Teddy Boy

Disaster has struck. It seems my camera has been hit by the dreaded E18 Canon error. After a quick google it's obvious that this error is so common there is even a website dedicated to it. Mon dieu. Appearently it is caused by dust or sand in the lens mechanism. Whatever the cause, the consequence is that I will be without my camera for 3 weeks !!! Good lord, how is my blog going to survive. I have a digital video camera that takes stills but the quality is going to be pretty poor. Alternatively I could use J's SLR and just hope when I get the film developed that the pictures look good.

This is killing me as I have three days off work and I had plans to make casseroles, salads and cake that all look excellent in the cookbooks. Now I'm not going to be able to do them justice on the blog. I'll just have to rely on the power of the word. The only problem is we all know it's all about the photo.

To be honest, much as my camera breaking is irritating it is greatly over-shadowed by the wonderful arrival of our new puppy dog - Ted. No sooner had we bought a house with a garden then I was on a mission to find us a dog. I have wanted a dog ever since our childhood dog died 20 years ago and now that day has arrived. Ted is an absolute bundle of cuddliness and is getting used to his new home. No doubt, when the camera comes back from the menders there will be hundreds of photos of Teddy Boy. Here's one I managed to take before the camera stubbornly kept showing the E18 error.

So many words and not a mention yet of food. Before the camera cacked it I did manage to take some photos of a fantastic lunch we had a Manta in Woolloomooloo. The fantastic part of the lunch had much more to do with the lovely women I was dining with, the excellent wine and the incredible view of the boats bobbing in the water on a beautiful sunny afternoon. The food sounded interesting and tasted pretty good - but only pretty good.

The starter and the dessert were both good but I felt like I could have made them myself and that's not what I'm looking for when I'm eating in a fancy restaurant. My starter was Buffalo mozzarella with asparagus, the dessert was White chocolate and mascarpone mousse with fresh strawberries. For mains I had Grilled spatchcock with polenta cake and Swiss brown mushrooms which I have never cooked myself but the presentation was not the best. In fact I didn't even want to put the photo on the web because it did nothing for an already pretty ordinary main meal. In fact, the best bit about the main was the delicious broccolini that accompanied it but then it would be hard for that to go wrong.

I really did have a wonderful lunch but the food was just there, it neither added nor detracted from my enjoyment which was a bit of a shame.