I haven't visited the Prahran cafe, but Amici runs a stall at the Bundoora Farmers' Market, and I visited their stall last weekend for the first time.

I agree wholeheartedly with @Reeces's review of the Portuguese custard tarts. Now, be aware that the traditional Portuguese tart is a rustic-looking object that won't win any beauty contests at the best of times, and Amici's tarts are even more ordinary-looking than most. They have dull, pale yellowish-beige tops, and thick pastry that one initially suspects (based on unpleasant past experience at other bakeries) might be stodgy and unappetising. I looked around Amici's website for a photo of them, but couldn't find one; perhaps the Portuguese custard tart has been deemed not pretty enough even by its makers, and pushed aside to make way for its more photogenic brethren.

But do not be put off by appearances. I decided to go ahead and buy a Portuguese tart anyway, based on @Reeces's praise of the product.

Despite its rustic appearance, the pastry isn't the least bit heavy or stodgy; it's actually crisp, flaky and delicate. And the custard is beautifully rich, creamy, and not too sweet or cloying. This little ugly duckling is indeed a swan: a first-class product which I can highly recommend.

Next time, I'll be buying more than one, and I'll try some of Amici's other products as well. I'm actually kind of glad the Portuguese custard tart's appearance is a little off-putting; hopefully that means they won't sell out too quickly next market day, because only those people in the know will be buying them.

UPDATE 2 May 2012: The other day I found myself in Chapel St Prahran in the middle of the morning with two hours to kill between appointments. What to do? Not enough time to go home to Coburg and back again. Window shopping was out of the question; I hate shopping, window or otherwise, and only do it when there's something I desperately need. Then I remembered that Amici bakery is in Chapel St. This was my opportunity to try it out. And I was hungry; I'd had to leave home so early that morning, there had been no time for breakfast.

Amici is a slightly old-fashioned looking space - lots of timber, glimpses of bustling activity in the kitchens along one side behind the bakery counter, very much a working bakery - but fortunately the operation is far slicker than initial appearances might suggest. T was promptly shown to a table, provided with tap water without having to ask for it (instant big tick from me), and given a menu which turned out to be more extensive than I'd expected from a bakery cafe. Plenty of options here for a simple morning tea or a substantial breakfast or lunch.

As soon as I saw Green Eggs and Ham on the menu, I just had to order it. With a name like that, how could one not? It was essentially Eggs Benedict with a green twist: poached eggs, prosciutto, house-made English muffins, and a parsley Hollandaise sauce. I'd expected a fairly standard Hollandaise sauce with a few green flecks in it. What turned up was the most splendidly, violently green sauce I'd ever seen. Loved the look of it. Loved the taste of it. "I like, I like green eggs and ham. I do, I like them, Sam-I-am." And the eggs were perfectly poached, something that an alarmingly large number of cafes can't seem to get right.

Usually when I'm eating alone, I eat, pay, and go. But on this occasion I had plenty of time to kill before my next appointment, so I lingered over my mango smoothie and watched the waitress give the same smiling and efficient service to the other tables as she had given to me. A woman came in with a baby; the waitress promptly brought over a high chair. Another customer nursed a coffee and worked on a laptop. No one seemed in a hurry to move her along, or me.

I don't know whether things get more hectic at lunchtime, or at weekends - there's probably much more competition for tables, so people may be encouraged to eat up and go - but I can tell you that at mid-morning on a weekday, this is a very relaxed and pleasant place to linger with a newspaper or laptop, or chat to a friend. I wish it were my local cafe. I could see myself visiting it at least once a week, not least to try out all the other tempting things on the menu.

Finally, reluctantly, I took my leave, clutching a bag of Portuguese custard tarts. Couldn't possibly leave Amici without buying some of those.

I have ordered one lot of goods from The Vet Shed so far, total value (including shipping) just over $125, and so far I am satisfied. I will very likely continue to order from them.

The thing that caused me to start looking for online pet product providers is that I have been unhappy for some time with the prices that my local vet charges for such things as Hill's Prescription diet and Advocate flea treatment. My pets are currently on Hill's Prescription diets (not to be confused with Hill's Science Diet). This food is expensive, and so is Advocate flea treatment. A little cursory googling suggested that there were much cheaper prices to be found online. So I did some more extensive searching, looking at more than 15 sites. Most sell vet products exclusively; a few are online department stores selling a wider range of products. After a very careful comparison of prices, shipping charges, range of products, terms and conditions, and website design, I settled on The Vet Shed for my pet food. I will possibly buy flea treatment from them as well; I'm not quite sure yet.

