roycemleev3.50

There, I said it.

Laura and I discovered Krispy Kreme doughnuts today.

Think of something really, really naughty. Double it. Multiply that by five. That's still nowhere near as naughty as a Krispy Kreme Doughnut. Evil.

So anywhoo, Laura and I were out on an afternoon ride, we really didn't have any plans and were going in circles when, remembering Tara and Steve talking about it on our ride a few weeks back, Laura thought we should check-out this Krispy Kreme doughnut thing.

The ride out was pretty boring, made worse by the fact that I was leading and had no clue where I was going. More through luck than good planning I managed to get onto some highway out the back of Parramatta that said Penrith was only 20 or so kms west. KK's wasn't immediately obvious, and we were starving and didn't think a lunch of just doughnuts would be very good, so we had some Red Rooster and asked for directions. Even with those I still managed to blow it and we went the wrong way again. With the sun now setting it was looking like our doughnut odyssey was about to end.

Finally we got a lucky break and Laura directed us to where I could see the light towers of Pather Stadium or whatever its called these days. Once there we had to navigate the very confusing carpark untill........ the holy grail! Then I saw the queue - it started inside the shop, wound its way to the entrance, out onto the forecourt and around the building. Twice. No, I exagerate, but it was a bloody long queue for doughnuts.

The wait in line was about 40 minutes, so there was no way we were only going to get one each. And you can actually see them being made through the glass around the machines, so I think we had decided on a half dozen to share. We each scored a complimentary plain one (delicious - so completely different to other doughnuts), but thought that another 6 would be about right. On ordering we were immediately informed that we could get another half dozen for $2, I mean, if we'd said no it would be like throwing money away.

Settling on 6 plain and 6 assorted, we polished the plain ones in the shop and packed the assorteds for ron (late-er ron). Both felt really, well, dirty I spose is the best way to put it. With the sun setting rapidly behind us we made haste to get home before it was dark (didn't make it), passing some commotion at Glebe that looked and smelled like a car had exploded (will check the news tonight).

I'd love to say that I didn't have yet another Krispy Kreme doughnut for desert that night - I really would.

It wasn't planned that way, but Saturday certainly became a fairly hectic day. After breakky Michael and Cate came over for tea before we shot off to Ikea. Laura took that as her opportunity to 'exit - stage left' and do shopping of her own. She really hates Ikea.

A quick look at the Supacenta - Ikea and Freedom in particular, and we were back on the road to Greg and Andrea's place. They were out investigating local auctions, but we were meeting Jeff and Kim Nutley (common friends to us all) who also happened to be visiting Sydney. Took us a while to figure a plan but eventually we, along with Jeff's friends John, Rebecca and their kids, headed off for a late lunch at Manly.

The pub that Michael was taking us to had closed the kitchen till dinner, so we instead ate at the Manly Beach Pit (which I'm sure is a rip-off of the name of the diner in 'Berverley Hills 90210'). Fish and chips and beer for most, with a short stroll on the esplanade before heading back home.

Cate was unwell (a flu she brought with her from Canberra) and despite her brave face she was spent so took a nap, while Michael and I went back to my place to get his 17" PowerBook working on my wireless home network. After that I think he used my Linux box to hack into NASA, or transfer funds to his Swiss bank account, or download porn - I really don't know. He is becoming an uber-geek.

We eventually got the call to head back to Greg and Andrea's for pizza (I especially liked the 'Widowmaker') and drinks, before I hopped a ferry just before midnight. Laura beat me home (she had gone to a work-friends wedding) which was excellent, as it meant that the heater was on full blast allowing me to thaw out as soon as I got in our apartment.

Cate and Michael, authors of cateandmichael.com visited us in Sydney over the weekend.

Arriving on Friday night they, along with Greg and Andrea, came over to our side of town for a drink or two and dinner at XO. I love dinner at XO, especially the pork-bellies which I think everyone else decided were too fatty which only meant more for me.

