The Age has reviewed a bar that I like, the Abbotsford Convent’s Handsome Steve’s House of Refreshment. I never seem to get there though. This could be the prompter.

Very sad news. The owners of The Terminus have sold, and have bought the Yarra Glen Grand from a guy who was born in it, and whose family has been running it for 77 years. Judging by the photo of the Grand, the pair must have grown up, and done well out of The Terminus too. They should give the Healesville Hotel a run for its money. If you haven’t been to the Terminus’s restaurant, better go this month, as I heard that the new peoples were moving in this month. It is a splendid restaurant, and one of its dishes made it into John Lethlean’s top 10 dining moments in the Melbourne Magazine recently. Previous posts about The Terminus are here.

Check this out: it seems that the windows from the Grand have yellow glass in them:

Simon Turner, James Hobson Turner’s great great grandson, has sent me this scan of James’s business card showing what he describes as “the original factory” of Denton Mills. I’m not sure whether what is depicted is in Abbotsford or in Elizabeth St Melbourne. Simon tells me that:

‘It appears James helped establish his son Henry on a property “Deighton”, in Bengworden near Bairnsdale. Henry’s son William carried on the property, then my father Graeme moved to where we still farm today, in Bindi near Omeo.’

If anyone knows anything about James, let me know, and I will pass it on to Simon.

Today’s Good Weekend has a “2 of Us” profile by Bernadette Clohesy of the pair who own the Terminus Hotel, 39 year old Alison Whyte, and 41 year old Fred Whitlock. It’s certainly changing. Upstairs is the now mandatory fine dining restaurant, but there’s also a big party room giving out onto a large deck. Haven’t tried the restaurant, but the pub grub is superb. In fact, it’s a great pub. The place has a website which I have just discovered. Its history of the pub, which the pair purchased in 1996 — 11 years ago — is entertaining. It reveals that the original third partner is the bloke who bought and presumably did up the Healesville Hotel, another great pub, though mainly for the well heeled, unlike the egalitarian Terminus. I signed up for the mailing list so as not to miss out on events such as the 7 Culinary Disasters from the 70s for $70 dinner just gone.

Since the profile of the Whyte-Whitlock combo doesn’t seem to be available online, here are the bare bones, the bits at least not already covered by this newspaper (here and here). Whyte’s from Tasmania, Whitlock from New Zealand. They met at the Victorian College of the Arts. The class of people who transferred from Duntroon to the VCA might conceivably number one: just Whitlock. They have three children under 6: Rose, Milly and Atticus, and live in the Yarra Valley. That seems to have something to do with Whitlock getting stabbed in the head by a local:

“We’re now living in the Yarra Valley; it’s about an hour’s drive from the pub. We first moved out to the country in 2000 after Fred was assaulted while we were walking our dog in the local park. A fellow with two pit bulls came out of the bushes and one of them attacked our dog. Fred managed to pull the dog away and told the guy off. The guy said ‘I’m going to come back and kill you.’ On our way back, there he was with his two brothers and a very large knife. Fred got stabbed in the head. It was terrifying; he had to have stitches. Fred actually cahsed them back to their house and th epolcie came and the guy was arrested.”

I like this:

“Fred’s great qality is his humanity. He tries to help where he can; it’s a very lovely way to approach the world. And it’s the way I want to raise our children.”

and

“Some of his schemes are annoying — but then that’s also the most fascinating thing about him. We’ve got a shed full of coconut oil. He was going to fry the chips in it and he bought an enormous amount. He was so keen; he said ‘We’ll be helping local farmers in Fiji and Samoa. It’s a good fat too.’ The customers were very helpful in giving feedback — they said it was crap.”

Abbotsford boy, John McManus, son of John McManus and best known as the crab in Finding Nemo, has apparently got over the sad death by breast cancer on Remembrance Day last year of his young wife, ‘Home and Away’ and ‘All Saints’ actress Belinda Emmett, and the 2004 destruction by fire of his Abbotsford studio. John and Blindy courted for 5 years and were married for less than 2.

The show has had what they call a ‘major overhaul’ and sports a new crew. My great mate the furniture manufacturer across the road says (i) an old lady nearby is going batty and (ii) the new crew are not quite so friendly in response to his garrulous waves from his factory, but he’s giving them time. The first show for a while screened Sunday night, and attracted 1.69 million viewers, two of whom were Miss K and me (all in the name of journalism). There were funny bits, none of which were associated with Ross Noble, and most of which were associated with Hamish Blake and Dave Hughes, but what was Toni Collette thinking when she dressed in a bright yellow dress and red shoes? The Comedy Festival is almost upon us. Hopefully someone has a comedy about the Prime Minister and Mister Hicks. Must get out more.

Shanaka Fernando, already the winner of the Metropolitan Local Hero Award, has gone the next step and won the Australian Local Hero Award on Australia Day. The Victorian Government has decided he is a “social challenger” lauding his victory thus:

‘By establishing the ‘Lentil as Anything’ concept, Shanaka Fernando has set a wholly successful example to society of how a commercial enterprise can be operated on a socially responsible, idealistic and altruistic basis and still be financially successful and popular with the public. Since Shanaka relinquished his personal capital in the first restaurant and turned it into a cooperative and youth training enterprise, the business has grown into four restaurants employing about eighty young people and providing space for artists and writers. This not-for-profit business celebrates compassion, individuality, and artistic expression under a philosophy that challenges and defies our consumerist society. The policy of ‘no set prices’ where customers pay only what they can afford or what they think the meal was worth is a social experiment that encourages people to have an internal conversation with their conscience and their ethics. And on top of that, the food is terrific.”

