The week so far

I’ve been a bit out of touch with my blogging the last few weeks. Even behind on my reading a bit :( Mainly because I’ve been spending a lot of time doing some freelance work. So you know in between work and well, more work after work I haven’t had much time to write for myself. But it’s cool, I love my freelance work :)

Anyway, so this week hasn’t been the best. Mainly because of ex-Cyclone Oswald deciding to pay Queensland a visit. We had incessant rain on Australia Day but it was still no warning for what was to come. Then on Sunday the weather started getting a little crazier and by night time it was full blown out of its mind. The wind was nothing like I’ve ever seen, felt or heard before. Things were rattling and falling off shelves. The skylight in my bathroom fell through and smashed on the ground and everything put together, I was so on edge.

Storms normally don’t scare me but this one was different. I didn’t sleep well at all that night. At about 7am on Monday, J got out of bed worrying that the wooden fence in our backyard may have gotten blown away but although battered, it was still hanging on. But then we looked over to the other side which is part brick, part fence and the entire brick wall had fallen over!

The sight on Monday morning :(

 It was the biggest shock and the weather on Monday was so bad it didn’t do anything to ease our worries. The only consolation was that it was public holiday and we didn’t have to leave the house in that weather. On top of the things-falling-apart drama, we also lost power late Sunday night. This meant our phones were also barely charged. Not that it mattered because we barely had any signal anyway. It was quite surreal feeling being so cut off with no news, no phones, no social media.

We spent about half an hour in the pouring rain on Monday night putting up a piece of tarp to cover up the space left by the now missing wall. Luckily (and thanks to the hard working peeps at Energex) we got electricity back at about 8:30pm and were able to have a hot shower. But sleep was still elusive.

My suburb and the next suburb up from me got very badly battered over this last weekend. My local beach is looking very beatdown and forlorn. Gold Coast beaches in general look sad and dirty, very dirty. As do the roads, because of all the debris lying around.

Wait, it doesn’t there though. On Tuesday evening, we could feel something was wrong with J’s car. Another problem we didn’t need. Got that fixed on Wednesday and it was closely followed by more bad news. A tile has blown off the roof and there is now a leak as a result.

You have got to be kidding me.

It’s Thursday and while the weather is still PMSing between hot and humid and raining cats and dogs, nothing else has gone wrong. Yet.  As for us, we are ok. Physically of course we were unharmed but mentally we are both just so exhausted.

There are people in so many other parts of Queensland such as Bundaberg and even Brisbane who were affected much worse than J and me and my heart really goes out to them. I feel so sad thinking about all the people whose homes have been destroyed and for some of them they have barely recovered from the 2011 floods and it’s hitting them again.

From heatwaves to cyclones. I’m not sure what Mother Nature has in store for Australia next?

#PhotoADayJune - Empty

It's a cold, rainy miserable Saturday on the Gold Coast and not too many people out and about.

This picture is taken just outside J's house, normally a pretty busy street on a Saturday with heaps of people walking their dogs. Today the dogs have decided to stay home however.

I love this street. Normally I'll leave the door open and I can look out onto the street and just people watch. Dogs and little children. Skateboards and short shorts. Crackheads and fast cars.

It's cold today, the door is shut and it's an empty street. Empty.

This post is part of the #PhotoADayJune Challenge.

Mondayitis evermore

Happy Monday! Haha jokes – Monday ain’t never gonna be happy unless it’s a holiday!

Image courtesy: hunchypiper.com

Getting a bit used to these short weeks ever so often…another one coming up next Monday for Labor Day here in Queensland. How good would life be with just a four day week? I would happily work 4x10 hour days if I could have 3 days off. I work almost 9 hours a day now anyway, so whats another hour? In an ideal world....

This weekend was pretty unproductive and I think I procrastinated most of it away. Of course, being unproductive didn't get in the way of enjoying some amazing food. I always joke to J about how much our lives revolve around food but it's true. We make such an effort to eat well and well, nothing makes me happier than a happy tummy.

Here are some of my Instagram (Follow me: missrbit) pictures of some of the good food I enjoyed over the weekend...

Saturday night - Chicken parmigiana at Nobby's Beach Surf Club. It was massive and dripping with gooey cheese, just as a chicken parmy should be.

.

