Scully's Place - Disappointing

Sunday morning we decided to have breakfast out, just something simple. We dropped into Scully's place, a recently new offering on Stanley Street in East Brisbane. It's an impressive place, taking a corner spot, high visibility, loads of off road parking and huge covered eating areas which picked up the breeze on such a hot morning making it a pleasant spot to sit in.
Scully's Place is a deli, cafe. I didn't get to look around inside as I had a time constraint and it took forever to get our food.  In fact, the service was so poor that I had to leave before Big Red even got his food served.  Order at the counter and take your number to any table. I had ordered a bagel and that arrived in about 5 minutes.  I waited a bit but then decided to eat as it was going cold. Still no coffee. Finally saw coffee being made only to sit for a few minutes while several wait staff ran around.  Coffee arrives, the excessive layer of chocolate on my cappucino made it taste like a mocha (just saying!).  Ask the waitress for the rest of our food. "It wont be long", she tells me brightly (does not go and check). Coffees are drunk.  Finally get waitresses eye and ask for food again. "I'll just check", and off she goes. As we are sitting right next to the counter we can see her pick out the bacon and egg roll and pass it over for cooking.  She comes back out to us, "It won't be long, it's being cooked now".  By this time my time is up and I have to leave before Big Red even gets his food.  It did come eventually but we went out to have food together so we didn't really achieve our goal.
The place is great, it's on a main traffic route to town so it will get plenty of people stopping but if it doesn't smarten up it's service people wont be returning.  My observation of the servery / kitchen was that no one was in charge.  I think it may have been the barista's responsibility but seriously, the wait staff needed direction and it can't be given if attention is being paid to producing good quality coffee. I have to say the staff we encountered were all really pleasant, just leaderless. We weren't the only frustrated patrons that morning judging by comments on nearby tables. Come on Scully's, you need to manage things better than that.  I'll give you one more try but with such good eating spaces in the area nearby you will have to lift your serving standards considerably.
As for the food..... well the photo of part of the food cabinet says it all.  Plenty of delicious delectables.  Though I personally don't care for my food being served on enamel camping plates (used those when I was a kid), everything was clean and nicely presented. I will go back for a look inside but I wont be coaxed back just for a coffee.......

A Rival for my Local

WAIT UP! There's a new kid on the block and he's simple and smart (I'm not sure why but this place is definitely a boy).  I spied Keyhole Espresso as it's sign went up.  Great name, it begs a question.  It's just round the corner from my local, Blue Poppy, so I thought I'd better check out the competition. I was also captivated by the road sign announcing "fresh bagels daily"! I adore bagels but they are so hard to come by in Australia.  I like them simple with cream cheese and jam, they were on offer so I was a happy camper.  However they offered more than just plain bagels (they also do a gluten free option), and they do a variety of toppings too (there was meat in there for the lads).  They also serve desserts, today's offerings being Cherry Pie and Chocolate Cake.
I waited until after the morning work rush and headed on down there in the Vitara rather than be spotted in the more distinctive MX5. I felt like I was on a mission and I had to be careful not to be spotted by one of the many Blue Poppy locals.
Anyway, I LIKED this space. Outside there are umbrellas and a few seats and carparks (not many but then there is the roadside too). Inside there are a few small tables (not much space for newspaper readers who like to spread their paper out wide) and also some more relaxing chairs.  The space is not crammed with furniture, it's air conditioned, there's free wi-fi (could be a new writing spot...) and the staff are really pleasant, known to their already regulars by first name.
The coffee was well made, and the service was great. There was a little shortbread biscuit on my saucer (of course I didn't eat it) and there's a table with self service water and glasses. The place was fresh, clean and comfortable and provides me with a great local alternative especially when a bagel for breakfast beckons! This one is worth trying and especially convenient when traveling into the city on Richmond Road, Morningside.

The 10 Second Snog

THIS is the best bit of relationship advice I've ever heard and I thought I'd share it because this morning we had been driving for an hour before I realised we hadn't even kissed good morning.  Relationships go through good times and bad, life gets busy, we take things for granted. Sometimes that "buzz" just ain't there and this is a simple way to reinvigorate it. It takes particpation from both parties but just 10 seconds of your time.
Next time you exchange a kiss just count how long it takes. I can pretty much guarantee that unless you are in the first flush of love, it will be pretty quick.  There's the "wake up, rollover and squish lips" kiss, the "goodbye see you at the end of the day" kiss, the "hello honey I'm home" kiss, maybe a thank you kiss and finally a goodnight kiss. I'm pretty sure that most of those will be less than 10 seconds. I challenge you to count how long a normal kiss would be (withough giggling or deliberately stretching it out).
Didn't Einstein imply that if you want a different result you need to change what you are doing?  Well, if you want some more intimacy in your relationship then take a few seconds (literally) and give your partner a 10 second snog instead of the 2 second lip-glances that you most probably now exchange.  I bet your partner is surprised when you continue the kiss for 10 seconds. We have dissolved into laughter, gasped for air and well, generally enjoyed it!
So take the time to stop and deliberately kiss your partner. What's 10 seconds between friends?