Winter Nights

Manly Beach never looked and shone better than on a July winter's night. The electric lights of shop signs took centre stage, with Manly this and Manly that. The white foam of a gentle tide matched the silence of the sea side under an almost full moon. The roads near the Esplanade and the Wharf remained narrow, and fitness obsessed runners trudged their way in the semi-darkness on the surrounding pavements.

We just had dinner at Ginger & Spice along Military Road in Sydney's lower North Shore - a motley but rather amiable group from Alberta (Ed and Adrian), Auckland (Shaun and Adelyn), Wollongong, Cammeray (Ella) and Neutral Bay(Doris, Rob and Arlene). I loved the tender and smooth Hainan chicken rice, accentuated in the mouth with three concoctions - lime-flavoured pound chili sauce, dark soy sauce and a ginger condiment. Doris liked the Singapore noodles, whilst most went for sago dessert, bathed in palm sugar and coconut milk, to close up the meal. I could not resist the ice kacang, a slurpy sorbet ice-shave pile garnished with cooked red beans, pineapple slices, black jelly bits and more. The Singapore styled ice kacang was so different from the Penang version. The chili prawns had an appetising sauce, and contrasted with the stir-fry freshness and clear taste of the bok choy. Meat curry with chicken stock flavoured rice exemplified the fusion of South-east Asian, Indian and Chinese cuisines. The smoked hor fun was definitely Cantonese.

I found a pair of Mossimo black denim that I liked the next evening at Wollongong's Crown Street Mall. Some things are meant to be ours, others for browsing and not taking up at all. Oh yes, there is the Rodd & Gunn trousers that I spotted at the St Ives Village long ago, but did not follow up. On the Saturday night following Adelyn's arrival from Auckland, we discovered a secret gem of an Italian restaurant only three minutes drive from my place. Il Nido was packed even by 6pm, and with lots of families. We were fortunate to get a table - and we tucked in the lamb cutlets wrapped with prosciutto, four types of thin crusted pizza samplings and the seafood fettuccine.