Melbourne lunch

Today I went for lunch with Col and Dazzler at a small Italian place on Little Collins Street called Benito’s. I thought I’d write about it ‘cos the food was amazing!

Firstly, we had to sit at the counter ‘cos we hadn’t booked a table and the place was full – at 12.30pm! We didn’t have time for starters, so went straight onto our mains. The guys had lasagna, which was huge! I ordered the pappardelle with chicken livers and red onion. It was delicious! The pasta was cooked to perfection - al dente!

The service was a little slow, but considering how busy it was and how good the company was, it didn’t matter.

I was looking forward to an espresso (apparently Benito’s make the perfect coffee too) but we ran out of time and I had to rush back to the office.

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Art Smart

The company I work for sponsored the catering for the graduation at the VCA on Wednesday night and I had the dubious honour of attending the event as a guest.

Although I’m no lover of it, I do appreciate good art and I can tell you now, a lot of it wasn’t! It was just weirdo students showing off stuff that pretended to be modern art. There was some great stuff on exhibit too. Some of the traditional Aboriginal art was fantastic as were some of the photos and sculptures, but obviously I’m not intellectual enough to understand that a stage with a speaker under each of the four corners and a sound effect moving from one speaker to the next is art! Especially when I can have one just like it installed in my (new) house by the student for a mere $2500! A bargain compared to some of the other crap the students were trying to hawk to pay off their massive study loans!

At least the food was great and the booze was free. The graduation exhibition runs from 22 November 2007 until 1 December 2007 from 10am until 5pm for those that are interested.

Chat soon,
DelBoy

The Corporate Catering game

Working in the catering industry is almost as much fun as working in the pub game. In the pub we dealt with drunks, hooligans and your common d!%#head, in catering its your ignorant or arrogant personal assistant who doesn’t understand or doesn’t want to know. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against them. They’re only doing what the boss demands from them.

Try these on for size:
1. At 9.42am a certain government office in the city rings us up to ask if we can cater for 100 people for morning tea to be delivered at 10am. That morning! It takes 15 minutes just to drive to their end of town!
2. All cakes and quiches, etc are delivered cut into an even number of slices (for obvious reasons). Try telling a PA that 13 is not an even number when her boss has told her to cater for 13 people!
3. Chicken is not vegetarian! Neither is tuna!
4. If you email us at 9pm the night before, you will not get your 7am breakfast delivered to you.
5. If we don’t call you to confirm your order, it probably means we never actually received it in the first place!
6. Yes, we are based in the Melbourne CBD and no, we cannot deliver to Sydney, Brisbane, Perth or Geelong for that matter. (Well, we could, but considering the charge to Dandenong – 35km away – is $80, beware of the delivery fee to Sydney!)
7. No, we can’t deliver 1 sandwich and a cup of coffee to your office. Not even for a delivery fee!

Oh the joys! And then people wonder why I look forward to the weekend so much!

Chat soon,
DelBoy

TFI Friday

Yes, it's that day of the week that we all love. 'Cos Friday means weekend! And weekend means rugby! It also means more house-hunting, mountain-biking (if the weather improves) and most of all, sleeping late!

I noticed this week that Melbournites aren't exactly fashion conscious. Now I'm no fashionista, but I can match a tie with my shirt and suit. This seems to be a major problem for most Melbourne men. And they can't use the excuse that they dress in the dark, 'cos it is light outside by 6am! The worst thing I've seen all week: Crocs with socks!! Let's be serious!

Getting back to the rugby, Go the Boks! Can we beat the Pumas? Who knows, but I know I'll be up by 4am on Monday morning to watch the game. Luckily my boss is a rugby fan, so he understands!

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Bizarre Australia

I keep talking about some of the weird things that the Aussies do or have, so I thought I'd actually start a list. Here are some of the things that I have noticed so far:

- hook turns: See link for the most awesome/scary driving innovation I've seen in years
- petrol prices: They go up and down. Not over periods of time. No, it's cheaper on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and very expensive on the weekends.
- drive-thru bottle O's: Quite literally a drive-thru liquor store. Like drive-thru McDonalds, but you buy alcohol instead.
- AFL: Australian Rules Football. Although the 'rules' bit is a little exaggerated. Oh hang on, you're not allowed to push someone in the back. Other than that, anything goes!
- chicken & champagne: It's an Aussie-style Champagne breakfast. With chicken pieces.

I can't think of any others at the moment, but I'm sure my list will keep growing.

Chat soon,
DelBoy