So last year for his 29th birthday I bought Mr B a voucher to go skydiving. Not because I wanted to kill my boyfriend necessarily but he wanted to do it, and it seemed like a good present. Guys, don’t do this. Don’t buy a really good present for your partner’s 29th birthday, because it leaves you absolutely nowhere to go for their 30th. NOWHERE TO GO. Anyway, I digress.
It took him almost a year to use the voucher because Mr B is crap at using vouchers.
Finally he booked the skydiving trip, and they asked him was he skydiving for any particular reason. “I got this as a birthday present.” The skydiving people said, “oh was your birthday recent? Or was it almost a year ago?” Clearly those are the two times people use the vouchers – as soon as they get them, or when they’re about to expire. Ha!
My bro is an excellent hand model
Skydiving is a difficult business because they can’t jump if the conditions aren’t right. It’s pretty hard to get resentful of this, too. Safety first, and all that.
For a couple of weekends in a row we waited around the St Kilda / Elwood area. The first weekend he was sent home at around 1pm (from arriving there at 9am!). The second try, it looked as though it was going to be cancelled, again, but finally he got the go ahead to jump on the bus to Moorabbin Airport, and from thence to the plane, and the sky, and the skyyyyy fallllllllll (just got sidetracked by Adele but I’m back on track).
Snacky hash browns and another excellent hand model
One bonus of waiting around in unfamiliar territory is that my family and I got to check out some places we wouldn’t normally go to.
Jerry’s Milk Bar is up a side street from the beach, near the St Kilda Marina skydiving mission control (and the landing site). We popped in, two weekends in a row. Now unfortunately, I don’t have a copy of the menu, so I’m not sure what exactly each dish was called.
Here’s the meal Mr B ordered, in what I can only assume was an attempt to reach the ground faster due to higher momentum from the amount of food in his stomach. He seemed to like it and what he didn’t eat (because he had to leave), my dad polished off for him anyway.
The Jerry’s big breakfast
I was less happy with my meal, which I thought was a bit overpriced for what it was – a plain bagel with smoked salmon, and an egg on top. Granted, smoked salmon is a luxe ingredient but there was no interesting condiment, the bagel wasn’t buttered, the smoked salmon was a little dry at the edges and the plate was so big yet the meal was so small!
Nice golden yolk there though.
My mum and brother ordered variations of the same meal, smashed avo on multigrain toast, one with a poached egg on top and one without. Perhaps I had a little bit of dish envy, because these looked good. Check out the scattered feta below and the grilled tomatoes as well – yum!
Perched poached egg…
Smashed avo, no egg
My dad ordered the Jerry’s breakfast sandwich, which would almost certainly be what I order next time I come. Egg (with soft yolks) and bacon and lettuce mix I think, in a focaccia roll. A tasty classic.
Soft, runny yolks. Watch out, this is a delicious but dangerous sandwich.
Jerry’s menu has a page devoted to what I can only assume are the supremely fit and healthy Elwoodians. The types that put on their lycra and ride down Beach Road, or perhaps rollerblade along the esplanade.
The page outlines Hollywood-star diet classics like egg white omelettes and a green smoothie made with almond milk (“Oh! Darling. I simply cannot digest cows milk.”) I ordered the green smoothie just to see what it was like / how horrible it tasted but was disappointed to find that they had run out of almond milk, so it was made with soy instead. (It was actually quite nice, tasted like a normal smoothie with a good helping of self-righteousness.)
Overall we enjoyed our meals here, which is why we came back the following week, but a warning on the service – it is slow and your meals will take a while to come out. If you are eating to a deadline (say, falling from the sky), do keep that in mind. Don’t worry about keeping kids entertained though – the section out the back has a little playground for them AND I forgot to mention dogs. They’re allowed out the back too.
Fresh Bread 