cafe: Satchmo Cafe, North Perth

cafe: Satchmo Cafe, North Perth

Is this café really "hipster" ?

Sure, there are some interesting hair styles. And definitely tattoos. Yet the café appears to be in a café... That is, it is not in a repurposed shop. The walls are smooth finished plaster. The entire place seems to be neat... established... well set up.

Complete with a Satchmo theme. Several stashes of LPs. You know, vinyl records. Suitable Satchmo-style music. Independent of the LPs, I suspect :-) "Soul" written on the menu... And that is the thing: This is a soul café. It may or may not be hipster.

Coffee is excellent. Lots of choice of type though no separation by bean source. Limited selection of cakes, though that suits the hipster emphasis on brunch rather than coffee & cake.

Our cake is delicious. Nicely warmed, soft and fluffy. I realise that "coffee cake" -- like "tea cake" is to be eaten with coffee, there is no coffee flavour. Learn something every day :-) We're told that the muffin is also delicious.

True to the hipster claim, close parking is crowded. Not to worry, a near empty supermarket carpark is across the road. Also as expected, it is crowded with both dine-in and takeaway crowds. And unfortunately, very noisy. No sound dampening, conversation is difficult.

Rated 2 out of 3: well worth the visit but lacking the undefinable extra which would bring us back as regulars.

Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper

...        Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved

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"It's a funny kind of month, October. For the really keen footy fan it's when you discover that your wife left you, months ago." … Denis Norden had it as "cricket"===

Dying for you to read my blog, at https://notdotdeaddotyet.blogspot.com.au/ :-)

cafe: Hamptons / City Beach

café: Hamptons / City Beach / 02sep18

We are following a list of "hipster cafés", for coffee & cake & review. This café is on the list -- but we were there for a family dinner. There was a preference for "dinner food" -- several of us choosing fish & chips. We did not really look for any hipster offerings. Anyway:

This is Fathers Day, close parking is at a premium. Easy parking is several carparks away but still close. Inside -- given the day -- is teeming. But not overwhelming.

This is a new café in a new building: definitely outside the hipster norm. There is plenty of family chat (our own family chatting, that is), little time for evaluation. I don't remember any "hipster" food, though it was probably there.

I leap straight to sharing a plate of fish & chips and an entrée of garlic prawns. The prawns are excellent, on a bed of rice which is sharp rather than spicy: delicious. The fish & chips are also delicious -- with a fish which does not go solid in the time it takes to eat it.

We share a nice dessert and coffee is good.

I'll rate this as 2 out of 3: we enjoyed it. But this does not evaluate the café as a hipster provider of our standard coffee & cake.

Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper

...        Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved

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"Out of my mind, please leave a message." … Ginger Meggs

===

Dying for you to read my blog, at https://notdotdeaddotyet.blogspot.com.au/ :-)

cafe: Hylin / West Leederville

café: Hylin / West Leederville / 06sep18

We've been told that identifying features of a "hipster" café include unusual hair styles and -- essentially -- tattoos. By those standards, Hylin is not really hipster. However...

It is crowded. (Though not enough that we should have booked ahead. And I suspect that booking ahead would simply destroy our own hipster cred.) Walls are painted brick. The café does seem to have started as something else. (Despite being "a new architecturally designed café".) It is in an area where parking is at a premium. (Though when we get there, it seems that only the "main" road is short on parking space.)

And there is a choice of coffee beans. We choose Colombian and it's good coffee. Not that we can tell one coffee from another. (Though I believe that I can distinguish "good" from "bad" -- according to my own preferences, anyway.)

In a break from tradition -- we eat lunch ! (Usually we are after just coffee & cake.) Many of the offerings are -- by our standards -- "different". (What sort of place have you taken us to ?! ask our friends.) A few odd spices and flavours, some that we have heard of but not yet tasted. (A quick smart phone search: What is chipotle ? Is it very hot ?)

There are enough recognisable choices to satisfy. Poached eggs, chipotle sauce, mixed green leaves, are in a lot of the offerings. I choose eggs, green leaves, no chipotle -- with croquettes. Which are light and tasty, not over-tasty. It comes with a rather nice mayonnaise.

We all enjoy our meals. There are "exotic" choices but our own choices taste good to our traditional palates. I rate this café 3 out of 3: we would go again, not just "to review" but because we enjoyed our meals.

We didn't look for cakes. Coffee & cake may require a separate visit. And perhaps a separate review and rating.

Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper

...        Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved

===

"Out of my mind, please leave a message." … Ginger Meggs

===

Dying for you to read my blog, at https://notdotdeaddotyet.blogspot.com.au/ :-)

cafe: Mary Street Bakery / West Leederville

cafe: Mary Street Bakery / West Leederville / 01sep18

Plenty of parking -- but it's Saturday. I suspect that week-day parking would be... lucky if you can.

