A wonderful cafe discovery

We've had an interesting day.  We headed in to the office and loaded the van for the day's deliveries.  We had a pallet load to drop off first, and on the way into the city, Alex had a particular cafe in mind to try.  His taste buds are gradually returning from their long holiday and it was too nice a day not to take advantage and stop somewhere.

 'The Grounds' is a relatively new cafe and it has obviously become "the" place to go judging by the already full car park.  Luckily there was one vacant spot in the adjacent street, so we grabbed it.  Alex must have known this would be "his" place, as you can see from this shot

We grabbed a just-vacated table and noticed that the place was packed.  I am still surprised that places like this are packed during the week; it must be heaving on the weekends.  I am also still surprised that I am sitting at wonderful coffee shops during the week because in my previous life, I would have been trapped in an office mostly glued to a desk.

We loved the decor.  At the back of this shot you can see almost floor to ceiling clear windows.  This looks into the kitchen, and judging by the foods they were preparing we decided we definitely need to return soon to sample a full meal here.  The cakes on display were just too tempting, so to help our coffees go down, we shared an apple & blackberry crumble tart ...

It was as good as it looked.

Well fortified, we headed into the city for the last day of deliveries.   Our first few deliveries were uneventful.  We then had a carton to deliver to a shop located in the same building as a very well known and popular yum cha/trolly dolly restaurant.  This shop is on level 1 of the building, and there have been times previously where we'd do a delivery there and then head up to the restaurant for lunch.



We walked in the open double front doors to be greeted by the sight of the middle aged male staff member sitting on a ledge facing us.  He was dressed in a shirt, long trousers, shoes and socks taken off and his feet on an open Chinese newspaper thankfully catching his toenails he was cutting and also the pieces of dead skin he was "shaving" off the front hard parts of his toes.

Yes, you did read that correctly.

Any thoughts we had of heading upstairs for lunch immediately vanished.  Honestly!

Distracted from his pedicure ministrations, he looked up and smiled.  I wish I had my camera and could have taken a shot of the look on Alex's face but I had both hands tightly holding a by now heavy carton.  Thankfully there were no customers in the shop, and the owner was out somewhere.  Alex was trying to explain that we'd leave the carton and the invoice and we'd return in about 20 minutes but I don't think he spoke a word of English so we all smiled and nodded at each other and we both left him to his pedicure.  On the way back down to the van, we did wonder if he would have stopped if customers had come into the shop, and if they would have noticed or minded.

We carried on with our deliveries and then had to call in to RPA hospital.  Alex's next chemo treatment is tomorrow and he needed to give some blood and get weighed.  They will test his blood to make sure he is well enough to have the chemo, and they need to know his weight so they get his individual formula correct.

Our last delivery was in Hurstville and then we headed back to the office to look after some paperwork and finally headed home.