This is what John Howard’s men are saying about the Fernandomeister:

‘Melbourne’s Shanaka Fernando was awarded Australia’s Local Hero in recognition of his work founding not-for-profit restaurant group ‘Lentil As Anything’. The business has shown how a commercial enterprise can be operated on a socially responsible, idealistic and altruistic basis and still be financially successful and popular with the public. It operates on a policy of ‘no set prices’, where customers pay only what they can afford or what they think the meal was worth. Shanaka relinquished his personal capital in the first restaurant and turned it into a cooperative and youth training enterprise.The business has grown into four restaurants employing about 80 young people and providing space for artists and writers. The 38 year old, who was born in Columbia, Sri Lanka, arrived in Australia in 1989. His father is Sri Lankan with Portugese lineage and his mother is Sri Lankan with Irish descent.

“Being named Australia’s Local Hero means a lot to me and, hopefully, it means the nature of what is happening through our organisation is important and will spill out to the greater society.

“I hope this award will inspire other migrants and anyone in the community, who may have ideas that might not seem normal and which have no prior format, to go ahead and try these ideas and to follow your heart.

“On Australia Day, I will celebrate the generosity of spirit which exists in the Australian community.” Accepting his award on the eve of Australia Day, Shanaka’s view on what being Australian means was poignant.

“I didn’t know the answer to the question of what it means to be Australian until quite recently,” said Shanaka.

“I went out into country Victoria with refugees and we had a tree planting weekend and I came in contact with what I considered an amazing spirit of community and openness.

“To be Australian is, I think, to be welcoming of others. “To be Australian is to be encouraging of each other, to urge each other to shine and reach our full potential.

“Which is,” he said with a grin,”very contrary to the tall poppy syndrome.”‘

This all makes him sound somewhat earnest, but he is more interesting than that. He  mixes in patahysical circles, and bangs on his boogie. And the latest Convent Muse contains this passage from an interview with him:

‘As a result of his recent Award, Shanaka has been invited to speak at ABC Haywire, a national outh Conference in Canberra.  He hopes to encourage creativity in young people, so they can feel self-empowered to tackle issues with a minimal sense of convention.  When asked how this could be best communicated he said: “For example, if kids think the answer to alcohol problems is for everyone to walk around with pineapples on their heads – that is exactly what they should do”’

‘WE’VE had Victorian Travis Fimmel in his smalls as a Calvin Klein poster boy; now, it’s Adam Baker’s turn.

The Abbotsford personal trainer/barman beat hundreds of hopefuls around the nation to be the first “face” of Alpha Male underwear.’

“I was quite a stunned mullet when I was told,” said Baker, 25, whose girlfriend, Rachael, entered him in the competition.

“I thought it was a joke. It wasn’t until I had a few follow-up calls that I realised it was legit.”

Baker, who can be seen in the brand’s ad campaign at K mart, won himself a “truckload” of undies.

“I only have to do underwear washing once a month now, so that’s pretty handy,” he said.’

Thanks go to Peter Volsky of Virginia for the photo.

Snap! by Lauri Apple, a temporarily New Yorker and law student.

I put what success I have had in my career down to the claim on my curriculum vitae that I was the co-founder of the Melbourne University African Drumming Club. As far as I know, that is still going strong. And having travelled through West Africa to Timbuktoo, and listened, entranced to a guy singing along to the accompaniment of his own kora playing in a petrol station in Dakar, I read with particular interest in The Age today about the African drumming and dance academy within a couple of hops of my house, in Hoddle St, Abbotsford:

“For [Grant Swift -- tap maestro, ex-stripper, ex-boxer, founder of the Academy], the important thing is to respect the history of tap. He has little patience with the showbiz ‘eyes and teeth’ style, which he considers disconnected from its origins. His own style is rooted in the original African rhythm of tap and was inspired by black vaudeville tappers such as the Nicholas Brothers and Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson.

‘Tap originally came from the slaves, in America. In 1739 they were banned from playing drums, so they started tapping their feet instead. That’s where the form came from.

‘A hundred years later Hollywood steals it, puts mainly white dancers in the films, and says,”If the black people are going to be in it you’re going to be dressed as a butler”.

‘It’s a stolen art form. Thankfully, some of those amazing black dancers were caught on film – you can see what tap really is.’”

I have noticed it before but never really investigated. The pricing of the classes seems pretty reasonable — $16 each for five 90 minute classes — and there is no shortage of them. Anyone able to say what this place is like?

The Age has a big full page spread today on the Convent in general, Catherine Kovesi’s book on the history in Australia of its Sisters of the Good Shepherd, and in particular, two former nuns, Sister Monica Walsh who entered the order aged 18 in 1963 and Sister Noelene White, neither of whom these days live in nunneries or wear habits but are, nevertheless, still nuns. There have been no additions to the order in the past 20 years. It’s really worth a read; I commend it to you.

Shanaka Fernando (left), Lentil As Anything’s founder, is celebrating winning the Metropolitan Local Hero Award in the Australian of the Year Awards, 2007. According to the Herald Sun, he was last year living in a tent on the Elwood foreshore. His is an interesting life. He was raised a buddhist in a wealthy Sri Lankan family and came to Australia in 1989 to study law. He founded Lentils after travellling extensively through Africa, Asia, and South America. More about him anon.