A lovely day out!

General Mish Mash

By minsmash on June 15, 2014 • ( 14 Comments )

My 50th birthday celebrations continue!!  Let’s drag it out for as long as possible I say.  Heck – why not make the rest of this year a celebration!  Why not indeed?! 🙂

Yesterday was a lovely day out!  A good friend of mine and I were meant to meet up to celebrate my birthday – do lunch and maybe a movie – the weekend before my birthday BUT I was sick with a horrible virus and could do nothing but sleep, rest and recover. So, yesterday was the day!  We hadn’t seen each other in ages so decided to ditch the movie so that we had more time to chat and catch up.

We decided to try places that we had never been to before.  We had coffee and shared some gluten-free carrot cake at French Twist at Bulimba.  What a quaint, quirky little place and the coffee was good and that carrot cake was delicious – amazing because it was gluten-free and had no icing but yet was moist, light and very tasty!

These photo’s were not taken by me.
They were sourced from Urban Spoon.

Photo taken with my phone

We then moved on to our lunch venue (which was booked).  We went to Pompidou Cafe, Balmoral.  Pompidou offers diners a delicious twist on european cuisine.  We both had a glass of Sauvignon Blanc, shared some bread and dips and then each had an exquisite salmon dish which although I managed to get a photograph of our bread and dips, I failed to take a photograph of!  Let me just say though, the food was divine!  Yum, yum, yum!!

Photo taken with my phone (our wine, bread & dips!)

After lunch and much, much chatter, we moved on to our third and final destination for afternoon tea – Dan & Andy’s Hawthorn Garage, Hawthorn.  What an awesome place and such a great find!  This place offers a range of specialist food brands, fresh local produce, gourmet treats (including organic and gluten-free), freshly baked breads daily, fresh-cut meats, the freshest Campbell and Bradley flowers and a new flavour in coffee, DNA – and yes it has a cafe area!  Also, I have seen on their Facebook page – here – that they offer dinner as well.  Brilliant! 🙂

For afternoon tea, we had a coffee and blueberry friand each.

This photo was not taken by me.
This photo was borrowed from the Hawthorn Garage Facebook page.

Photo taken with my phone.
Our coffee and blueberry friends.
Note the cute little complimentary gingerbread men 🙂

Not only was I spoilt rotten by a whole day out outlined above but my friend gave me the most beautiful gifts.  I get goosebumps when I think about how well she knows me.  The gifts were not expected but they were perfect.

Firstly, the day before my birthday these beautiful tulips arrived at my door from her.  Tulips are my favourite flower.

So after receiving such beautiful tulips, you really wouldn’t be expecting any more gifts, would you.  But no, she went a little cray cray because turning 50 is a bit of a big deal apparently.  There were two more gifts.  One I’ll keep my little secret but the other was a Himalayan Salt Lamp!!  I have been wanting one of those for ages! Here is a quick outline of what Salt Lamps do:

Salt crystal lamps are natural ion generators, emitting negative ions into the atmosphere. Why is this a good thing? Negative ions are good for you! Negative ions restore and neutralize air quality. Negative ions can be used to treat illness and improve health. Our homes and offices are filled with electrical appliances and electronics (televisions, computers, fluorescent lighting, microwaves, heaters, air-conditioners, etc.). Use of such devices have been blamed for lowering our energy levels, making us feel tired, cranky, and depressed because of their emissions of positive ions. Keeping a rock salt lamp in areas where positive ions are polluting your air space will help neutralize the air you breathe. Balancing positive and negative ions also help reduce airborne infections.

If you do your own research, you will find there are many benefits to having salt lamps around the house!  Here is the photo I posted to Instagram last night of my salt lamp.

It is set up on the desk near my computer.  I will now have:

• increased chi
• no more allergens
• a much improved immune system
• boosted serotonin levels
• improved mental alertness
• improved general well-being

and much more!

If my friend reads this, and I hope you do.  Thank you for such a lovely day and such beautiful thoughtful gifts!  It meant so much to me.

To finish off this post, how would you like to see the beautiful flowers I bought myself at Hawthorn Garage?  They were so reasonably priced that I couldn’t resist.

Gorgeous aren’t they!  Um…can you tell me what sort of flowers they are?  I’m sort of unsure!  They look a bit like Zinnea’s and also a little like Dahlia’s but I am just not sure what they are.  If you know – I’d love to hear from you! 🙂

So what do you think – a lovely day out or what?!   Do you have a friend who knows you well enough to buy perfect gifts?  Do you love trying out new places that you’ve never been to before or would you prefer to stick to your old favourites?

Ciao for now!

 

Linking up with With Some Grace’s #FYBF

Categories: General Mish Mash

Tagged as: #50, #50thbirthday, #afternoontea, #balmoral, #birthday, #brisbane, #bulimba, #cafe, #carrotcake, #coffee, #flowers, #frenchtwist, #friand, #glutenfree, #hawthorn, #hawthorngarage, #himalayansaltlamp, #lunch, #morningtea, #organic, #photography, #pompidoucafe, #queensland, #restaurant, #saltlamp, #tulips