Jun 14, 2009

A Cultured Sunday

Having snaffled some free tickets from work, I took The Wah for a surprise Sunday morning visit to the Brisbane Cheese Tastes event at Royal on the Park this morning. After stuffing ourselves on grilled haloumi & melted raclette on bread, we discovered the interior displays, and really got down to sampling. After picking up some fresh goat's cheese and a vintage cheddar from the always-tasty Maleny Cheese, we went off for a walk through the City Botanic Gardens.

We ended up at Old Government House, which has recently opened to the public after an extensive restoration for Queensland's 150th anniversary of statehood.


It's quite lovely, and I'd recommend everyone get along for a visit. It's free, and you can wander about the big empty rooms as much as you like. You can even have high tea in their new cafe, and feast on one of these babies:


For the non-Australians-and-New-Zealanders, the lamington is a quintessential antipodean dessert. It was the French chef at Queensland's Old Government House who officially invented the lamington. Forced to improvise when extra guests turned up for an afternoon tea, he dipped sponge cake squares in chocolates, then rolled them in dessocated coconut. Being a Frenchman, I imagine he said voilĂ ! then got back to eating frogs' legs and playing the piano accordion (that friendly bit of Francophobia is included purely for my friend Aurelie). The name lamington comes from Lord Lamington, who was Governor at the time.

We then hit the Botanic Gardens again. See if you can spot me in here:


And I'm quite happy with a series of photographs I took of this bird, as he warmed his wings in a little patch of winter sunshine:


Now, for that 3:15am start...

5 comments:

  1. Having purloined some free tickets?

    and you are bragging??? I must have missed something.

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  2. Sorry, Mr Punch.

    I used the wrong word - blame tiredness, too much culture, complete ignorance of the English language - whichever you like.

    I've changed it now to the word "snaffled".

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  3. As fate would have it...I walked past the botanical gardens and the cheese festival on this fine day. Only I was there for work and had just interviewed the shadow treasurer at parliament house... wish I was there on much more cultured circumstances! I love a good Sunday outing ... perfect weather too!

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  4. I think I could see you in amongst the trees.

    Are you an ent?

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  5. Good heavens, everyone was there on Sunday,
    We did the Botanical Grardens at about 3.00pm and ended up with high tea (well Scones, Jam & Cream) at OGH later

    ReplyDelete