On the plus side:

1. Some pet product suppliers do not sell any pet food at all. (Which actually makes me wonder how they stay in business! Surely if you want to really succeed in retail, consumables are the way to go... customers use them up and then need more. But no, some sites seem to be happy just selling collars, toys, beds, and the like...) Some suppliers sell pet food, but not Hill's. Some sell Hill's Science Diet, but not the Prescription Diet. Some sell Hill's Prescription Diet, but only the dry food.

The Vet Shed is the ONLY site I have found so far that sells the full range of Hill's Prescription food, both canned and dry: C/D for cats with urinary tract disease, I/D for gastrointestinal disorders, Z/D for allergy problems, M/D for diabetes, L/D for liver disorders, and much more.

Incidentally, do NOT buy these Hill's Prescription products unless your pet has actually been diagnosed with the relevant medical condition, and do NOT attempt to diagnose any of these conditions yourself. For one thing, it would be a colossal waste of money, as these prescription foods are much more expensive than other commercial pet foods or raw meat. More importantly, diagnosing your pet's problem yourself would be an incredibly foolish and dangerous thing to do. These are not "just in case" products. They are to treat specific medical conditions that your vet has diagnosed. You don't need to actually buy these products from your vet, but you should ONLY buy them after receiving advice from your vet about whether your pet has a medical problem and which of these products, if any, can help alleviate the condition. The vast majority of cats and dogs don't require any special diets at all; don't let anyone try to convince you that they do. I've raised several generations of pets that have thrived on perfectly normal diets. This time round, I've just been unlucky. Not that I'd trade the little blighters for anything...

As soon as I discovered that The Vet Shed is the only online supplier that sells Hill's Prescription canned food, it gained a huge advantage over its competitors. If the main product I need to buy is only available from one online retailer, then that's where I'll have to buy it; and if I already have to buy one product from them, there's a good chance I'll buy other products too, to save time, even if they're slightly more expensive than elsewhere. (I wouldn't, of course, if they're MUCH more expensive than elsewhere - but more on that later.)

2. The Vet Shed's prices for the things I need are substantially cheaper than those at my local vet. Some examples:
* Hill's C/D canned food, 24 x 156g cans: local vet $74.52, Vet Shed $64.50
* Hill's C/D dry food, 1.8kg bag: local vet $38.34, Vet Shed $33.20
* Hill's T/D dry food, 1.8kg bag: local vet $37.20, Vet Shed $32.20
* Advocate 6 pack for large cats: local vet $70.29, Vet Shed $60.60

3. The Vet Shed's prices for Hill's Prescription dry food are not the very cheapest that can be found online, but are consistently within a dollar or two of the cheapest. And as I mentioned earlier, I'm not going to go chasing down every last dollar, buying each product from a different supplier just because that supplier is the very cheapest. Partly because I don't have time to stuff around with several orders, and partly because it would be silly to pay a separate shipping charge to all these different suppliers. Better to consolidate as many orders as possible with one supplier and pay one shipping charge for the lot. As long as each product that I need from The Vet Shed is within the same ballpark as the cheapest online price - and they mostly are - that's good enough for me.

4. I like The Vet Shed's shipping policy, and the way they are completely upfront about what it will cost. All items are insured and tracked by barcode, and they claim to take full responsibility for anything lost or damaged in transit. Their shipping rates are spelled out in full on their website. They vary by weight: eastern mainland states from $6.50 to $15; other states from $6.50 to $40; all states free if your order is under 3kg and over $180 (which sounds like a lot of money, but three or four six-packs of flea treatment will get you over this limit, and they weigh hardly anything); an extra charge for vaccines because they require refrigeration and express delivery.

If you can't be bothered reading through the table of rates and weights and working out what you'll be charged, they have a calculator that you can click on at any time as you're assembling your shopping cart; just enter your postcode into it, and they'll tell you the shipping charge for the total goods you've selected so far. To use this calculator, you don't even need to have come anywhere near the stage of finalising your purchase yet. I tried using a competitor's site, and eventually gave up in frustration because it would not even think about calculating shipping, would not even give me a rough estimate as to what the shipping cost might be, until I'd created an account and entered my name and full address. That I was NOT prepared to do. It's none of their business who I am until I'm ready to order, I won't know whether I want to order until I know what it costs, and how can one possibly compare prices across suppliers unless one can factor in the shipping costs as well?

5. As I compared these online suppliers, I also evaluated their websites for ease of use. Some were so annoying and clunky that I wondered if their cheap prices were worth the aggravation. The Vet Shed's website was one of the least annoying ones. It's well laid out, and I could quickly zero in on the products I was interested in.

