Pony

This week we celebrated our wedding anniversary.  We both love our food so usually each year we pick a new restaurant to go to (that's a lot of restaurants we've been to over 35 years).  Pony had come highly recommended by someone "in the know" about city restaurants. It is in a beautiful location at Eagle Street Pier overlooking the river with the Story Bridge in the background.  We were fortunate to be shown to an inside table overlooking the river.  Fortunate because that night the humidity arrived in Brisbane and we had just had the hottest day in a long time.
The ambiance was sophisticated, quiet despite there being a party on the outside deck and just a little romantic, but that could have been because of who I was with.  The lights dimmed at just the right time (no it wasn't a power cut) and the food was great.
There were a couple of little things that let the experience down. We ordered olives as a starter and they were served in a pre-loved jar.  Now that's a great look at a vintage wedding or engagement but in a smart looking restaurant? Didn't work for me.  It looked like they had taken off the lid, drained the brine, tipped out a few olives and ripped the label off.  The olives were fine.  The second was our waitress. Nice girl, pleasant enough but in a restaurant where her peers were all smartly dressed she wore casual jeans and black sneakers - is that being picky? Oh yes, she also really didn't know what they did with the whey and wheat on the lamb plate and told us that of course the whey was poured over the wheat. It wasn't. I would have preferred being told that she would find out and come back to me. Minor detail but if you go out for a dining experience it is the little things that count. 
Enough of the niggles. The meal really was fantastic. I choose the Pork Belly and it looked delicate and pretty when it came out and it tasted good too.  He who I married 35 years ago ate the Lamb and it looked and smelt amazing. The chargrilled marinade was enough to make the mouth water but the texture of the pink lamb was perfect and melt-in-your-mouth. The plates didn't look like big helpings and they weren't but they were sufficient to fill us to just the point where we could still fit in a dessert and we didn't go home feeling over full.

I would go back to Pony just for the dessert.  My White Chocolate Parfait had nothing calorie free in it but oh my it was good.  The parfait was accompanied by a peanut butter crumble, dark chocolate ganache and a caramel sauce in just the right quantities.  Across the table was a German Chessecake with Marscapone and while the lovely gentleman liked his dessert, after the obligatory mouthful I was happy when he said he didn't need to share!

It pays to travel the Back Streets!

Here is a little beauty (as my Dad would say!). BackStreet Espresso is off the beaten track, literally, it is in a back street but that makes it no less significant. You can find it in Kenrose Street in Carina.  There is always a sign out on Creek Road so you shouldn't get lost.

I've been to this cafe 3 times now and each time I've been served a great cup of coffee. The last time I went I also sampled a GF Friand which came served with Ice Cream and Caramel sauce; decadent but yummy. Unfortunately I ate it all before I thought to take a pic.
There's a few good things about this cafe that make it worth going back to.
1. If you buy a small cup you can choose to have 1 or 2 shots and you are charged the same price. I like the choice without cost idea because some days are definitely 2 shot days.
2. The people there are just really nice
3. They have loads of seats and tables indoors and outdoors
4. They have a nice selection of nibbles
5. There are heaps of interesting photos on the walls

Definitely worth a try.

 

A purpose for each day.

I'm a bit of an all or nothing kind of person.  I realise that not everyone else works this way; it has it's unique set of challenges. I've just been project managing the refurbishment of the Princess Theatre which over the past month has demanded most waking hours and nearly every day, and I have loved every moment of it.  Now the project has come to an end and I have moved from high involvement, high motivation to, well, nothing much.  It highlights that for me, it's really important to have a reason to get up each morning and to define the purpose for my day.  If I can do that then I find that come the end of the day, I have a sense of satisfaction, I can reflect on what I have learned for the day (sometimes that might even be that I didn't do something very well and could try better next time) and I can reset the program for the following day. 

I started the Princess Project with an actual spreadsheet plan of what was to happen and when, it looked great on paper.  Alas, life doesn't always go according to plan and so I had to be flexible according to what was happening each day, who turned up (or didn't) and what I had money to do (or not).  We finished on time but not in the order that I had started out with on the plan. I learned to be flexible.

Actually I learned lots of things. From the painter I got encouragement about my painting skills and learned that you need a really good brush if you are going to do great "cutting in". From the tiler I learned that if you add a little detergent to water in a spray bottle and spray that on your silicone then it will come off cleanly instead of leaving that annoying smear that ends up getting mould under it.
From the carpenter I learned that, well let's just say I learned that I should leave carpentry to the experts! Most of all though I learned from my friend the Big E, that a willing heart and a cooperative spirit make working together a joyful thing.  I am thankful that he was on my team with his strong arms and shoulders to lift, pull, and carry all the stuff that was just too much for me.
So today I have purposed to write again since I have had no time to do that during the project.  Jodi Picoult wrote "You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can't edit a blank page." In other words, you have to start somewhere. Who knows, today's writing might just give me tomorrow's purpose.

Carte Blanche

I went exploring with Nat the other day.  We were on our way out but we were both in need of a caffeine fix and she'd seen a sign, so we followed it and we found Carte Blanche espresso   tucked away in the back streets of Camp Hill, Abbott Street to be exact. What a great wee find.  This I have to say is a girlie cafe.  Everything is cute; small feminine furniture, design, colours, hairdresser out the back (complete with chandelier).  We had a simple brunch which was served on small wooden boards.  Goldilocks size; not too big, not too small.  The coffee was well made and the service came with a lovely smile and a freckle chocolate.

I loved the Jodie Picoult quote on the wall, "You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can't edit a blank page." How true!   I can even imagine myself doing a little writing in this spot.  If I lived around the corner it would definitely be my "walk to" cafe for those days I wanted to catch up with a girlfriend or just chill on my own.  There's plenty of different spaces, inside, at the window, or outside, with different seating combinations. 

 

The Shortness of Sheets

This week I had my annual Melanoma check. The Doctor was lovely but VERY quietly spoken (how do I emphasis something that is quiet? Bold capitals implies shouting or a louder statement of fact, so do I write in teeny tiny font?). I felt like I was leaning into him all the time to catch what he was saying (and yes, my hearing is fine, though selective).  I was so close that when he stopped I nearly ran into him.  He was very polite but for some reason I felt like giggling, maybe I was just nervous, but situations like this are always a bit odd. Next he asked me to take a seat and then he said hello formally, and then he asked me to stand up and go and take my clothes off behind the screen. I felt we could have done without the preliminaries.  It was at that point that he handed me the lovely clean blue sheet and said, "just cover yourself with this".

I did as requested but came to a stumbling block with the sheet.  Now, while I'm not the slimmest model in the stable, I consider myself to be at least an average build so what the heck was I going to with a long skinny piece of blue cloth. I lay on my back and tried to adjust it just so, however if I put it long ways it covered from my ankles to just over my best bits on the top of me but exposed my sides.  If I put it sideways, it covered my best top bits but only a bit of my best bottom bits! I chose the longways option but had to suppress the rising giggle.

Seriously, do Doctors not walk into the examination room and just want to hoot with laughter? (This is the main reason I didn't become a Doctor - I laugh at inappropriate moments in life). I bet they see some really creative positioning of the blue sheet.  Maybe they have a photo book in the lunchroom of the "best of" positions of the sheet. Whatever, the case, I am sure I am not the only person challenged by the shortness of sheets.

Oh yes, my check was all good. If you haven't had a check lately, perhaps you should take the time to have one too and just maybe you should take your own sheet...