Thursday, June 16, 2016

June 16, 2016. Ballarat delights.

LOCATION:  House-sitting near Ballarat, Victoria, Australia
WEATHER:  Cold and dreary.  Rain. Highs in 40s

We had to return the rental car today, so that means I had to drive it, while George took the pick-up into town.  Oh no!  This time, since I have the GPS, we decided he would follow me.  Again, I thought I had driven brilliantly, not crashing into anyone in the round-abouts and only forgetting about driving on the left a few times.  But, when we stopped at the Hertz place, he ranted, criticized my driving......too slow on the highway, too far left almost wiping out parked cars in the downtown area,, almost hitting the far left guardrail in the roundabout.  Well!  I just smacked him!  :-)

Ballarat is a city of about 100,000, I think.  For its size, it offers an amazing amount of culture (beautiful art gallery that we want to visit) and a very wide range of restaurants.  Today, we stopped at a very hip wine bar.

At the risk of sounding like winos, I had one of the restaurant's/winery's wines and George had a beer from their extensive menu.  We split an order of pork balls in a kimchi sauce.  Very unusual and superbly cooked.

Being lunch, it wasn't too busy, although they were preparing for a huge function tonight.  The building has served many purposes;  it was last a mechanics shop.  The exposed brick and decor are cool...


After lunch, we stocked up at the grocery and headed home.  We want to do more things in Ballarat, but the weather just didn't cooperate today.

DINNER:  Shrimp and veg served over rice with crumbled feta on top.  (spelled fetta here).  Very good.

2 comments:

  1. Sorry if I missed it, but have you tried Vegemite yet?
    And if so is it as awful as its reputation?

    And thanks by the way for keeping up your blog - endlessly fascinating - I did mine for three weeks and discovered just how much work it is!

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  2. George could use a smack now and then. You Karmen are a saint for putting up with him! :)

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