Coffee. The addiction has only intensified over the last couple of years, so much so I have converted J (who previously didn't drink much coffee) to a pretty regular coffee drinker. The Burleigh area on the Gold Coast has heaps of good cafes doing excellent coffee, so every weekend I have plenty to choose from. On Sunday morning, we went to Canteen Coffee, hidden away in a little alleyway off James Street. If you like your coffee strong and your decor retro-hipster-chic, you will love Canteen.

The almond biscotti was good too though it wasn't as biscotti-like as I expected. I'm used to biscotti being hard, softening when you dip into coffee or tea.

Finally, J and I headed to Slurping Panda for Sunday night dinner. Slupring Panda is at Burleigh Heads too, tucked away in the Old Burleigh Theatre Arcade. We had a menu dropped into the mailbox and it looked very interesting so we had to try it out. The menu is a mix of different Asian cuisines, from Thai to Korean, from Japanese to Malaysian and so much more - I really struggled to pick just one dish to order.

We shared the Panko duck and pumpkin rice balls with plum dipping sauce and it was nothing like what I expected. In a good way! The batter in which the balls were fried was unbelievable, crispy and loads of taste!

For mains, we ended up ordering the Beef Pho (Thinly sliced eye fillet and wombok in ginger broth with mung bean noodles) and the Pork Japchae (pork belly, eggplant, basil, chilli, heirloom tomato and gai lan in oyster sauce with sweet potato noodles). Both dishes were incredible. They were full of fresh vegetables which J and I both love and most importantly, they tasted so food. The Pho tasted very typically Vietnamese with its mix of ginger and lime and the mung bean noodles blew me away with their taste! The pork belly is always a crowd favourite and it didn't fail to disappoint. It was sort of like a spicy Thai stir fry but with a twist. I was glad the sweet potato noodles didn't have a sweet potato taste to it (I hate sweet potato with a passion). I loved their slippery, glassy texture however and it mixed in so well with the rest of the fresh vegetables.

I think we're going back for more next weekend.

Groupon Fail: Bisro Fleur, Paradise Point

I bought a Groupon voucher for a meal at Bistro Fleur at Paradise Point on the Gold Coast in late September. Last week, I rang the restaurant to make a booking for Friday night. The man taking my booking (who I later found out is the owner) was the average cordial restaurant person - until I mentioned I had a voucher. His tone immediately changed and he very rudely asked me "what voucher?". I mentioned having a Scoopon and he yelled, saying "That's already expired so I can't take your booking".

Shocked by his rudeness, but still trying to maintain my cool I told him that I was sure my voucher was valid as I had only bought it a month ago and it said it was valid for 3 months. I said I may be mistaken and maybe it was a Groupon. He cut me off before I could even say anything else and snapped at me saying "If you don't know what you've got I can't take your booking".

Clearly, he wanted my business.

By this point I really wanted to just slap him but yet, I summoned all the niceness in me and very politely said to him, "Look, I know I have a valid voucher and I'm just trying to make a booking. If it's such a big deal, I will ring you back with the details of my voucher." I was out for lunch at the time and needed to wait till I got back to the office.

But Patrick wasn't listening and just went off at me about how they had 3 vouchers going and I couldn't use an expired voucher etc etc. I wasn't trying to use an expired voucher! Anyway, so I told him I'd ring him back and he hung up on me!

I rang him back and his tone and attitude was no better when I told him it was a voucher I bought on 20th September. He asked me when it expired and I told him it was valid for 3 months. He snapped at me asking what date. I'm sorry, is it that hard to figure out that 3 months from 20th September is 20th December? He took my booking but left me fuming. I was seething for the rest of the afternoon and eventually ended up deciding I wasn't going to go. I looked up Bistro Fleur online and found these reviews on Urban Spoon and Trip Advisor - so many of them saying how badly they were treated and guess what, Mr. Patrick got a special mention too.

I was really excited to go to this restaurant. I've never been to a French restaurant before and I was keen to try out some snails. I really enjoy eating out and I love discovering new places through sites like LivingSocial, Groupon etc. If the Bistro Fleur experience had been good, I would have definitely been a repeat customer.

