The service at the Myer store was just great. The girls working there were very friendly, and willing to assist and suggest some great products, be they for gifts or for yourself. The ability to smell all the lovely products - shower gel, lip gloss, perfume and much, much more! - was a great touch. It was just a lovely experience.

Approximate cost: $100

The first time I called, I got my pizza delivered quickly. It was the right order; unfortunately it was not the right type of pizza base. Their menu proudly proclaims "GLUTEN FREE" on the front cover, and is listed nowhere else leading one to assume that ALL items on their menu are thus gluten free.

This was not the case. And to test this out, a call back to other another pizza a few nights later confirmed that their pizzas are NOT "GLUTEN FREE". One has to actually ask for a gluten free pizza base.

So not only is their menu misleading, but their gluten free pizza bases are actually more expensive than normal pizza bases. One would assume that items of a different price would be clearly noted on the menu, after putting "GLUTEN FREE" on the front cover of the menu.

Well, we asked for these more expensive gluten free bases and got told that our pizzas would be about an hour.

30m later, we get a phone call telling us that they were out of gluten free bases.

Needless to say that at 8:30pm in the evening, we were very unhappy with this. They should have told us at the time, or very shortly after, that there were not enough gluten free pizza bases for our order.

The only thing that saves them from being a 1 star overall, really, is the quality of the non-gluten free pizza I had on the first day. It was delicious. It was also reasonably priced.

But they fail miserably on their menu and their service.

Approximate cost: $15.00

I have been wanting to go to the French Corner Restaurant since I moved to Highett about two years ago. People had told me how great it was, and how wonderful the food was and so on.

Tonight was the night, myself and my housemate went in at 8pm for dinner.

Sadly it did not meet expectations by a long shot.

We were asked for drinks rather quickly, and for our meal, which was good. We got bread and water, with lovely soft butter, which was also good.

Our appetisers came relatively quickly, and were delicious.

It took quite a while after we had finished the appetisers for the dishes to be cleared away, but we were both looking forward to our mains.

It was at the 20m mark, at about 8:50pm, after our dishes had been cleared that we started wondering were the food was, we were both pretty hungry by then.

Still nothing. There was a table of 11 still to be served, so I assumed that we would get served straight after them. Yet they did not get served, either.

By about 9:10pm, the large party was served, so we thought that dinner would be along shortly.

We watched desserts coming out, being served to people, but no main meal was served to us.

No-one asking if we wanted more drinks, no-one coming to tell us why our food was so late, and no-one coming to apologise over the lateness of the meal. In fact, we were pretty much ignored. That is understandable to a point, as it looks like there was one waiter and one gentleman behind the bar. But still, some sort of acknowledgement of our presence would have been nice.

It was at 9:15pm that the waiter came over and said that our food would be out shortly. No apology, no offering us drinks, no explanation - nothing.

And it was at 9:30pm that we finally got the main courses.

Much to my shock, my dish was covered in onions. I was very upset, having waited for so long, to be presented with a dish to which I am allergic.

It certainly did not say that it had onions on the menu:

Moules Marinière avec Frites et Mayonnaise
Small $14 .00 Large $28.00

Mussels cooked in white wine with parsley and garlic with housemade chips and mayonnaise

So not only did the food take too long to get to our tables, I could not eat it.

I told the waiter, and he had the chef make one without onions. Okay.

That took a further 15m to get to the table.

So, by the looks of it, it only takes 15m for food to be cooked - maybe a little longer for a medium-rare stake - but certainly not 1hr.

The food itself did not live up to expectations, either. It was okay, but nothing special. Certainly not worth the price.

And we couldn't even think about having dessert after that shamozzle!

At 9:45pm, we paid - full price, I might mention - for the very late meal and left.

We are both very unimpressed, I must say. This is is no way what I expect from any restaurant, especially not a restaurant like the French Corner.

Approximate cost: $25

La Trobe University has a good Archaeology degree, which I am taking at the moment. I have been on digs, I have taken classes, and I have taken part in various social aspects of the university.

The social club scene is pretty non-existant, judging from the clubs that I joined - never to hear from again! Other than that, the only problem is that Bundoora is so far away - it takes forever to get there and home again! This is only a problem, really, when classes are late at night.

It's such a shame that archaeology has lectures from 4-6pm and some of the classes are from 6-7pm! If only it could all be fitted in during the day. As a part-time student I have very little option with when I can take classes, so unfortunately at the moment it means that I take a night class or nothing.

Maybe next year will be better!

Approximate cost: $500 per class

As a bus company goes, Ventura is generally good. You just sit and wait for the bus, and it takes you to where you need to go - timetables are not very accurate, but that is normal.

The major problem I have with Ventura is that the bus that goes from Elsternwick to La Trobe University does not run during the full school day! This is a huge pain when your class finishes at 7pm, and the last bus is at 6:15pm.

Seriously, why should I have to get another bus to Clifton Hill to wait 20m in the dark for the bus to Elsternwick? If it runs to/from Clifton Hill in the evening, it should run to La Trobe Uni to get students home!

I went into Harvey Norman in Moorabbin to look for an air purifier. Unfortunately they only had the small one and the very large one, but not the middle sized one available. The gentleman at the store was very kind to look up all sorts of information online, and to try to direct me to the best place to have a look at the mid size air purifier. Once it was certain that I could not see it without going to the far side of the city, we just ordered one in and I now have it sitting next to my PC here at home - for a discounted price!

Heritage Victoria (Department of Planning and Community Development) hosts the Victorian Heritage Inventory, a list of all known non-Indigenous archaeological sites in Victoria. This can be searched on the website or by appointment at Heritage Victoria. Very useful!

The Parkview Hotel is a regular gathering place, which has a good selection of food that changes weekly. There is a great upstairs area for functions, which is used often, and for those smokers there is an outdoor area that is heated. And of course there is the usual selection of alcocholic beverages!

Approximate cost: $15-20 per main course

Wow, what can I say about Connex? They don't take responsibility for their car parks unless you push Customer Service (mind you, the lady I e-mailed was very nice) - I did manage to get the car park re-painted so no-one else gets booked for being in a disabled car park when you are in a regular car parking spot! But still nothing has been done about the amount of times cars get broken into at the station - security is non-existant.

And then there is the trains with their late arrivals, cancellations and cramped conditions! With the gigantic price tag attacked for the honour of using their services, such as they are.

It could be worse, I could be on the Sandringham line....

I only use them because I have to. What could they do with a little competition, rather than being a monopoly I wonder?

I usually go in for Kinesiology, which is very good and a relaxing experience - Breanna is fantastic! - but I went in for a massage at my last visit and that was just amazing. Talk about relaxing!

Approximate cost: $100 for Kinesiology, $20 for 30m massage