MONA LISA -Canberra trip dinner

All photos on this post are copyright Runningonempty.

My enigmatic Acerules: 

If the video won’t open, click on the link below it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7CImgBfTNTA

While we were on vacation in Canberra in July , I photographed this dinner in our hotel room. I had packed things to personalise our room, in warm colours, as I had seen pictures of the room decor in reds and greens, before booking and in fact had ignored all the hotels in Canberra decorated in whites and greys. It gets cold in Winter in our national capital. We were there for a week.

Table and cooking items had to be fairly light to carry in our luggage and not expensive , so we could leave them there if necessary. (We had to spend a day in Melbourne on the way home for Acerule’s braces appointment. )

Before leaving our region, I bought a set of red palm weave placemats, new, which were cheap and light to pack and also new: a mug with a design of a kookaburra, the famous “laughing” Australian bird, in a box. 

In Bairnsdale, Victoria, where we stopped overnight on the way, I hit the St Vincent de Paul Op (thrift) shop. I bought a red cutlery set, a thermos for excursions, a mat for draining dishes, a faux red gladiolus flower, a Pyrex glass cooking dish that was microwave safe, and a red glass candle holder with candle. All were second hand except for the draining mat. 

I brought the green napkins from my hall cupboard at home. 

Wandering around the Canberra Dickson area, I went in to another St Vincent de Paul op (thrift ) shop. I bought a second hand handmade green glass vase. I picked some gum leaves from a street tree (eucalyptus trees are everywhere in Canberra, and are our national tree.)

At Woolworths in Dickson, I bought a plastic storage container with a lid that was microwave safe to cook in. Very important, I purchased some antibacterial dishwashing detergent, as well as food and drink. 

Dips and corn chips:

“Home” made burgers with salad:

Apple crumble pie with custard and banana:

See if you can discern the kookaburra calls here, they say kookkookkookkook kakkakkakka:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XQXCvqbEx5Q

White crockery (dishes) were provided in the room. That and the ample storage was a great feature of that hotel (Quality Hotel Dickson , also known as Tradies).

At the end of the week, we donated the placemats, red cutlery, thermos, red candle holder, and Pyrex cooking dish, to St Vincent de Paul Dickson. It tickled our sense of humour that we had bought most of them and donated them at the same charity in two different Aussie States. Saving landfill space, and supporting a good cause, beaut!

I wanted to keep the handmade green vase as it suits our house. Ditto our napkins. The dish mat and plastic container could also be used by me on an ongoing basis, and I thought the Aussie bird mug could be kept for Acerules’ adult house (I often collect items for that.)

Placemats and bird mug were purchased from Yarram Gifts and Novelties , ph: 0466966940. I was not recompensed by the store , the thrift shop, or the hotel for putting them in my blog and all opinions are my own.