To take just a single example of good web design vs poor design:

Poor design: One of the Vet Shed's competitors. Has a category labelled "Dog and Cat Products". Suppose you only have dogs, and you want some Frontline flea treatment. "Dog and Cat Products" -> "Flea and Tick" -> and now you're faced with a long, long list of products - 52 of them - including many cat products you're not interested in, yet you're forced to wade through all of them just to find the single dog product you want. Sure, there's a "Featured Items" menu on the right of the screen, but too bad if the product you want isn't a featured item. Have fun trawling through the list.

Good design: The Vet Shed. Has separate categories for dogs and cats. Dogs -> Flea and Tick Control -> Frontline -> takes you to a single page with twelve Frontline products for dogs, and you can easily see and pick out the right product for the size of dog you have and the size of pack that you want. Then if you're an owner who also has cats, you can do the same thing starting from the Cats heading. It's faster not just for people who only have dogs or only have cats, but also faster for people who have both.

It's common sense, but unfortunately many of the people who design websites seem to be lacking the ability to put themselves in the shoes of the site's customers.

6. The Vet Shed is one of only a couple of online retailers who have a loyalty program, for people who care about that sort of thing. Personally, I think a loyalty program is a nice bonus, but I'd never choose a retailer based on the loyalty program alone; the rewards are usually so small as not to be worth it. I'm more interested in quality of product, range of products, price, service, and how a business responds when things go wrong, as things invariably do from time to time. If I'm satisfied with all those things, only then will I turn my attention to loyalty programs. Anyway, for those who care, and want to know how it stacks up against another business they may be considering: according to The Vet Shed's website, at the time of writing the points value is 1.25%. That means, for example, if you spend $100, you'll earn points worth $1.25 that you can use to pay for future purchases. They do stress that they reserve the right to alter the terms of the loyalty program at any time, so don't assume it will still be the same by the time you read this.

7. They have an order tracking facility on their website, so you can see at any time what stage of processing your order has reached.

8. Delivery is fast. I live in Melbourne, and The Vet Shed is in Brisbane. I ordered my products around 5pm on a Monday evening, and they arrived Friday morning.

On the minus side:

Although The Vet Shed's price for a 6-pack of Advocate is almost $10 cheaper than that which my local vet charges, it's still far from being the cheapest available online. Of 15 online retailers I found that sell Advocate 6-pack for large cats, seven of them charge less than $60. The cheapest was $52.95. The Vet Shed, which charges $60.60, ranked eighth, placing it squarely in the middle. The remaining seven retailers were all more expensive than the Vet Shed. Curiously, if I add my local vet to this list, it doesn't end up in last place; it's only third last.

So I'm still unsure whether I'll buy my Advocate from The Vet Shed. I wouldn't be fussed about a dollar or two's difference, but we're talking potential savings of more than $7 a pack here if I go with the very cheapest supplier - and I go through several packs a year, so it quickly adds up. Naturally, one would have to factor in shipping costs - and that cheapest supplier is one of the annoying sites that refuses to tell you what the shipping cost will be until you're on the very point of finalising the sale, which instantly gets my back up. I'm going to have to investigate a bit more before I decide.

However, for the other things I need, the Vet Shed has proved very satisfactory. It unquestionably has the edge on its competitors due to its vast range of food, and its service so far has been excellent.

UPDATE 21 Aug 2012: I thought it was about time I posted an update of my dealings with the Vet Shed. I've had six separate orders so far, totalling more than $800, and have experienced not a single problem. Prices still competitive. Dispatch of orders is exceptionally prompt, which is good because there was one occasion when I only noticed that one of my cats was low on his special C/D food as I reached for the last can. (And he's not allowed to eat anything but C/D, so it's important that I don't run out.) Delivery is very reliable, especially because you have to sign for the package. Highly recommended.

This cafe has already been through at least four incarnations that I know of. Most recently it was called What About Food. With new management has come yet another name change: 330 Briks. I ate there for the first time recently, and I'll give it a cautious thumbs-up.

It does all-day breakfasts and light lunches, six days a week (closed on Mondays). I like places that do eggs all day, so that's a big tick for starters. I gave it a second big tick when the waitress put water on the table as soon as I sat down, without needing to be asked.

The menu includes eggs lots of ways, corn fritters, bready things, a risotto or two, and I can't remember what else. There was certainly enough of interest to make me keen to return.

On this occasion I had the corn, capsicum and coriander fritters, topped with a generous pile of bacon, avocado, sour cream, and a tomato kasoundi. I would have liked the fritter part of the dish to have been a little larger even it it meant foregoing the bacon - it was more like fritter singular than fritters plural - but the overall serving was reasonably sized. It was a thoughtfully composed dish, with all the elements complementing each other, and was well executed. I enjoyed it very much.

