Friends and Colleagues

This week's offering from the book and food files is Elizabeth Captive Princess by Margaret Irwin accompanied by chicken quinoa salad with snow peas.

Although I no longer work at Plonk, I was kindly invited along to the Christmas function, which was a fabulous trip on a boat on Lake Burley Griffin, with a great array of food (cooked by one of the staff members who is also a chef) and, of course, some excellent booze!

The sunset on the lake was rather gorgeous. 

And then the sun went down and the lights went out, so we continued telling stories by torchlight.

The National Carillon

When someone new starts at work, what do we do? We take them to Space Kitchen to eat cake!

JoJo with Mango Raspberry Cheesecake and 'I'm a Tart'

Some more bits of graffiti near my workplace:

This is what I get up to at weekends and the middle of the night - agonising over whether my team can score more points than their team; we're not even half-way through the season and it's nail-biting stuff. 

Same book; different lunch...

Bubbles with friends (two and four-legged) is a wonderful way to celebrate the end of the week. 

Calamity Sue with bubbles

General Philosopher with dog and beer

Dinner

A visit to another friend allowed me to indulge in gin - via their specialised advent calendar. 

Anxious times

I suffer from anxiety. It hits me often. I have strategies that help me to deal to with it, and most of the time I'm okay. Sometimes, however, my mind takes over and turns minor trivialities into major incidents. This often happens at about 3am. I have a book by the side of my bed in which I write down what is making me anxious. The idea is that I can then forget about it and get back to sleep, knowing that I can address it in the morning. 

Most of the time, by morning I realise that what has been making my heart race and my brain panic is fairly insignificant. (On one occasion I was prevented from sleeping by the thought that 'we haven't got enough bowls'.) Sometimes I do need to do something, but at least if I have written things down in a list, the issues are less insurmountable and I know I can work through them - just maybe not in the middle of the night.  

In what may be related news, I am leaving my job at Plonk after five years (including the last sixteen months as a store manager). It is time for a new challenge and a different career, plus I want my weekends back and to work in a place with heating and cooling. The lovely folk at Knead Bakery gave me a farewell cake. It was very pretty and very tasty. I will miss their cheerful smiley faces (and their fantastic pastries and coffee!)

At work and play

We have to make personal recommendations at work, and they are accompanied by profile picture. As I spend most of my time alone in the shop, I had to take the photo myself. And I'm not so good at selfies... as you can clearly see.

Work profile pic

In the evening I go round to Mr & Mrs Lovely Bonkers' house to watch West Wing. They have seen the entire series - more than once. I have never seen a single episode, although they have been recommended to me by all sorts of friends and family members. I like them. I also like alliteration - so we have West Wing Wednesdays, even when they're not on Wednesday, which can upset the more OCD among us (they're very rarely on Wednesdays).

Watching West Wing. This is a C.J. scene; she's my favourite.

Whisky and Wheels

As part of our monthly Plonk tastings, we sampled some whiskies and a bourbon. Customers gathered to hear the rep explain the differences and highlight the strengths. We paired the drams with dark chocolate, pub mix and aged cheddar. These evenings are intimate and informative and I like them. I hope the punters do too. 

Meanwhile, Him Outdoors has set up his bike (Terry Cervelo) to his liking. We have also been sent some Tour de France merch by Wide Boy Steve, so he's showing it all off - if one can ever be said to be showing off in Ugg Boots. 

Markets and Mead

It's been a while since I've been to the fresh food markets at Fyshwick. Things have changed - there is an additional space, called the Niche Markets, which features more boutique shops and food outlets. I took some photos of the various wares on offer. 

Not everything is open yet, but there promises to be a range of goods to purchase from furniture to clothing, and coffee and doughnuts. There's also a florist and a barber, and due to come is a cat cafe - that should be fun for cosy feline cuddles!

Beautiful prints at Flamingo + Sass

Amid the fabrics and glamour, there are also flowers and greenery at the rather gorgeous Urban Jungle florist.

Hunger pangs are also catered for with a range of eating options. I love the ramen noodles from Umami. The Korean-born chef, Den Han, has previously worked at Chairman and Yip and Tipsy Bull. While waiting for this stall to be open he had a pop-up noodle bar outside Plonk, which has been providing the perfect warming lunch over the cold winter months. 

The doughnuts from Krofne are also super-tasty baked to a Croatian recipe with flavours ranging from salted caramel and strawberry glaze to vanilla custard or rosehip jam. The nutella variety is a firm favourite.

Nutella Krofne Donuts

Ramen from Umami

The reason I was there in the first place was to work - although some might say that facilitating a tasting of the fabulous offerings from Four Pillars gin is not exactly a tough gig. The Spiced Negroni gin showcases spices such as Tasmanian pepperberry leaf, cinnamon, West African spice grains of paradise and Indonesian cubeb, along with fresh ginger. It is highly aromatic, rich, spicy and my pick of the bunch.

Four Pillars Gin line-up; not your usual suspects

And on my day off I walked up Mt Painter with Him Outdoors and we rewarded ourselves with breakfast at Little Oink, a cafe at the bottom of the mountain (it's really just a hill, but if the cartographers call it a mountain, so will I). 

From the top of Mt Painter

A Street Library found en route

French toast with added deliciousness

A perfect breakfast

It was a thrill to find this in the mail! Now I just need to attend the ceremony, take the pledge, and be a citizen. This pleases me. I struggle with the concept of being a citizen of two countries, a resident of another, a tax-payer in all three and a registered voter in none. That's going to change.

We have been invited to a Canamerica dinner by some new friends. Combining celebrations of both the USA and Canada's national days, all food is to have a North American theme. We are encouraged to take along a suitable dish, so I have cracked out the recipe books. Because one of these friends is an Oregonian, and we have recently had such a great time there, I thought I would honour the state.

Individual pear cobblers

The following day Him Outdoors wanted to suss out the local meadery - so we gathered some friends together and headed out to Win's Creek Meadery in Murrumbateman. We've driven past the old cottage many times and always thought it would make a great pub - the building is an old Traveller's Rest Inn, complete with corrugated iron roof and wooden verandah. It has a beautiful room with a large open fireplace but, unfortunately, the fire wasn't lit when we were there and it was freezing. We sampled a selection of meads and shared a couple of pizzas. 

The locale doubles as Bindaree Bee Supplies and features a gift shop displaying beeswax candles, home-made ceramics, stained-glass ornaments, soft furnishings, and (naturally) honey.

A sort of mead flow-chart

Him Outdoors, Dr Kay and Patience Itself

We did enjoy the food and drinks, but the place was so cold that we all kept our coats on and were not inclined to linger over the produce. Instead we pushed on to Eden Road, where we tasted some fine wines, bought some more and took them home to carry on the afternoon in comfort and style. 

Wine-tasting crew