Cellini’s Bar and Restaurant @ the QVB
Published 30 May 2011Thursday night Liz, Leigh and I ventured in to the QVB for dinner. Every Thursday evening until June 16th,  you can enjoy a complimentary main meal with every main meal purchased when you dine on Level 1 or 2 of the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney’s CBD.
I’ve been to the QVB stacks of times, but never to eat a sit down meal. I confess to not really knowing that there was more than just the Tea Room on offer.
It was pretty standard restaurant fare (good service, great menu, friendly staff) but being seated under the atrium on the top floor of the QVB makes it pretty special.
I had the homemade ravioli with pesto butter (yummo) as my main and we shared the entrée (bruschetta and garlic bread) and dessert (crepes and World’s Tallest Lemon Meringue Pie).
My spesh treat at the end (as if the rest wasn’t spesh enough) was melt-it-yourself Max Brenner hot chocolate. Div-ine.
Sadly, I only took my 50mm prime lens to dinner, so my decent photos are few and far between :(
Cellini’s Bar and Restaurant
Level 2, Shop 46-48, QVB Sydney
Phone: 9264 4671
Operating Hours
Monday – Friday: 9am to 9pm
Saturday & Sunday: 9am to 7pm
Disclaimer: We dined as guests of Cellini’s thanks to the QVB and Lucy at One Green Bean.
Dyson DC34 Animal
Published 2 May 2011Preamble: This isn’t a sponsored post, because Dyson didn’t pay me to do this. This is a review post because Dyson provided me with a new DC34 Animal series handheld vacuum cleaner. I’ll have to hand this baby back, though I will be very very reluctant to do so. I’ve already started saving up so I can buy one.
TBH, I’m not very used to doing this, save for the odd review post on That’s Noice. Forgive me if it’s not Walkley-worthy!
What’s the best suction joke you can make about a vacuum cleaner?
In my life BD (Before Dyson), I knew Dyson products as being (reportedly) fabulous, but also way out of my price range.
I own 4 vacuuming devices at the moment – a Miele Cat and Dog barrel-style, a bog-standard “dust buster†and 2 iRobot Roombas. Pretty lavish for a DINK family with 2 cats living in a 1-bedroom apartment, no?
So why would I need a super-expensive handheld vacuum cleaner in my life?
The Cliff’s Notes-version of the press release
- It’s got 15 minutes of hard-core sucking power – 6 minutes if you use MAX mode
- The motor spins 5x faster than a F1 engine
- An internal microprocessor makes up to 3,300 adjustments each second to control its speed to monitor and self-adapt to vacuum airflow
- It takes 3½ hours to fully charge
- The standard DC34 goes for $299 and the DC34 Animal retails for $349
- Both the DC34 and the DC34 Animal have been tested for over 200 hours by mechanical rigs and real people – dropping it, bashing it and generally abusing it.
How does one review a vacuum cleaner?
Choice Magazine, I am not. But I’ve done a lot of real-life vacuuming to prove the worth of this little sucker (see what I did there?). It’s successfully sucked up cat hair, human hair, dust bunnies (it actually sucked dust bunnies from across the hall – true story!), kitty litter, rogue leaves, spilled sugar, blanket fluff…
Blow me down, it works!
It did a great job on all surfaces, save for the really cheap fabric under the cushions on my IKEA couch.
There was the initial “wow†factor of being able to see what we’re sucking up, but when I compared its suckage to our full-size vacuum cleaner, we twigged that this thing is the real deal.
Comparing it to the Miele Cat and Dog vacuum cleaner
Our Miele Cat and Dog vacuum cleaner is our default vacuum cleaner. We upgraded from a generic Miele model a few years ago and found that it was fabulously more effective in removing kitty fur.
Last week we bought a second-hand cat tree from our local op-shop, which was covered in someone else’s cat hair. I vacuumed the top shelf with the Miele first, then the Dyson (using the Dyson motorised animal hair attachment).
And this is what the Dyson sucked up:
Remember, this is after the Miele vacuum cleaner had a go.
Impressive for a 1m2 piece of carpet, no?
What the cat thought
Elvis usually runs away from the vacuum cleaners in our house, so the fact that he held his ground and had a bit of a nom… well, it’s not what we were expecting. We put it down to the more compact size and the pitch/volume when the Dyson’s switched on.
Things that won me over
- Bagless system = no need to buy overpriced single-use bags
- The filter is washable, so more cost savings
- Minimal hot air blowing out the back of the machine – you know that feeling when you’re inhaling vacuum cleaner/dust buster air… ewww. Not so much on this machine (and perhaps that’s Dyson across the range)
- It’s husband-friendly – within minutes of Dan using this, he declared “we need to buy oneâ€. He was even willing to be a hand model for this post
Things that’d make me love it even more
- A light to tell me when charging is complete
- A warning light when charge is running out
- Some sort of storage system to let me hang it on my laundry wall
- A longer stick attachment so I can reach cobwebs
The Dyson has become part of our family
Now that we are living AD (after Dyson), our vacuuming routine has changed – our iRobot Roombas still run on a scheduled program every second morning, with top-ups when I’m about to mop the floors. The Dyson more than capably fills the gaps in between – corners, edges, steps, crevices, furniture, window sills, blankets. Because the Dyson is so portable compared to our Miele, I’m finding that I’m vacuuming a lot more often.
And best of all, we can use the Dyson to suck up fur on our clothes. We normally use those sticky rollers (and we go through a LOT of them), but with the Dyson we have ditched the rollers 90% of the time.
It’s particularly fabulous for sucking up fur off our teak dining table before a meal. Because cats will always choose to sleep somewhere you don’t want them to.