The test of a breakfast place is how well they do poached eggs, so I plan to return in the near future and try those. If they can manage to produce a perfect Eggs Benedict, combined with the good service I received on my last visit, they will be able to count on me as a regular customer.

A couple of people on Urbanspoon have complained about the service here (indifferent, slow, unapologetic, even rude). One person said that he liked the food, but the service was so awful that he won't be back. My experience was different; I couldn't fault the service on the day I visited. Mind you, my waiter was female, and all the people who complained on Urbanspoon had a male waiter. So I suspect it very much depends on which waiter you get.

This is something for management to be aware of, if they're reading this. A good waiter can make all the difference to a meal; I've even been known to forgive minor faults in the food if I'm made to feel welcome. A bad waiter can leave such a sour aftertaste that you never want to return, no matter how good the food was. So if there's a waiter here who recognises himself in the negative reviews I have mentioned, he should lift his game. At the very least, management should be made aware of it, because he is costing them business.

Approximate cost: $14 - $17

This cafe is owned by the same people who own Tre Sette, round the corner in Bouverie St, and Bar Scopa, round the other corner in Leicester St. I've never eaten at Bar Scopa, but I've eaten at Briscola and Tre Sette countless times. They share the same menu, so a review of one is virtually a review of the other. To see what I think of the food, go have a look at my review of Tre Sette; I won't repeat it all here.

Briscola is a lot smaller than Tre Sette. The area where you order and wait for your takeaway food gets very crowded, and if you're eating in, you may have trouble finding a table at lunchtime.

Reviewer @rosep1 from Doncaster East says that Briscola is owned by the same people who own Brunetti's. Are you sure? Where did you hear that? Certainly there are, or have been, a number of Brunetti's clones or offshoots in the Carlton area (Porta Via, Blueprint, and others I've now forgotten the names of) but I've never heard that the Briscola/TreSette/BarScopa trio was under Brunetti's ownership as well. The menus have nothing in common, and there's nothing on Briscola's website that hints at common ownership.

This cafe, in Bouverie St, is a sister to Briscola just round the corner in Pelham St. A third one under the same management, Bar Scopa, opened a short distance away in Leicester St a year or so ago.

I've not eaten at Bar Scopa, but I've eaten at both Tre Sette and Briscola many times. I used to work nearby, and they were the two places I'd go to most often for lunch, over a period of a few years. These days I only call in occasionally. The menus at Tre Sette and Briscola are almost identical, so a review of one is virtually a review of the other, in terms of the food anyway.

The food is reliably good without being great. The sandwiches, baguettes, and panini are ready-made, which on the one hand makes ordering very fast, especially if you're just grabbing a quick bite between meetings, as I usually was. On the other hand it means if you don't like the combination of ingredients in the filling, you just have to take it or leave it. Most of their fillings are pretty good, but the choices for vegetarians are limited. I'm not a big meat eater (although I'm not a vegetarian), so I tend to gravitate towards the veg and seafood end of a menu, but this place doesn't have a lot in the way of vegie offerings. I recall an egg and lettuce sandwich that was regularly on the menu, but not a whole lot else. In the early days, they regularly had a baguette with mushroom, thyme, and a light, delicate cheese - bocconcini, from memory? - which I loved, and ordered every time it was available, but then they took it off the menu and I never saw it again.

Their hot food - lasagna, pizza, and the like - is OK, but not especially memorable. I'd order it if I only had a short time for lunch and didn't want to go far. It was perfectly acceptable. But if I had the time, and wanted really good lasagna or pizza, I preferred to go the extra distance to a proper Italian restaurant in Lygon St.

In the early days they would sell the most sensational apple and cranberry muffins and chocolate brownies. I asked where they came from, and they said Phillippa's (the well-known bakery in Armadale). But after I'd developed an addiction to these, especially the muffins, they changed their suppliers. The current cakes, muffins and brownies are nowhere near as good, so I haven't bothered buying them for years. Pity they stopped selling the Phillippa's ones. Although given that I've since developed diabetes, perhaps it's a good thing.

I can't comment on the coffee, because I don't drink it, but colleagues say it's just OK and that you can get better coffee at Seven Seeds a couple of blocks away, and some say better food too. That may be so, but Seven Seeds is also a lot more crowded. I've only managed to get a table there once.

I've never had a problem getting a table at Tre Sette, but Briscola is tiny, and can get pretty crowded at lunchtime. Both cafes have a few tables outside.

