~ Curious Charlie ~

Cannoli at the Beach with Leo @ Sunday, January 20, 2013

Wednesday morning, for the first time this year I was ahead of time, and while I was snapping away, experimenting with Andy's phone camera (which was actually meant to be used as back-up only...), outside T. Cavallaro & Sons, the lovely lady who owns it invited me in. Initially I was going to get something but the bus was coming within 5mins. She was so friendly it was hard to refuse though :P

I knew exactly what I wanted to get: their famous cannolis (a Sicilian pastry dessert, tube-shaped shells of fried pastry dough, filled with a sweet, creamy filling usually containing ricotta). The lady said the ricotta ones are popular Americans, but I ended up going for the vanilla, as there's something not right about having cheese before noon. But I will be back to try the vanilla/choc and ricotta next time.

That day we have a new lecture, who was a tiny bit more difficult to understand than the usual, though now that I have gotten used to my tutor's accent I understand her completely. She's very nice, tries very hard (I think it's her first year) and good at conversation (given that her first language isn't English and she did most of her studies in chinese). She loves food, mainly brunch, which is great. :)

Systems were down for maintenance, and so mr eco2 couldn't get the tutorial Qs... He didn't prepare test ones either as he's not our main tutor. There was no chance that we were going to get away from doing them though, but I couldn't help by feel a bit of dislike coming from the class towards me, when I gave him the Qs on my usb. Surely I can't be the only person who has the Qs on their usb in the class? O.o

View from the East Side of the Library

After class I paid Austin a visit, unfortunately he was just leaving. And so the afternoon was spent at the library, unproductivity high, and I read about a paragraph of the text out the course of an hour.

I wanted to go to the beach but it was too sunny & windy, so we didn't. That didn't stop the kids playing volleyball and girls in microkinis ~~getting cancer~~ sun tanning though. And as the sun doesn't start to set till 8pm we decided to go to the beach another day.

We had dinner at 'The Beach', one of the pub/resturants which would be good for a date.

It's a great location being at the end of Tram no. 1 to South Melbourne Beach.

I love water in glass bottles, there's something so refreshing about them.

Complimentary bread with olive oil & balsamic vinegar dip.

The dip was great (I've never had it before) must ask jas for the recipe.

Jas was driving so he got a coke, while I didn't know what to get. Fortunately out waiter, a very friendly girl suggested a berry non-alcoholic drink, though said it was more fun with alcohol. An off the menu blend. It was fantastic anyway, even w/o the alcohol!

Steak 15.00 - Wednesday Special

For our mains we both ordered the specials, jas ordered a medium steak though it was a bit overcooked, still edible though, unlike my last eye fillet experience. The mash was bland, but the calamari was amazing he said. Sorry for the bad lighting, next time we're sitting where the lighting is consistent.

Fish & Chips 15.00 - Wednesday Special

Originally I wanted to get fish&chips on the beach (unlike most of my friends I've never done it, and have missed out on most of life). Might want to note that the picture of the site is 'suggested serving' only, as the fries aren't fries, they're hot chips. Also the fish is battered rather than crumbled. The steak also looked different (see picture above vs site).

The dish was good, the herbed sour cream was lovely, though I would have preferred a bigger dish of it. Hot chips were great, as expected, though I do prefer fries, they're a bit more elegant to me. I would recommend it and order it again, in a couple of months though, for the meantime I've had a bit too much deep-fried food.

We didn't get dessert as we had a show to get to, and because I didn't want to get dessert with their limited dessert menu. Though jas wanted dessert, but not w/o me...

After dinner we went to see Leo, it was very good. Using a screen the 'stage' projected at a 90 degree angle, so that on the screen the guy was standing, but in actual fact, on the stage the floor is the wall he's leaning against.

In the little boxed stage Leo goes through a few adventures, from his fantastic chalk world, the flooding fish bowl to the magic suitcase that is secretly a record player.

Defying the 4 walls on the stage Leo performs acrobatic movements and ends up on the edge (hanging off the right right wall!). Later on he exits the stage through his suitcase, stuck on the wall (or floor of you're watching the screen), and as it was filled full of props used throughput the show you're left wondering how he did that.

Tis is magic! :P Turn you head to the right. Red = right wall, blue = ground.

This is a picture of the screen. On the actual stage there's a camera that links to it.