Ock Aye!

So from wikipedia:

St Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland, Greece, Russia, Romania, Amalfi, and Luqa - Malta...he had been a disciple of John the Baptist and he was the first disciple of Jesus

Are we sure this is the same guy? Cause last Saturday Dub, Joeleee and I go visit St Andrew's beach on the Mornington Peninsula where we meet the patron saint of major mashage who is obviously self proclaimed disciple of Dave. The sea was angry that day, my friends. We all variously scare ourselves or get rumbled in the wash for about an hour, one minute you are bobbing nervously in the pack, the next, sucked under by a massive freight train (toot toot!).

Displaying our innate and animal desire to live, we move down the beach to a quieter spot and sure enough, it's just magic. Lots of loooong rides in all directions and hardly a soul about. If only we had more arms left from the first attempt! We drink our fill from the fountain of Dave then beat a hasty retreat over the scorching sands (did i mention is 41 degrees that day?!). The grub in Rye is a bit rough but after such a big day i can't recall being too fussed and to finish off Joeleee does the honours with a big effort to stay awake for the return trip. Thenk ye!

Now, junior, behave yourself

Another late one! So last Monday I meet my mate Katya for a desired tasty burger. We head over to Bad Boy Burgers in Richmond. This place has gotten a good rap on some other (inferior) burger sites and certainly makes some big claims on the website...

Bad Boy is different. It’s a club of enthusiasts, dedicated to producing THE perfect burger

On the day that i visit, this club consists of 3 disinterested looking kids getting minimum wage to run an empty burger shop, but hey, it is a monday night and who knows, maybe they are deep in thought pondering the intricacies of the burger?

I take the self titled Bad Boy Burger with bacon, cheddar, lettuce, tomato, caramelised onion, tomato relish, Dijon mayo and an extra of egg, but with 16 others to choose from including 4 vegie options (zombie!) don't feel like you have to follow my lead.

Buns are a bit flakey and egg was a bad choice yet the Bad Boy scores a resounding Tasty nonetheless. Lots of good relish and the onion is super sweet in the mix. Highly recommended for anyone on the east side who's a bit tired of phở gà.

Don't mind the pic of Mac D carnage below, safe to say the thrower did not find it tasty... respect!

Burger Edge St Kilda Rd

Some of you will be surprised to hear of me even walking into a burger edge after my brush with death a year ago. But its a desparate state of affairs in St Kilda Rd. Burger Edge opened yesterday and they have an opening special of $5 burgers.

Some of you may also recall my pledge to blog vege burgers from now on so you are probably wondering why I am about to blog the slab-of-dead-cow steak burger. I ordered the "pulse" burger and 15 minutes later picked up an "okker" burger: perhaps there was someone else in the queue called Matt. I walked 200 metres back to my office so buggered if I was going to go back, and anyway why don't they just tell you the freaking order number? Let's call it first week teething problems.

The best thing about the 15 minute wait was finding two disc players working in the office across the road, so lunchtime disc is "on" for summer.

The funniest thing about the wait was the huge poster with angry looking people saying "the taste is worth the wait". Which could be true if you are into surprises.

The steak to be honest was a bit gristly, turkish bun was nice, tomatoes ok, aioli ok, chips fantastic. I will score it a Not tasty (yet anyway): they may get things sorted out but have a way to go.

STZ

Plus we had a houseparty last friday:

Big bowl of punch - $65
Assorted soft cheeses - $17
Dancing around your backyard wearing a colander on your head - priceless


wish we took photos :)

Lockie

Scup (noun): a type of porgy

Not content with just west side surf, I cheekily double down with an east side surf trip as well. This time joined by Sergio, Dub and surfer chick Estee. For no apparent reason, nearly every caravan park in phillip island is booked out but we luckily find a spot just outside of Cowes at what turns out to be the boganest campground ever. Was it the hordes of blokes arriving in V8 utes? Or the 30yo chav with the backwards cap who kept circling the place on a too small bmx with a mean stare? Or maybe it was those guys who kept duelling on those damn banjos?… but it certainly felt odd. No matter, we head into Cowes proper to check out their massive (read: very very small) street market, eat some grub and get sergio jacked on wine and coffee (we should have kept a closer eye on the caffeine). I submit as evidence, photo A.

A fun game of 'dictionary' (or was it the half bottle of tequila?) leaves us ready to wake up and find…. Wind affected swell. Doh! So we drive round the far side of Smith's to find lots of size, not too much wind and a long rocky beach reminiscent of Darby. Out the back there is some huge dumpers. Pistol grabs some white, Sergio grabs hold of his board for some last minute turtles, I grab a mixture of green/head-first-mashage and Estee catches some feeble rays. Lots of fun and the perfect prelude to a tasty burger at Trace's Place. Grand!

Lockie

Dirty Surf

From the state of the blog you'd think we'd been sitting on our collective asses but in fact there's been all sorts of surf action. First was the dirty type a week ago with Zombie, Joeleee and myself heading down to Jan Juc following a big evening of Pigeon "Do the pigeon" John and Lyrics "Spirit fingers" Born. Greeting our smoke irritated eyes was a choppy beach with only one short break and a remarkably large number of groms milling all around it. Out we go and soon find that there is a sizeable swell rolling in but just a tad too many short boarders ready to run you over. If I had my way, kids would spend school holidays in the uranium mines keeping our economy growing dammit. "Pappa I think I got the glowing green lung…"

Zombie catches a bunch from way out the back but Joeleee and I don’t exactly own the break. So we pack up camp and head to Torquay to find…. nothing. There is a bloke on a ten footer and even he is struggling to catch anything. There is only the occasional set, which is less of a 'set' and more like a single wave called Tiny Tim that only visits every ten minutes. But the paddling is a laugh and this works out fine as we grab the water proof camera and take a bunch of pics of us riding 3 wide and a few action shots close to shore. We'll post them once we finish the film. Lunch is a tasty travesty, eating sushi from the previously unexplored Torquay village.

Lockie