Forget love I'd rather fall in chocolate!

As promised a blog post about hot chocolate.

Sydney

Possibly the jewels of Sydney's hot chocolate establishments are the Lindt Chocolate Cafes.

There are three in Sydney.

Martin Place

This was the first Lindt cafe to open in the world and it is very much the concept store. In the business area of Martin Place it is a very short walk from the State Library of NSW (if you need an excuse to be up that end of town!).

Tends to be quite crowded on weekdays with business folk - so much so that there is a sign up asking that business meetings be kept to 30 minutes or less. At weekends however it is a great place for brunch, or a hot chocolate, or a look (and taste) of the new Lindt ball flavours.

Cockle Bay Wharf.

This one is popular with tourists - the inside is smallish, but with a large outdoor area and Darling Harbour views it is a great place for a hot chocolate or iced chocolate, accompanied of course, by a white chocolate eclair.

George Street

This one caters pretty much for the business coffee crowd (it's not open Sundays) and is more 'traditional' coffee shop than the others. Interestingly it is practically next door to Max Brenner who also make a superior rich hot chocolate.

The Lindt Hot Chocolate

When you order a hot chocolate (eat in, not takeaway) you receive a cup and saucer, a jug of hot milk, and a jug of melted chocolate so that you can mix the drink to your desired strength. (If you like your hot choc medium strength then you can pretty much get two cups out of the ingredients).

Now available in supermarkets

You cna now buy tins of Lindt Hot Chocolate flakes at supermarkets (and Priceline Balwyn). To make a hot choc you use 6 (yes six) teaspoons of the flakes. Not as nice as the shop made ones but not bad.

NB: as yet Lindt don't sell a white hot chocolate.

Sydney musings

My suitcase and I were strolling through Central Railway Station when a puppy dog came up and started capering around near me.

At the other end of the puppy's leash was a police officer. Apparently the puppy was a sniffer dog in training.

Had to stop (seemed wise to do so when asked to by people carrying guns!) Puppy then went on to feign complete disinterest in me and my luggage but was unseemly excited by guy nearby. Don't know whether fido was in training for drugs or explosives or indeed if guy was a 'plant'.

Made it to Sydney airport where I proceeded to delay the line at the security because when I took the toy (aka asus ee pc) out of its case to be xrayed the security guard fell in love with it and we had quite the conversation as I put it through its paces for her.

Random acts of airport observation

Most seen (presumably purchased) magazine at Sydney airport - Australian Property Investor. 2 people ahead of me in the queue @ Newslink were buying it (and neither of them belonged to the pinstripe brigade) and there were several people in the Lounge, several others in the food court and double figures on the plane reading it. (Might have to reserve it and see what all the fuss was about)

A lot of people carry laptops or portable dvd players to watch movies on whilst in the air. (mind you I didn't have any dvds but I did have ebooks on my laptop, ipod and pda. also on my phone - but you can't read the phone ones in flight.) I also had a real book (made of paper, with pages) and a sudoku book to while away the hours (well 1.5 hours).

The KrispyKreme revolution is over, the harry's cafe du wheels is just beginning. Queues at Harry's, not at KK.

Had a salad from Sumo. (Chicken schnitzel & avocado, with lemon/herb mayo). Is it automatically healthy if it has the word salad in its name? I figure it isn't the healthiest salad around.

VirginBlue had cancelled several fights - this meant my flight (chosen for optimum lack of passengers) was full.

Never mind it landed on time, I walked straight onto Skybus. Disembarked at Sthn X, walked straight onto Belgrave train. Was home by 6.30. Best timing in ages. Very tired now.

Shelving romance & turning to crime

Well it's over, officially over. No more clandestine sneaking off to Sydney, no more frequent flyer points.

To paraphase bob the builder “can we fix it?” who the hell knows

Mind you it's coming to melb in december. so who knows what may happen.

Food, 'glorious' food

After a long day yesterday and a sleepless night - too much to do - not enough night - I used my earlybird 'arrive at sthn cross on spencer b4 7am travel for free' ticket to get me to Sthn X at 7am on the dot. A surprisingly empty skybus had me at the airport by 7.30.

Decided to celebrate with my traditional airport brekkie of coffee and raisin toast only 'petal's mums' coffee shop had run out of raisin toast. World in crisis.Vegemite toast had to step up to the mark – (had to go back twice for extra vegemite!)

The flight was slightly delayed but still made it to afternoon tea in plenty of time - no cookies n cream lindt balls, (sorry hannah, ) but an excuse to try martin place later on.

There were still many, many, WYD pilgrims in Sydney - it seemed every second person was wearing a red/yellow/orange backpack and the prices at some of the souvenir shops reflected the increased number of tourists.

Decided to try Lorraine's dumplings restaurant for dinner - awesome dumplings, extremely delicious - will be eating there again, that's for sure!

Saw Rarmian slay them at the Capitol, then late supper at City Extra on way to digs.

Too tired to function properly

It's been a long day. Booktalk in the morning (good audience, seemed to enjoy it) then Genealogy demo in evening.

Intended to record it to load here, however the mind sync between me and the recorder wasn't working and despite positioning the recorder for optimal recording I forgot one important instruction (probably the most important instruction) press record !!!!!

Bugger.

However the demo went extremely well; a really appreciative audience who seemed to get a lot out of it (you'll have to take my word for it as there is, unfortunately, no recorded proof).

Added bonus - the demo finished in perfect time for me to cadge a lift home with the Sammon/Holt limousine service, rather than the SilverTop I was planning to catch.

Suitcase is now packed (can't guarantee the contents are correct, but hey Sydney has shops). Tickets and boarding passes printed and in bag (not suitcase - check again to make sure)
No sharp objects or flammable stuff in bag (nope, good)

No point going to bed properly the alarm will be going off all too soon... (Wanders in general direction of couch and blanket)

Books, books everywhere and not a book to read

I am in the final stages of a head cold that has required a day off work. Along with this day off were 2 time in lieu days meaning I have wasted 3 whole days and parts of a further 3 days on a cold that I do not want.

The optimist in me felt that these days/times of enforced rest could be best spent catching up on my reading. The TBR bookshelf in the bedroom was full to overflowing with brightly jacketed library books all jumping up and waving at me - pick me, pick me.

There was also the the partially digested crime novel on the bedside table; i'm enjoying it but not right now.

In the lounge room one coffee table groans under the weight of books that don't fit on the TBR bookshelf. On the floor next to the beanbag are several heavily bookmarked travel guides to New Zealand (for trip planning whilst watching TV).

In the study/library/sewing room/gym/spare bedroom there are more shelves of TBR's. On the dek is a pile of HBR's (have been read) waiting patiently to be entered onto the 'puter and then taken back to the library.

Yet still when push came to shove I had nothing to read and/or nothing I wanted to read (and there was nothing on TV)

So what did I do? - yep it was comfort read time. Ballet for Laura, & Laura's summer ballet; the Nancy series by Dorita Fairlie Bruce; and a couple of Biggles books. All of which I could just about quote from memory. Doh!

So I still have library loans in triple figures (none overdue TG) and a TBR pile which, at last count, stands at %@#.

Need more time to read