martinis, mwf and more

once when i was in sydney, i went to a bar near the opera house and asked the bar-keep to make me a cocktail. i didn't want anything on the menu, so asked him to create something for me - soemthing with lemongrass, lime, fresh chillies and lychees in it. he made a valiant effort and seemed pretty pleased with the result himself, though i was left with a cocktail that was all-right, but not really very close to what i'd had in mind when i'd walked in to the place (i guess it's kinda like deciding you want to find the perfect little black dress befroe you leave the house on a shopping mission - doomed from the start, really). anyway, last week i tried again, this time in melbourne at a bar called the beach club in docklands. never been in there befroe that night, but we found it on our wander - mark and i decided we would explore there in the evening. anyway, this time the guy hit the nail on the head, and i loved what he made of it. i asked him to use lychee liquer and green tea liquer, which when taken individually are not that hot, but together... very nice. he put some lime in there, some apple juice too, maybe - it was lovely. i got to name it - so uf you're ever at the beach club at docklands, ask for a shalini's ly-tea-ni, and tell me what you think of it.

thanks to the lovely marieke, friday morning a friend and i went to the taping of the first tuesday book club which usually happens in sydney, but because of the melbourne writers festival, was happening at abc elsternwick. it was so much fun to watch it all come together - i won't say who was on, just that it was a great mix and there were many laughs. it'll be interesting to see how different the what airs is to what we saw live.

haven't been to much yet at the mwf apart from last sunday evening where sonya hartnett talked about writing (great session, loving the fact that it was free), and stayed for the shallow end afterward (also free, and also a corker. they also have martinis which i am yet to try... hmmm). i think it's safe to say i will be lurking at the malthouse for the better part of the end of this week...