Tag Archives: Ottawa

Five years living in Canberra

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Today marks five years I’ve been living in Canberra. In 2007 I moved here from Darwin after living there since February 1996.

If you follow me on Twitter or you’re a Facebook friend you’ll know my natural habitat is any place that is warm and moist. I like living in warm humid small friendly cities. Having grown up in Brisbane (not that Brisbane is small, it’s larger than all the capitals in Australia in terms of geography), I reckon if you can survive a February and March you can live in any humid city.

Canberra is not warm and moist. Canberra is friendly but it is mostly cold and dry. I’ve lived with very dry skin all my life as well as allergic rhinitis. A dry climate is not a natural habitat for me without pain and discomfort, and medication and bucket loads of moisturiser.

Aside from the weather, Canberra is a good place to live. It’s small, it’s almost rural, it’s designed and best of all the people are friendly. Not Darwin friendly mind you, but pretty friendly. I like that as the national capital we have Eastern Grey kangaroos living all around us as well as foxes, wombats and echidnas. Having had the opportunity to visit cities like Washington DC, London and Ottawa, Canberra is not an architecturally grand or even beautiful city. It doesn’t have the capital feel that Washington DC and London have. None of that matters though, it’s our capital. More people should visit Canberra to see what goes on and then go and visit Darwin and Brisbane and far north Queensland to warm up and see really beautiful parts of the best country in the world.

So how much longer can I live here? I like my job, I like my friends here, but I don’t like the weather.

I like that one twitter follower once called me Canberra’s eating machine. That will do me :-)

Chong Co Thai Bar and Restaurant | Sanur’s Balinese Restaurant | @Bron99 ‘s amazing birthday cake

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After being away last week in Ottawa it was good to see and catch up with Bron. On Thursday night we had a night out at Chong Co Thai Bar and Restaurant and then to Max Brenner for some chocolate. Yesterday was Bron’s birthday and a few of us went to dinner and then had dessert at a friend’s place.

On Thursday night we didn’t really need to scan the menu. We knew what we wanted and shared some Thai fish cakes for an entrée. These were nice and full of flavour but a little rubbery. For a main course Bron chose the barbecue chicken (marinated skin on chicken with served with sweet chilli sauce) and I chose the barbecue lamb which Bron had the last time we were here.

Chong Co Thai fish cakes (iPhone)

Chong Co Barbecue chicken (iPhone) Served with sweet chilli sauce

Chong Co Barbecue lamb cutlets (iPhone)

The chicken and lamb were delicious. I would highly recommend these two dishes for a main course meal.

After the main course we walked to Max Brenner for a little chocolate.

I had a white chocolat and an exploding chocolate shot. The hot chocolate drinks are served in hug mugs which look like toilet bowls.

Max Brenner white chocolat in a hug mug (iPhone)

Exploding chocolate shot is popping candy over melted chocolate served with gummy bears (iPhone)

The popping candy is fun. It’s a pity the venue is very noisy, it would be good to eat this in a quiet room.

Friday was a pretty full on day but our Friday’s are always made better with a Mavi Breakfast wrap and coffee. This is a deal done at Mavi.

Mavi Breakfast wrap contains a hash brown, egg, bacon, mushrooms and barbecue sauce. (iPhone)

On Friday evening I didn’t get to Bron’s until late (don’t ask, it was a long day at work). Bron prepared a lovely Chicken thigh roasted with lemon, garlic and shallots served with lemon risotto and broccoli. This was accompanied later with a Flourless toffee date hazelnut chocolate muffin with cream. The meal was delicious.

Chicken thigh roasted with lemon, garlic and shallots served with lemon risotto and broccoli (iPhone).

Flourless toffee date hazelnut chocolate muffin with cream (iPhone)

Saturday was Bron’s birthday. We went to the EPIC markets at Exhibition Park early in the morning. Bron bought a heap of produce including some truffles and cultured butter. I bought a vanilla slice.

Do you think it’s big enough? (iPhone)

After the markets we had breakfast at Ricardo’s Cafe in Jamison. This is an amazing place for pastries. Just click on the link to see. I had a coffee and big breakfast.

This was very filling (iPhone) You can see Bron’s Eggs Benedict in the background.

