My feet are sore. I trekked up and down Fortitude Valley a lot today. All up in fact, I think I covered no fewer than 7 km! Why all the walking? Earnest only has a motorbike and I've always been too chicken to get on that. I had just about agreed to get on it (we had appropriate safety gear to hand Mum), but then Earnest had a thought and consulted the bike's manual. Turns out that all together included baggage the two of us would've reached the bike's weight limit. I wasn't prepared to risk that.Our first point of business for the day was laundry and food. Yup, I can't even escape laundry on a weekend away! Earnest took the bike, loaded with dirty laundry, and headed to the laundromat and Pengi and I followed on foot, well I followed on foot, Pengi caught a free ride in a handbag. The laundromat is only about 750m away so it wasn't far but I was glad of the walk and delighted to find that a lot of the traffic signal control boxes here are artistically decorated.
From the laundromat we headed off to Chinatown, not far away at all, to grab some yum cha for what was now lunch. We wanted to be sure to only have a small meal knowing that we were going out for a nice dinner early in the evening. Brisbane's Chinatown has quite a nice water feature that runs its length. It's a long thin shallow trough on a gentle slope and it looks like water running down a dragon's back. Regrettably I didn't take a picture, but I may yet later in the week.
We did order one other item and unfortunately this turned out to be a bit of a let down, in fact we didn't end up eating it. For starters, we ordered the glutinous combination dumpling and it took them thirty minutes and two subsequent requests to get them to our table and then, when we got them, they were slightly burned and empty! Someone forgot to but the combination filling inside! We left at that point.
We returned briefly to the laundromat, switching from wash to dry, then went for another little walk to 'the mall', an open air shopping strip a bit like a low key version of the Bourke St Mall in Melbourne. There was a market on in the mall so we browsed about to kill some time. On our way back to the laundromat for the final time we stopped at a little boutique called InCider Trading. You guessed it, it specialises in cider! They a small line in wines too and we paid $2 to 'guess that wine' despite both having rotten palettes.
I guessed Tasmanian Pinot because it was quite sharp and up my nose but it turned out to be a Barossa Petit Verdot which I kind of think is cheating because you don't really see that grape in its own bottle often. So infrequently in fact that neither of us had heard of it before. Apparently it is often used in blends to bring out characteristics of other grapes. At any rate, the prize for guessing correctly was a bottle of that same wine, so since I didn't much like it, I hadn't really missed out.
We picked out a few bottles of cider for later in the evening and I thought I might try a hard iced tea too, then headed to the laundromat and back to Earnest's place. We had just enough time left before dinner to watch an old favourite, Dead Poet's Society. Such a great movie, and it still makes my eyes well up with tears. After that it was off to dinner.
Anise was unfortunately disappointing. It was not the genial and valuable jewel that we first experienced nearly six years ago (well now I feel old). The food was still the style of cuisene that commands a high price, but I was left feeling that it no longer lived up to its price mark.
We started with entrees of fried pigs ears with honey and caper aioli ($12) and then hand cut chips with foie gras mayonnaise ($15). These were both nice, but not exceptional. The foie gras mayonniase though was particularly nice but it only made us feel the absence of their menu standard foie gras pate all the more keenly. It seems they've found a way to make the supply last longer.
Next I had the lamb backstrap with beetroot and goat cheese ($26) which turned out to be four mouthfuls of slightly overcooked for my tastes lamb with a few teensy leaves and a smear of goats curd that wouldn't cover your toast. If it was meant to be an entree then for starters, why not mention that when you see me order it for a main, and if it meant to be a main they are kidding themselves.
Earnest was similarly unimpressed with his wagyu sirloin steak which on previous visits had been an utter triumph. Even their 'famous' duck fat potatoes were not what they used to be. I considered dessert but I was too scared to pay $14 more for what may be two cubes of milk jelly. Sad as I am to say it, two thumbs down for Anise. Once they had it, now they don't.
We went over the road to a local Gelataria for dessert. Only $5 got me two very nice flavours of gelati, one of which I had to try simply because of its unusual combination. I had one scoop of yellow peach and one scoop of orange, lemon and carrot! The carrot one, it was bloody good! Like a really good citrus gelati, but softened in its sharpness.
We walked back home, eating our gelati on the way, and by the time we got there it was time for Earnest to go and pick up his friend Squee from work. I stayed at home to await their return on got started on the blog. I put on some slightly melancholy music, Laura Marling followed by Cathal Coughlan, and typed away.
Earnest and Squee returned a couple of hours later and it was decided we'd go out. I must say at the mere mention of going out again I was already trepidatious. I was very tired already due to an utter lack of sleep and in case you hadn't worked it out yet, I'm not really a pubs and clubs kind of gal. I like to talk to people, I like conversational interraction, and I generally don't drink. Well not a lot anyway. The chances of finding a quiet bar to catch up in seemed slim to me. I was unfortunately right.
The one coffee bar there was in the area wouldn't admit us because of Earnest's steel cap boots. Then we went to a club, Black Bear something I think it was, and I couldn't hear a thing over Gloria Gaynor belting out I Will Survive for the millionth time. Then Squee remembered a pub around the corner that had been nice in the past so we left to try there. It was better in some ways but the music was still too loud. Earnest joked that if it was too loud then I was too old. I shot back that I must always have been too old. I've just never loved deafness as an option.
As we walked in I had a bizarre drunken encounter (not me, the other person) where a pony-tailed slime ball said "Hey chill out, you look so tense" and proceeded to slide his hand along my shoulders and rub my neck. I thought to myself, 'of course I'm fucking tense, some drunk creep is putting his hand on my flesh' but what came out was "Get your hands off me" and I moved on further into the throng of bodies.
I agreed to have a drink after that. I asked Squee to grab me a Cosmo, which for all you cocktail buffs out there is vodka, triple sec, cranberry juice, and freshly squeezed lime juice. What I got was vodka, cointreau (I think) and grapefruit juice... which is actually called a Sunstroke. It was nice enough, but contributed to my lethargy and intolerance of loud noises.
Once we got too close to the live music I was a goner. My head and heart throbbed (and not in a pleasant way) and my ears were being assaulted. Even if I'd had ear plugs in I suspect I wouldn't have enjoyed it, though I must say, the girl singing was doing impressively well. A true rock chick indeed and if she'd been 40 decibels lower I might've really enjoyed myself.
Squee however, was enjoying herself and I was happy for that, but I clearly wasn't enjoying myself so the decision to me at least was clear. I still had half a blog to write and sleep to catch up on, so in the end Earnest agreed to walk me home and then return to the pub to enjoy the night out with Squee and that's that.
Now I really am going try to get some sleep.
Jess
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