Saturday 17 May 2014

BREAKFAST - the most important meal of the day - so they say!


We all love to go out for breakfast, I think it has taken over from dinner as the favourite meal to dine out.
Thought it would be a bit of fun see some of the mouthwatering breakfasts I have enjoyed.   Some of them I cannot even remember where I ate them.

These few breakfasts were in Thailand, eggs are popular everywhere as a breakfast staple.





Mangoes with coconut rice, just scrumptous. 

Always lots of chili in Thailand.


Noodle soups always popular in Asia, especially China and Taiwan.

Chris and I will always remember this breakfast, red wine and noodle soup at the freezing Quangzhou airport in China.  Wine at 9am in the morning.  It really was luscious.



 Europe - a lovely chocolate pancake in Vienna, this was back in 2010, no Ipad then, funny how quickly technology moves on.


Australian breakfasts - always enjoyable.

This was a lovely breakfast at Chermside.

Portside in Brisbane, just loved their crockery, it added to the ambience of the surrounds and the enjoyment of the meal.
This was a beautiful fruit compote with a beautiful sweet bread at Berry in NSW, a lovely little craft town south of Sydney.  

The Mexican restaurant at Newmarket in Brisbane.

Damper at O'Reilly's on the Lamington Plateau, Michael O'Reilly serving us breakfast.
A regular haunt - early morning coffee at The Drowned Rat Espresso at Clontarf.

This breakfast was just lovely, a little cafe at Nundah - I have forgotten the name - this was on the way to the airport to head off to Taiwan.

Shorncliffe on the Park






A  little coffee shop we found at Shorncliffe this morning.  A cafe with the charm of yesteryear.
Beautiful food, beautifully presented.


I have had many many more great breakfasts and glad to see at the cafe this morning I wasn't the only one taking a photo of my meal.  





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Friday 9 May 2014

"A Conversation with Patricia Routledge" and "Admission One Shilling".

A Birthday Celebration


A lovely experience celebrating Amy's 31st birthday.  




Amy and I spent a lovely couple of hours having High Tea at the Lyrebird Restaurant at QPAC and "A Conversation with Patricia Routledge".   Known by her other names as Hyacinth Buchet or Hetty Wainthropp.

She is 85 years old and is on a tour of Australia doing a show with the famous Australian pianist Piers Lane  The show is called 'Admission One Shilling' and is the extraordinary story of Dame Myra Hess and her famous wartime National Gallery concerts.  The admission was one shilling.




A close up.

They did look lovely,  tasted pretty good as well.

Mother and daughter on a day out.




It was fascinating to listen to her talk.  We really only know her for Hyacinth and Hetty but she has done amazing things.  She won a Tony Award on Broadway in 1967 for appearing in Darling of the Day, a musical that only ran for seven weeks and was not a success.  What was amazing was the gentleman sitting in the checked shirt in this photo saw her on Broadway in that show.  



Her biography lists many roles including To Sir With Love with Sidney Poitier and Lulu.  I don't remember her she may have been the principal.  It is a long time since I have seen that movie.

She was so beautifully spoken, her memory was quite unbelievable and she was all class.  A joy to listen to.  She spoke of her elocution lessons at school, I can remember those, Patricia definitely benefited much more than I.


.

She says the world just loved her Hyacinth character and that the whole world felt sorry for Richard.

I remember the outfits she has on in these photos.

She was also toured Australia as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Ernest, I think in 1999, I wish I had seen that one.  Not sure if it came to Brisbane.



A lovely day, with a lovely lady.



Admission One Shilling



.


I am off to the Saturday matinee later on today (I just noticed it is after midnight) of Admission One Shilling.

I have a special connection to Piers Lane, when he was a child he lived with his parents at Dorrington (Ashgrove now) and his mother taught me piano. His parents were both pianists, he taught at the old Conservatorium in Brisbane. I remember the house as well, we played on an upright piano in the sleepout and there was a grand piano in the loungeroom as you walked in the front door.  A very modest house.

I remember Piers as a toddler, I used to push him on his swing while my older sister had her piano lesson.  Memories.

Patricia at 85 years of age started the tour at Hobart on May 2nd and finishes in Perth on May 31, twenty shows in all. 

What a wonderful life she has led.



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Saturday 3 May 2014

Beautiful Flowers and Gardens


We all love flowers and beautiful gardens.  We also love to photograph them, us travellers we photograph them all around the world.  Some of the winged inhabitants too.

Many plants are given to us as gifts, or start as a small cutting from a friend.  We nurture these plants like children, the kids are much more hardy than some of the plants I have tried to grow.

It is lovely to see all these photos again, hope you enjoy them too.

This kookaburra was a regular visitor to our back patio at Enoggera.


This bush flowered beautifully every  year, I have forgotten the name, Jane has some lovely ones as well.

A friendly seagull.

A beautiful daisy, purchased at Bunnings and flowered every year.

Dancing Lady orchid, my mother-in-law gave me a couple of these and they are still flowering.  Now with the new owners at Enoggera.

Flo and her beautiful garden  at her nursing home.

Another of my mother-in-law's beautiful orchids.  

This was a special variety of poinsettia that flowered in the shade, it was a spectacular show every year.

The Brunfelsia, beautiful to look at and a lovely scent.

I bought these two beautiful Hydrangeas at Woolworths, sadly they didn't survive the drought.  They do need a lot of water.  My mum had beautiful hydrangeas flowering on queue every year  in the house at Everton Park.  They were watered every day, in full sun in the front yard.  This was before water restrictions were imposed and we would hose our lawns every day.


Bought these lovely hibiscus with a plan to grow a beautiful flowering hedge, sadly the bugs got to these and they did not survive.

A lovely water wheel at a garden in China.

Again  beautiful flowering trees in China.

This was taken at a bird park in Hong Kong beautiful Flamingos.

Hippeastrums growing in the garden at Enoggera.





These photos were taken at the Ballarat Botanic Garden.


Colourful crotons at Enoggera.


Beautiful birds at O'Reillys.

More dancing lady orchids.

Two beautiful orchids given as a gift from my mother-in-law's garden.



Flowering poinciana at the gardens on the south bank of the Brisbane River.



A beautiful native in my sister in law's garden at Stanthorpe.

Daisies in the Stanthorpe garden.


A lovely bouquet at Jim Thompon's House, a tourist attraction in Bangkok.



A few more shots from the garden in Bangkok.


Monet's Garden at Giverny outside Paris, a visit I will always remember.










Just beautiful, I will never forget my visit to this magical place.

A golden statue of Johan Strauss, the waltz king at a beautiful garden in Vienna.



There is something special about the photographs you take yourself, keep following my blog for more beautiful pictures.

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