Tre Sette, Briscola and Bar Scopa all share a website - www.briscola.com.au - but management should give the web developers a kick in the pants. For one thing, it's inadequate; it's mainly full of pictures. It should have more details of the menu. Even if the menu changes very frequently (which it doesn't here, or at least not often enough to matter much), there's no reason why they couldn't include a sample menu. For another thing, it's confusingly laid out - only two of the three cafes are mentioned on the Locations page, and a different two out of the three are mentioned on the Contact page. For a third thing, the website contains spelling mistakes. Call me a pedant, but I'm always put off by websites that contain spelling mistakes. Everyone (including me) makes typos when they're dashing off a quick email to a friend, but on a business website, it's unprofessional. Proofread your site, or if you can't, find someone who can.

Many people are unhappy with their bank, especially if they bank with one of the Big Four, but it seems that relatively few do anything about it. This is perhaps not surprising in light of the fact that financial institutions don't go out of their way to make it easy for a customer to switch, especially if you have a number of products bundled together with the one institution. (See my separate review of BankMECU for an account of what a hassle it was just to get a single item - a credit card - switched from one institution to another).

But if you can grit your teeth and put up with the hassle of switching, it can pay dividends.

Some people may believe that the solution lies with the smaller banks. So did I, once. Many moons ago now, I got tired of the poor service at one of the Big Four, and decided to transfer my business to one of the little banks that had sprung up in the wake of the financial deregulation of the early 1980s. For a while, life was good and I was happy. Problem is, that little bank got taken over by another, which got taken over by another, which finally got taken over by one of the Big Four. I was back where I'd started.

There has to be another solution, I thought. And there is. Try a credit union. There are heaps of them out there. I only have experience of a couple of credit unions, but my experience has been good, my friends (at both MUCU and other credit unions) say the same, and surveys consistently show that credit union customers tend to be much more satisfied with the service provided than bank customers are.

I joined Melbourne University Credit Union (MUCU) about fifteen or twenty years ago, when I worked on campus. It's not a particularly flash branch. Sometimes when I walk in, I feel as though I've been transported back to the 1960s. It's kind of daggy-looking, but in a good way. Flashy isn't always better.

This credit union compares very favourably with a bank in a two significant ways. One is that its transaction account (Access Savings) has very low fees. It has no monthly account-keeping fee at all, and as long as you stay under the limits for ATM and EFTPOS transactions, you can avoid transaction fees too. Want to know how much I've paid in fees in all the years I've been with them? Zero. Not a cent. And I don't specially change my spending patterns in order to avoid the fees, either. In fact, in order to write this review, I had to go look up the MUCU website to check whether they still do have transaction limits, because I knew that whatever those limits are, they're sufficiently generous not to affect me.

I have a chequebook attached to this account as well, and a year or two ago MUCU introduced a 50c fee on each cheque. But this hasn't yet affected me either. With things such as BPay and Paypal, I hardly ever need to write a cheque these days, and 50c isn't going to break the bank if I do.

Several years ago, when I still had my credit card with one of the Big Four banks, they kept on sending me marketing material urging me to open one of their savings accounts. "Only $5 a month account-keeping fee!" their letter trumpeted. "Isn't that great? Can you beat that?" I ignored this junk mail, but it kept coming and I finally got sick of it. I scribbled a reply on the back of one of their letters. "Dear Big-Four-Bank," I wrote. "Yes, I can beat that. My credit union charges ZERO account-keeping fees. Always has. Much better than your exorbitant $5 a month, which, by the way, adds up to $60 a year and sounds like a fairly crappy deal when you say it like that. I'll stick with my zero-fee account. Can YOU beat that?" And I stuffed it into their reply-paid envelope and sent it back. Never heard from them after that.

Some people reading this may be wondering about ATM coverage. A zero-monthly-fee account is all very well, but it's not going to be so great if your savings are gobbled up by "foreign" ATM transaction fees because you can't find an ATM owned by this credit union - which, after all, is only a tiny one-branch outfit. Fear not. The ATM card is a REDI card, and the REDI network of ATMs is quite extensive. Added to that, you can use any NAB ATM free of charge as well.

The second way in which MUCU compares favourably with a bank relates to its service. In the early days of using my account, when I worked on campus, I'd often pop in to make a deposit or a withdrawal. I never, ever had to queue; MUCU still hasn't introduced central queuing because they don't need to. Usually, you'll be the only customer in there. Moreover, they always remembered me! They knew my face, so they never had to check my signature on the withdrawal slip. Do your bank's tellers recognise you when you walk in? Have they EVER been able to recognise you?

