So yeah, I went for my first ever acupuncture session, with a guy recommended by Rainnie's girlfriend Claire. I really didn't know what to expect, but I went in with an open mind (and a calmed tummy: I treated myself to a strawberry-flavoured carob yoghurt frog from the organic health food shop downstairs from the acupuncture clinic).

Scott was not what I expected for several reasons: a) he was not Chinese, but Irish-Australian; b) his acupuncture method didn't involve plunging thousands of needles into my body; and c) instead of ethereal Asian meditation music he played mediaeval chanting during the session, which kind of made me think that I had been transported to two different times & places simultaneously. Weird.

The acupuncture itself was fine. I didn't feel most of the needles (in fact there was only one, applied to different spots over the course of the hour) and the ones I did were less noticeable than some of the mozzie bites in Borneo. At one point my heart started racing; I'm guessing my organs were being manipulated at an energistic level. And afterwards I was really tired, like I'd run a marathon (as if!), even though I'd just been lying there. Scott explained that he was trained in Japan, where acupuncture is less invasive than the Chinese method. This explained his very superficial, almost minimalist, massage and needle technique. That last sentence sounds disparaging, but I mean superficial in the literal sense. It certainly wasn't a deep tissue activation like Michelle's massage is.

We came to the conclusion that I had a trapped nerve somewhere around my neck or shoulder, and that was causing the numbness in my hand and lower arm (this is also the conclusion Kara in my house, who is studying to be a physiotherapist, came to from prodding at me a bit earlier in the day). The aim of the acupuncture was to rebalance energies and encourage the appropriate muscle groups to relax so as to release the nerve. It was always going to take some time to get better. I was cool with this.

That evening I met up with Rainnie & Claire and we caught a taxi across to Northcote, on the other side of the Merri creek from Rainnie's house, where we ate pizza at a restaurant called Meine Liebe. This is the first use of German in the catering industry that I have noticed in Melbourne. I certainly haven't found a German restaurant here yet, which is a pity because every now and then I crave half a pig and a pile of sauerkraut, washed down with gallons of cold frothy beer.

After the scrummy vegetarian pizzas (the best one I think was the broccoli) we headed to the Northcote Social Club to see Martha Wainwright in concert. She was fabulous! Very soulful, a gorgeous squeaky/croaky voice, deep lyrics, and wonderful stage presence even though she was totally knackered, having flown in that day from the States (this was a last-minute extra performance because ticket sales for the other two nights had been so strong). It was only a small venue, and I had the best view: for some reason all the other members of the audience were no taller than five foot six, or so it seemed. The only guy even approaching me in size was a bouncer! When everyone piled out at one in the morning, Claire worked her mojo and we got a taxi pretty quick to take us back to Rainnie's.

The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet. It was lovely weather all through Saturday, Sunday and Monday so I spent quite a lot of time just sitting either on my doorstep watching the world go by or out on the park that's in front of my house reading my book (yep, still going with War And Peace). Actually, thinking about it, I spent most of Sunday cooking a mammoth pot of gulasch, because I was due to visit Em & Pete in Altona on Tuesday night and I had promised to cook for them the last time I was there, and a gulasch wants to be cooked and then reheated.

Before I knew it, Tuesday night had arrived. I took the train to Altona and Pete picked me up from the station. There was a howling wind and it started to rain quite heavily, so I was glad to be indoors with good company and good wine. The gulasch was reasonably tasty, but it was not in the same league as Em's lemon meringue pie! Even her chocolate cookies were overshadowed by the addictive tanginess of that masterpiece.

Pete dropped me off back at the station for me to catch the last train back to the city, but guess what? The storm had blown trees down over the line, so there was a replacement bus service that took FOREVER to turn up and then EVEN LONGER to reach the nearest functioning station! My forty-minute journey became a two-hour epic, and I got to bed way after my school-night bedtime. Luckily I was too busy feeling the effects of the evening's alcohol consumption to worry about how cold & wet it was and how long it was taking to get home.

The next day at work I was very tired, and that evening I couldn't face going out for dinner with Nea so I offered to cook for her. I did a killer fresh pesto with pine nuts but also macadamia nuts (well I am in Australia) and plenty of garlic. This revived me to the extent that I was able to accompany Nea and head out to Brunetti's for coffee & cake - yum!

Thursday was my last day working for Great Engineering - visa regulations stipulate that I'm only allowed to be in any one workplace for three calendar months - and they were kind enough to arrange a farewell lunch for me at a nearby tasty Japanese restaurant in South Melbourne. For afters we headed round the corner to an ice cream parlour owned by one of the sales manager Greg's mates. The turkish delight flavour ice cream was astounding!

That evening I headed over to Rainnie's for a big taco night with Claire, Rainnie's housemate James and Rainnie's friend Liz with her daughter Aimee (the one Rainnie & I babysat that afternoon a few months ago). It was delicious! But I'm beginning to feel the effects of too much good food this week, such that Friday night's dinner at Rainnie's house was almost a meal too far. It was good that we really spent the evening baking desserts, and the actual eating of food was almost incidental.

Wow! My tiramisu was delicious this morning (though I say so myself)! And my attempt to replicate Em's lemon meringue pie wasn't too bad either. These two dishes were I think worth the tennis-elbow-like twinges in my arm I got from beating the egg whites by hand with a whisk. And Rainnie's banana bread was divine, as always.

Yes, it's been all about food this week. I'll try to make next week all about abstinence. We'll see how it goes.