There was plenty to eat so we all skipped on desert, but returned to our place for coffee and tea. My barista skills need a little work, with my lattes and cappuccinos scoring around 5 out of 10 (my score, our guests were way too polite to complain).

Laura's Dad Steve was still in town, although he was due to fly back to Perth on Wednesday morning. We arranged to meet him out at Manly for dinner somewhere and made the short but arduous night-time ride to meet him. Once we were close to Manly I got Laura to take the lead because her knowledge of Manly streets was better than mine - evidenced by the fact she managed to find 'motorcycle only' parking spaces right out the front of the pub we were meeting her Dad (although she did confess to not knowing they were there and getting lucky).

After a quick beer to whet the whistle we followed Steve a short walk along the street to an upstairs restaurant that he'd looked at by not dined in the other day. It was called R and R's or something like that, and they specialised in steak. Not just any steak mind you, but thick, juicy, succulent slabs of mouth-party delicious beef that just..... I can't describe how sensational it was! Another table ordered the mixed grill, and it looked like they'd been given half a cow, a pig and a lamb. Portions were just amazing here, with most meat portions starting at around 500grams and going up to 1.2 kilos!

I'd heard plenty about Kobe beef, particularly in the context of those stupid American restaurants with $50 hamburgers featuring a piece of Kobe in (I imagine) some snooty French breadroll with truffles and painted in gold leaf - well it must be to cost 50 bucks surely. And since it was prominent on the menu at R and R's I had to have some. Smallest portion was 500 grams (with chips on the side) so I was quite full by the end. So full in fact that it was sheer lunacy that I ordered desert!

I doubt I've ever been that full. The ride home was particularly uncomfortable, and I was still in a bit of pain when I woke up the next morning. Skipping breakfast (I usually do) and lunch (not normal, but I really wasn't hungry) I was recovered by dinner the following night.

Some of Laura's friends had mentioned they were planning a ride out to Wallacia (I dunno, your guess is as good as mine - prolly somewhere way out west) for a nice Sunday lunch. Problem was they were planning to leave from Glebe before 10am. Well mornings aren't my thang so to cut a long story short, we didn't leave our place in the Cross until after the rendezvous time has passed.

The other group were taking the route along dodgy Parramatta Road out to the second meeting point at Rose Hill, so I came up with the inspired idea of heading the 'long way' via Balmain, Gladesville and Ryde. With my lead Laura and I seemed to be making great time and, as luck would have it, we narrowly beat the Glebe group to the BP.

That was my chance to fuel up and sneak down a breakfast sausage roll (not to be confused with a lunch sausage roll or a dinner sausage roll). There were a few familiar faces in the group - Tara and Steve who seemed a lot more affectionate toward each other than I had previously remembered, Alison, Bia from Brazil, and half a dozen or so people we hadn't met before.

We started out from there just after 11am, at a fairly sedate pace as most of the group were either learners or on their Ps. Steve our lead kept the group together well and the traffic started to thin dramatically. After a while we stopped at somewhere - I think it was called Bringelly - where we met the loudest most obnoxious geese you are ever likely to meet. A bit of leg stretching and a few more snaps for the album and we were on our way.

The next stint saw us make it all the way to the pub at Wallacia. The pub wasn't great - too many mullets and too many Harley's. We started putting our gear on one of the large 10 seat tables until some awful woman (whose small child had a fuzzy mullet) told us that she had reserved this table for her family of 4 (despite an abundance of smaller tables that were unfortunately to openly spaced for us to enjoy properly). A steak sandwich and a beer later and I was ready to hit the road. Instead we chatted with the others for much of the rest of the arvo. It started to get cooler and the sun was on its way down so we thought it best to head home.

