Mildura musings

We have sold our house on the river. Could not stand driving in and out of Mildura, sometimes 6 times a day! Totally crazy and emissions galore. I have run out of space to plant trees to off-set, and the distance is not doable by bike, especially at night, after a hard service at the restaurant. If you forget your wallet and the cops stop you on the bridge you cop a fine and lose demerit points for not carrying your license. Not to mention those noisy boats up and down the river all summer long.

 We got a smaller place in town (Mildura) where we can accommodate ourselves and brother Sergio (whilst he is here). The kids will be gone soon, so small is beautiful.
 
We are renovating with the help of Jan Van Schaick, a Melbourne based architect and a friend who has been running projects here in Mildura for RMIT Architecture students.

We looked at the abandoned old Mildura base hospital with a view to show the State Government and the local Council what could be done with a building like that, a building which is becoming pigeon infested because it has (rightly) a conservation order on it and no-one wants to take responsibility for it.
It is maddening, when you think about it, that the State is prepared to pay $100 000 per year on security, up keep of the fence, etc without moving a finger to do something with the building. They are happy to let it rot for $100 000 per year. I think my mate Kafka would have had a field day with that!
 
Jan’s students showed 12 different ways of using the site and now we have engaged an artist and intellectual, Paul Carter, to do some more conceptual stuff around the meaning of a space like that in a community like our own.
 
We have also just come out of an amazing week-end. We had numerous artists here who played a role in the Mildura Sculpture Triennial in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. It is amazing to revisit those years from the present perspective. One never ceases to be amazed by the extraordinary influence that a small place like Mildura can have on the development of the arts in Australia. Small places punching way above their weight and yet being very good at it.

The symposium ended with a dinner that included a local Mallee specialty – salt pumped leg of lamb poached and served with greens and mustard fruits.
It is a dish we used to do a lot when Brigitte Hefner used to work with me. Bless her! Those were such creative days I wish I could bring them back. Brigitte used to serve the lamb on a bed of skordalia, a strong and proud Greek bread and garlic sauce, I think.

Anyway, any respectable butcher can pump a deboned leg of lamb with salt (same as corn beef, I suspect) and anyone can poach it in water with a handful of aromatics. It is an aussie classic, I think, and it cooks in just under 3 hours without you having to do anything.

Enough for now.  It is Monday and I am going to make potato gnocchi with oxtail sauce. I feel like a glass of red tonight,

Stefano with cheers