Ah yes, where were we? We’d just finished up at Kiehls which was in Myer. The layout of Canberra Centre is a little unusual – on the ground floor there are parts which are interrupted by streets but if you go up to the second floor sometimes you will find stores built above the streets.
I had been looking for a unique USB stick, preferably something gold or glittery. Everyone has the same USB sticks where I work and I want to have something which nobody can mistake for theirs. We went into Typo as someone had suggested they might have one. They did not, but they *did* have a very pretty water bottle and that was another thing I needed for work. So I got that on special for $10, and a little packet of tissues which I could carry around with me for $1.
We found a cute little store called Mineshaft which was full of gorgeousness, and here you can see some of it. My Aunt loves rose quartz so I took these first two photos for her to enjoy later.
The book ends are up money but so gorgeous! ;) Though I guess if it is both for $175 that might be ok value given that huge hunk of rose quartz x2?
I have left this photo a bit larger so you can click on it for a closer view of the rings. So many and so pretty and a very varied range of items here.
They had a large range of gemstones which have been carved, most by hand but there are machines out there which can do this kind of thing these days and I believe we have one in the Mancave which might be able to do something a bit like this if set up correctly.
Here you see some Labradorite which makes me think of Meshel from The Muffin Queen’s Closet. I believe if I remember correctly she is getting a kitchen benchtop of Labradorite.
The Other Half had been talking about getting a new phone as he was out of contract on his present phone, and we decided to drop into the Telstra store. Our experiences with them have generally been Not Great, but this time all went well and he walked out with an Oppo which is just as good as a Samsung or iPhone etc but quite a bit cheaper.
He would tell you, after a couple of weeks experience with it, that it would probably be easier for iPhone people to transition across to, as the layout of things is somewhat similar even though the Oppo is Android. He would also say that it is brilliant for people who forget to shut down all their apps – in fact it was so efficient at doing this it kept shutting down our Kakao app that we use to communicate for free and we had to look for a solution. He would also tell you – and next week I will show you with some photos – the camera is fantastic.
Two more quick stops – Bed Bath and Table just to wander their beautiful homewares wall and I found a present for Mother whose birthday was the next week – and H&M, where I found these gorgeous bright red earrings.
After all this it was time to grab some dinner. It was Friday night and at home that usually means Pizza night – and for the past 7 or so Fridays, a Harry Potter movie. I had not seen them and we have been watching them together. These are not movies for children, in my opinion, but they were excellent. We had originally planned to do this at our hotel but then discovered the shops were open till 9, so we decided to swap Pizza to Saturday night this week.
When researching places to eat on our daytrip to Sydney, I heard about Pepper Lunch. We didn’t end up going there because we went to the food court at Westfield Sydney instead. When I saw it in Central Canberra across from Via Dolce, we decided this would be our dinner. The food is served on hot iron plates and you cook it right there on your table. The Other Half chose Waygu Pepper Rice
With its unique design patented in Japan, the iron plate is part of the successful formula of Pepper Lunch. Using a special electromagnetic cooker also patented in Japan, the iron plate will heat up to 260°C in 70 seconds and remain hot at approximately 80°C for more than 20 minutes. Meat that is grilled at this temperature range remains tender and juicy. The hot plate also keeps food warm for a longer time such that customers can enjoy the full flavour of the dish.
I chose Prawn Pepper Rice. The prawns arrive in a bed of egg which is cooking as it arrives on the table. I think the best thing about this meal was the last grains of rice which had been on the hotplate long enough to become super crispy. It was delicious and even more so about halfway through when we gave the sauces on the table a try, our meals suddenly became even more delicious. This is a franchise with literally hundreds of stores in Japan – they are in several states here already. We would go back for sure, even though the Canberra location is quite tiny.
We were out wandering Canberra Centre for several hours and had a lovely time just looking at things and not buying them. I was surprised there were so few purchases, though of course the phone and the shoes are not seen here. I think that has been our biggest takeaway from The Year Of Buying Nothing – we quite enjoy looking with our eyes and not buying things we see.
Some items we see and decide right away that for us we need to buy them because they will likely never be seen again, like the H&M earrings, sometimes the bargain rule applies eg the shoes, other items are things we genuinely need – I’d just taken 4 plastic water bottles home from work for recycling. Spring water is supplied to us, I just needed to get a decent bottle. But sometimes the unpurchased items linger, and haunt, and this was the case for us on this weekend away. But more about that in a later post.
Harry Potter not for children? I know many, many children who loved the movies and the books. My grandson started reading the books at age seven, eagerly awaiting the release of each new one. And of course they loved the movies.
River – the first one, definitely. That was a piece of real movie magic. I loved it which is why we kept watching.
The second and third ones, maybe. By the fourth movie I was saying to the other half – can’t these characters have any NICE TIME? And then they killed the vampire from Twilight which was a very dark turn of events. And he was dead dead, not we can bring him back with a spell dead.
It just got darker and darker from there, killing characters fairly regularly, until they killed a much loved character in the 6th movie at which point I was a sobbing wreck and I am 43 years old, I can only imagine that young children would also have been very upset. And then they did the unthinkable in the 7th movie.
I’m glad I have seen them at last, but I feel like they focused so hard on the unpleasant until these movies were an ordeal I would not willingly go through again if I had any choice about it. And I think that is a bit of a shame. :/
Whoops looks like my reply below did not go where I planned it to go.
I will just add that one reason I say this – my sister was always allowing the kids to watch whatever movies they wanted, to the point my 4 year old nephew was afraid of going outside at dark time because “that is when the dinosaurs are out”. He loved Jurassic Park, truly loved it, but could not separate movie from real at that age. And I had no control over what she was allowing. :(
Some parents should not be parents.
Those meals intrigue me and I LOVE eggs, and rice, so I would enjoy them. I agree with Snoskred on HP. Very, very dark and scary in the later books and movies. I much preferred the early part of the series. It wasn’t even when they killed off major characters, it was how extremely dark and depressing they became.
I looked at an Oppo phone a couple of years ago and I was quite impressed. I wasn’t ready to buy a new one then.
I could spend days in bed and bath stores, and organizer stores. But oh, Mineshaft! That looks like heaven. My parents were rock hounds and would have loved it, too.
I love that water bottle!