Local author Marie Bean takes a realistic look at keeping fit.
EXERCISE IS ONE OF THOSE THINGS that sounds really great, until you have to do it.
If only getting fit – and staying that way – was as easy as buying all of the right gear. Unfortunately having the best jogging shoes and sexiest running top is only the start: you still have to use them.
Which is why this week’s book choice by Warrnambool Books really appeals to us.
This is what Michaelie Clark, from Warrnambool Books, has to say about her selection:
Hot on the (jogger-shod) heels of the UK tour of Lazy Runner comes the release of Lazy Loser, the second book by local-born author and health & fitness guru, Marie Bean.
Confronting weight-loss myths and diet fads head-on, Lazy Loser offers sustainable and practical strategies and advice for implementing simple, effective and enjoyable changes to lifestyle and mindset.
Lazy Loser examines Australia’s food, exercise and body image mentality to evaluate where the real problems lie; it breaks the population into ‘temptation categories’ and then suggests realistic approaches to overcoming weight issues long-term.
Best of all, this is done in Marie Bean’s entertaining and down-to-earth style: “There is no magic bullet to weight-loss. I wish there was and it came coated in chocolate, but alas, there is not.”
(No chocolate-coated solution? Damn – Carol)
Please visit Warrnambool Books on Facebook for regular updates on new releases.
Pick a Pickled Pelican in Portland
The Pickled Pelican owner and chef Katy Sullivan.
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] O [/dropcap]ne of the many great things about the wonderfully named Pickled Pelican in Portland is that you can try it at any time of the day.
With opening hours from 8am to 10pm (Tues-Sun), it is a great spot for breakfast, morning coffee, lunch, afternoon tea or a casual dinner, and it seems to draw a steady crowd for each one.
Its location helps, as it is the first, most interesting café you come to when driving into Portland from the east. The double-storeyed, whitewashed, restored old building is a great example of the city’s heritage architecture which is so vastly under-rated compared to Port Fairy.
Last week was my second visit to the Pickled Pelican. The first was for coffee and cake and both were fantastic. A sign of how seriously a café takes its coffee is how much it invests in a coffee machine and the Pickled Pelican has gone for a top of the range Ruggero that is so sexy, it is worthy of its own Facebook photos: and why not?
The sexy Ruggero coffee machine (image courtesy of Pickled Pelican).
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] T [/dropcap]here is an excellent selection of cakes and biscuits, including a delicious lemon curd tart ($6) and the tempting chocolate pistachio Vienna biscuit ($3.50) that was proving a hit with the 11am coffee crowd.
Four-legged patrons are also not forgotten, with the Pickled Pelican offering a puppycino – yes – for dogs that is made up of puppy milk, liver slivers and a dog biscuit. (You never told me about those! – Barney, the bluestonemagazine cocker spaniel).
For lunch last week I tried the vegetarian toasted Turkish bread sandwich ($13.90) because it promised field mushrooms, which I love. It was soft, moist and very filling. My fellow diners were keen on the soup of the day which was a creamed mushroom with a generous serving of toast ($14) that looked equally as delicious.
The sublime lemon curd tart (image courtesy of Pickled Pelican).
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] C [/dropcap]hef and manager Katy Sullivan has worked hard to create something classy and different for Portland and if the diverse clientele is anything to go by, she has succeeded. Local public servants appear to favour it as a place for a working lunch, with nooks and crannies both upstairs and downstairs for a quiet meeting.
The breakfast bar at the front of the café, meanwhile, draws backpackers, older couples and people just popping in for a quick coffee … but the morning sun pouring in through the tall windows makes it hard to leave.
The Pickled Pelican as it looked shortly after opening 2.5 years ago. (Image courtesy of Pickled Pelican).
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] K[/dropcap]aty has also introduced themed dinner nights that have proven really popular among those hankering to try different cuisines such as French, Moroccan, Thai, Mexican and Indian. Other nights there is tappas and live music.
Next time, I hope to be able to get across to Portland one evening to try the Pickled Pelican after dark because I have a sense it would be jumping.
All our reviews are independent: we pay for what we try.
Harris Rosenbloom’s original store in Heywood, now the Heywood Town and Country store.
By Carol Altmann
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DDCE8D;”] T [/dropcap]ravelling from Warrnambool to Adelaide, it is easy to bypass Heywood because it takes that extra bit of time and effort to detour into the main street: but it is worth it.
Heywood has less than 1400 people, but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in character, such as that found at the Heywood bakery.
The Heywood bakery, like many small town bakeries, offers old-fashioned service, homemade scones and good coffee with the sort of enthusiasm and cheerfulness that makes you think they are living in the best place in the world, and maybe they are.
The bakery is right in the main street, Edgar St, which crosses the picturesque Fitzroy River and has a sweet little picnic area right on the riverbanks. Across from the bakery is the historic former Heywood primary school, now used as the town library, which has been restored and looks gorgeous.
When it comes to history, however, it is hard to beat the building which houses Heywood Horse and Country, also in the main street.
Denise Farrugia outside the reproduced facade of the Rosenbloom store.
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DDCE8D;”] T [/dropcap]he original bluestone building dates back to at least 1854, which is when Heywood became a town, and was operated as a general store by a Mr Avery.
In 1862, the business was bought by Heywood pioneer and merchant Harris Rosenbloom, who emigrated from Poland in 1857 and died a very wealthy man in 1887.
The Harris Rosenbloom rags-to-riches story has fascinated the current owner of the building, Fred Wilson (from Kaz’s Googs, Bluestone Magazine 2/11), who has set about recreating and restoring as much of the original building as possible since taking it over from Foodworks.
The southern wall is the original bluestone that has been sandblasted and restored, while Fred built a new bluestone wall at the rear to recreate the Rosenbloom façade.
“Unfortunately I couldn’t touch the front due to building regulations, so I have made a replica at the back,” he said.
Harris Rosenbloom went on to make his fortune through sawmilling and, in addition to his shop, owned two sawmills that employed 40 men. When he died, he had an estate worth more than £20,000, at a time when the weekly wage was £2.
Many of the goods he sold in his store are, in their modern equivalent, sold by Heywood Horse and Country today: hats, bridles, horse feed, boots and buckles.
The former Heywood Primary School building: part of the town’s rich history.
Denise Farrugia opened the business earlier this year and, like Fred, appreciates the deep history of the building.
“It is wonderful what Fred has managed to do. This was a condemned building at one point,” she said.
Lunch order, 1975?
REMEMBER THE SMELLof hot pies warming in the pie warmer of the school canteen? Irresistible!
Everyone had their favourite school pie: in Warrnambool it was usually a Chitticks. In Port Fairy, Cobbs pies. In Mortlake, Clarke’s. In Timboon, the Timboon bakery…
For those lucky enough to be able to “buy their lunch” – wow! – the canteen ladies (and they were all ladies) would squirt the pie with a squiggle of tomato sauce (it was free) and slip it into a crunchy brown paper bag ready for it to be devoured while sitting on a bench in the shelter shed.
Some of us may have even had a pie AND a finger bun.
And to think, there was no such thing as childhood obesity back then – we just ran it all off.
Hoist it up
Each week we post a gem from Gumtree – the online buy, sell, swap site – that is odd, unusual or just plain different. Most items are for sale in South-West Victoria or not far beyond.
If you would like to follow up on an advert, please do so through Gumtree.
Here is this week’s offering:
[box] Still works -needs some tightening up – only selling because I’m too short for the lowest setting! Buyer to dig up and remove. I think it folds up some how. $60.[/box]
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