Monthly Archives: April 2015

Date Night

With Sara’s leisure / hobo time winding down, she decided it was time to cash in the wonderful going away gift that her Book Club ladies gave her.  Luckily, she decided to bring me along! We were headed to the CBD to eat at a Middle Eastern restaurant named Maha. So, we hopped onto a tram and rode into the city.

Tram ussie
Tram ussie

First, we stopped at the Bull and Bear Pub for a few warm up drinks. The pub reminded Sara of the Regal Beagle of Three’s Company fame and I couldn’t disagree.  After finishing a pint and a pot (8 oz),  we headed over to Maha for our dinner.  Note, I find it un-American that a pot of beer costs exactly half of what a pint costs.  Where is my volume discount?

After some arriving at the storefront, which was down a small alley, Sara was able to figure out how to get in the door.  I tried to go in the service entrance.  They presented us with the below menu, which had 4 choices of what do for dinner.   We chose the 4 course “Spice Journey Soufra”.  Here’s the menu.

To quote Fletch, "If this were at all legible, you could read it."
To quote Fletch, “If this were at all legible, you could read it.”
The Maha sign outside
The Maha sign outside

 

 

 

 

 

 

We opted to pair our food with some Lebanese beers and enjoyed them, my pale ale by 961 Beer was spiced using Lebanese spices and was very interesting.  Sara got their Red ale.

The food was delightful and managed to fill me up and then some.  I’ll leave you to read about the various things we ate by looking at their web site or squinting really hard and looking at the image above.

After our wonderous meal, we decided to talk a bit of a walk to shake off our food coma.  I took Sara to the Crown Casino and we lost $3 playing the pokies (slots).  I showed her the shocking number of roulette tables in this casino (literally at at least 50 and more than half of their table games).  Sadly there are no craps tables here.  On our way to the tram,  we spotted a great possibility for our next date night – I know this much is TRUE.

Huh huh huh hu-uh huh
Huh huh huh hu-uh huh

Stuff and Nonsense

2015-03-30 14.09.02

In my typical fashion, I managed to get sick within a few weeks of entering this foreign land. I had my first diagnosable (i.e. non- “common cold”) illness in a long time, an ear infection. Ack. It was awful, but luckily being in a country with socialized medicine has great perks. Even though I’m not working, I have a medicare card with which I was able to see a doctor on a Sunday afternoon, get a prescription and get it filled in less than 30 minutes. I’d probably still be waiting to see my doctor in Arlington. I’m on the mend and trying to enjoy my last week of unemployment…

… That’s right – I got a job! I start on 4 May and so wish me luck!

I haven’t been doing much since I’ve been sick, but Jon and I managed to get out of the apartment to celebrate Anzac Day (Australia’s version of memorial day) . We went to the Caulfield RSL (Australia’s version of the VFW) and took in the culture. The Caulfield RSL is quite the place and includes a full bar, restaurant, pokies (slot machines), a sports book and more. On Anzac day and only on Anzac day, an Aussie-invented game of chance called two-up is legal and enthusiastically played throughout Australia. Jon and I observed this custom which is quite entertaining, progressively so in fact which I attribute to the cumulative amount of beer consumed.

two-up on Anzac Day
two-up on Anzac Day

In other news, Jon shaved his head so those of you worried about where this hair thing was going can breathe a sigh of relief.

Angry Jon / Festive Jon
Angry Jon / Festive Jon