This Little Piggy Went to Market

South Melbourne has a damn fine market. At the weekend it is chocka block with young professionals. Gay couples, straight couples, young couples with children in strollers. They are well dressed and affluent looking but all the same, the Nana trolley reigns queen at the market. Nana trundlers are a common sight and are not confined to the usual profile of pusher (and that would be your Nana of course!). It seems far more acceptable here to trundle a fawn, navy blue or karkhi canvas covered trolley and let's face it – they are extraordinarily useful, they are just not a fashion item. But for the Melburnian resident who gets around on buses and trams, they are oh so practical and therefore this odd behaviour of trailing a bag on wheels behind you has become tolerated, even embraced. Everyone is a Nana here so no one minds.

I like South Melbourne Market, better I think that Prahran. South Melbourne has more interesting stalls like Rita's Nuts. Rita is a Greek goddess, full of life and love for the market, Melbourne, her family... Her stall at the corner is a family business. Three children work here, Rita likes to keep her family close. “You can leave your mother, your sister, but you can't leave your children,” she shakes her head at me when I tell her that I have left my family behind while I'm in Melbourne writing my book. “Your family's the most important thing,” she continues. “Even if they are horrible, they are all you need to survive.” Rita's family came to Melbourne thirty-seven years ago and she loves it here. The adoration in her eyes is all that I need to convince me she is not exaggerating. “You've got to love what you do,” she purrs. “The market is my life.” And she must really love it to get here at 5.30am most mornings.

Another market I visited today was the mass of stalls at the Arts Centre on Southbank. The well-organised ranks of stalls display beautiful handcrafted works from silk scarves to paintings. I found a match for almost everyone I know at this market but I only bought one, absolutely irresistible gift because it was perfect.

Southbank is peppered with street performers, acrobats, jugglers, musicians, human statues. They perform here everyday of the week. Spaceman has even migrated to this end of town. We last saw him in March, my sister and I, on Bourke Street. I caught him today at the end of his...rather bizarre...routine so had the pleasure of seeing him without his spacesuit helmet again. I was tempted to take a photograph but like Batman and Superman, I was sensitive to revealing this Melbourne icon's true identity. The other noteworthy street artist I came across today was outside the National Art Gallery of Victoria on St Kilda Road. He was drawing gorgeous reproductions of famous paintings in chalk on he pavement. They were very good indeed.