More or less we retraced our steps back to the BP at Rose Hill. Early in the stint I found myself right at the back of the group (except for the tail-man) but was getting so frustrated at the inconsistent pace that I busted this move round the outside and overtook four five six seven eight people all in one slick move. Then I remembered I was with beginners and I might not be setting the best example.

Once back at the BP we chatted again for a bit before saying our final goodbyes and heading in seperate directions. Laura, Bia, William and myself headed back via Ryde and Gladesville back to our place for coffee-based beverages at our place. I made 2 really good capuccinos, a superb latte, and an exquisite machiato for myself - even though the pressure was on. Once Will and Bia left Laura and I finally got to relax after our long and tiring day.

True - it goes to Manly!

This time last year Laura and I were up bright and early to see the commencement of the City to Surf fun run, Laura's friend Michelle was in town and we had breakfast at Morgan's, before Laura and Michelle spent the rest of the day doing girly things.

For contrast, this time around by the time we got out of bed the race had already been going for just over 6 minutes. Worse, once we had finished eating breakfast and reading the papers it was pretty much on midday.

So, without much of a plan or a clue, we fired up the motorbikes and headed off out in roughly that direction (he says, pointing north-west). We tried to stick to main roads, heading through the Harbour Tunnel, out to Epping Road, following that as far as we could, turning off at Beecroft and heading out for lunch at Brooklyn (south of Gosford) - or so we thought. What amazed me more than anything else (apart of course from Laura's skilful riding) was that there were so many signs back to Sydney. It got to the point where it seemed that any turn off from our road would get us home.

At this stage Laura and I were pretty hungry and we were both giving the international motorcyclists sign for "time to eat" - we both had our helmets on and couldn't speak - rubbing one's belly in a circular motion. We were thinking steak sandwich so the thought of an old-style pub counter lunch at some big old colonial style pub was too good to pass up.

I started seeing these signs to Berowra - it was closer than Brooklyn was and just going on the way the name sounded I reckoned it was more likely to have a pub with decent steak sandwiches. Once in Berowra we came across more signs to Berowra Waters (even better), which meant a sharp turn off the main drag.

As the roads got twistier and narrower I began to regret that decision. It was now after 2pm, I was kinda lost, starving, and in (almost) desperate need to use the bathroom. Laura and I both managed to successfully navigate the road down the hill to the water. What we weren't expecting was the massive line-up of cars that greeted us once we got there. Turns out that among other things, at the foot of the mountain was one of those free rope-based ferries for vehicles to traverse narrow rivers and estuaries.

After waiting a couple of ferry loads (it really was that busy), we were moving again. Took some snaps from the ferry before (and it must have only been a few minutes) we were on the other side. A big restaurant, called Berowra Waters, seemed to be going off, but parking looked grim so we kept going. Once again the roads thinned (as did the traffic) and I started to think I had again managed to get us lost.

Fortunately a few miles further and we started upon some signs to Galston (I'd seen signs to Galston back when we were in civilisation). We followed them until, distracted by a traffic accident, I missed stopping at the Kookaburra Club which looked very busy. We turned around and parked, keen for our 3pm lunch.

Except, of course, the chef had already gone home and the only food left was cakes. Bugger. So having spent the last few minutes getting comfortable in the dining area of the Kookaburra Club, it was time once again to hit the road.

In desperation we decided on KFC at Dural - only when we got there we were turned away because of renovations. Eventually we settled on the foodcourt at the big shopping centre at Castle Hill which, as it was 3:30, was getting ready for closing at 4:00pm. After eating it was too late to look at the shops, so instead we made a vain effort to get home before the rain came down. And, as luck would have it, and in the words of Maxwell Smart, we missed it by that much.

Well after a somewhat eventful week at work, and a largish alcohol fuelled work party on Friday night, I could be forgiven for being a little slow on the rise this morning. Unfortunately Laura and I were booked in for the Girl's Ride Out (yes, I really am a big girl) Motorcycle Maintenance course at Parramatta Kawasaki. OK, that didn't start till 1:00pm but Laura was getting a service for Clifford (that's what she calls her black CB250) which meant we had to get there early.

