Coffee anyone

PC and I walked to our favourite newsagent to invest in our retirement plans (lotto ticket) and then looked for somewhere for PC to have lunch - I had already eated my stuffed capsicum and had a cup of green tea, while watching the National Press Club presentation on the draft climate change review by Ross Garnaut.

We ended up at the round house, officially called Bible House in Garema Place, which once used to sell lots of Christian "stuff". I came here last week with DT for lunch, as I wanted to eat somewhere different from Cafe Essen.



As I have mentioned elsewhere the weather in Canberra is cold, and today it is unusually overcast and grey (no rain of course). We wanted to eat indoors - only the foolhardy and smokers sit outside at this time of year. Bible House is now a cafe called Bardeli's, with second hand books around the wall that you can purchase, to go with your coffee and food. The food is cheap and basic, but good. PC had a ham, cheese and tomato toastie with tea and I had a capuccino.

The waiters and waitresses appear to be learning their trade, so we wonder if it might be training place for either Christians or new immigrants.
Mondo.

chorizo and chickpea or Thai Basil

Well what a conundrum home cooking or restaurant food. This was what I was presented with on arriving home tonight - easily solved by going to Thai Basil. While the review here suggests that there is Italian in this restaurant, I have yet see any Italian (although I am sure that Italians eat here), I have not seen any pasta, pizza or rissotto in here. It is rated at 9.3 by reviewers and I think that is fair enough.

Menu for tonight for us:

• Mixed entree for me and him, as well as Beef Larb and steamed rice,
• Mixed entree and entree satay chicken for MLR
• Vegetarian spring rolls and vegetarian Masuman curry for AJR

행복한 먹기
(Happy eating in Korean on account of how babelfish does not do Thai translations)
Mondo

Thursday

Bad day for walking today as I am tired and unmotivated! Just over 7,000 steps for the day, so will do better tomorrow by walking the dog - it also makes her day too. Sole Sistaz are leading the step race at LWA!!!

The restaurant on Tuesday night was Gurkas in Lygon Street.

It is Nepalese and the food is Indian in style without the heat. If you get to Melbourne then it is worth trying it. We tried goat, there was a chick pea dish that was delish. If you check the link we had the Tenzing Special banquet. Everything on it was lovely, and the company was excellent (would have been better if JR was there, but you cannot have everything). It was more than enough food, there was also plenty of red and white wine.

Alpacas and The Wall

The day started with a walk to the top of Monash hill with Millie and MLR. MLR thought it was too long a walk and sat down on the ground a couple of times. After cleaning the kitchen and the lounge room up a little I took MLR and went off to EPIC to see my friends Alpaca's. She runs Indigo Alpacas near Goulburn. My friend CJK and her kids J & J joined us at EPIC. CJK took some photo's and hopefully I will add them shortly. Afterwards CJK, I and the kids had coffee at Macca's.

In the evening JR, MR and CR and I went out to see Pink Floyd's "The Wall" at the Street Theatre in Town, an amateur production. We had tickets to dinner and the show. Dinner was in the Teatro Vivaldi, we had two courses before the show and then returned for desert in the intermission. The show was fantastic and we really enjoyed the acting, the singing and the light show which was spectacular. There were two problems with the seating, one was that it was unallocated and therefore first in best dressed, which is difficult when you are trying to get four seats together! This was further compounded by the fact that they did not open the doors until almost 8pm (rather than 7.45pm), which made for great stampede acts from people who had been waiting in line for 15-20 minutes. The other issue was that MV's seat in the theatre after dinner sank to the floor as she sat down. MV and JR had to move two rows back and sit where the roadies had sat before!!! Obviously the dinner portions were too generous.

Steps today = 1600 +

Coastal New South Wales 2008

While at Tuross we included a visit to Mogo - we love this town, along with Tilba Tilba as it retains much of its heritage buildings and many of the buildings have lovely things to look at and buy! I found some interesting clothes, we bought some early birthday presents and I managed to leave my mobile in one of the shops, which I retrieved the following morning along with a couple of cappucino's. We spent an afternoon at Mogo Zoo, which we all enjoyed. A lot of time was spent watching the lions being played with by the keepers. At Tilba Tilba we enjoyed some cheese from the cheese factory there, and bought some home to enjoy later. We also managed a visit to our favourite restaurant in Bodalla, Malibu Mex, where there is art work on the walls made from surfboards covered in plaster of paris, figures are also made out of plaster of paris - out the back in the beer garden the chairs are made from surf boards. There is a play room which is great for those of us travelling with children. The guy who runs the place is a surfer from the 60's, and drives a dune buggy car that can be seen at the surf beach at Tuross often as not (covered with advertising for the restaurant). The restaurant is only open limited times a week, so be sure to ring ahead and ensure that it is open. We had half and half dishes, which means you can sample more of the menu - wish there were more who offered this service.

