Poesie

Our late afternoon get-together, (4-5.30pm) for a drink and conversation *en français* at Southgate food court by the Yarra river. It is easy to find. If weather is fine, we will get together in the sheltered seating area (as per photo above) outside the food court *en plein air. If cold and raining we will sit inside the foodcourt near the Grill'd outlet.* Southgate food court is just across the river from Flinders Street Station. We can buy a glass of wine or hot drink inside the food court. A glass of wine costs $11 at Grill'd or Rhumbas. Any change of arrangement, will be posted on the meetup website.

**Address**: 195 Lonsdale St, Melbourne VIC 3000 **Website**: https://www.nelayangroup.com.au/ Dear foodies, let's try Indonesian food this week, make new friends, and enjoy the company of other foodies. Please join our **Facebook Group** for future events information\*\*;\*\* the Link is attached here: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/172BrZ4TKU/ Please "Subscribe" and "Like" the group video. [https://youtu.be/qkLR5DalbFE?si=znCIeVXE7wCPHhT0](https://youtu.be/qkLR5DalbFE?si=znCIeVXE7wCPHhT0) Please kindly inform us in the comments if you are running late. Do not forget to update your RSVP. Call me 0402714889 if you can't find us. 如果迟到，请务必在评论栏里留言告知, 可以去餐馆里面找我们， 我们的桌上放一个Meetup sign。

Hi Radiant Ladies, After our Saturday walk, join us at Windchimes Café for coffee, friendly vibes, and a relaxed catch-up. 🅿️ 2-hour parking out front. See you there! Lyn 😀

Vue de Monde needs little introduction. It has been synonymous with Melbourne dining for over 20 years, continuing to present beautiful food that not only appeals to a sense of luxury but also honesty, integrity and an inherent natural flavour. In 2025, it was again awarded three Hats. I’ve booked for 6 Fine Diners to enjoy the set menu at $380 per person for dinner from 6pm on Saturday 18 April. 
Join the waitlist to express interest. Once I have names in the waitlist, I’ll send you a ‘Meetup Message’ to confirm if you have a spot and how to pay. The last minute cancellation fee is the full $380 menu cost, I’m asking for an initial $100 deposit to secure your seat and then I’ll follow up for the $280 balance one week prior to the event. This will be deducted from your bill on the night. Once the deposit is paid, I’ll move you from the waitlist to going. Vue de Monde is a bucket-list venue, so this event will be in demand. Please check that you don’t have your settings blocking messages; if I can’t contact you I’ll have to move on to the next person. Also if you don’t respond to my message within 3 days, I’ll let you know that I’m offering the seat to the next person on the waitlist. 
Thanks everyone!

Hello book lovers, Our book for April is *The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie* by Muriel Spark. Romantic, heroic, comic and tragic, unconventional schoolmistress Jean Brodie has become an iconic figure in post-war fiction. Her glamour, freethinking ideas and manipulative charm hold dangerous sway over her girls at the Marcia Blaine Academy - the ‘creme de la creme’ - who become the Brodie Set, introduced to a world of adult games they will never forget.

Hello everyone ✨ For 2026 my regular Saturday location will be Balam Balam Place in Brunswick 🏡 Bring any art supplies you like and a picnic blanket or chair. We will just be sat on the grass outside the building sketching together. If you aren’t sure what to draw the club has a weekly drawing theme, just ask me what the prompt is 😊 There is also a small cafe inside the building for those who want a drink while they draw ☕️ ✏️ We welcome all artists of any skill level or medium, Whether you’re a beginner or pro, traditional or digital, absolutely anyone can join. ⚠️IMPORTANT⚠️ Please do not attend if you are sick. I have multiple chronic illnesses so my immune system is extremely weak. keep everyone safe by staying home if you are unwell ☔️ If the weather changes there is a small cafe inside we can move into —————————————————— Check out our instagram @shypeoplesdrawingclub to see more about our awesome group. We also have a Discord group for online events if you would like to join and chat with more artists. ✨

