Victorian Visitors

Tim and Christine were up this weekend from Melbourne for some psychiatry conference so we had a chance to catch up and show them around our little town of Brisbane. Armed with inside information of their recent efforts to find a reasonably priced unit to call home, a challenge in today's real estate climate in Victoria, we were focussed on convincing them to relocate up to Sunny Queensland with the promise cheaper listings and awesome company (that would be us). To kick things off we met up at the Belgian Beer Cafe for two kilo pots of mussels and beer battered chips. The mussels were supreme, but as I'm trying to be good I avoided the deep fried potato goodness, which was no easy task I assure you. Being self confessed seafood lovers, I think the guests were sufficiently impressed.

We picked the two of them up on Sunday to take them back to our place for morning tea and the obligatory tour of the house. All my self control must have been used up from the day before, as I couldn't resist a wagon wheel with my cuppa. That was the thin end of the wedge for what would become a pretty piggy day.

Bolstered by the reception of our previous culinary recommendation, we kept the theme consistent and booked a table at Cam Ranh for lunch. We've always been impressed by the seafood there, particularly the chilli crabs, so we ordered up a veritable feast of kangkung belachan, Cam Ranh tofu (a scallop and prawn infused slab of melt-in-your-mouth silken goodness), pipis in XO sauce and of course, two kilos of gorgeous chilli mud crab.



It took a while to finish all that, and my mild crustacean allergy resulted in slightly flared lips by the end of it, but I've got to say that we were very satisfied with the food. Got to love living near Darra.

After a long lunch we didn't have much time before taking Tim and Christine to the airport, so we opted for a quick visit to Cleveland to see the bay and hunt for a palette cleansing cup of gelati. Then we delivered them to the airport via the a scenic drive over the Gateway bridge and said our goodbyes. If we did our job right they'll be Brisbanites by the end of the year.

Driving back we decided to check out the new Clem7 tunnel which is still toll free for the next week. The lanes were pretty congested with other curious commuters but that meant we had more time to admire the current longest underground tunnel in Australia.



Not the best weekend for my diet. Hopefully it won't affect the weigh in and measure tomorrow too badly. Especially with only have four more gym days before our flight back to Malaysia. Yay for holidays!