The suction joke
The most popular joke was when Dan read the Dyson box when I brought it home:
“It says here that it has twice the suction… wish my wife had twice the suction.â€
Boom-tish!
Why I think the Heart Foundation “Tick†is a crock
Published 25 October 2010Like a heap of people, I do my grocery shopping with one eye open for Heart Foundation ticked foods. Because even though the foodie companies pay for the right to wear “the tick” on their wares, it surely stands for something, yeah?
But I’ve figured out how companies weasel their way through the Heart Foundation’s hoops. And twigged that it’s a total rort.
Here’s a packet of seven (7) sausages that we bought from Woollies last week… when we first spotted these in the meat section we thought we’d hit the jackpot. SAUSAGES! With the HEART TICK!
But, normally I’d eat, say, two sausages with my veges for dinner? Maybe three sausages if I was feeling particularly hungry (or on PMS).
Oh noes. That’s not a Heart Foundation approved serving size.
Check this crap out:
So to eat the Heart Foundation approved serving size, we’re only meant to eat ONE MEASLY SAUSAGE.
They’re fat little buggers, but jeebus, no way I’d cope on just one. I gots to have my proteins!
You can feel my anger because I used MS Paint, no?
I call bullshit on the Heart Foundation tick. What say you?
Can’t wait til the election is OVER. Unless Abbott wins; then let’s put it off for as long as possible.
Published 18 August 2010I’m not very good at arguing about politics. Which is a shame since my Pop was part of the creation of the DLP (scroll down and check out the guy sat right in the middle of the front row). And he was a good arguer.
Is that even a word?
I’m what you’d call a leftie and go with my gut instinct when it comes to the basics of my political beliefs, with big helpings of advice and info from like-minded family and friends.
And infographics like this, which I have shamefully stolen from Elizabeth (click for full-size image that doesn’t throw out my beautiful WP theme):
I haven’t entirely decided which way I’ll vote on Saturday in terms of where I want my preferences to go, but it might have to wait until I talk to our local Greens/independent/Sex Party reps when I turn up at the polling booth on Saturday (I’ve NEVER spoken to those nutjobs outside the school hall on election day, and TBH I’m a bit scared about it).
How I cancelled my Vodafone iPhone contract without paying the Early Exit Fee
Published 7 August 2010UPDATE September 2011:
Read my new post 20k Australians want in on class action against Vodafone
Original post follows:
__________________________
Executive summary:
Jump up and down and make a lot of noise in Vodafone’s direction (contact their support line (1300 650 410), their Twitter account (@VodafoneAU_help)Â and fax their complaints line (03 6210 3362)- When you manage to connect with a human, try to act at least a bit nice and understand that ruining their day by acting like an asshat isn’t going to make them want to help you
- Tell them what your complaint is and what workarounds you’ve undertaken to attempt to solve the issue yourself (also proving that you’re not a muppet when it comes to tech). If you think it breaches terms of the contract, explain it. Mention that you know that you have the right to contact the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) if the issue isn’t resolved satisfactorily
- Use the word “unacceptable”. It’s always worked well for me
- Tell them what you want to happen to resolve the issue, and give justification for it
- At least try to be fair in the negotiation if they want to, say, make you give back your iPhone in return for cancelling the contract
- Regardless of the outcome, be appreciative to your support person (a.k.a. don’t shoot the messenger) and thank them for their efforts
Full story:
For most of the last 10-15 years, I was a happy Vodafone customer. Until I got an iPhone 3GS in January this year on a 2-year contract.
iPhone + Vodafone = optional coverage, phone call connectivity and voicemail delivery.
In June, my car battery died, at home, causing the alarm to SCREAM INCESSANTLY AT ME THAT THE BATTERY HAD DIED. For 10 minutes, while sat in an area claiming to have full phone reception, I was unable to make a single call. It would either refuse to make the call, or would dropout.
Then, in July, while mum was still in hospital, I had a voicemail message that wasn’t delivered for three days. Turned out that it was a known issue and Vodafone had sent a notification text to every customer except me to tell me about the problem.
For a few months now I have been very open about my dream to ditch Vodafone and get an HTC Desire from Telstra. I’d  had enough of being Apple’s lapdog, too, because I knew my phone issues were just as much Apple’s fault as Vodafone’s. But to break my contract 16 months early was going to cost me over $1,000 under their Early Exit Fee clause, and I’d resigned myself to the fact that I was stuck.
But Thursday morning was the last straw when 3G coverage was non-existent for several hours. I didn’t even get a text message that had been sent to me the night before. Fired up, I sat on hold to Vodafone support for EIGHTY MINUTES and gave up in frustration. I sent DMs to their Twitter support account and sent a dirty fax to their complaints department:
I heard back from Kirsty from Vodafone’s support Twitter account and I have to tell you, this woman is a superstar. I emailed her all the workarounds that failed me (I hate being told by support staff to turn off 3G on my iPhone like I have NO IDEA how to do these things). I told her what my beef was and I told her what outcome I wanted:
Here’s where Kirsty earns her superstar rating: within 2 hours, Kirsty had agreed and processed the cancellation of my contract – 16 months early – without charing me the Early Exit Fee. All I have to do is return my iPhone next week.
Amazing. That should have cost me almost $1,100.
If the rest of Vodafone worked as well as Kirsty, then I’d still be with them.
But I’m with Telstra now, with my HTC Desire. I have no idea how to use the Desire yet, but I’m working on it.
I still can’t quite believe that I actually got to break my contract for free!
Have you had success with breaking a contract with a mobile phone provider? How did you manage it?
My NEW site!
"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all"
—Dale Carnegie
"Never eat more than you can lift"
—Miss Piggy
Blogs I love
No, thank YOU