I rarely call in to MUCU now because I do most of my banking electronically, so I don't expect they'd recognise me these days, but whenever I do call in, I get the same friendly and efficient service as I've always received. And there are still no queues.

Because it's only a small institution, MUCU doesn't have every financial product that I need. For instance, it doesn't yet offer a credit card. And I've regularly checked its term deposit rates whenever I've had funds to invest, but it hasn't compared all that well with the interest rates at bigger institutions such as ING. That may change now that MUCU has recently merged with two other small credit unions (LaTrobe Uni and Pulse); with more funds behind it, it may be possible for it to become more competitive. But for an economical day-to-day transaction account, with good service thrown in, MUCU has always been competitive.

I know there's at least one better transaction account out there - ING's Orange account, which actually pays YOU when you make a withdrawal. I've been tempted to switch. But MUCU and I have been together for a long time, and I still feel loyal towards them. About the only thing they could do to lose that loyalty would be to introduce a monthly account-keeping fee. But as long as the account conditions remain much the same, then I'll probably stay with them until I die, and you'll have to claw my MUCU card out of my cold, stiff fingers to get it away from me.

MCS stands for Melbourne CPAP Services. I was referred to this business by my sleep specialist, because I'd been diagnosed with sleep apnoea and I required a CPAP machine.

I'd heard quite a number of stories about what a nuisance CPAP machines are to use, so I was not looking forward to it. I have to be honest and say there's a lot of truth in those stories, and I will never enjoy having to use a CPAP machine. No one in their right mind would use one if they didn't have to. But if you do have to, a good therapist can make all the difference to whether you will persevere with it or not - and Geraldine from MCS's Preston branch is such a therapist.

MCS allows you to hire the machine and mask before you buy them. I don't know whether all suppliers allow you to hire before you buy, but if yours doesn't, and merely puts the hard word on you to buy, then go somewhere else. There are several types of machine out there, and many different types of mask, and you can't possibly know which ones are suitable for you until you try them. And that means sleeping with them, for at least a few nights and preferably a few weeks. Trying them out in the CPAP shop isn't enough. It's nowhere near enough. Take the mask, for instance: you have no idea how uncomfortable a mask can be until you've spent a whole night with it on your face. A mask that felt quite OK for a few minutes in the shop can feel like hell after a few hours, and if you've already bought it, you're stuck with it.

Same goes for the machine. Even if you have very deep pockets and decide to buy the most expensive model, it's not necessarily going to be the one that's right for you. A reputable CPAP supplier will deduct part or all of the hiring fee from the purchase price if you decide to buy. (MCS does.) From memory, I tried two different machines and three different masks before I settled on the ones I decided to buy.

Some machines monitor your breathing, count how many apnoeas and hypopnoeas you have during the night, and store this data, so that you can download it onto a data card and give it to your sleep doctor. They cost (at the time I bought my machine) about $1000 more than the machines that don't do this. I ended up buying the machine that does store this data, because the CPAP therapy wasn't (and still isn't) making any difference to my daytime sleepiness, and my doctor needed to be sure that the machine was effectively treating the apnoea (and it was), and the only way he could know this was by examining the data. But some people start using their machine in the trial period and suddenly find they bounce out of bed each morning filled with energy. I think they could fairly confidently assume that the therapy is working - they probably don't need the data to prove it, and they could save themselves a lot of money by buying the cheaper machine. That's one reason why you should hire before you buy.

There are machines which deliver air at a steady, continuous pressure all night (CPAP - the C is for Continuous), and others which adjust the pressure up or down depending on how blocked your airway is (APAP - the A is for Automatic). APAPs are more expensive, and you may not need one. My sleep doctor examined the data from my trial period on an APAP machine, and found that most of the time it was setting itself to a single pressure. So I ended up buying a CPAP machine rather than an APAP and I saved myself a bit of money. Another reason to hire before you buy.

The single most important component, in my opinion, is the mask. That's where the rubber hits the road, so to speak. If your mask is uncomfortable, you're going to find all sorts of excuses to avoid using the machine, and the whole thing will be a waste of money. Don't be discouraged if you have to try several different masks before you find one you can tolerate. There's a staggering range of masks out there, for all head sizes, shapes, and personal preferences. Yet another reason to hire before you buy.

Actual conversation (or something pretty close to it) between me and Geraldine, my CPAP therapist:

Me (already annoyed at having to wear the damn mask, and getting more annoyed by the minute): "This mask is horribly uncomfortable during the night. It hurts my nose, and I can't keep it in place."

Geraldine: "Hmmm. I thought we might have trouble with that mask. You have an unusually shaped head."

Me: "How so?"

Geraldine: "Well... it's kind of small."

