Friday, April 07, 2006

Poco es No-Go

Tonight we had the intention of eating at Poco's Cantina, not having suffered enough punishment from the previous half-dozen bad experiences eating Mexican food. It's tricky here, because everytime we publically gripe and moan (quite often) about the lack Mexican food, somebody suggests a place that they think is halfway decent. So, for our Friday date night, it was going to be Poco's Cantina and the bald Natalie Portman flick up the street at 'The Spot', a trendy section of Randwick.

We sat down and my skin started to crawl. Perky young twenty-something white girls should not comprise the entire wait staff working in any cantina - they're mutually exclusive. As we sat down, the menu looked suspiciously familar to our first bad experience, not sure if they're owned by the same people or it was just the lack of variety. The standard Chimichanga / Burrito / Enchildada options all blended together into the same boring presentation. There was also the sticker shock of seeing $24 next to a menu item titled burrito. After the exchange rate and considering there's no tip / taxes, it works out OK... but still - anything over $7.50 for a burrito is fundamentally wrong. I also wanted to be able to go back to the kitchen and watch them make my burrito, as that's how I'm used to having it prepared.

Needless to say, it all just seemed wrong. I caught Peggy's worried glance and agreed it was time to get out of Dodge before Lil Ms. Perky came for our order. After not so subtly getting up and leaving, we settled on one of the nine Thai restaraunts within 200m of the theatre and chalked it up to experience that we didn't make the same mistake again. I've got a list of restaraunts to visit back in SD and SF when we visit in July, about half are of the burrito persuasion.

posted by ncawthon at 9:03 PM

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

The Apocalypse is Upon Us

On Wednesday of this week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00
in the morning, the time and date will be: 01:02:03 04/05/06.

That won't ever happen again, unless you're in a commonwealth country that reverses the month and day digit, in which case it has already happened on March 5th. Nonwithstanding, we're all on notice - you heard it here first.

posted by ncawthon at 11:21 AM

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Sunday on the Phone to Monday

The week is starting off well, with the first three days always being busy and active. Come Thursday and Friday, things slow down a bit - no lectures, classes or meetings for either of us.

Our weekend in the Hunter Valley and surrounding parts went well, we concluded with a few tastings and vineyards. I'm not sure of Napa Valley, but here in Oz they have horse drawn booze cruises, where Clydsedale horses cart you around from tasting session all day. Looks like a fun way to spend an afternoon. The Hunter Valley is certainly a lot less commercialized than what I remember of Napa, not as many chi-chi resorts and fancy restaraunts.

Our visitor season is picking up again, with back-to-back visits by my parents and Peggy's relatives over the next few months. The schedule begins to pick up soon, with those aforementioned Thursdays and Fridays suddenly a lot less languid. We've gone three months since our last guesy, our longest stretch yet.

We're looking forward to getting back in July, having bought our tickets last night. 9 days in San Diego and 12 in San Fran. We will try to plan a barbeque to try and see everyone at once. Hope it stops raining by then.

posted by ncawthon at 8:14 AM