First impression: absolutely packed. Twenty people queued to order, just two spare tables. Then we are told that the queue is for takeaway, we sit for table service. Good !

We order a "choc malt doughnut" and coffees. The doughnut arrives, it's... a cold doughnut with sweet icing. I think I can detect "malt" but not "choc". A bit more solid than a fresh cooked doughnut. Not complaining, it's sweet, has enough body to satisfy two. Just what we want.

Coffee takes longer to arrive, with apologies for the delay. Luke warm coffee... which is as I like it.

Waiting for the coffee, we look around. Looking for evidence that this café is, indeed, "hipster". Okay, it's a repurposed space. Walls of scraped-back brick, floor is well worn concrete. Instant shelving supporting various service items. I don't notice any stylish artwork.

We are, perhaps, the second-oldest people in the café. The only older couple look somewhat bemused. If my life depended on it I would suggest that many customers work in marketing, dressing down to emphasise that they are actually, of the people.

We have enough time to watch the takeaway queue gradually take their orders and go. Many -- strangely -- takeaway only coffee...

Why, we wonder, would someone come to a café to buy just coffee ? Office workers who must be seen back at their desks ? But it's Saturday. Lonely people who want to experience the almost-sociability of a crowded café ? Then why buy and leave ?! We watch: some customers take their coffee and walk, others get in their car and drive. Is coffee so essential ? Why did they not make & drink coffee before they left home ?

Perhaps, we (or I) decide, this is the next stage of eating out. More and more people eat out. Eating out is no longer a special occasion. So why sit still while eating out ? Get the food -- or just coffee -- and take it away to whatever more exciting activity is next on the busy agenda...

We, however, sit, sip, enjoy. Watching other people is one of the great joys of life. Others, I guess, prefer to take their coffee and keep on moving.

Our coffees come with a smile and an apology for the delay. Staff are friendly, their smiles seem natural. There is a pleasant buzz to the café atmosphere. Very enjoyable, for the people-watching as much as for the coffee & cake. And, of course, pleasant for the good company :-)

Score 2 out of 3: We enjoyed it but would not go out of our way to visit again.

Although: There are four "Mary Street Cafes". I prefer one-off cafes, for the expected variety. I would not go out of my way to revisit this café. But it's good enough that I would enjoy testing any of the other three of the same name.

Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper

...        Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved

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"When it comes to ideas, some people will stop at nothing." … per Ginger Meggs

===

Dying for you to read my blog, at https://notdotdeaddotyet.blogspot.com.au/ :-)

Oathbringer / Brandon Sanderson

Oathbringer

(Stormlight Archive #3)

by Brandon Sanderson

fantasy

copyright 2017

read in August 2018

rated 5/10: readable but only if there's nothing else

Longwinded, violent, going nowhere. Twelve hundred pages ! of fantasy history. Yes, it's about as much fun to read as a history textbook.

The first couple of hundred pages I'm catching up with the characters from books 1 & 2... so many characters, so many separate plots, so confusing. Still, I eventually learn to identify the key characters. And read a couple of hundred more pages.

The book begins to drag. I read it because, well, it's the book I'm reading. I have no great interest in the overall plot, though some of the "fine detail" is interesting. The world itself, for example, is interesting and unique.

Of the dozens of characters, three are sympathetic. By which I mean, I like three characters and hope that they survive and thrive. Unfortunately the book seems to be supporting a fourth character as being the main character. He certainly thinks that he is the only person who can save civilisation…

Not that this civilisation is worth saving. Strict social stratification, slavery, women as an underclass. And the "technology" is based on the capture and killing or forced "labour" of … spiritual creatures ? … of varying levels of sentience. In fact, anything which is not a male member of the hereditary ruling class of the local tribe of the almost-human main race -- is open for exploitation. No chance of improvement for anyone else and no say in their own futures. Obey & serve -- or die.

The self-proclaimed star of this "civilisation" is a psychotic murderer who uses his magic powers to destroy any opposition. And innocent bystanders, no quarter given. Sure, he seems to be having an attack of conscience -- in an interminable number of flashbacks -- but so what ? He is an evil megalomaniac.

So I read perhaps half the book and begin to wonder, will it ever end ? We finally find that (a) the world goes through regular cycles of "civilisations" growing and being destroyed. Worse yet: (b) the opposition -- and quite a few of the "them" race -- are immortal. So... (c) defeat the opposition and "they" will return. To battle the same set of immortal "us" -- and to kill nearly all of the ordinary creatures and people of the world.

When the sympathetic heroine faces off against a monster -- and wins -- but the monster is not killed, just runs away -- I think, if you don't kill it, it will return. Creating a never-ending -- pointless -- story.

Another hundred pages and I check the web... The plan, it seems, is for *ten* books in the series ! This book is #3, #4 is due out in 2020... By the time the series is ended... I'll be dead.

