20200731 The Stirling Hotel TURN: Elizabeth

A stone's throw from home, today it was my turn to choose and I choose the Stirling Hotel. We haven't visited in ages and now seemed a good time.

Stephen and I arrived at 6pm and found a bench spot near the pizza eatery. It was a nice enough nook for us to have a couple of drinks. Albert and Richard joined us straight away with Chad and Con coming in a little later.

Albert bought Chips and then crisps for us all which were eaten in record time.

I enquiried about our table at 7.25 but it wasn't ready so we sat and waited for 5 minutes. The table was a booth at the side of the hotel. Nice enough.

We had to wait about 50 minutes for our food and we were getting a bit testy after such a long wait.

Richard had the salt and pepper squid - 8 (really liked the salad - best he's had with this type of meal)

Con had the burger - 0 (not hot enough, awful)

Albert had the Parmi with spring rolls (which he gave to Chad/Richard) - 6

Stephen had the lamb shank pie with mash and broccolini - 5

Chad also had the lamb shank pie - 6

I had the 2 course meal for $49 which included a glass of wine for Stephen

Octopus entree - 3 there was hardly any octopus there in a hommus style sauce

Barramundi, green beans (uncooked) and kipfler potatoes - 3 it came with a mustard style sauce which was too rich and greasy. I was still hungry after the meals. I felt sick too.

20200724 Buongiorno TURN: Richard

Con was already at the Norwood pub when Stephen and I arrived. We were sitting near the toilets tucked away in a room to the left side of the bar. Stephen ordered a packet of crisps and 2 beers for us.

Chad was meant to meet friends at the Wheaty tonight (which I think he did do), but also ended up coming to the pub with us too which was great.

Richard had booked for 7.15 at Buorngiorno so I strolled up there at 7.10 to meet with him. Patrick was there as well. Richard was standing outside because they hadn't actually booked him a table. A couple of minutes later the waiter came out and said we had a table. We had to wait for a couple of minutes for the extra chairs but it all turned out good in the end.

It was a pizza/pasta night at Italian again. Except for Stephen who ordered Veal in Mushroom sauce. I had the garlic prawn risotto.

Scores for the evening:

Albert - pizza - 7

Chad - pizza - 7

Con - pizza - 5

Richard - pasta - 8

Patrick - pasta (he left the olives) - 6

Stephen - veal - 8.5

Me - Risotto - 7.5

Richard and Patrick had a bowl of wedges to share which I snuck a few.

We stayed for coffees too. Patrick had ice-cream. Albert had the Italian hot choclate - thick custard like - with a chocolate eclair.

20200717 Campania Club TURN: Chad

It's been a quiet week again. Lots of lazing around on the sofa and lots of coffees at various coffee shops. It's school holidays for Chad. At 5.10pm we left home to drive to Chad's place. We brought a packet of crisps and 3 beers. We arrived at Chad's place at 5.55pm.

Chad had Star Trek Voyager playing on the television. We all had a beer and some crisps then drove in the one car to the Campania Club in Modbury North.

The room is large but not too packed. We had a lovely round table with plenty of space. Con gave Chad a call and Stephen and Chad went to pick him up from Chad's place as he had lost his way. Whilst they were gone, Richard and Albert came in.

Stephen and Chad had a couple of jugs between them. Con had the red wine.

All the guys had the Campania Special (Stephen had extra pineapple, and Richard had extra anchovies).

I had the Vegetarian with extra pineapple.

All the pizzas got eaten with 8's all round, except me who I gave a 7 and Con who gave a 6. Stephen gave 7.5.

The Campania club had a huge television screen at the back of the room with tv screens to the side. They were playing footy and soccer. Richard liked his prime position. Richard had been babysitting his nephew and had photos to share. He also took a photo of the group with surround 3D and shared it with us.

One downside to the place was that they didn't have any serviettes readily available. However, they had plenty of table water.

We had a coffee at the club - nice enough.

20200710 Midnight Spaghetti and Steven Ter Horst TURN: Stephen

We met at the Cranker at 5.30 and we scored a couple of sofas next to the fire at the back of the pub. Chad, Con, Stephen and I were there followed by Richard at about 6.30.

I had popped around to the Elephant beforehand to see if it was open - it wasn't - it was still closed.

It's Stephen's birthday today!!! Yeah! 55 years young. Chad bought Stephen 2 pairs of Star Wars socks. Very jazzy! Thank you Chad.

Stephen wanted to go to Midnight Spaghetti and so be it - his wish came true.

We had booked for 8pm but went upstairs about 7.40 as they could accommodate us earlier. Jen said she might join us, but ended up not coming.

Con and I had the Midnight Spaghetti - 6 from Con, 8.5 from me

Chad, Richard and Stephen had the Ragu (Pork and Lamb) - 8's all round.

We had lovely dense bread to start with with parmesan cheese, chillis and oil. Lovely. Richard, Stephen and I and Chad all had the truffle spuds. Delicious. Felt really full after the meal.

Chad had a hoppy beer and Con had a glass of Shiraz. Stephen had brought up his beer from downstairs. Richard had sparkling water.

We went to Steven Ter Horst for hot chocolate (Con had a capuccino). Richard had a chocolate muffin. Delicious.

Chad gave us some chocolate before we said goodbye and headed our separate ways.