On Saturday night we went to dinner with some friends to Sanur’s Balinese Restaurant in Belconnen. We’d been there before but that was years ago. The menu is full of delicious choices and I’m reminded of a review from T1 of In The Taratory fame. Bron and I shared a couple of entrées, viz., the Bakwan Jagung ($9.9 buys you Sweetcorn patties with prawns and shallots served with sweet chili dipping (3 pieces)) and the Udang Goreng Tepung ($10.9 buys you King prawns in spiced, crispy coconut batter served with cucumber relish (4 pieces)). For a main I had a whole deep fried fish (a little fish) Ikan Balado ($28.90 buys you deep fried of whole fish or prawns or calamari served with padangnese style mild chili sauce). I like fish like this and was happy to head the eyes.

Bakwan Jagung Sweetcorn patties with prawns & shallots served with sweet chili dipping (iPhone)

Udang Goreng King prawns in spiced, crispy coconut batter served with cucumber relish (iPhone)

Ikan Balado Deep fried of whole fish or prawns or calamari served with padangnese style mild chili sauce (iPhone)

Ikan Balado Deep fried of whole fish or prawns or calamari served with padangnese style mild chili sauce sans flesh and eyes (iPhone)

After dinner we went to Tanya’s place for dessert. Meredith had given Bron a Dutch pancake maker for her birthday and we needed to try it out. In addition Tanya had been busy making a cake or awesome proportions.

Dutch pancakes with maple syrup and ice cream. (iPhone)

The balls are cake encased in white chocolate. The balls are decorated with icing and the green grass is also green dyed chocolate. This was amazing and tasted so good (iPhone).

I was so relaxed after dessert I fell asleep and put a show with my snoring :-)

This morning Bron prepared scrambled eggs with the cultured buttered infused with the truffles she bought at the markets.

Truffled scrambled eggs (iPhone)

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Toronto to Los Angeles to Sydney to Canberra (YYZ to LAX to SYD to CBR)

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I’m grateful that my flight out of Toronto and beyond went relatively well. The journey up to Toronto was a little out there. Toronto is the largest city in Ontario (and Canada) and is the provincial capital. The Toronto Pearson (YYZ) airport is a lot larger than the Ottawa airport (YOW). I spent an hour or so in the Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge and enjoyed a couple of glasses of diet coke. My flight from Toronto to Los Angeles was really good. I sat next to a friendly passenger and the entertainment system in the Air Canada aircraft is very good. They have a USB port for recharging and connecting your smartphone and all the programs are on-demand. During my five hour flight I watched quite a few situation comedies that are not yet screened in Australia. I really enjoyed a compilation from the latest Winnipeg comedy festival.

I got into Los Angeles with a reasonable amount of time to spare (two hours) and managed to get into the United Lounge in terminal seven. It looked like United Airlines was continuing to have problems with its flights from that day. There were large lines of unhappy passengers asking to be put onto other flights, some of them were being sent to other airlines while others were being told to spend a night in LA.

When I got on board flight UA839 I thought we were going to have a trouble free flight except we didn’t move for more than an hour. At first we were waiting for domestic connections, then we were waiting for passengers from the last evening’s cancelled flight to turn up and collect their duty free, and then there was an on-board computer failure and the engineers were called. None of this really mattered given the prevailing tail winds and after an hour or so of delays we ended up being in Sydney about 15 minutes late. For me the flight was great. I was really tired and after watching Star Trek XI (2009) and eating dinner I fell asleep and didn’t wake until about 0300 AEST. The last 90 minutes of the flight was a little bumpy but not really bad.

Creamy garlic salad (iPhone)

Prawns and lime (iPhone)

Garlic bread (iPhone)

Tenderloin and gnocchi (iPhone)

Cheese (iPhone)

Sundae (iPhone)

Sundae (iPhone)

Fruit and yoghurt (iPhone)

Egg and sausage (iPhone)

Egg and sausage (iPhone)

I’m glad I’m back in Canberra. I’m tired and will sleep well tonight I hope.

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YOW to YYZ (Ottawa to Toronto)

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I woke up this morning a little sad that I was going to be leaving Ottawa and Canada. I’ve enjoyed the weather and the meeting I came here for. I always enjoy meeting with Canadians and colleagues from similar countries. I also had a feeling of happiness that I’d be returning to Australia and I’d see Bron again soon. I’ve missed her ❤ I really am not that happy to return to the cold and dry weather of Canberra.