Very close to two-thirds of the book read. It's getting more & more mysterious. Who are all these people & creatures ?! It's getting slower, more tedious. I skip to the end... which is, obviously not the end. But -- as far as I can tell -- it is at least a reasonable point at which to pause.

I give up reading. If I want a complex story with hundreds of characters, multiple intersecting -- and separate -- plots and no real conclusion, I could study real history. To me, an author should present a story so that it can be read and enjoyed -- and understood, without the need for an encyclopedic set of cross-referencing notes.

This book is just not worth the effort.

Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper

...        Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved

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"When it comes to ideas, some people will stop at nothing." … per Ginger Meggs

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Dying for you to read my blog, at https://notdotdeaddotyet.blogspot.com.au/ :-)

cafe: The Little Pantry / Shenton Park

cafe: The Little Pantry / Shenton Park / 25aug18

This place is absolutely buzzing ! Busy, busy, busy, we're lucky to find seats. Busy but still friendly.

There's a "garden" area out the back, just as crowded. The counter is in the front section, kitchen out back on the other side to the "garden". Which does mean that staff have a long journey from the kitchen, round the counter & its customers, back to serve in the garden. Staff navigate the narrow path with the ease of experience.

Okay, this café is hipster. (Still not entirely sure what that means. But happy to use the description to mean whatever I understand it to mean. And thus does language grow and change.) A different shade of hipster.

There is no half-finished look, the Pantry is well established. Walls painted, shelves adorned with small potted plants, paintings on the walls. Even the pressed metal ceiling is clean & painted.

There is also a wide range of food available... by which I mean, plenty of cakes. (We are here for cake. There is savoury food but we are not looking.) Many are familiar cakes but not from "the same old factory". A few are less common: we try the baked cheesecake. And it is delicious.

Baked cheesecake is easy to over-cook, this one is just right. Creamy texture, creamy taste.

Staff are almost running but we don't wait very long. Not so long that we get bored watching the crowd. Amazingly -- staff all manage to smile -- and seem to mean it. I wonder (with no real basis) is this a friendly family-run café ?

We are there for coffee & cake, others are eating or still getting brunch. By the time we leave, there are several empty tables. Perhaps the brunch crowd are leaving and the lunch crowd are yet to arrive, it's that time of day.

On the down side: there is a slight smell. We are near the entry to the kitchen, I would say a smell of fish. Fresh fish, nothing objectionable. But my clothes have a slight food smell when we leave. Again, not objectionable, just that I prefer fresh air :-)

Overall rating: 3/3. A place we would go just because we like it.

Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper

...        Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved

===

"When it comes to ideas, some people will stop at nothing." … per Ginger Meggs

===

Dying for you to read my blog, at https://notdotdeaddotyet.blogspot.com.au/ :-)

Child of a Mad God / R.A. Salvatore

Child of a Mad God

(The Coven #1)

by R.A. Salvatore

fantasy

copyright 2018

read in August 2018

rated 6/10: read to pass the time

Warning: book #2 is not due to be published until 2019.

A really nasty tribe. Regular extreme violence. Yet not as bad as it sounds: the violence is cartoonish and usually happens to people for whom the reader has developed very little sympathy.

Meanwhile, outside the tribe, one man travels the land, battling villains and his own (not literal) demons. Which is interesting... the story covers the growth and development of the heroine from toddler to young adult. Then -- in the final chapters -- the man appears and plays a key role. How does the author deal with this -- without having the man appear suddenly, via deus ex machina ? Very cleverly ! We are given enough of the man's story to be interesting -- even though he seems to be well outside the story. Then his appearance at the crucial moment is completely logical. Well done :-)

For such a violent story, both man and woman are remarkably sympathetic. Other characters, however, are more confusing than conflicted. Though some of the confusion does eventually sort itself out. Often, again, in a surprisingly sympathetic -- if unbelievable -- manner.

That one man... Is he an escapee from previous books ? He certainly seems to have sufficient backstory. Not that it matters, this book reads well on its own. Almost...

The ending is satisfactory -- but with too many unresolved issues. Yes, it makes sense to end where it does. But will any of the loose ends ever be tied up ? Or is this the first book of an intended never-ending saga... Unfortunately, we will need to wait till at least 2019... waiting for a second Coven book to be published.

Hmmm... Re-reading the various cover blurbs: "she dreams of escaping to the world beyond"... I suspect that it will take several books for her to come anywhere near escape. And, "So begins a new saga". Yes, bother, a new saga.

Expect myriad loose ends and a failure to conclude. Oh well.

This book is fine to read by itself. What I'm left with, however, is not a feeling that I would like to read more. I'm left feeling slightly disappointed. Disappointed that there are so many loose ends -- admittedly, not ridiculous cliffhangers.

Enjoyable but feeling incomplete.

Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper

...        Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved

===

"When it comes to ideas, some people will stop at nothing." … per Ginger Meggs

===

Dying for you to read my blog, at https://notdotdeaddotyet.blogspot.com.au/ :-)