Cafe #17: I wrote this down somewhere...

Date: Tuesday, 24 April 2007, 1.45pm
Location: Kew
Coffee: $3.30, cappucino - good
Reading: Selected Essays of Andrei Bely

I took the tram and train to Box Hill today for an appointment at Family Planning VIC. I am considering changing my birth control from Implanon (the implant) to an IUD. I came all the way out to Box Hill (in zone two!) because I have always gone to family planning for birth control matters. I don't really trust anyone else. I had a good chat with a couple of doctors and have come out with an Implanon prescription if I choose to stick with that method and advice to go to the Royal Melbourne Women's Hospital for the IUD if I choose that method.

I expected to be advised against the IUD but I wasn't. The doctors (a trainee doctor was there as well) took no position. The Mirena IUD has a little bit of progesterone, which can stop one's periods altogether - really appealing. The copper one has no hormones at all - also appealing, and why I am considering an IUD (I haven't experience my natural hormone cycle since I was 21), though probably not as appealing as no period. Either IUD can stay in for 5 years, but the initial insertion is a bigger deal and more painful, requires more appointments than Implanon and I may not like my own hormones. I have time to decide what I want to do.

Following my appointment, I travelled the 109 tram towards Port Melbourne and have gotten off at Kew. There are many nice restaraunts and cafes but all seem quite expensive. I wanted lunch but didn't want to pay more than $10 - so I ended up at a cafe with baclava and coffee instead of lunch. I had hoped a cafe called ??? would have falafel on the menu. No such luck.

??? is a pleasant cafe with an old dark wood floor and heavy green marble-topped tables. There is a tube of multicoloured blinking lights around the windows and the walls are brown, cream-peachy and orange (different walls, different colours). There are bar seats in two windows and small white vases of fake rosebuds and lily-of-the-vally on the tables. It is a classy cafe with a Euroean feel, but I don't feel comfortable staing too long. Plus I have this essay due on Friday...

The baclava was alright - probably quite authentic but very nutmeggy and sweet.

It is a beautiful day outside despite the chilliness of the morning so I shall probably stay out a bit more, hunt for cheap falafel.