Sunday, August 07, 2005

Regattas

Friday, the fifth of August being my birthday I decided to celebrate it in low key style by dining at Regattas. Regattas is a bistro located within the Adelaide Convention Centre. It has crisp decor, cozy furnishings and is rather spacious, although that night we were dining there seemed to be only a handful of people apart from ourselves.

For starters I had oysters natural and with a spicy mango salsa. The mango salsa had an interesting tang to it balanced by the heat and sweetness of the mangoes. This was accompanied by a glass of pinot gris, unfortunately I don't seem to recall much of it, writing 11 months after the event. All I can say is that it was quite a good pinot gris and went quite well with the oysters.

For mains I had fillet of venison with an O'Leary Walker Pinot Noir. Although it was ages ago the venison was that lovely pink colour that vension cooked just right. It had a rich yet delicate flavour and was delightfully tender. The pinot was full of berry flavours with a supple texture that had just the right amount of grip to go with the venison.

The lovely French lady serving us was a shining example for the hospitality industry; friendly, full of helpful advice and dedicated. Overall Regattas was a pleasant dining experience although it was a bit odd to see the place mostly empty. A good choice for relaxed dining with good food and service.

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Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Amazon Grace

Wrote to Amazon last night about the damaged spine of the data structures book I bought from them and received quite a prompt reply. Basically they apologised for the damage and will be sending me another copy of that book free of charge. As an added bonus, because it would be too expensive and fiddly to return the old one, I get to keep the damaged book.

It's enough to make a geek believe in the kindness of strangers. Still I guess reputation is vital to Amazon's business and they can't afford a single bad review of them. It's definitely affirmed my faith in them and I would definitely recommend them to anyone looking for more obscure specialist books.

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