Update

Well, it appears that it's been 6 years since I've updated this and sadly I don't even have hipstogram anymore. I'm more into Instagram.

BUT...what's also happened since this, is that my house was destroyed in a flood and I spent 2 years rebuilding. Boo. So that's taken up a lot of my life. You can check out my other blog at:

www.karinashouseproject.com

Cheerio! 

Rice Paper Rolls and Books

Specialising in two completely separate things is a hard gig. There's nothing worse than a fab homewares store that serves crap coffee or a great gym that sells those awful prepackaged salad rolls (that's an example I made up, I never go to the gym).

Buuut, I caught up with an old friend today and we both suggested Riverbend Books & Teahouse at Bulimba. I wanted to go there for the food (specifically, the rice paper rolls I'd read about in a review) and my dear friend is an avid book reader, so she was there for the books.

I have to hand it to them, they do both really, really well. There's a gorgeous, breezy deck out the front for dining, overlooking bustling Oxford Street, and Brisbane put on a spectacular, sunny day. Inside, the bookstore is cosy and warm, stacked to the ceiling with bookliness with the smell of freshly printed literature.

They take their food seriously, with a modern, fresh menu. If I hadn't ordered the rice paper rolls (vegetarian version), then my next pick would definitely have been the Soba noodles with shitake, mango, spring onions, ginger and soy. Anyway, my rice paper rolls were divine, super fresh and simply but beautifully presented. Similarly my lunch date's Salmon Nicoise looked delectable...even to a vegetarian and the servings being a decent size we probably could have forgone the thick cut chips with Japanese mayonnaise. But I ate them anyway. Had I noticed the dessert cabinet before I ate them I would have saved room.

The service was quick and friendly and the coffee was good. AND..they got the bill right. I love that.

To be fair and balanced I did actually go into the bookstore. I'm not really a reader at all (yes, I'm aware of the irony), so I wasn't actually sure what I was looking for. Josh had mentioned that he liked a book they were reading at school so I asked a lady in there for some help. She was unbelievably helpful. She took a while to find it because it was under the shelves right at the very back. All up I think it took about 20 minutes to find, but she regularly popped her head up and said, "I'm still looking", and handed me no less than 3 other age appropriate books to consider while she found the other one. All that effort, for the $16.99 I eventually spent. And she seemed genuinely chuffed she'd been able to help. I think secretly she was harbouring the notions she might convert me to a book reader.

No way. But I'll definitely go there for books, even if they are for someone else. And I'll definitely go there for the food...next time though I'll start with that dessert cabinet.

Barefoot Bowls

Took the boys to barefoot bowls today. It was fun, and actually harder than it looks. I didn't realise they weren't perfectly round, and they need to be thrown on a certain angle to go straight. So subsequently the majority of my balls ended up in the gutter.

This is the closest I got

I bought the passes on one of those group deal sites. It came with 2 hours of bowls and a food platter. It was really just loads of deep fried stuff, but I kinda liked it. The boys certainly liked it.

Believe it or not, this was actually on my bucket list. Another tick. And...I think I found my birthday venue for next year :-)

Valley Fiesta!

After our regular Friday night dinner at Kuan Yin, we went for a walk through the Valley and happen to walk straight through the opening night of Valley Fiesta - the Valley's annual music festival.

How cool!

I call it an "accidental festival ticket". The atmosphere was awesome. They had a live band playing from the balcony of one of the buildings and all down Ann Street, they had performers in the shop windows.

These guys were my favourite. I think they were some sort of Marie Antoinette Zombies. There were loads of other great performers too.

This guy was dancing to the robot flower on the floor

These guys were giving piano lessons

Clowns in the Ultra Suite window

Our Regular

Some people have a regular bar, or a regular cafe, our regular is Kuan Yin Teahouse, a slightly divey, vegetarian cafe run by Buddhists in Fortitude Valley.

We eat there probably every second Friday night, early, given they have very odd opening hours. We love their "fake meat" dishes like Thai Spicy Chicken and Fish and Vegetables - looks like meat, tastes like meat, but it usually made from vegetable protein or mushrooms.

We popped in on Friday night and the place was packed! Fuller than we'd ever seen it in the years it's been our regular.

This pleases me.

This place is as cheap as chips, I guess cause they're not in it to  make loads of money, so I love to see them do well.  The most expensive dish is this "Delicate Combo" a vegetable pancake with miso soup served on an individual gas cooker. At $14.95 it's pretty filling and basically an entree and main in one.

Don't expect anything fancy - the crockery and cutlery don't match, the decor is questionable and translation in the menu is amusing, but that's actually what I love about the place. The service is always friendly and did I mention the cheap dishes? All vegetarian with vegan options so it's ethical as well. 

Did I mention the cheap dishes?

Flashback Friday - Penny's Computer Book

When I was little, my little brother Marc and I LOVED the cartoon Inspector Gadget. Mum and Dad had a TV in their bedroom and I remember sitting on the floor and watching it, and when we bought a VCR (that's "Video Cassette Recorder" kids) we would watch it over and over again and drive Mum crazy.

The basic premise of the story centred around bumbling Inspector Gadget, who was made up of a multitude of gadgets and fumbled his way through cases helped by his much cleverer niece Penny and her supersmart dog, Brain. It was based on the 60s show "Get Smart" and the star of that show, Don Adams, was the voice of Inspector Gadget.

Anyways, Penny had an awesome computer book, which looked like a normal book from the outside, but when she opened it up, she could communicate via VIDEO to Brain, and look up things INSTANTLY. Oh..and it had a built in calculator. I just thought it was the most amazing device EVER!!

So I was look at our iPad the other day and thought..this is Penny's computer book. This is the device I wanted someone so desperately to create. And here it is. Again, Steve Jobs, we are eternally indebted to you.

Just Because

Sometimes people do nice things. Really nice things. 

About 18 months ago I caught up with an old friend I used to work with. He said he and his wife had an idea for a special event and were we interested in helping out with the planning.

Turns out that special event was to take a bunch of their family and friends on an island holiday for 4 days of fun activities, fabulous food, entertainment and relaxing indulgence. And when I say a bunch of people, I mean about 50.

Why? Well, just because. Just because life's too short to need a reason to catch up with your loved ones. Just because they could, and why not. 

So of course we would love to help out. It's once in a lifetime that someone would ask that. They decided on the luxurious 5 star Hayman Island in the Whitsundays for the location. It was picture perfect, with its inky blue waters and sandy white beaches. 

We called the event "Just Because", because it really did capture the essence of it all.

It took 18 months to plan and we had a few hiccups along the way, mainly the damage caused by Cyclone Yasi cancelled our original date and it had to be put back another 6 months, but in the end we got there.

We did the organising and branding (more on that later), but their aim was just for everyone to have a good time and enjoy being together. And they did...a bunch of people who were genuinely grateful and happy to be there.