When I woke up I knew that I would be flying in the reverse order of the flight to Ottawa, i.e., Ottawa (YOW) to Chicago (ORD) to Los Angeles (LAX) to Sydney (SYD) and then finally early Sunday morning I’d fly on to Canberra (CBR). My flight with United Airlines to ORD was due to depart at 1241 local time. I left the hotel at 1000 to give myself time for an international connection and in case anything when wrong.

In an unexpected twist I am now flying via Toronto (YYZ).

My flight to Chicago (ORD) was cancelled yet I wasn’t told (they have my mobile telephone and hotel number). When I arrived at the airport (YOW) I was told the Chicago flight was full and I was bumped to the Newark (EWR) flight which left at 1650. That would be a six hour wait at Ottawa airport.  When I asked if that gave me enough time in Los Angeles I was told I had an hour which doesn’t seem long enough for there. I was told to then go on-line to check-in because they couldn’t do it at the check-in counter. I proceeded to check-in on-line and discovered a discrepancy. I went back to the counter and asked them to change this. This is when I was told my Chicago flight had been cancelled and I was then told the Newark flight was now delayed. I was then told to go to the Air Canada desk to get a flight to Toronto and then to Los Angeles. They didn’t give me a boarding pass for my flight from Los Angeles to Sydney (SYD). I should point out the entire conversation/interaction lasted fifteen minutes and was very cordial. It seemed the United Airlines computer system is very slow.

I went to the Air Canada desk and they laughed because United Airlines does this regularly. They were also concerned that it looked like my flight from LAX to SYD was now cancelled (it had also been cancelled the night before). They printed me a UA boarding pass on AC card so I’ll see if I get back to Australia (I’m currently writing this in the Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge in Toronto).

Security at the Ottawa airport was very thorough. Even though I emptied all my pockets they had to run a handheld metal detector over me. My belt was off yet it pinged over my crotch. The bloke then patted and prodded my crotch and actually felt my penis. I then had to go through the full body scanner. It was totally bizarre.

When I got through security I discovered my flight to Toronto was delayed by 30 minutes. Such is life.

AC451 YOW to YYZ. I have my US visas in my old passport and I need to carry my new passport as well (iPhone)

I also found the Toronto airport very confusing in terms of passing through customs to get checked in for a transit through the USA. I wish I could read French because the French language signage seems to be more comprehensive than the English signs.

The YYZ Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge is very comfortable but there isn’t a view to speak of.

AC795 YYZ to LAX The BlackBerry is still delivering me lots of work e-mails to respond to :-) (iPhone)

I’m sorry if it sounds like all I do is complain. I suppose blogging about the experience is my way of ventilating and feeling like I’ve shared a lesson identified and hopefully a lesson I’ll learn from.

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Mmm…chocolate covered beaver tail. YUMMY

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My first visit to Ottawa was in February 2007. I remember being asked by a very attractive young lady from Québec if I had eaten beaver tail while in Ottawa. For an Australian, I was quite taken aback. At that stage I had not visited Byward Market because of the amount of snow and without warm clothes (thanks to Air Canada) I wasn’t venturing out. As far as I knew only cunning linguists ate beaver tails.

This is now my third visit to Ottawa and for three out of three my bags have been lost. That said, the Summer in Ottawa is brilliant. It is warm and humid, just how I love life, i.e., warm and moist. The days have been >30 °C and the evenings warm enough to keep the air conditioning off so I can enjoy sleeping naturally.

With the advent of foursquare, I am today at least the Mayor of Beaver Tails.

I’m the mayor of Beaver Tails on Foursquare (iPhone)

You can get beaver tails in many flavours both sweet and savoury. I was interested to see cinnamon and sugar, cinnamon and apple, cinnamon, sugar and apple, there was one with vanilla sugar and cheesecake as well. The savoury ones looked pretty good but I could not go past the hazelnut chocolate beaver tail. After Hannah of wayfaringchocolate.com commented that she keen to read about some of my trip, I knew I had to choose chocolate. More importantly I know that Bron loves hazelnut chocolate and eating this chocolate coated beaver tail made me think of her.

Hazelnut chocolate beaver tail (Panasonic DMC-TZ10)

 

 

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