We decided to check out one of the local shopping centres on Sunday. Charlestown Square has recently been renovated and it is now a very good place to spend a couple of hours. In fact, we were there for nearly five, which ended up costing us $9 in parking fees! The first three are free but the 4th is $5 and the 5th $4. There’s something to be said for getting in, buying what you need, and getting out. However, we’re on holiday and wanted to take things a bit more slowly, apart from doing a bit of shopping.
We had a very good lunch at one of the café, called Salt. Sandy says his fettucine was the best he’s had and I tend to agree. My eyes were drawn to a shop called King of Knives because I’m keen to buy a new set of knives for the kitchen in the new unit. One set was reduced from $1200 to $300 which would normally be enough to set my Scottish heart fluttering but we ended up buying a similar set in House because I liked the look of the handles more. The brand is Scanpan, made in Denmark and my feeling is that it’s a trusted brand in the catering trade. Marilyn also bought a set of bakeware in Myer so we have two more boxes to fit in the boot of the way home, but that’s no problem.
While I was trying on shirts in Myer, Marilyn bumped into Noel and Carol, old friends from Wollongong. Noel is the brother of Marilyn’s brother-in-law and we had seen them recently at the Christmas lunch at Marilyn’s niece. They’re joining us on Wednesday night at the Schnitzel Night at the Swansea RSL. Sandy has arranged for friends they met on a recent trip to come as well so there will be 8 of us at least. We were advised to make a booking as it’s very popular with locals.
Our friends, Dick and Bev, came to have lunch with us yesterday. We last saw them in 2000 when they were on a trip to Tasmania. They have the post office in Wangi Wangi which is on the other side of the lake and had lots of stories to tell about the people who come into the shop. We had a very nice lunch and made arrangements for them to join us also at the schnitzel night on Wednesday – that makes 10! What will the locals think about drop-ins taking up so many seats?
We were told that pelicans are fed every day at the back of the restaurant and at about 1.30, as expected, a horde of huge black and white birds started arriving at the wharf and waddled up to the restaurant. They were waiting patiently until a couple of kids arrived and ran towards them which set them all lumbering into the air. When the kids had gone, the birds came back to the jetty and sent a large male (I assume) to check out whether it was safe. He tentatively walked back to the restaurant, looking around fearfully but nobody came to attack him, so one-by-one the others joined him.
The minutes passed and no one came with a bucket of fish. The birds were becoming edgy and then a message was received in the restaurant that, because it was a public holiday, there would be no pelican feeding today. What a disaster! How were the birds expected to know the queen was having a birthday? Very desolate, they wandered back to the water, to find their own lunch.When I handed over my credit card to pay the bill, the maitre d’ (is that you spell it?) told me that his name was Richard John Christie and introduced us to his wife and two little girls. They’re originally from South Africa but an ancestor had apparently come from England, so we couldn’t claim family rates.
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