Me: "Oh, really? Just call me Pinhead, then!"

Geraldine: "Well, maybe not small... it's more... sort of flat."

Me: "Even better! Just call me Flathead!"

Geraldine: "Well, maybe it's not your head that's the problem. You have very shiny hair, so this mask slides around a bit."

Me: "Hey, everyone! Flathead is available to do shampoo commercials!"

But we did eventually find a mask I could live with, so I'm sure there are masks out there to fit all the Pinheads, Flatheads, Coneheads, Squareheads, and all the other types of heads in the world.

Needless to say, I was not the most pleasant customer that Geraldine had ever had. In fact, I was fairly grumpy at times. But Geraldine is probably used to grumpy customers. Let's face it, no one goes into a CPAP shop all happy and smiling because they've developed a sudden fetish for sleeping every night with a CPAP mask clamped onto their face. Most people are probably fairly gloomy about the prospect. Geraldine was unfailingly pleasant, no matter how grumpy I got, she was endlessly patient, and she was full of good ideas and helpful advice.

For instance, I once complained that I tended to sleep with my face turned into the pillow a lot, and that made the mask move out of position and I'd wake up with air blasting against my cheek. "Then you need to stop rolling onto your side," said Geraldine. "How do I do that?" I snarled. "I'm asleep! I can't control how I roll around!" "With a bolster," said Geraldine. "Oh, great. Something else I have to buy," I said. "Not at all," said Geraldine. And she explained how to make a bolster: take an old pillow, fold it in half, and stuff both halves down a pillowcase so that you have one half of the pillowcase stuffed full of double-thickness pillow, and the other half empty. Then sleep on top of the empty half, with the fat half wedged beside you so you can't roll on your side. Simple.

With luck, you'll never need a CPAP machine. But if you do, and you live anywhere near Preston, I can recommend this branch. I can't say the experience of using a CPAP machine will be enjoyable - it isn't for me - but with expert help it can be made bearable, and I think Geraldine at MCS Preston has helped make it as bearable as it's ever going to get.

For years I had wanted to take up cycling, but had been putting it off. Increasingly painful arthritis in one knee has made it impossible for me to ride uphill, although I can manage to pedal OK on flat ground.

I read an article in The Age about electric bicycles, and specifically about The Electric Bicycle Co. I had never heard of electric bicycles before, but this seemed to be the answer to my problem.

The bicycle is fitted with a rechargeable battery. You don't need to use battery power if you don't want to; you can pedal it just like a normal bicycle, for as long as you want. But whenever you want a little extra power, or when you're tired of pedalling, you just twist the throttle on the handlebar, the battery kicks in, and away you go. Release the throttle, and the power stops. You can use pedal power alone, battery power alone, or both at the same time - the choice is yours. Obviously, the more assistance you give it by pedalling, the longer the battery will last between recharges.

You recharge the battery at home by plugging the charger into a power point. It takes several hours to recharge, depending on how flat it was when you started. If you're recharging it from a completely flat state, the best time to do it is probably overnight.

There are two types of batteries you can get: lead acid, and lithium. The lead acid one is much cheaper, but it's also MUCH heavier. I could barely lift it. For that reason, I decided to go with the more expensive lithium battery. It's still pretty heavy for its size, but nothing compared to the lead acid one.

I was concerned that electric bicycles might need some kind of special licence; I don't have a motorcycle licence, and am unlikely ever to get one. I needn't have worried. From this company's website: "As the power output rating of the motors does not exceed 200 Watts, they are below the maximum allowable across Australia and thus no license or registration is required." All you need is a bicycle helmet, and you can ride it wherever you are permitted to ride an ordinary bicycle.

I fell in love with this bicycle as soon as I gave it a test ride outside the showroom. There's something truly exhilarating about being able to sail uphill on a bicycle without pedalling.

I get a lot of comments and questions about my bicycle when I ride around my local shopping centre. One person asked me what its top speed is. Hell, I don't know! I've never taken it anywhere near its top speed! I'm a nervous rider in traffic, so I ride fairly slowly, in bike lanes where they exist, and preferably along off-road bicycle tracks. I ride slowly enough that I'm not likely to frighten any people walking along those bike tracks. So I haven't a clue how fast it can go. Put me on a big motor racing track like the airfield on Top Gear, with no obstacles and no other vehicles, and I might be able to tell you. Until then, I'll just keep tootling along at my own modest pace.

The Electric Bicycle Co sells a range of different bicycles. At the time of writing this, there are pictures of at least five different models on their website, plus a conversion kit if you want to convert your existing bike to electric. There's even a tricycle; as the caption on the picture says, "Perfect for Seniors". I chose the Trekker Folding model, not because I ever need to fold it very often, but because I have short legs and only feel comfortable on a bike that's low to the ground. The Trekker Folding has 20 inch wheels whereas most of the others have 26 inch wheels.

