A Few of My Favourite Things !

There are actually queues forming in Melbourne! We are used to seeing queues in Paris or Tokyo but today, for pretty much the first time we remember, there was a queue to get into Koko Black in the Block Arcade and the new Lindt Cafe on Collins St. The Lindt store is so new that it hasn’t made it into their website yet.

The Lindt Cafe is set in a beautiful building – high ceilings with a little balcony that runs along both sides and across the back of the second storey, book cases set along the entire length of it. My idea of heaven really – a chocolate cafe below and books above. I wonder if you’re allowed up there. Anyway, no cakes or chocolates this time as I’ve tried a few from the Sydney store. But the macarons (which they call delice) tempt me and so I ask for the hazelnut, milk chocolate and roselli. As an afterthought, I say “You should give me the broken passionfruit one too” and they do. Mmmmmmm, thin crunchy shell with a chewy interior then the creamy ganache.

I’ll make them soon, hon, I promise…

Can you be nostalgic for a time & place that you’ve never known? I’ve heard that Beirut was the ‘Paris’ of the Middle East in its heyday and citizens who have since moved from Lebanon wax lyrical about its beauty and liveliness. Having now made my first (whirlwind) visit to Beirut, I wish I had known her in her prime. I loved the hospitality of the people, the mountain-to-sea aspect, the contrasting fashions of the various religious groups. I would return in a heartbeat.

My first walk was along the promenade to the Raouché (Pigeon Rocks):

The American University of Beirut:

You don’t see female taxi drivers very often there (in fact, she was the only one I saw) and our driver so SO unimpressed that a woman was driving: