Having booked a table approximately 5 months ago and saved up as many $2 coins as possible, it was finally time for us to head to George Calombardis' restaurant The Press Club on Saturday night, hurrah! George is the little Greek chubby chef renowned originally for hosting Ready Steady Cook in Australia but has since moved on to present Masterchef Australia. It would have been quite exciting to have our dinner cooked by George but really, the possibilities of that happening were pretty much zero! Never mind. Bob and I, along with the girls I work with (Nat and Renee) and Nat's husband Dave, arrived at the Press Club a bit on the early side and so decided that a glass of fizz was required. We were ushered into the bar on the right of the restaurant until our table was ready by the Maitre'D who was a fellow Glasgwegian, from Drumchapel no less. Fizz gone, we sat down and awaited instructions.
Our plan was to all have the 8 course degustation menu along with the wine to compliment each dish (hence the saving!!!). I've never done it before. We didn't get an insight into the menu at all, we were just brought dishes and wines and told about them at the table. It was absolutely amazing food, just in a class of it's own. We started with some bread, olives and black volcanic salt which I must admit was pretty tasty. Then a pre-starter (!) which was almost like a dessert - beetroot puree, sponge with feta and hazelnuts - then onto an ocean trout starter with sake, snapper with a dry rose wine, then subsequent pork, lamb and chicken dishes (the wasabi and avocado puree was fab and the popcorn with the poached egg over the chicken was yum-eee). Due to the amount of alcohol you are plied with, I'm afraid I don't have a great recollection of the desserts - I know one was a palette cleanser then the next had some coconut and pineapple but that's about it! We all loved it and were blown away by the food and the service but jings, I'd need to save for another 6 months before I could even contemplate going back!! Much fun.
The following day, I was up early to meet Liza at the Eureka Skytower on Southbank. We were both heading to a coaching conference at the State Netball Centre with the Australian Diamonds coach Lisa Alexander and Australian Diamonds captain, Sharelle McMahon. Exciting stuff! Liza, the fitness freak that she is, did the 1600 stair climb in 13 mins before meeting me at 830am. She is mad. She asked me if I wanted to join her but I declined and got myself a nice coffee and a muffin while I was waiting on her coming back down! The coaching conference was really interesting and we both got some good ideas for the Dusties teams we'll be coaching next year. The introductory chat from Bill Sweetman (a sports psychologist over a range of sports) was fascinating and actually quite motivating. He is working with Lisa Alexander to help coach the Australians back to their No. 1 spot in the world. It will be interesting to see if they achieve it! Anyway, glad we went, hopefully the Dusties can do better next season.....
Lawn bowls ticking over nicely - 2 wins and 1 loss, not bad for starters!
And finally......Bob is leading by 5 shots going into the 3rd and final round of the club championships - he tees off last in a group of 4 with his nemesis Nathan Doyle - who'll be the last one standing?! Bob we hope! Not only does he hold the course record at the moment, to be club champion would make his day. We will let you know the result!
Love to you all, Mo and Bob xxxx
Our plan was to all have the 8 course degustation menu along with the wine to compliment each dish (hence the saving!!!). I've never done it before. We didn't get an insight into the menu at all, we were just brought dishes and wines and told about them at the table. It was absolutely amazing food, just in a class of it's own. We started with some bread, olives and black volcanic salt which I must admit was pretty tasty. Then a pre-starter (!) which was almost like a dessert - beetroot puree, sponge with feta and hazelnuts - then onto an ocean trout starter with sake, snapper with a dry rose wine, then subsequent pork, lamb and chicken dishes (the wasabi and avocado puree was fab and the popcorn with the poached egg over the chicken was yum-eee). Due to the amount of alcohol you are plied with, I'm afraid I don't have a great recollection of the desserts - I know one was a palette cleanser then the next had some coconut and pineapple but that's about it! We all loved it and were blown away by the food and the service but jings, I'd need to save for another 6 months before I could even contemplate going back!! Much fun.
The following day, I was up early to meet Liza at the Eureka Skytower on Southbank. We were both heading to a coaching conference at the State Netball Centre with the Australian Diamonds coach Lisa Alexander and Australian Diamonds captain, Sharelle McMahon. Exciting stuff! Liza, the fitness freak that she is, did the 1600 stair climb in 13 mins before meeting me at 830am. She is mad. She asked me if I wanted to join her but I declined and got myself a nice coffee and a muffin while I was waiting on her coming back down! The coaching conference was really interesting and we both got some good ideas for the Dusties teams we'll be coaching next year. The introductory chat from Bill Sweetman (a sports psychologist over a range of sports) was fascinating and actually quite motivating. He is working with Lisa Alexander to help coach the Australians back to their No. 1 spot in the world. It will be interesting to see if they achieve it! Anyway, glad we went, hopefully the Dusties can do better next season.....
Lawn bowls ticking over nicely - 2 wins and 1 loss, not bad for starters!
And finally......Bob is leading by 5 shots going into the 3rd and final round of the club championships - he tees off last in a group of 4 with his nemesis Nathan Doyle - who'll be the last one standing?! Bob we hope! Not only does he hold the course record at the moment, to be club champion would make his day. We will let you know the result!
Love to you all, Mo and Bob xxxx
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