**Get ready for a heart-warming afternoon of readings in a cool, historic cellar - and guess what? It will cost you less than a cup of coffee (well, almost!)** NOTE: THIS IS A TICKETED EVENT Cost: $25, strictly limited to 25 seats Your ticket includes a $20 food and drinks credit voucher ($5 goes to the venue to support costs). [CLICK HERE TO BOOK YOUR SEAT](https://MelbournePoets.eventbrite.com.au) Budding poets, writers and lyricists join Melbourne Poets for our monthly Poetry & Prose Meetup! This is a true open mic event (usually without the need for a microphone). There'll be an opportunity to read your work (if you're brave enough) and listen to others over a drink or two. You don't need to be published; you just need to be passionate about your craft. So grab a support buddy and come along to our luxe loungeroom hidden away in the 170-year-old bluestone cellars in East Melbourne's Tribeca precinct. We've got great cocktails, back-vintage wines, craft brews, amazing food, and good vibes in a chilled and supportive safe space. RULES: This is a ticketed event due to limited seating capacity. $20 of your ticket price is offset against any bar drinks and food ordered through the venue on the day. Please ensure each piece is less than 5 minutes for those wanting to read. Depending on attendance and number of readers, there may be multiple opportunities to read. Please no "clicking" or trauma porn, and no self-promotion allowed during the readings but networking after the event is absolutely OK. GETTING THERE: We recommend you use public transport or rideshare. We are on the 12/109 tram line (stop 16, Wellington St), several Bus Routes (302, 303, 304, 305, 309, 318, 350, 905, 906, 907, 908) or a 5-10 minute walk from Jolimont and North Richmond train stations. If you decide to drive and/or have a designated driver, 2-hour paid parking is available around Powlett Reserve, Darling Square, and the Fitzroy Gardens. Extended paid parking is available at Care Park at 162 Albert Street, East Melbourne or the Epworth Freemasons Car Park in Gotch Lane off Grey Street. UNABLE TO ATTEND? Cancellations and Refunds are generally not possible. However, for sudden illness, COVID, or other special circumstances, we may agree to reschedule your session to another day or provide a gift certificate for part or all of your ticket price. Please SMS your request to 0466 045 473. #poetry #readings #poets #writers #prose #lyricists #melbournepoets #melbournepoet #melbournepoetry #melbournewriter #melbournewriters #melbournetodo #poetryandprose #poetrylovers #openmic

We will get-together at the KereKere cafe - at the community table just inside the cafe entrance. *This is a group for people with intermediate and advanced level French who are able to engage in a conversation en français. It is not suitable for beginners.* The cafe is close to the corner of Wellington Parade and Lansdowne St, East Melbourne in the Fitzroy Gardens. It takes about 5 minutes on Tram 75 from Flinders St Station, or 15 minute walk. Car parking around Fitzroy Gardens on Sundays now is $2 per hour with a 4 hour limit, Some parking is limited to 1 hour even on Sunday. And occasionally, if there is a game at the MCG for example there might not be much parking at all. Price: The event fee is $4.00 - cash necessary! . and please be sure you are a member of MyFrenchLife.org before attending reunion - merci https://www.MyFrenchLife.org. The event fees are transferred to MyFrenchLife contributing to the meetup platform - thank you. À bientôt ! Veronica and Daniel Réunion Hosts MyFrenchLife.org

