Restaurants

On our recent week off we decided to spend our money on dining rather than travelling further afield. The first stop was the Victory Hotel on our way to Cape Jervis. It is about a third off the way there with wonderful views over the sea and almost back to what used to be the refinery.

Their menu is interesting and Lyn had rabbit, an item I have not seen on a menu before and it reminded Lyn of her childhood. I had the Hamburger as that is something I do not have often these day. We both enjoyed our meals and the service.

Of course while we stay at Cape Jervis we always have at least one meal at the Cape Jervis Tavern. The meals are always very good and you receive a good sized serve. Even though I would not go out of my way to eat there I highly recommend it if you happen to be in the area or on your way through to Kangaroo Island.

Our plans to dine at Victor Harbour's newest restaurant Stingrays were put off by a day, but we still did the trip to Victor and instead had a lunch at the local Crown Hotel. We had lunched at this hotel at various times and never had any complaints. This time we decided to cheap it and went into their TAB bar. The punter's menu offered three choices for $5 and an $8 choice including a glass of beer. I opted for the bolognaise with the beer and Lyn had the fish'n'chips. This was definitely BANG4BUCKS - I go their again anytime.

The following day we finally went to Stingrays, the place I was looking forward to. It was evening so unfortunately we could not enjoy their view. The restaurant had only started a couple of weeks ago. When receiving our bottle of bubbly we were asked to fill our glasses ourselves - hmmmmmm. I thoroughly enjoyed the chirpy service of the two waiting staff all the same. After the nice oysters some of us ordered steak. I requested mine medium to rare; it was served more on the side of well done with no pink to be seen anywhere. This was rather a shame as the meat itself was beautiful. Then came the crunch - we asked for coffee - WELL they didn't have any. The boss forgot to drop it in during the day. That to me was an excuse to have my desert with a Brandy - it was served in just an ordinary glass.
We enjoyed the evening but were somewhat underwhelmed.

Finally on our way back to Adelaide we stopped for lunch at McClaren Vale at D'arry's Restaurant - part of D'arenberg's Winery. We had this one planned ever since Lyn went there with sister Sue. Set amongst the vineyards of the southern vales this place is for some serious relaxing. Both Lyn and I settled for their winter degustation menu. As the restaurant is right beside their tasting room we visited there before our first course was delivered. Each cousre was an absolute delight and the three hours it took to complete lunch seemed to just fly by. Brilliant and I am looking forward to get back there for lunch. A definite recommendation.

Private use only

The following are my thoughts only. They are put on this blog for family members' perusal and not designed as investment advice.

CDL - (Canada Land) company which has its investment in China real estate. I like the connection to China even though the risk is that control is not in Australia. CDL is going ex dividend Aug 16. It is an investment which should be long term as it is raely traded and one might find it hard to sell if money is needed in a short term.

SNE - (Somerton Energy) A company which missed bankruptcy by being taken over by its ex partner Beach. My hope is that Beach had a good reason to save this company and these become reality soon.
Of course Beach itself - BPT - whould be a decent investment if you are looking for longer term investment

MEY BMN - (Marenica & Bannerman) These two uranium hopefuls are on my watchlist. I believe that uranium prices will rise as the world economy gets back on track and China is looking for more energy.

ASB - Austal is a shipbuilding company and according to some reports may be on the verge of signing a big contract. If this should happen there could be a decent increase in its shareprice.

NTU - this has been a stock I have long followed; but got disenchanted when french Avexe decided not to support a recent capital raising. Now its apparent why: the company is shifting its focus from uranium to rare earth minerals. I am back in hoping that the recent chinese interst in this company will give it futher lift. NTUOB are 15c options with a fair bit of time to run.

iphone 4G

As my mobile phone contract is about to run out, I was considering replacing my now aging Nokia N95 with an Iphone. The news of the new Iphone 4G got me thinking of waiting for its Australian release. On researching however I am now considering whether to switch to the EVO 4G from HTC. I have had favourable comments about HTC previously but always thought that Apple has the better applications. As I do not use the camera often perhaps the fact that EVO has an 8meg camera versus a 5meg from Apple is not that big a deal but an extra hour of battery life may be. Iphone is said to have HD display which should make viewing a better experience.

Being avid fans of "MASTER CHEF" I thought I'd finally cook one of their innovations. Bomba Chorizo just got my mouth watering; however we do not deep fry. So I followed their recipe and baked the prepareed dumplings.
They were bedded on braised leek very similar to the recipe, but we added a most delicious tomato based red bean and shitake mushroom sauce. No salt or sugar is added to my cooking. I use a lot of onion and herbs in my cooking to avoid my food to be too bland. In the sauce was Parsley Sage Thyme and Bay leaf.

is this the tail end of the GFC?

Managing our small super fund has again become a headache. After successfully dragging it out of the mire; May proved to be dismay. But when I woke up this morning I heard that the Dow Jones crashed 300+ points. One can only cross one's fingers that June doesn't become an abyss.

I came across this while trawling cyberspace:



The next time you hear a Politician use the word "Billion" in a casual manner, think about whether you want those 'Politicians' spending YOUR tax money.

A Billion is a difficult number to comprehend ... but an Advertising Agency recently did a very good job of putting that figure into some perspective:-

A. A Billion seconds ago it was 1959.

B. A Billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

C. A Billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

D. A Billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.

E. A Billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our Government is spending it!

Uranium - whereto now?

Now that it looks as though the Gobal Financial Crisis is becoming a dim memory; I wonder what will happen to the price of Uranium?


Stockmarkets have recovered and the Chinese economy is still powering along. Oil is now trading around the $80 mark; well above its two year low. Yet the price of Uranium is still hovering just above $40. China is numerous nuclear reactors, has more on the drawing board and is planning even more. These will all need fuel.