Kindly Yours

Having a curry cook off. Watching how paw paws grow from flower bud to fruit. Enjoying authentic Cantonese cuisine on a winter's night. Getting real hand written letters in the slow mail. Drinking a well made cuppa from a mate you have known for so long. Walking down a charming street in Melbourne. Watching the sun rise gloriously with several colours along the ocean front north of Wollongong. Putting nice toiletries beside a rain shower in a restored house. Returning to Sydney city centre as a working lifestyle. Relaxing with mates who inspire me. Embracing change and breaking through from a comfort zone. Letting go of and culling stuff I no longer require for a long time now. Sharing the joy, especially after breaking whatever perceived barriers with a special someone. Returning to a place where almost everybody knows you - and your name. Resting for the night where you can wake up to see the ocean. Meeting someone who has inner happiness no matte...

Deep fried calamari that goes well with Tsingtao beer. In the background are spring rolls, a basket with steamed dumplings and prawn crackers. Andy was going to Hawaii, Rob was changing work roles and I had not seen Tez in so many months. There was a suggestion to go Chinese some where in a Sydney suburb and we did not venture too far beyond the Shire. We chose the home of the NRL Dragons team, an unassuming complex on the way to the Sydney airport and illustrative of many similar clubs dotted across the Australian residential landscape.  There was the bar to gather in first, with already live singing by a couple on stage and the influx of Friday evening revellers on a nippy July start of the weekend. I enjoyed my Crown lager and soon we entered the den of the Crown Dragon upstairs.  Seven of us booked at 7pm, but with no Kevin07 in sight. Beer glasses, tea cups and waiting bowls all at the commencement of the group dinner. There is much tr...

The Lagoon Restaurant has a name befitting its location, ambiance and cuisine. Tucked away in a corner of Stuart Park, with its own dedicated car park and surrounding stroll grounds, the open glass window panels of most of its surrounding wall tempt any diner to panoramic views of the Tasman Sea, a perfect horizon with real deep blue ocean water and even the apparently stuck long container ships waiting for their turn to unload cargo into Port Kembla, although a decent distance away from it all. On a recent visit in the so-called winter of the Illawarra region, it looked and felt like a summer's day in London.  We were there early for lunch, although the crowds packed the place in especially after 1pm. The menu was extensive, primarily concentrating on seafood, not just sourced from the NSW South Coast but also from other parts of Australia.  My group of three pondered over the cold and cooked platters - these offered  a sampling of crustacean...