Swap Meet - Belmont

Yesterday M and I were up quite early after having a such big day at Spring in the Valley the day before. We decided to go grab some breakfast at our local, That Food Company, and then head to the swapmeet in Belmont. 

We love a good swapmeet, garage sale or anything really where we can fossick through other people’s belongings! The Belmont swapmeet is held in the parking area of Belmont forum and is a gold coin donation to enter.  We got there around 10am and it seemed to be the peak time for shoppers but we could have gotten there earlier as it opens at 8am to buyers. Sellers are another story though! We have driven past there on a Saturday night before and seen eager sellers setting up camp for the night! M and I held a stall in the past when we were moving house, we arrived at about 5am to get a bay and ended up being very successful, selling over $500 worth!  

Yesterday we walked all around the bays and saw a large variety of items on sale, everything from drills to dresses and plants to purses! We usually look at the plants and in the past we have bought paintings for our house.  One time I even bought some fairy lights for our backyard, 20 metres for $3, bargain!

There are quite a few swap meets around Perth including Karrinyup, Morley and Melville. There are also monthly Retro Markets held at the Burlesque Lounge in Northbridge. This one is mainly for the girls though with plenty of vintage clothes, shoes and bags on offer. 

Does anyone know of anymore markets held around Perth?

Double Lucky Leederville

Last Saturday I turned 25 so in celebration of this I decided to have drinks at Double Lucky in Leederville.  It has been open about two years but I hadn’t been there until recently. It is located behind the Niche bar, down a little alleyway.

Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures of the night as I forgot my camera(!). I can tell you though that it is unpretentious, relaxed and fun! They play house music and there are plenty of couches and chairs if you wanted to sit down.  Some places can be very particular about what people wear and I liked the fact that my friend could get in with jeans and a shirt! It is also good not to feel like the oldest person in the room! 

They have yummy cocktails, and I can personally recommend the vodka cocktail “Tastes Like Dancing”.  They muddle fresh lime and strawberries in the bottom of the glass; add vodka, Chartreuse and Chambord. Yum! 

 If you are looking for somewhere to go in Leederville which is relaxed and fun, head on down to Double Lucky. 

My furry children

After reading Foster Dogs In New York City I have been inspired to share with you my furry kids. We have two Staffordshire Bull Terriers, one girl named Indiana and a boy called Caesar. We had Indie first and she is still my little puppy! She is much softer than Caesar who is also known as Boofhead. It is amazing how they can make you feel so much better when you get home from a bad day. Now if only I could work out a way to get paid while I stay home with them...

 Caesar

 Indianna

 Indianna

After running around the park

Birthday!

So tomorrow I turn the big TWO- FIVE! I know this isn't old at all and in 10 years time I will be wishing I was 25 again.  It’s funny though because I remember thinking when I was younger that in the year 2000 I will be 15 and like, omg, that is so old! I never had any ideas when I was younger on what I would be doing or where I would be in the world when I was 25. I still don’t feel like an adult in a lot of ways though, Is there a set age where you suddenly realise you are an adult?

 I also have a twin brother so I am sharing this with somebody too. I am not too sure what he is doing and as we have different groups of friends we most likely won’t be seeing each other.

So what do I have planned for this momentous occasion? Well I am heading out for drinks with friends tomorrow night and going to HaLu for dinner on the Sunday night with M. We also have a lot of little things planned for the weekend like going out for breakfast tomorrow morning and taking the our furry kids to a Dog Breakfast on Sunday morning. I have already received a little gift from L, an OPI nail polish in “Lucky Lucky Lavender” and some Hand Therapy in Rosewater from Crabtree & Evelyn. She knows me so well!

So right now I am glad that my shitty work week is almost over and I can thank the thought of hopefully have a cocktail at some point over the weekend for getting me through it!

Have a great weekend everyone

Glasgow Curry House Currumbine

Last Saturday night M and I had to go to my parent’s house to feed their dog because they are on a cruise (lucky things!).  As my parents live in the Joondalup area it gave us the perfect opportunity to have dinner at a restaurant we have been talking about, the Glasgow Curry House in Currumbine. 

We called that day to make a booking and they originally couldn’t fit us in but luckily for us they had a cancellation.  We arrived a couple of minutes before our 7pm booking and were shown to our table. The décor inside is quite simple but nice. I did think it would look a bit better with some paintings on the walls but otherwise it had a nice feel to the place. 

The menu is quite extensive and there are quite a few options for you to choose from.  We ordered two lemon lime & bitters first ($4) and tried to decide on what we were going to have for entrée and mains.  We had a gentleman come up to us and we asked him what he would recommend and he spoke about many of the different meals on the menu, it was nice to have someone knowledgeable on the dishes they serve! We ended up ordering the Onion Baji ($8), Meat Samosa ($4.95) and the Fish Amritsari Pakora ($11.90). The Fish Pakora dish consists of pieces of fish with salt, pepper, lime juice and spices, then deep fried.  For our mains we ordered a jumbo Garlic Naan ($5), Prawn Ceylonese Korma ($22.90) and the Tandoori Mixed Grill ($31.00). The Tandoori Mixed Grill included Tandoori Chicken, Chiken Tikka, Seekh Kebad, Lamb Tikka, rice and came out on a sizzling plate. Yum! 

Onion Baji

Meat Samosa

Fish Pekora

The entrée’s came out so quickly it felt like we had barely put our menu’s down! The Onion Baji’s came out as small balls of onion, with a cucumber yoghurt dip. These were quite nice! The samosa was one big one and was served with a red sauce which tasted a bit like a mix of tomato sauce, mayonnaise and chilli. I liked this but thought it would be better if it was half the size and served as two instead of one giant one. It had a nice mixture of meat and spices though. The best came out last with the Fish Pakora. The fish inside was beautiful and soft with a delicious tasting batter on the outside. Definitely recommend this dish! 

Tandoori Mixed Grill

The mains were a bit of a wait, not excessive, just a bit longer than normal. The Tandoori came out first with it’s sizzling plate! It did look yummy with all the different dishes on top. This was followed by the rice, the huge Naan bread and then my Prawn Korma.  To be honest, by this stage I was quite full. We definitely had bigger eyes than stomachs! I tried the dishes on the Tandoori plate and they were nice, each had a different flavour and were spicy without being too hot. The Prawn Korma was yummy, it had big prawns in the sauce but I was a bit disappointed by the fact the prawns still had their tail on.

I ended up ripping the Garlic Naan apart and dipping it in the Korma. The bread buttery, garlicky and absolutely delicious!

Jumbo Garlic Naan

Prawn Korma

M finished off the Tandoori plate but we hardly touched the Prawn Korma. Luckily for us they wrapped it up with the rice and we took it home for breakfast the next day.

Although I don’t think I would drive all the way up there just for a meal, I was glad we went there and if I was in the area I would definitely be going back! 

Springs Tavern, Beechboro

As is our usual Saturday night practice, M & I were discussing where to go for dinner that night (hey, I didn’t say we were the most organised people!). We then remembered that a couple of weeks beforehand, we had gone to the new Springs Tavern in Beechboro for a drink and thought the meals looked nice. Decision made!

We arrived just after 8pm and after grabbing a couple of menus, we sat down to decide what we were going to have. Inside is open plan and about half of the area inside is tables and chairs, the rest is filled with lounges and chairs for sitting to have a drink. It seemed quite busy and was filled with families having dinner. I did find the atmosphere a bit weird because as it is just one big room, there were people who had been drinking all day clearly, mixing with the people who had come in for a meal. 

They had some specials of the day and the Grazing plate really stood out for us. It was $25 and had 4 dishes; chicken wrapped pancetta, mini pumpkin scones with dill cream and smoked salmon, chicken cacciatore sausage rolls and barramundi fish balls. For mains I ordered the Moroccan Prawn Salad ($22) and M ordered the Surf & Turf ($35). M also ordered a Principle wheat beer and as they only had the one cider there, I had a Strongbow.  I did ask them for their cocktail list but nobody had been trained in how to make cocktails yet.

The tasting plate came out not too long after we placed our order. We had the mini pumpkin scones first and they were delicious. They were bite sized with the salmon and dill cream inside. Unfortunately it went a bit down hill from there. The chicken skewers were awfully dry and definitely needed the sauce they had in the centre of the platter. The sausage rolls weren’t even chicken, never lone chicken cacciatore! The fish balls were equally as dry as the chicken and I have my doubts on it being barramundi. We then crossed our fingers about our mains. 

About 20 minutes later the mains came out, just after 9pm. I was happy when I saw my Moroccan prawn salad as they weren’t stingy with the prawns and had about 8 in the dish. M liked his Surf & Turf as well as they had a couple of big prawns on top. 

We were the last diners in the area with the tables and about 5 minutes into our mains, a DJ started to play some funky house music. That was fine with us, we quite like that music.  Then suddenly they turned the lights out on us. It wasn’t completely dark, but dark enough to not be able to see our meals properly as we were in the corner.  They were obviously trying to turn it into a bar as the kitchen was closing. Then a staff member must have realised we were still eating and asked us if we wanted the lights turned back on! We told them yes, as they had just served us our meals and we wanted to see what we were eating! 

 As we felt like we were getting pushed out the door, we finished our meals quite quickly after that. We did however stay to finish our drinks but in the area away from the tables.  I really think that they need to decide what they are doing with the place as I didn’t get any sense of direction. At the very least they should section off an area for the people eating food and people coming to have a drink.  Would I go back? Maybe if I lived a bit closer. We have far too many options which are closer to home and are a lot nicer. 

Reefer Madness

On Friday night, M and I went and saw a musical comedy titled “Reefer Madness”.  What was it about? Probably best to let the description on the website do the work for me! 

Inspired by the original 1936 film of the same name, this raucous musical comedy takes a tongue-in-cheek look at the hysteria caused when clean-cut kids fall prey to marijuana, leading them on a hysterical downward spiral filled with evil jazz music, sex and violence. You won't be able to resist the spoofy fun of Reefer Madness. The addictive and clever musical numbers range from big Broadway-style showstoppers to swing tunes like "Down at the Ol' Five and Dime" and the Vegas-style "Listen to Jesus, Jimmy," featuring J.C. Himself leading a chorus of showgirl angels. This dynamic show will go straight to your head!

We loved it! We didn’t really know what to expect but we found it really funny.  The tickets are $22 and it goes for just over 2 hours including an intermission in the middle. You can buy tickets here or just on the door like we did. It finishes on October 16^th so if you are looking for something to do tonight or next weekend, head on down to Midland Arts Centre!