We'll meet at the spot where Fed Square meets the Princes Bridge over the Yarra (near the pedestrian crossing closest to the river from Flinders St, on the Fed Square side). We'll walk for about 6km along the Yarra River, through the Botanic Gardens and back along the river to Federation Square for a coffee after the walk. This month, we're reading and talking about 'I'd Rather Not' by Robert Skinner. The blurb: 'From one of Australia’s most wryly funny writers comes an original and utterly hilarious memoir of reaching for the stars while lying in a ditch *I was sleeping in what might reasonably be described as a ditch, though I tried not to think of it in those terms for morale reasons . . .* Robert Skinner arrives in the city, searching for a richer life. Things begin badly and then, surprisingly, get slightly worse. Pretty soon he's sleeping rough and trying to run a literary magazine out of a dog park. His quest for meaning keeps being thwarted, by endless jobs, beagles, house parties, ill-advised love affairs, camel trips and bureaucratic entanglements. Sometimes a book catches the spirit of the times. *I'd Rather Not* is about work, escape and that something more we all need. 'I was told this man came from the Adelaide Plains and so commenced to read his work. By the time I realised I'd been viciously misled and he actually grew up in Magill, it was too late. I was already completely in love with the book. It's an absolute bag of lollies.' —Annabel Crabb 'Robert Skinner writes with humour, intelligence and heart. Pick up this book and you may never put it down.' —Tony Birch 'This book is like a big, properly made gin and tonic drunk outside in a garden on a perfect Saturday afternoon.' —Cate Kennedy '…no other book brought me as much joy as this hilarious and deceptively artful collection, and in these uncertain times that is worth plenty.' —Michael Winkler 'No one writes better when the stakes are lower.' —Sam Vincent 'My heart leaps whenever I see Robert Skinner's by-line; I know I am in for a hilarious literary treat complete with wry pearlers, gallows truths and wicked timing. People will say he is Australia's Sedaris, but he's not. He's Robert Skinner and he's a bloody marvel.' —Anna Krien 'Brevity may be the soul of wit, but the nimble economy of this slim volume will make readers pine for more. A decidedly skewed, hilarious collection of life reflections and colorful storytelling.' —*Kirkus* 'Seriously the funniest book I've read all year. I can't stop thinking about Robert Skinner's forays into the most mundane and frustrating aspects of life - Centrelink, being a tour guide, applying for arts funding - and the shameless truths he not only reveals about himself but about us as a society. Read this book with a bottle of wine, and be alarmed and enlightened!' —Alice Pung 'If only all books were as funny, human and true as *I'd Rather Not*. I raced through it, marvelling and envious all the way.' —Michelle de Kretser 'Skinner has been compared to Oscar Wilde, but his book is as self-effacing as it is quip-witted.' —Beejay Silcox, *The Guardian* 'The best Australian books of 2023' 'Skinner has been called the Australian David Sedaris and it's easy to see why. Both have the same droll, self-deprecating humour and both mine their own lives for maximum mirth-making potential. [...] a book with a several-laughs-a-page quotient.' –Thuy On, *Arts Hub* 'The funniest book I have read for a long time' —Andy Griffiths, author of *The Treehouse* series" Goodreads rating: 3.71 How does a walking bookclub work? Like a normal bookclub, we talk about the book, what else we're reading, have read, or want to read (as well as a few tangents into life outside literature!) but we do it while walking around Melbourne and then over a coffee. We often split into smaller groups as we walk, but we also regroup through the walk. Should I read the book beforehand? The conversation will be more interesting if you do, but you can still come along if you haven't finished it yet! Do I need to bring anything? **Comfy** walking shoes, drinking water, some money for coffee or a bite to eat after if you wish. No need to bring the book unless you want to. No shows No shows (RSVPing yes and not attending) mean the group waits unnecessarily for those who are not coming, thinking you are running a little late. It’s absolutely fine to change your rsvp for any reason up until the walk begins, and you don’t need to leave a comment, send a message or give a reason, but if you don't click that 'change rsvp' button, you may be removed from the group. Membership Fee Did you know that while it is free to attend most events, Meetup charges organisers about $600 a year to organise a group? Members of the Walking Book Club are asked to pay a membership fee of $10 per year (not per event) to help cover this cost. When you join the group, you'll be automatically given a three month trial so you can see what the group is like, without needing to make any payment. If you would like to continue attending events after this, please follow Meetup's instructions to pay the $6.50US/approx $10AUD fee once per year (or contact group organisers if you would prefer to make payment using paypal, payID, cash or bank transfer).

