I'm writing this post today from Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast. I flew up yesterday morning to be with Shaine as Francesca's funeral was held yesterday in Perth, and I wanted to keep Shaine company. And to be honest - I didn't want to be in Sydney alone.
It's strange how death can affect the living. Despite not having known Francesca well, her death has rattled me. It has had me thinking about the people who mean the world to me - about how much I miss them and how much they mean to me. I don't ever want to lose anyone close to me, but I know eventually it is inevitable.
I really need to keep in touch with the ones I love better, particularly those in Perth. But I don't. I think I'm so worried that keeping in touch with everyone will make me miss them even more than I already do, and I'll end up throwing in the towel career-wise and move back home - which is not an option for me. I did the exact thing in 2009, when I moved back to Perth after living in Melbourne for 18 months. I missed everyone terribly, and I felt extremely isolated and sad. I suppose the difference back then was that I really didn't like Melbourne, and my job at the time was going nowhere anyway. This time around, I love Sydney, and I love my job. But I have no-one here! My loved ones are all either on the Gold Coast, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide or Perth. Not in Sydney.
Arrgghhh!!! No more deep thinking Michelle! It's time I moved onto something a more positive!!
A review on Absynthe
Anyway - yesterday evening Shaine and I decided to dine at Absynthe restaurant, which is below the Q1 building in Surfers Paradise. We've walked past it a number of times, and have always wondered about the food there, but the thing that always turned us off was that it always looked quite empty. Because of it's apparent lack of diners, we didn't make a booking. Boy, was that a mistake.
When we walked towards Absynthe, we saw that once again there were a number of vacant tables. So we'd be fine to get seated right away, right? WRONG. When we told the hostess that we didn't have a booking, she just about gave us the third degree, and made it apparent that we were lucky to be getting a table because someone who had made a reservation was late. Alllllrighty then. I guess all of the vacant tables were purely there for decorative purposes then?
When we were finally seated, we decided to take advantage of the degustation menu with six courses as they were offering a 50% discount for the month. Considering it ending up only costing us $105 per head with wines it was a pretty good deal! But I must say that overall, while the menu was good, I probably wouldn't be paying full price for it - or be dining there again.
The service kept falling with every course that was served. There was no explanation of each course, aside from the basic menu description. The wines were served in the incorrect order, with the incorrect courses. And there was an extensive delay between each course serve. It was absolutely disgusting. To make matters worse, a couple who came in while we were on our fourth course ended up getting through the first three courses of the degustation menu before someone even bothered to collect our payment. And the tables that were vacant at the beginning of the evening? They remained vacant. Absolutely disgusting service.
A new dress!
Oh geez - I was supposed to be more positive, wasn't I? Oops! Well I forgot to mention earlier that I bought a new dress for dinner last night - it's a beautiful backless cobalt blue dress by Blockout. New dresses always make me happy! Hahaha, god I can be such a girl sometimes :)
So what do you think of the new dress? I'll post a picture of the front soon :)
Lots of love,
Mich xox
