Tag: Coffee

Mallard Cottage

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It is 12 months ago today that my husband and I accidentally discovered Mallard Cottage, Quidi Vidi, Newfoundland, Canada. We were walking in the snow enjoying the picturesque scenery as the city turned from green to white, when we arrived at our destination—Quidi Vidi Village—a small fishing hamlet just outside St John’s. We arrived mid afternoon and hungry from all the walking decided to stop at Mallard Cottage for some coffee and cake, before continuing on our journey. Boy were we surprised. Coffee and cake were $10 from memory for—all you can eat homemade old-fashioned cakes. There were about 10-12 to choose from. They were amazing. We sat and relaxed for over an hour between us tasting at least a small amount of every cake—okay I admit it some thing more than once—because we could. Unfortunately we were too busy eating to take any photos, sorry.

While we were eating our cakes the friendly wait staff began telling us of the properties history. Mallard Cottage is one of the oldest wooden buildings in North America. Originally built-in the early 1700’s it is older than our country—Australia. This felt weird to think about given the beauty of the restoration and how perfectly it blended old and new. It also turns out that our accidental find has developed a reputation as one of the best restaurants in St John’s area. No wonder we want to go back. If your ever in the area, it is well worth the visit.

Coffee Catch-up #2

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As it has been six weeks since our first coffee catch-up I think it is time to catch-up again. Due to feedback from our last coffee, this will be a random regular event—a bit like my real life coffee catch-ups. If you missed our first coffee, you can catch-up here.

If we were having coffee I would tell you how much I enjoyed our trip to the cinema yesterday. My husband and I saw Bridge of Spies with Tom Hanks. It wasn’t my first choice for a movie, however it looked okay and it was being shown at a time suitable to us. From the start I was invested and intrigued. Based on true events, Bridge of Spies is a story set during the Cold War. An American lawyer played by Hanks is recruited by the CIA to go to Berlin and negotiated the release of a spy plane pilot shot down over Russia. Produced by Steven Spielberg it is full of drama, has great casting and as expected amazing location photography. If you have a few hours to spare it is definitely worth a look.

If we were having coffee I would tell you about my continuing de-clutter at work. Over the last few weeks I have gone through all the cupboards and drawers, throwing out information that hasn’t been needed for years and organising everything else so it can be found and accessed. I even found some photographs of staff from about 8 years ago and my new staff didn’t always pick the younger version of myself. The new look office is going well and people are taking the time to comment. We have also started a treat roster and everyone is excited to take turns and bring in some special homemade treats to share.

If we were having coffee I would tell you how excited I was to carve my first pumpkin last weekend. I had no idea to begin with but with the help of Dr Google I learnt quickly. My daughter helped me with the design and although my pumpkin wasn’t the winner of our Toastmasters Halloween competition it was fun.

If we were having coffee I would tell you that I am looking forward to preparing for Christmas which is now less than 8 weeks away. My family has a colour theme and this year it is Berry. All colours that berries come in are welcome. As my favourite colour is purple I will be looking for purple-blue coloured clothes. I am hoping to find something suitable before my work Christmas party to kill two birds with the one stone.

If we were having coffee I would tell you how I am refocusing on completing the editing of my book on eating disorder recovery.  I have about half the book to go and would like to hand it to the editor in Jan 2016 which I think is achievable as long as I keep working at it. Seriously before I began this journey I never realised how much time goes into the editing process of a book. I think I just thought magically happened—definitely not so especially for non-fiction books.

If we were having coffee I would ask you what you have done and how you have been since we last met. Let me know in the comments what you have been up to.

Coffee Catch-up

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If we were having coffee this afternoon I hope it is at this amazing coffee shop my work colleagues introduced me to yesterday while we were attending training. Alma Bar and Kitchen on Stanley St Darlinghurst coffee was so good that I returned on my home for a second cup. To my surprise and delight as my second cup was as good as the first. Next time I have a day out in Sydney I will take a little walk and visit my new favourite coffee shop again. Next time I might add a yummy cake to my cappuccino.

If we were having coffee I would tell you how I love Sydney in Spring. I love feeling of the sun on my skin for the first time after the layers of winter. The city comes to life by the colours of the flowers starting to bloom and the lifeguards beginning their patrols of our beaches again.

If we were having coffee I would tell you how much I enjoyed the free tickets my husband won to the movies last weekend. I will be doing a movie review in the upcoming weeks on the film we saw  Blinky Bill: the movie. It made me laugh and I carried on smiling all day.

If we were having coffee I would tell you that I walked out of a restaurant recently because I was furious with the chef.  Apparently it is too hard to sprinkle mushrooms on only one-quarter of the pizza my husband and I wanted to share, so he refused to do it. I wouldn’t have minded if the mushrooms were part of a prepared sauce but I thought the other was ridiculous and left because I couldn’t support such a precious chef.

If we were having coffee I would tell you how much I have enjoyed returning to daily blogging through my participation in the latest Writing 101 course. I am meeting many new friends, gaining inspiration and visiting many new blogs.

If we were having coffee I would tell how excited I was this afternoon to achieve a year-long goal to de-clutter and remove several in and out trays that took over the bench space in our office for years. Everyone had used them as a dumping ground for odd bits of paper for years. Now I don’t recognise my desk and its awesome, it may have taken all day but it is worth it and I surethe empty space will create better feng-sui.

If we were having coffee I would ask you how your week has been. Let me know in the comments what you have been up to and if you would like us to have regular coffee catch-ups in the future.