Starting the weekend...
The weekend has started out in a particularly pleasant way, albeit a bit busy!
As my colleague was finishing of work in my office, we'd all planned to head to the Rosemount Hotel for a drink and listen to a band that she had recommended. But this didn't start until around after 9pm so harlzen and I decided we would go for a walk around the Mount Lawley area (for a change of scene) and get our regular exercise in.
We ended up around Hyde Park and took a pleasant walk around the area. It's actually a lovely area to live in, but the price of housing being what it is, it may be a while before we could even afford anything there. *sigh* The park itself has 2 man-made lakes but it was obvious to see what the lowering rainfall in Perth was doing to it. One of them still had a lovely visage, the water level still high enough for this massive koi to be swimming around in it, while the other was fairly mucky as the water level had receded significantly. I had never been to Hyde Park before, so this turned out to be a new experience for me (except when harlzen tried to drag me across the road to the deli to satisfy a craving for some snack. :P What a lack of will-power!
After that, we walked up further north to the Rosemount. We'd walked by some time back before it had been renovated and it looked awfully dingy then, so we were rather surprised by how spruced up it now look, even though it still had a sort of unpolished look to it. It had two separate areas, one in the garden, and the indoor one for the live band. The barmaid was odd though... she mixed up our orders and I ended up having to drink the pint instead of the midi! The food was nothing great though, so we decided to take a walk to see what else North Perth had to offer.
After a bit of exploration, we decided on trying out a neat little restaurant tucked away on Angove Street called Piccolo - an Italian restaurant that was not an Italian Restaurant. In fact, it was very un-Italian, and we later found out that it was modern-Scottish! We were, quite frankly, more than a little nonplussed by the menu which had odd fusions, but the food was surprisingly excellent! Being BYO, the other one headed over to the opposite side of the road to the liquor drive through and bought us a bottle of Sandalford Elements Merlot that went very well with his cammomile duck and my wild mushrooms. What was impressive though was the attentive staff and the *free* soup taster... a fabulously heady mushroom soup served in a little expresso cup! We only had the one course as we'd earlier gorged ourselves with chips and beer, but before too long a couple of my colleagues had rung to see where we were and within a few minutes, had sat down with us for coffee and cheese to finish off the meal. And the cheeses were quite heavenly too. Served with lavosh and oat cakes (odd combination, but the sweetness of the oat cakes balanced out some of the strengths of the chosen cheeses) - we had Charleston, A Touch of Blue (Aussie blue cheese!) and Ironstone (the heaviest cheddar I've ever had!)
While this accidental culinary delight was indeed delightful, it's interesting to me how something so unconventional did turn out the way it did. I suspect next time I'll need to bring a camera and record some of these wonderful sojourns.
Anyway, back to the pub later and discovering that there was a cover charge, we bit the bullet and headed in. After spending some time chatting in the garden area, we headed inside for some very good music by the resident DJ, which, according to Sarah, used to be a barista at Cafe 130s (before they went so spectacularly off rails)! The main act came on and what surprised me greatly was that it was a rapper and he was Asian! Haven't seen a live Asian rapper before though I've heard stuff. All in all, it was pretty cool, but we left around midnight, thanks to Erika who could give us a lift back to UWA.
In the car, I vacillated between whether we should go visit the gang over at Paul's or not... I sort of felt bad showing up so late, but in the end we did anyway. Right smack in the middle of a very Z-grade horror film (called "Five Girls", I think). I napped in between, a bit bored since it wasn't very scary or suspenseful. I could hear the dialogue, but I tried not to cringe. After that, we spent some time laughing at the reviews by Yahtzee Croshaw, which was highly amusing.
We got home around 2am, after taking a walk back from Paul's to our place. The wind was very... bracing. *nod, nod* Thank god I had my denim jacket! I think we ended up crashing around 3am. Woke up around 8.30am myself, feeling a little stiff, but otherwise feeling pretty spiffy for the rest of the weekend... :)
I can imagine the weekend getting noisier though! The planes from the Red Bull Air Show are already making their runs across the foreshore. Though I won't be joining the gang there on Sunday, I hope you guys have fun!