Private Group. Closed to the Public Knowing ourselves and understanding our abilities is the first step toward wielding our gifts with control and accuracy. In subsequent classes we will verify and hone our talents with activities and discussion. These are hands-on workshops and participation is expected. The goal of our series will be to develop expertise in areas of particular interest such as mediumship, channeling, divination, healing and, etc.. Our ultimate directions will be determined by class members as we evolve. I look forward to sharing and discovering with you. - Cynthia

## Candle Making Night at The Arcane Foundry \| Design Your Own Custom Candle **SPECIAL PROMOTION**: Buy 3 and get 1 Free! Step into The Arcane Foundry and create your own custom candle from start to finish. This is a laid back, hands-on experience where **you’ll blend fragrances, choose your vessel, and pour your own candle using 100% soy wax**. Whether you’re coming solo or with friends, it’s designed to be simple, creative, and a good time. We’ll walk you through the entire process, from picking your scents to choosing between a traditional cotton wick or a crackling wood wick. You can go with one fragrance or mix your own blend to create something completely unique**. No experience needed**, just show up and we’ll handle the rest. While your candle sets, feel free to hang out, play a game, explore the shop, or just relax and talk. Drinks and snacks are available, and the atmosphere leans into the **fantasy**, **dark academia**, and **gothic horror** vibe The Arcane Foundry is known for. Learn More: [Candle Making in Columbus, Ohio at The Arcane Foundry](https://thearcanefoundry.com/candle-making/) *** ### What to Expect: * Guided candle making experience * Choose your own vessel, wax, wick, and fragrance * 100% soy wax candles * Optional drinks and snacks * Time to relax while your candle cools *** ### Important Notes: * Please arrive on time so we can start together * Candles will need time to set before taking home * This is a beginner-friendly event *** ### RSVP Required Reserve your spot on Meetup to lock in your seat. **Candle Making** (includes vessel, your choice of wick, wax, scented oil, labels and lids) 5oz Glass Jars $15 8oz Candle Tins $25 12oz Glass Candles $35 12oz Amber Jars $40 16 oz Skull or Jack o Lantern Candle Mugs $65 (Limited Edition!) **All materials included. You just bring yourself (and your drink of choice).** **Payments accepted:** * Credit Card * Venmo: @Daclaud-Lee * Cashapp: $DaclaudL

Join us for an hour of writing! We’ve discovered that it’s strikingly helpful to write with other writers. See if it’s true for you at 7:00pm on Wednesday, April 22 at Streetlight Guild. Be it a book, blog, script, essay, dissertation, resume, melody, poem or just plain work stuff, you are invited to write it with us. No one will see what you've written or give you unsolicited advice. Instead of just thinking about writing, come and get some real writing done. **SCHEDULE:** 6:45ish - Quick introductions 7:00 - Timer starts: write for 1 hour 8:00 - The End **OPTIONAL SOCIALIZING** happens before and after the writing hour. Writing is very solitary. Connecting (and sometimes even commiserating) with other writers is a cool thing. **BEING LATE IS OKAY:** just show up and get settled! If you were on time, please be willing to make room for the friendly latecomer. Happy writing & I look forward to seeing you at Streetlight Guild! **WHAT SHOULD I BRING?** Whatever you need to be able to write! You're welcome to bring earplugs/headphones if noise will bother you! **OTHER IMPORTANT DETAILS:** * **RSVP:** Please RSVP by 6:00pm the evening of the meeting. This helps me know how many to expect, and if we'll need additional space! * **COVID:** While masks are not required, please be mindful of the other writers around you and their comfort levels. * **WIFI/OUTLETS:** Outlets are limited, so please ensure your devices are charged when you come! But Streetlight Guild does have free WiFi! Yay! * **PARKING:** There is free public parking at Streetlight Guild.

**TBA**

Main Library, Meeting Room 2B Join us for a welcoming evening of reflection, gentle music, and meaningful conversation. We’ll begin with a short grounding moment, followed by a brief reading from spiritual or philosophical traditions, and an open reflection circle where participants can share (or simply listen). Libera Animae is an interfaith community focused on inner growth, creativity, and authentic connection. All backgrounds are welcome.

**TBA**

Let’s meet and share our thoughts about Carson McCullers’ novella, The Ballad of The Sad Café.