Booze buses, Easter Eggs and Birthdays

Friday lunch time we set off for Sydney. Less than a kilometer from home we were stopped by the roadside speed cops, however they were booking the four wheel drive behind us, in the next kilometer we went through speed camera and then through another speed bus. The weekend looked to be a long one if this is how it is going to be!!!

As it was my birthday we decided to meet up with my brother and family at a local Restaurant Indian Masala in Engadine. The food was delicious. Butter chicken for the kids that eat meat, paneer and another vegetarian dish, lamb with spinach (my favourite) and a meat entree platter and a vego entree platter.

On Saturday at about 10am we drove into Sydney. We parked in the first place we could get into, which was just around the corner from the QVB. We were here to check out Kinokuniya.

Kinokuniya Sydney offers the largest range of books with over 300,000 titles in English, Japanese, Chinese, French and German.

Located in the heart of Sydney CBD, Kinokuniya also stocks an extensive collection of Manga, graphic novels, art and design books, cookbooks, travel books and children's literature. Chinese books and magazines are sourced from both Taiwan and mainland China and they have a Japanese magazine subscription service.

AJR was in seventh heaven and found three books that all cost less than any we can purchase in Canberra. I bought some cards (including a birthday card for JR) and something for Neisha in Adelaide. We then caught the train to Circular Quay where we thought we would eat at Zia Pina's, one of my favourite haunts in the 80's. However we ate next door at the Rocks Cafe I would highly recommend it if you love Italian food like we do.

We went through an exhibition of Dr Zeuss prints at the Trevor Victor Harvey Gallery in George Street. We walked from there through the Rocks Markets, which are always great, to Darling Harbour. Walked past the wildlife park and the 3D cinema and loads of restaurants stuffed to the gills with people watchers and the hungry, to end up at Paddy's Markets next to China Town.

The Haymarket Paddy's is located in the 'Market City' site, beside Chinatown and is more like a traditional flea market, specialising in cheap imported clothes, giftware and also has a small section for fruit, vegetables and seafood. Paddy's Haymarket also sells souvenirs which makes it popular with tourists. The origin of the name is unknown, but is believed to have come from Liverpool, England. In the 1870s, a similar operation had been set up in the back alleys of the Irish area of Liverpool which was known as Paddy's Markets.

AJR spent most of his time in Funky Fashion, stand 525, checking out the range of gear related to the "Jack Skelington" character that he loves. While here we met our neighbours, K, T, C & G from Oxley and agreed to meet them for a drink. At 6.15pm we gathered at the Mecure near Central Station and had a drink. Afterwards ambled up George Street to dinner for K, T, C & G and the car park for us. For a map of our route around Sydney click here.

We set off for Heathcote at 9pm, having walked what felt like 30 kilometers (really about 6 according to Google) throughout the day, with the idea that we would catch an open restaurant in Engadine before the kitchen closed. Just before Tom Ugly's bridge I was pulled over for a breath test, having consumed two lemon lime and bitters and one lemonade, I knew I was fine. However I wanted to be off before the kitchen's closed. I have not been breath tested since about 1989 and did not know that they pointed a little machine at you and asked you to count to ten!! I was looking for the little mouthpiece and waiting for a fresh cover to be put on. Needless to say we did make Engadine for a Thai meal, with karaoke, arghhh.

Will fill in the rest of the weekend tomorrow, too tired tonight.

Cheers,
Mondo

July already

Caught up with TSS this morning and visited Vinnies, where I purchased a small present for my mum's birthday next month. We then adjourned to the Savanah Restaurant, recently reopened in the restaurant strip outside the Hyperdome. Here I had a lovely breakfast, with poached eggs, tomatoes, bacon on sour dough with hollondaise sauce, with a plunger of Cleopatra champagne tea.

Photo courtesy of TSS

While waiting for the food I got to colour in my own place mat, fortunately for me, the food was better than the art. Savanah was a restaurant we regularly had lunch at for work, as well as the four of us as a family on the weekends. It was hard when it closed for renovations, as it was a great place for groups and families, without being a chain food stop. We also thought that with all the renovations, it may never come back, so it was with great delight that I found it open this morning. On weekend's they serve breakfast until 12.30pm, so that has to be a bonus. We meandered back into the Hyperdome and then I went off home, leaving TSS to shop (something she has not done for a month, so she was pretty keen).

At home I took a call from the school, the Principal of Monash Primary was on the phone to explain the process for next week. See here for the background. AJR will be bussed to and from Erindale College and will have access to a great computer lab, but no canteen. They have their own area to use for recess and lunch and have a section of classrooms. College finishes at the end of Monday, so they will only have to share the College for one day. The Principal indicated that they would be doing school work over the next week, for which I am grateful. I really object to the number of video's and cleaning jobs they usually get at the end of semester. The Principal also seemed to suggest that the repairs might take longer than three weeks!!!! Watch this spot.

I used my new convection microwave oven this afternoon, AJR made a chocolate brownie slice and Mondo an apricot slice. I will post more on Aunty A.

Mondo