Yarra Leisure Centres membership sale

Miss K, nascent gym bunny, has alerted me to a handy deal on membership to Yarra Leisure, an amalgamation of what used to be the Fitzroy Pool on Alexandra Parade, down the end of my old haunt, Napier St, the Richmond Pool off Bridge Rd in Gleadall St, and the Collingwood Pool on Hoddle St opposite Clifton Hill station. They are offering 6 months’ full use of all three pools, spas, saunas, lockers, gyms, and classes for $307 (and tennis court for family memberships) with no joining fee. After the first 3 months you can suspend your membership for up to 9 weeks a year in blocks of 2 months or more which is unusually generous. That makes it a bit more than $1.50 a day and a bit more than $11.50 a week. After the first 6 months, the special deal is off, and you pay about $2.50 a day or $16.50 a week. Unless you join with your better half, in which case you can pay $2 a day or $14 a week each, but you have to join for a year. Thanks to the cameraphone weilding Doubtful Guest for the pic.

Jesuit Social Services’ Abbotsford Biscuits

Now I thought up this story before The Age did. I thought I’d give the Jesuits a plug, but they declined my kind offer, saying they would shortly depart Abbotsford. Apparently The Age is still a more credible journal than this organ of citizen mediacrity. There’s Jamie Oliver’s restaurant Fifteen then there’s Loretta Sartori’s work at Abbotsford’s Jesuit Social Services teaching hospitality industry skills to youths visited by the troubles. Part of what they do is make Abbotsford biscuits, which are very good, and should be regarded as a very pleasant way to donate to charity rather than as being very expensive. Sartori’s quite a renowned pastry chef. Of course there’s also Know One Teach One (KOTO) in Hanoi, and Stephanie Alexander’s Kitchen Garden project which has just won an NAB Volunteer Award (website here).)