I have worked in a restaurant and I know sometimes customers are stupid and sometimes they will try to use expired vouchers. But you don't yell at them. If I was annoying him by saying Scoopon instead of Groupon, he could've simply said "I'm sorry but our Scoopon voucher has already expired, did you mean Groupon?" AND in a tone that is more customer service friendly not one that accuses me of being stupid.

I was shocked to find out I had spoken to the owner of Bistro Fleur and he was so angry that I had a voucher and had the gall to use it. Why does this man sell vouchers to his own restaurant if he wants to treat voucher-holding customers like shit? If you don't want customers, don't sell vouchers. It's really as simple as that. The whole point of vouchers is to generate business and possibly create a new customer base - but if you make your customers feel like shit, they're definitely not coming back - totally defeating the purpose of having a voucher.

I was going to ring him back and cancel my booking and tell him it was because he was so rude but I forgot to do it. At 7:45pm on Friday I had a voicemail on my phone from a very angry Patrick saying "You haven't bothered turning up, I'm going to cancel your booking". There's that lovely tone again.

5 Reasons Why I Love The Gold Coast

Time and again I have said I am a big city girl and am happy living in big cities but today is one of those days I'm happy living on the Gold Coast. The Gold Coast does not qualify as a big city. It is definitely not a small town but it's yet to fall into the big city bracket. It's one of those places that used to be a small town so recently that people remember it; but now is one of most tourist friendly cities in Australia.

When I tell people who don't know much about Australia that I'm on the Gold Coast, they don't know what I'm talking about. Saying I'm next to Brisbane usually doesn't help either because for most non-Australians, Australia is Sydney and Melbourne. But if you are planning a trip to Australia, it is likely your travel agent will suggest you visit GC (Gold Coast).. especially if you're travelling with the family. It's not that there is anything spectacular here... sure there are lots of tourist attractions, but aren't they everywhere?

But what GC has is something I've never seen/felt anywhere else. The city is on a 24/7 holiday mode and although there are plenty of locals and there is definitely a normal life here, most of the time it feels like the Gold Coast was created for the tourists. In fact, that is an argument that often arises here - that the Council does more to attract tourists rather than care for the locals. Anyway, so if you're looking for a fun holiday, I can see why Australians and international visitors choose to come to GC. There is just something in the air around here that automatically puts you in holiday mode and it cleverly disguises the mundande boring aspects of life that are still plain to see in most other cities...and sometimes I hate that but today I love GC and these are the top 5 reasons why:


The Beach
I'm in Australia and I love the beach. Cliche I know but oh well, what can I say...I love the fact that I live in a beach town. (I think this is also one of the reasons for GC's 24/7 holiday mode). I may or may not move to another city at some point but if I move to some place like Brisbane, I think I will really miss the beach. No matter where you go on the Gold Coast, you're never too far from a beach and you can smell the salt in the air almost everywhere in town. I like that. I used to be terrified of water as a kid but now the ocean has a calming effect on me. Now that it's starting to get a little warm, I hope I'm going to end up going more often!

The People
Yet another cliche but bear with me. I haven't had the chance to travel much in Australia but my trips to Brisbane and some other big cities in India have led me to believe that people are in too much of a rush to be nice. I am not stereotyping.. I'm just speaking from my experiences. I believe in some years when the Coast also becomes one of those busy bustling cities, people might become as cranky but because the general lifestyle here is so laidback, I guess people have less reason to be cranky at the moment and that is nice. And I know this applies to almost every city in Australia but I'll still say it, I love the multicultural population of the Coast. I have met people from so many different parts of the world and learned so much by just living here.

Traffic & Parking!!
I cringe every time I have to go to Brisbane because I'm so spoiled down here. Traffic is definitely not bad and parking is easy to find and also easy on the pocket. I understand now why people in Brisbane (and other similar cities) don't drive much in the city. Parking is such a pain!

The Weather
I love Queensland weather.... I'm a tropical girl and I like the sub-tropical weather here. Not too hot and not too cold. Just right!

The Food
Again, I'm sure other places in Austalia have more claim on this than GC but what the hell. I love GC for the variety of food available here. I know we don't have too many fine dining places except the several five star hotels but that doesn't bother me. Food is all about the taste and just walking around GC has opened up so many types of cuisine to me and I love that.

I will always love big cities and might even move to one again soon but that can't change the fact that I love living on the Gold Coast. It's the only other place I've lived in long enough to call home! :)