The person who sold me my bike was Tony, who I see from their website is also the managing director of the company. Tony was a very patient salesman. He gave me lots of advice, didn't do any hard-selling - he pretty much let his bikes speak for themselves - and he let me sail up and down his driveway on his test bike for as long as I wanted, until I was completely sure that I was making the right decision.

So far I haven't needed any follow-up service from the company. The only problem I've had was a brief period in the middle of winter, lasting about a fortnight, when the power would cut out for no apparent reason while I was riding the bike. To get it going again, I'd have to get off the bike, turn off the ignition key, turn it on again, twist the throttle - and it would immediately cut out again. Recharging the battery made no difference; it would happen even on a fully charged battery. The manual didn't offer any advice - in fact the manual is pretty light on for ANY advice concerning the electrical parts of the bike, probably because they don't want amateur DIY-ers fiddling around with the electrical components and making the problem worse. I was on the verge of phoning The Electric Bicycle Co for help, when I spoke to a couple of car-enthusiast friends about it. They said the problem might be condensation, and one of them put some of that moisture-displacing stuff on it - what's it called? WD-40? - and since then the bike has behaved OK. The real test of the company's follow-up service will come if and when I encounter a problem that I can't fix myself - or, more accurately, that my mechanically-minded and long-suffering friends, bless them, can't fix for me.

Approximate cost: $2000

Brunswick and Coburg suffer from a terrible lack of decent greengrocers. Fortunately, there is one beacon in the wilderness: La Manna in Brunswick.

I used to be a regular at First Choice in Carlton (see my separate review) when I worked very near it, and I still would be if I still worked there. But First Choice closes for a few weeks from Christmas to mid January. (It's a family-run business; they've got to take a holiday sometime!) So for those few weeks, I had to find somewhere else to buy my fruit and veg.

I detest buying them from The Big Two supermarkets; I'll only do that if I'm desperate. After trying what seemed to be every greengrocer along the length of Sydney Rd, including the Coburg Market, and being distinctly unimpressed with what I found, I discovered La Manna.

It is a spacious store, and well laid out. Even on Saturdays, it's rarely crowded. It has a wide range of fruit, veg, and nuts, and also stocks some cheeses, preserves, antipasto, cakes, honey, and similar items. The quality is good - not quite as good, I think, as First Choice, but still more than satisfactory, and vastly better than anything I've ever found in any other greengrocer in Sydney Rd. The service is friendly and efficient.

So I shopped at La Manna every January for several years when First Choice was closed, until a few years ago when my workplace shifted away from Carlton and I could get to First Choice only rarely. Since then I've bought almost all of my fruit and veg from La Manna. I still think First Choice has a slight edge in terms of quality (although not in range), but La Manna is very good, and has the advantage of convenience: not only is it open in January, it's also open on Sundays.

People of Carlton, you are lucky. You have a top-notch greengrocer right on your doorstep. First Choice, near the corner of Lygon and Elgin, is well named. They're a small shop and don't have a vast range of fruit and veg varieties, but what they do have is first-class, without exception. I've occasionally seen its equal elsewhere, but I've never seen better. The service is also first-class; it's a family-run business with the friendliest and most helpful people you'll find anywhere.

What's that? You get your fruit and veg from the supermarket in Lygon Plaza across the road? Shame on you. Yes, I know it's probably cheaper. But price isn't everything. People lament that the Big Two supermarkets are taking over everything and squeezing out the small shops. Well, they're doing that precisely because people won't put their money where their mouth is and support the small shops. First Choice is a shop worth supporting. Fortunately, a lot of people in Carlton do seem to agree, because the shop is often crowded, especially on Saturdays.

I don't know how long they've been trading on Lygon St, but it's at least 20 years, and they have a very loyal following. I used to work only a block away from First Choice, and I was a regular. Rather than doing a big weekly shop for my fruit and veg, I'd nick over there in my tea break at least three or four times a week, to buy whatever veg I needed for that night's dinner. I did that for at least 15 years.

About five years ago I changed workplaces, and it's not so easy to get to First Choice now outside of mad-rush Saturdays, so I do most of my fruit and veg shopping closer to home, at La Manna in Brunswick (see my separate review). But whenever I'm in Carlton I make a point of calling in to First Choice. The place is still full of top-quality produce, and it has the same friendly and smiling staff.

I only wish I still worked nearby so I could make this my local greengrocer again. Highly recommended.