Afternoon tea review: Conservatory at Crown

Today we braved the hordes of tourists in shorts and fanny packs admiring the gloomy glitz of Crown Casino (where there was a crowd-pulling Christmas extravaganzza show seemingly every 5 minutes, despite it being 2 days after Christmas) to try afternoon tea at the Conservatory restaurant (which is not really a conservatory, although it does have some big windows). Of course, it's not really an afternoon tea as such that they provide, it's a buffet tiffin, so there is a more substantial food offering than an ordinary afternoon tea, including various dim sums and similar hot finger foods, as well as sandwiches, salads, scones, lots of sweets (mostly chocoloate), fruit and ice cream, as well as a crepe station.

I thought the venue was nice enough, except for the awful Christmas music and the fact that all of the patrons were bunched up at one end of the room. The buffet was generous and the range of food was quite good, with the hot food and sauces being particularly good. The tea, imported from Germany ($6 for a small pot, which to me seemed rather pricey, but nothing compared to the $10.91 for a bottle of sparkling mineral water)

On the Scott Scale, I give it a 6.5 out of 10. The food itself was quite good, and the room was potentially quite pleasant (if they had not crammed all of the patrons on top of each other, leaving half of the room empty) but I did not think the service was quite as conscientious as it could have been, and I did think that it was very expensive at $38 a head (not including any beverages). That said, the food was good and the vast majority of people there - mostly large groups - all seemed to be enjoying themselves.

More evidence in favour of Speedos

At the risk of turning this into a perv blog, I feel compelled to provide some more evidence that brief swimwear is not only right but preferable (especially on the right bodies...)

Anti-Speedos insanity

After my last post, in which I mentioned my irritation at the many newspaper and blog pages that seem to have been taken up with criticism of Tony Abbott and his Speedos, I came across this absurd story about a British water park that has banned Speedo-type swimmers as being 'inappropriate' for a family theme park.

Is this not utter madness? Where is all of these new puritan modesty coming from? Why is it okay for all of these skanky singers to writhe about in their video clips with practically nothing on, but it is somehow obscene for men to wear bathers that (a) you can actually swim in, as opposed to ugly board shorts that have all of that material flapping about, and (b) are actually quite sexy?

I admit I wear brief swimmers, although sadly not because I look sexy in them but because they are very comfortable. They feel close to swimming naked, which is a very nice feeling indeed. I highly recommend it.

So I really see nothing wrong with brief swimwear, and I don't understand the criticism. Yes, for many years the only men that wore brief swimmers tended to be fat and old, but that has definitely changed, in large part due to companies like Aussiebum which have aggressively marketed the new generation of briefs to younger men. The problem was not the swimmers, I once read Sean Ashby (founder of Aussiebum) explain, so much as it was the kind of men that were wearing them. He had a goal to get hot men wearing them again, and he seems to have succeeded.

I note that a lot of the criticism about Speedo-type swimmers seems to come from young women. I suggest that it is rooted in some sort of sexual anxiety or embarrassment. It seems to me that all of these demands that men cover up is also related to the demands that men should be also look more androgynous and look, in fact, less like men.

Still, it's not all doom and gloom: I also found this story about a beach in New Jersey that has recently lifted its 30 year Speedo ban (and also a ban on bare chested men walking the beach esplanade), so maybe there is hope.

Cruden Farm

Yesterday Tom and I drove down to Langwarrin, near Frankston, to visit Dame Elisabeth Murdoch's famous property, Cruden Farm, which was open as part of the Open Garden Scheme. As you might expect, it was a very busy day and we were lucky to get there early in the day before the masses arrived. It is a large, interesting garden on a scale that one does not often come across in Australia (well, not in the social circles that I move in). One section of the garden I recognised (correctly, I am pleased to say!) as an Edna Walling design. I have included some photos of the garden (include one of Tom in front of one of the two lakes). Afterwards we drove down the Mornington Peninsula and had a nice lunch an a pub overlooking the bay. It was all very pleasant.