Despite those best intentions, we got there late for the service, but fortuitously early for the course. So early in fact that as the start time drew nearer we assumed we had the wrong date / wrong location - it was definately a strange feeling. Just as panic was starting to set in Manning and his wife Lucy - great story here, Lucy is rather petite and had struggled getting leathers for some time till she found these Dainese ones made (presumably) for a 10 year old child, that fit perfectly - Alison, Jackie, Polina (I think that's what she said), Sandy and big Clive all showed up within a few minutes of each other.

Well, 3 hours or so later we had been through all the basics, looked at each others bikes, chewed the fat for a bit longer before saying our goodbyes. Having missed lunch we got home and made off for an early schnitzel at Una's (delicious) and then decided to walk up to Oxford Street to see if the Terminator was playing anywhere. It wasn't (not arty enough - T3 that is) so thought we'd start the walk into town until we either came across another cinema, or made it all the way into Hoyts George Street. 30 minutes or so later we'd made it all the way in with 45 minutes to spare before the next session.

To cool our heels we popped into one of those "books so cheap we're practically throwing them away" type stores not expecting anything great but happened upon 2 fantastic bargains: a coffee book that I nearly bought at Wheel & Barrow last week for $25, and a great big thick oversized heavy book celebrating Microsoft's 25 years in business in 2000 that had an original sticker price of over $70. Sale price? Picked up both and got change from 20 bucks. I felt pretty good about this, cause I knew for sure I was gunna get screwed by the candy bar at the cinema - I mean where do they get off charging over $5 for a large popcorn?

The movie finished kinda late so we thought better of walking home (well that and I'm lazy) so we got the late train back to Kings Cross. I was happy, I'd seen my robots, and had schnitzel and rosti. Laura was happy because Clifford was running better than ever. A pretty satisfying day all 'round.

Laura's Dad lives in Perth, but for his birthday (I didn't ask which one - it's not polite) he decided to holiday in Sydney. For his birthday celebration he thought lunch at Doyle's (the seafood restaurant at Watson's Bay featured on those Visa ads) would be a great idea. And as I sit here typing this, with a warming prawn-cutlet-fish-and-chip-calamari-bollinger-crown-lager glow in my belly, I must say I have to agree.

We woke up fairly late but thankfully Laura's brother Dave who was picking us up was late too (he did have kind of an excuse - he was driving from Canberra). Watson's Bay was a very busy place once we got there so Dave had to pull a few strings to get parking. That sorted we headed to the restaurant to meet Laura's Dad Steven. His table was almost on the beachfront with spectacular views back to the city - truly magnificent.

I won' bore you with the details of our gorge-fest, suffice to say that the food and drink was brilliant (except the coffees - mine are better) and we had a great day.

After lunch David dropped Laura, Steven and myself back to our apartment - he had to head back to Canberra so left straight away. While we watched the footy Steven tried valiantly to improve Laura's bad position in a game of chess, but the all conquering grandmaster Royce put him (and Laura since they were her moves to begin with) to the sword. Truth be told I just got lucky and fluked a win.

And that just about put the wraps on a great weekend!

Despite threatening to a few times we hadn't managed to catch up with friends of ours Greg and Andrea for some months. Noticing 'for lease' signs on one of our favourite restaurants was all the excuse we needed to get better organised. We started off with some drinks and nibblies at our place before making the short walk to Neil Perry's XO at Potts Point.

The restaurant was packed so unfortunately we couldn't get a table in the restaurant, but we were able to get a table at the bar which we all agreed would be good enough.

The meal, drink and conversation were all thoroughly enjoyable. Culinary highlights for me was the caramelised corn fritters, and the caramelised pork bellies (mmmmm, caramel.......).

After dinner we sauntered back to our place for coffee, canolies and a night cap.