Archive for February, 2007

A Realised Aim

gadget February 24th, 2007

As you’ll know by reading our blog title one of our aims is to seek out good coffee in a place where often this is hard to find. During the working week it is hard to find somewhere at lunch time where you can sit and enjoy a coffee, much less a good one, where it is not greatly crowded and noisy. On the weekends one must troll through the couple of places willing to stay open to find a quiet spot where you can sit, relax and enjoy.

Well surprise, surprise…we are finally being told that Gloria Jeans will be opening its doors in Alice Springs in around 6 weeks time. We wait in eager anticipation and also in that we may realise a second aim, that of raisin toast, a tasty and great companion to a good cup of coffee. Perhaps they may even dredge up some deep but forgotten emotions in other coffee shops known as competition but I doubt it. More likely it will, simply due to ones own selfishness, cause further hate mail as this company blossoms because the former does not want to give what everyone cries out for, service!

Well anyway we are looking forward to it and pats on the back to the owners of the Gloria Jeans franchise. May they do well and make us proud.

Tourism, NT Style

Amanda February 20th, 2007

Hmmm…. Whilst in Darwin last year (a weekend spent tripping around, shopping, relaxing by the pool and eating as much fish as I possibly could) one image that stood out was of being in a crowded cafe at Adelaide River, surrounded by tourists wearing those really bad leather (fake?) Akubras…. And the idea of writing about what tourists wear to Central Australia (and indeed, the Northern Territory) occurred to me.
Visitors to the NT seem to go through some kind of mimetic process, whereby they are exposed to representations of leather Akubras (they are always leather, never felt), walking boots, photographer’s vests and Any Other Item of Khaki Clothing subliminally by their travel agents or perhaps the NT Tourist Commission, and through osmosis emerge from their planes, buses and Britz campers, looking like they’re going to a ‘come as something awful, but Australian’ fancy dress party.

I guess the thinking is something like this:

extreme climate=extreme dress

or maybe even: “isn’t this what people living in Alice Springs wear every day?”

Of course, when I go to Woolies, I don my photographer’s vest, my hiking boots, my leather hat, grab a Camel Bak, pull my socks up round my neck, and go shopping cos it’s such a challenging and extreme adventure. NOT!!!!!!!!!!

Equally challenging and requiring the same kind of equipment is the act of walking along Todd Mall (nowhere near as long as the Pitt St or Rundle St Malls), and probaly requires GPS navigational aids as well.

Well the truth is…. people who live in the NT don’t dress like this (shock! horror!). We are rather relaxed dressers (it’s commonly said that the only people who wear suits in the NT are real estate agents and politicians). In fact, there are places in the NT (Humpty Doo) where blue stubbies and singlets are the norm (yech).
Anyway, the point is if you’re coming here for a holiday, you don’t need all kinds of khaki ex-army-expedition gear to walk down Todd Mall or visit Uluru. You don’t need a GPS unless you’re going off track on the Larapinta Trail or somewhere tricky in a 4WD. We don’t wear leather Akubras… they just tell you that the person wearing them is a dorky tourist.
No, you don’t need a leather Akubra.
 

No.

 

No.

 

NO.