Comedy Festival

This year’s Comedy Festival, UniLodge community spirit members were treated to a night of laughter in Melbourne Town Hall to see Arj Barker.

The members met at two separate UniLodge locations, UniLodge@Melbourne and UniLodge On Campus. I led the batch of members from @Melbourne to the corner of Collins and Swanston Street where the Melbourne Town Hall is situated. We waited for Evana who led the other batch to arrive before we had a group photo. We did an ice-breaking session together to get to know other members from other UniLodge.

Everyone was very excited and could not wait to get in to the main hall to see Arj Barker on what he does best. Arj Barker was funny and his jokes were interesting with a little essence of local laughs, I could see many people among the audiences laughing their heads off. No wonder, according to one of the website, he was named as Australia’s adopted son of comedy!

After the comedy show finished, the event participants were treated with some sweet treats at Brunetti Cakes Shop. They were excited with the allocation of $15 budget per person to have their selection of hot/cold drinks and tempting deserts. Everyone was so happy with their choice and we had a nice chat getting to know everyone better but unfortunately we had to go home separately. We would love to invite the residents who would like to to join us in the next event. I bet you won’t regret it!
Haozhen & Evana.

AFL Footy trip

On the 10th of March a group of 17 students went to watch Essendon vs Carlton in the AFL.

Here is a photo of the mighty Essendon Bombers warming up prior to the game.

Though we were seated in two different rows with all students rooting for Carlton (while I was the only Essendon Supporter) I beleive that everyone had a good time watching the game, being a part of the 71,600 crowd and learning a variety of Aussie language in what to yell!

As you can see some of the students were surpised by the variety of 'crowd personalities' along with the unique language used at this traditional Aussie game!

In the end I'm afraid that I had a better night as Essendon managed to hold the lead throughout the game to win by over 25 points in the end. Unfortunatly for Carlton they kicked themselves out of the game by giving up many free kicks as well as scoring many points instead of goals.

At the end of the game trying to get back to Swanston St through a 71,600 was a challenge but I still managed to squeeze in some time to take some night photos of Melbourne - below is the ferris wheel along the Yarra River - the rest can be seen on our community spirit photo album.

So look out for the rest of the month that includes Arj Barker at the comedy festival and Glow in the Dark Mini Golf!

The baking event.

On Saturday, 10/04/2010, a few eager faces were seen in the kitchen on Level 5. I was unsure how to get the session started but once everyone was introduced to each other, we got the ball rolling. The recipe for the day was a chocolate and peanut butter fudge cake.

The ingredients were basic with the addition of peanut butter and chocolate. Within half an hour, the cake batter was done and it was slipped into the oven. The icing was made in a separate bowl. When the cake came out, it smelt good enough to devour right away! Unfortunately or fortunately, the icing was very rich and the cake was consumed with gusto, prompting another cake-baking session. It was a good reinforcement and I was pleased to note that everyone enjoyed the experience and could not believe how easy it was!

Ingredients

 2 cups of self-raising flour
 1 cup of white sugar
 1 tsp of baking powder
 ½ cup of chocolate chips
 ½ cup of unsalted butter
 2 eggs
 ½ cup of icing sugar
 1 tsp of vanilla essence
 ¾ cup of peanut butter
 1 cup of milk
Icing
 I cup of Woolworth cooking chocolate
 ½ cup of peanut butter
 2 tbsp of butter
 ½ cup of milk
 1 tsp of vanilla essence

1. In a bowl, combine the flour, white sugar, baking powder and the chocolate chips and set aside.
2. In another bowl, melt the butter and combine with the eggs, icing sugar and peanut butter to give a creamy batter.
3. Then, sift the butter mixture into the bowl of flour that has been kept aside and add the cup of milk at the end. Mix well.
4. Place the batter into a baking tray and put into oven for 20 minutes at 180 degrees.
5. For the icing, melt the chocolate and add the peanut butter, butter, milk and vanilla essence together.
6. Stir thoroughly and once the cake has been baked, pour the icing over the top layer of the cake.
7. INDULGE!!!

Til the next event.

Praveena