumped by enthusiasm and I've had some great lessons this week. Going into the weekend with a positive attitude meant that the working holiday was more holiday than work and as a result I came back fully refreshed and ready to annoy people with my positive attitude!

Third Wave Cafe

The more good places to have a coffee and something to eat, the better in my mind. A 'local' is a must with familiarity being a nice comfort zone. However, it's also good to try new places, or even to go back to places that you visit once in a while. So I had a very pleasant surprise while I was walking around Port Melbourne the other morning when I came across a cafe advertising excellent coffee and great food. Big claims often fall down, so I had to try it out, especially as it has a Russian ethnicity to it. So I ordered a long black and had an absolutely delicious coffee, great texture and smooth flavour. It was so good, that I went back a few days later with my wife for lunch.

The Third Wave Cafe is modern, clean with indoor and outside seating areas. It's friendly and the food and drink is great. The staff are not hovering over you but are attentive to your needs, and it was an even bigger surprise that I actually knew the people running the cafe. Caroline wasn't feeling 100% so she had some fruit toast, but I decided to try something different and went for a cheese and cherry blintz. These thin Russian style pancakes were filled with cherries and mascarpone and were more like a dessert than the breakfast/lunch pancakes that I'm used to. However, the taste was amazing! And for the second time, the coffee was fantastic.

I will definitely be going back to the Third Wave cafe when I'm in Port Melbourne. There are plenty of other places to try out in the area, but I think I may have found my 'local' by the bay.

St Kilda

Very annoyingly, the injury to my knee reopened and I couldn't run for a week. I'd moved to 4 runs a week and was finding things getting more comfortable. I started back to running this week with a very heavy legged 10km. I started a bit fast and maybe over estimated how far I should have gone to start with. Probably an easy 7km would have made more sense. Anyway, I followed that up today with an easy 12km. After about 48 hours rest, the run today began with pretty stiff legs, but they soon eased and I actually found the run really easy. The plan is to build up to over 40km per week in the 4 runs I plan. I'm currently not working for 2 weeks so this seems plausible. When I get back to work it will be harder to maintain the enthusiasm!

Pigeons playing Pooh sticks

I ran along down to the bay and along to the neighbouring suburb, St Kilda. I'd driven through St Kilda a few days ago and saw a big tent on the waterfront so I went to investigate. Actually, it wasn't as exciting as I thought it might be. St Kilda is a buzzing sea front suburb in the summer but it becomes much quieter in the winter. The tent represented the winter festival and housed an ice skating rink. It's a nice idea, but Australia struggles to really "do" winter and to me it seemed a bit lame.

An empty St Kilda beach on a warm and sunny winter's day

St Kilda has is an amazing hang out for eating and drinking. Acland Street is full of cafes and restaurants, the Espy sits on the top of the Esplanade, which links Acland Street to the other major eating and drinking area in Fitzroy Street. In some respects, St Kilda comes across as Melbourne's version of Bondi in Sydney. Both areas have attracted bohemian and artistic elements, and now attract a young, party crowd. There is a European feel to both suburbs but a darker reputation also exists with drugs and prostitution linked to them.

Personally I can't stand St Kilda in the summer. It is heaving with people, the service in cafes is either rushed or unfriendly, and the suburb becomes badly littered. On the other hand, today in mid winter it was great. The beach was clean, the streets were litter free, and there was space to walk along the paths. St Kilda became a normal suburb, rather than a tourist resort. There were more families walking dogs than skateboard groups and St Kilda beach was beautiful on a mild, sunny day. In some respect it was a shame I was out for a run as it would have been great to hang out in St Kilda today.

Temporary ice skating on St Kilda beach