As my colleague was finishing of work in my office, we'd all planned to head to the Rosemount Hotel for a drink and listen to a band that she had recommended. But this didn't start until around after 9pm so harlzen and I decided we would go for a walk around the Mount Lawley area (for a change of scene) and get our regular exercise in.
We ended up around Hyde Park and took a pleasant walk around the area. It's actually a lovely area to live in, but the price of housing being what it is, it may be a while before we could even afford anything there. *sigh* The park itself has 2 man-made lakes but it was obvious to see what the lowering rainfall in Perth was doing to it. One of them still had a lovely visage, the water level still high enough for this massive koi to be swimming around in it, while the other was fairly mucky as the water level had receded significantly. I had never been to Hyde Park before, so this turned out to be a new experience for me (except when harlzen tried to drag me across the road to the deli to satisfy a craving for some snack. :P What a lack of will-power!
After that, we walked up further north to the Rosemount. We'd walked by some time back before it had been renovated and it looked awfully dingy then, so we were rather surprised by how spruced up it now look, even though it still had a sort of unpolished look to it. It had two separate areas, one in the garden, and the indoor one for the live band. The barmaid was odd though... she mixed up our orders and I ended up having to drink the pint instead of the midi! The food was nothing great though, so we decided to take a walk to see what else North Perth had to offer.
After a bit of exploration, we decided on trying out a neat little restaurant tucked away on Angove Street called Piccolo - an Italian restaurant that was not an Italian Restaurant. In fact, it was very un-Italian, and we later found out that it was modern-Scottish! We were, quite frankly, more than a little nonplussed by the menu which had odd fusions, but the food was surprisingly excellent! Being BYO, the other one headed over to the opposite side of the road to the liquor drive through and bought us a bottle of Sandalford Elements Merlot that went very well with his cammomile duck and my wild mushrooms. What was impressive though was the attentive staff and the *free* soup taster... a fabulously heady mushroom soup served in a little expresso cup! We only had the one course as we'd earlier gorged ourselves with chips and beer, but before too long a couple of my colleagues had rung to see where we were and within a few minutes, had sat down with us for coffee and cheese to finish off the meal. And the cheeses were quite heavenly too. Served with lavosh and oat cakes (odd combination, but the sweetness of the oat cakes balanced out some of the strengths of the chosen cheeses) - we had Charleston, A Touch of Blue (Aussie blue cheese!) and Ironstone (the heaviest cheddar I've ever had!)
While this accidental culinary delight was indeed delightful, it's interesting to me how something so unconventional did turn out the way it did. I suspect next time I'll need to bring a camera and record some of these wonderful sojourns.
Anyway, back to the pub later and discovering that there was a cover charge, we bit the bullet and headed in. After spending some time chatting in the garden area, we headed inside for some very good music by the resident DJ, which, according to Sarah, used to be a barista at Cafe 130s (before they went so spectacularly off rails)! The main act came on and what surprised me greatly was that it was a rapper and he was Asian! Haven't seen a live Asian rapper before though I've heard stuff. All in all, it was pretty cool, but we left around midnight, thanks to Erika who could give us a lift back to UWA.
In the car, I vacillated between whether we should go visit the gang over at Paul's or not... I sort of felt bad showing up so late, but in the end we did anyway. Right smack in the middle of a very Z-grade horror film (called "Five Girls", I think). I napped in between, a bit bored since it wasn't very scary or suspenseful. I could hear the dialogue, but I tried not to cringe. After that, we spent some time laughing at the reviews by Yahtzee Croshaw, which was highly amusing.
We got home around 2am, after taking a walk back from Paul's to our place. The wind was very... bracing. *nod, nod* Thank god I had my denim jacket! I think we ended up crashing around 3am. Woke up around 8.30am myself, feeling a little stiff, but otherwise feeling pretty spiffy for the rest of the weekend... :)
I can imagine the weekend getting noisier though! The planes from the Red Bull Air Show are already making their runs across the foreshore. Though I won't be joining the gang there on Sunday, I hope you guys have fun!