Posted on by Cathy

Winter Day1

No golf for The Golfer (nobody wanted to play in the rain) – no choir for me (conductor still feeling crook after her bout of covid last week) so we decided to go for a drive.
Yes in the rain on the first day of Winter!

Up the road behind the bus, past the school, to the bottom of the hills and then up twisty turny Mt Dandenong Road to the top. The only thing that was warm was the restaurant card burning a hole in our pocket

We were going for lunch at a favourite little cafe – Ranges at Olinda

The (still partly loaded) card had been in the cupboard since before Covid appeared so by rights had expired and the remaining balance lost – a phone call to the company changed that so soup for two with sourbread, followed by a small quiche salad and (chips) halved used the last of a 2019 Christmas gift.

(From website)

The food was good as usual – sorry no pictures because I was so busy talking to my man plus the very congenial staff I forgot. Feeling nice and warm and full we came on back down the mountain a little more cautiously.
Low misty cloud made it look like a Chicken Little sky…..it really had fallen!

And the gift card turned out to be a gift that just kept on giving.
As we were leaving this flyer was pointed out to us. Hospitality lost so much during lockdowns so to encourage people back to ‘dining out’ the state government came up with a rebate scheme…..

So 25% of the price we paid – in kind via the card – didn’t matter how you paid – will be returned to us…..which will be enough for another two coffees and cake up at Ranges 😊😊

#enjoyeverymoment

Linking to Denyse’s ~ Life’s Stories. Pop over to read her reflections and thoughts about life past and present and possibly to come

31 Replies to “Winter Day1”

  2. And a great day out was had by all. F is rather envious. Food is good here but is rather all Greek (which I guess you would expect but Aus, NZ, UK have all embraced international cuisine so you can find all manner of flavours and styles that are more difficult to turn up here).

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    1. I suppose it’s to each their own….some countries obviously like to stay true to their own rather than trying to compete with other ‘cuisines’

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  3. Now that’s a great incentive to keep hospitality afloat. Here they had vouchers for entrance fees and I think movies to bring people back.

    Yesterday I went on the U3As bus trip which revealed mixed weather but none of us actually got caught in rain…

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  4. a blustery cold day turned out well, good food, good compnay and a rebate from the govet. couldn’t be better. I like the looks of that restuant and love the firebox.

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    1. Up there it can be a bit chilly even if it’s scorching hot where we live. They don’t need much of an excuse to light the fire – first thing most customers do is stand in front to warm their rear ends!

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    1. Cold wet exceptionally windy weather predictions for this week. It’s arrived in Adelaide (to the west of us)and as that’s where most of our weather comes from I doubt it’ll be long before it arrives here

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    1. A necessary addition to all the cafes and restaurants up in the hills- gets cold up there during winter so nice and welcoming for the patrons

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  8. That’s lovely. It’s always nice to have a surprise gift
    The weather was a shocker but today it was sunny and dry at least
    Glad you had a good day

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    1. It’s been a bit up and down this past few days hasn’t it Angela. Looking at the forecast I’m wondering what’s in store for us this week – cold will be a given!

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  9. Now you have brought back a memory for me from a visit several years ago when our Melbourne friends took us on a drive up into the Dandenongs on a cold, drizzly, cloudy day. We stopped off at a café with a view and had hot chocolate with massive slices of cake.

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  10. We still have been unable to eat inside for over two years. Our covid rate is through the roof since so many have decided it is over. I have become a pro at take out, something I had never done before.

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    1. Sensible table placing is what brings customers in…..it’s still out there though. We’ve only just returned to indoor eating – many places have outdoor settings with individual overhead heating but it’s winter and unless there’s a special reason to be outside I’m going to eat indoors or not at all
      There are ways to find local case numbers – very low in our area so I’m careful but not stressed about indoor dining. Not so hung ho about shopping centres though….streee clear and shop locally

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  11. It sounds like it was a pleasant outing. We’ve had enough rain up this way this year to last us until next year, or even the year after! I even joined in with the crowd yelling, “We’ve had enough! We’ve had enough!”, and I never thought I’d say that! 🙂

    Take good care…keep warm. 🙂

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    1. Oh gosh we’ve heard all about the rain up your way Lee….never ending and in great amounts. Have you grown webbed feet yet?
      Thanks for popping in and leaving a comment. We’ll be on our way up soon, hopefully it’ll have dried up by then

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    1. Adaptable- that’s us Cathy. We certainly do strange things when we need a break…lucky chances don’t come along everyday and we decided to take this one and see where it led us.
      Up the hill and back again in this case 😊

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  13. Oh those rainy wet roads are a familiar sight all along the east coast in recent days! How lovely to have a lunch out and with a bonus discount too!

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    1. Sometimes my man comes up with a great idea…..this was one of them. And yes I’m beginning to think we’re all going to develop webbed feet it the rain doesn’t clear up soon

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    1. Some snap decisions turn out to be the right ones….this proved to be one of them. ‘Stay warm’ are the daily words of the day at the moment Debbie – it’s a bit on the chilly side here in Melbourne. All being well, like you, we’ll be travelling north in a short while although our 12 week stay will be a slightly longer than yours.

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  15. I am glad you got out. I admit we don’t eat out at all for a meal these days for reasons of..appetite for him (small) and my mouth reconstruction (hard to find food that I can eat) but we can do morning tea. We used to have a routine weekly and then Covid and lockdown changed it. We have done a couple this year. No rain for us in the past weeks…big surprise but very cold.

    Thank you so much for linking up your blog post for Life’s Stories this week.

    As you probably know, the last link up date here on Denyse Whelan Blogs is Monday 20 June 2022.

    I do hope to see your post there too. Of course, if you cannot link up, I so understand and want to thank you for the support of my blog and the link up over the years.

    Warm wishes, and take care.

    Denyse.

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    1. This was a first for us for a long time, one of those spur of the moment, let’s make the most of a situation things you do.
      Your mention of morning tea has reminded me that for a few years we used to have an occasional ‘try out a new cafe’ outing. Covid put paid to that and much more for us all but I might suggest it to The Golfer as a new keeping in touch with each other activity. Especially as we will be off to Qld soon where it’ll be (fingers crossed) sunny and dry and warm enough to be outside 😊

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