Sometimes you just need something to calm you down… when you’ve become hot under the collar over teabags. When two interviewees postponed today. As a matter a fact, I’m hot under the collar now. So it was that I though I had to buy chai, that calming hippy dippy Indian spiced tea. Three local supermarkets later and I had none and was too bothered to drive or ride across town to buy it. The best selection was at the local […]
Month: May 2006
Drink within your means
How much should you pay for wine? Or let’s put it this way: How much more than the cost of food should wine be? In Melbourne the cost of a main course in a restaurant is fast catching up with the cost of wine. If I’m feeling poor I may spend $40 to $50 on a bottle in a restaurant. Feeling rich and I may double the figure. To put this into context in the kinds of restaurants where I’m […]
Weekend toadstool mushroom blogging
Someone was trying to be helpful. True those bloody Zucchini were overgrown. But under their leaves hid my winter crops – horseradish and jerusalem artichokes. J just ripped them out and I’m left with a barren patch of earth. No herbs. Just a few weeds and grass sprouts now. So I have had to go further afield to find something for Weekend Herb Blogging, which Kalyn has handed over to DMBLGIT winner Ilva at Lucullian Delights to host this southern […]
Cut costs, not staff
There are ways to improve revenue performance, if only CFOs had time to look for them. CFO. 01 May 2006 For the first time since 1987, companies are starting to see annual productivity gains slow. Dr Frank Gelber, chief economist at BIS Shrapnel, said last year that Australian companies have cut back the fat to the point that there were no more efficiency gains to be had. He said this means companies face cost increases and either rising prices or […]
Hybrid markets: Raising the capital bar
After Orica’s success, it seems like hybrid capital raisings are driving the whole M&A market this year. CFO. 01 May 2006 The Australian stockmarket is at an all-time high. The mergers and acquisitions business is booming, and the boom is bringing a wave of new capital-raising to the market. But if 2006 is to be known for anything, it will be the year of the hybrid step-up preference security (SPS). The twist that has caught the market’s interest is that […]
Great wine advice for restaurants
Veteran food writer Rita Erlich talks good sense in The Age over absurdly long wine lists. Giant wine tomes are best avoided: “Even a speed-read list would help – say, a dozen whites and reds, chosen because they’re appropriate drinking and fairly priced. The longer the list, the higher the individual bottle prices, since stocking the cellar with thousands of bottles is expensive. Neither do I have much time for the wine list full of big company wines, available at […]
Lucky country is unlucky for some
From IN THE BLACK May 06 Wherever you are in Australia houses are bloody expensive and have been for some time. State and federal governments have debated the issue and there has even been a Productivity Commission report. According to the Demographia International Housing Survey (using September figures) Sydney is the seventh most expensive city in the world to buy property, with the median house costing 8.5 times the median take-home pay. Still, at least you’re not living in Los […]
Food fight
Yes, there are two good fight stories out there. Cuccina Rebecca in Sydney was asked to stop taking pics of her food “because the owner does like it” as someone once tried to take a picture of the blackboard. Silly restaurant paranoi perhaps. Many chefs do take food photos for ideas but this was a bowl of pasta. But it’s not as paranoid as the restaurants that refuse the critic entry. That’s right in Melbourne they have barred the way […]
Baguette & Chocolat
We’re a short drive from the Chinese border. Chris, from Sydney, reckons Sa Pa reminds him of a French ski resort. And the more I think about it, he’s right. The hotels have that French chalet feel. Sa Pa is at 1650m, the base high of ski resorts like, um, Courchevel 1650. And then I woner up the road, up the steps with the water buffalo (see previous post) and enter Baquette & Chocolat ̣(đ Thac Bac). It is just […]