Searching for a shake…

Sunday morning, nursing dusty hangover and wallowing in self pity when the darling Bellsies, bright eyed and bushy tailed after their early morning cycle, drop in and drag me kicking and screaming to a new coffee hole they’ve just discovered.

My personal hangover cure happens to be a pie and milkshake combo, but this argument falls on deaf ears…and I’m rather glad it did because this is one special little spot! ‘Shucked’ doesn’t deal in oysters as one would imagine with such a name but it does deal in kitch…a great big healthy bowl of it.

Quite literally a hole in the wall with another punched through to an open space that feels like your at one of those ‘garage confined’ parties…you know the ones? Crates ‘n stuff to sit on while pondering the status of the universe? Decor mirroring a melamine clad 60’s household, a mish mash of furnishings and funky wallpaper to match and my hangover head is spinning…in a really rather cool way actually.

Sipping a skinny latte that quite simply tantalises the taste buds over the front, middle and back palette…not dissimilar to the complexities of a fine red wine and something to do with the bean and host specific tailored roasting and we concur…bespoke coffee really is worth trawling for. But what about my ‘cure’?

An overview of Ipad presented menu reveals milkshakes! Ah! Bless!  Two ‘Turkish Delight’ shakes greedily slurped from real, deliciously cool old fashioned tin shakers later and I’m feeling  a tad better.

Toasted turkish pide topped with avocado, feta, semi dried tomatoes and snow pea sprouts substitute the ‘pie’, ticks the ‘virtuous’ box and goes down a treat while my mates hoover eggs nestled in bacon jackets, brekky burritos and more coffee and still more shakes. Just a few of the many delectable items on that menu.

Rubbing tum with satisfaction, I kiss my beloved Bellsies in gratitude and vow to return to ‘Shucked’ real soon…no excuses…and there really isn’t any…for ‘Shucked’ is just a block away!

Try it! Creswell St, Newstead

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Dancing with me…

A lovely friend sent this via email today, along with comments on how she  had personally embraced the message. I loved her response, was taken aback by the message itself and…in honour of my current ‘pause for reflection’ state…would love to hear your thoughts…here ’tis verbatim:

Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven’t thought about it, don’t have it on their schedule, didn’t know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine. I got to thinking one day about all those women on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut back. From then on, I’ve tried to be a little more flexible.

How many women out there will eat at home because their husband didn’t suggest going out to dinner until after something had been thawed? Does the word ‘refrigeration’ mean nothing to you?

How often have your kids dropped in to talk and sat in silence while you watched something on television?

I cannot count the times I called my sister and said, ‘How about going to lunch in a half hour?’ She would stammer, ‘I can’t. I have clothes on the line. My hair is dirty. I wish I had known yesterday, I had a late breakfast, It looks like rain.’ And my personal favourite: ‘It’s Monday.’ She died a few years ago. We never did have lunch together.

Because we cram so much into our lives, we tend to schedule our headaches. We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect!

We’ll go back and visit the grandparents when we get Steve toilet-trained. We’ll entertain when we replace the living-room carpet… We’ll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of college.

Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer. One morning, we awaken, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of ‘I’m going to,’ ‘I plan on,’ and ‘Someday, when things are settled down a bit.’

When anyone calls my ‘seize the moment’ friend, she is open to adventure and available for trips. She keeps an open mind on new ideas. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious. You talk with her for five minutes, and you’re ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of Roller blades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord..

My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years. I love ice cream. It’s just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a spatula and eliminate the digestive process The other day, I stopped the car and bought a triple-Decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy.

Now…go on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT to……not something on your SHOULD DO list. If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?

Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round or listened to the rain lapping on the ground? Ever followed a butter fly’s erratic flight or gazed at the sun into the fading night? Do you run through each day on the fly? When you ask ‘ How are you?’ Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head? Ever told your child, ‘We’ll do it tomorrow.’ And in your haste, not see his sorrow? Ever lost touch? Let a good friendship die? Just call to say ‘Hi?

When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift….Thrown away….. Life is not a race.  Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.

The name of the person who originally penned this has long gone, however, by  the actions you take as a result of reading this, she/he may have just successfully left their own little legacy?  I say ‘thankyou’! who ever you are.

 

 

 

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Five good things…

When BJ headed off to his Chef gig at Argyle we made a pact to record and share five good things we enjoyed or experienced daily. Not as easy as it seems as human nature dictates a tendency to sweat the small stuff rather than appreciate the good, but  as I searched for my own inspiration a thought suddenly occurred…and  here’s my question for you…

Do you ever stop and take just a few moments to look up? Admire the sky through the canopy of a tree? Visualise pictures in the clouds…enjoy the first splatters of warm rain on your face? Do you take the time to marvel at grass so incredibly lush green it has to have been painted?

Pluck a flower and stroke it’s petals or bury your nose in a freshly opened cabbage rose to breathe in it’s heady scent? And what about that earth cleansed fragrance just after a rain shower? The sound of the surf, smell of the beach, the texture of sand between your toes.

I’m talking about taking the time to exercise our five senses, taking the time to fully appreciate the sensory pleasures our everyday surrounds have to offer. When you feel yourself getting caught up in the stresses of everyday life…take a moment, just one moment.

In the words of The Cool Hunter…

“We will never tire of the positive effects of nature. Its calming, soothing and inspiring influence will never go out of style. The more we rush, the more time we spend indoors staring at our screens and devices, the more urban our lifestyles become, the more we crave and need time away from it all.”  

Now if you simply can’t get away from your desk to indulge your senses, a quick tour of http://www.thecoolhunter.net – a site that features all things cool and can easily provide all the visual feasing you desire, may just have to do. With compliments of this site, here’s a sampling of nature at her best…Oh! And exercising the sensory pleasures has led to a struggle to keep the five good things to just five…but then again, rules were made to be broken!!

 

 

 

 

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