Canberra Life

After breakfast this morning, we took a walk up Mt. Ainsley, giving us an uninterrupted view over Canberra and, owing to the geometric town planning, straight down to the Parliament.

View from Mount Ainsley

Mt. Ainsley is over 800m elevation, which is the tallest feature around as nothing is allowed to be built higher than the Parliament flagstaff.

At the foot of the hill is a war memorial to the many who served and the significant number of those that died in the name of conflict. We visited the tomb to the unnamed soldier and read solemnly the role call of those sacrificed.

Remembering the fallen

To lighten the mood, our hosts took us to the centre of Canberra's café culture. As I have mentioned before, Canberra can seem a desolate place at first glance, owing to the decision to keep pubs and bars away from the main streets. However, the side streets are teeming with people enjoying coffee, brunch, or a beer.

Lonsdale Roasters on the eponymous Lonsdale Road was no exception and had a number of hipster single-speed bicycles parked up outside and a clientele to match.

On yer fixie

Around the corner, we found a new addition to the area, with a similar bike obsession. Bent Spoke is a craft beer brewpub that has only been open for about eight months. For something so young, it is already well in its stride, offering a grand selection of beers of varying and ambitious styles. The tasting paddle was an ingenious assembly of bike parts, the glasses resting in oversized nuts.

Nuts about craft beer

Of the selection, my favourite was The Frenzy - a raspberry wheat beer infused through the 'hopinator' (or whatever it's called) with more fresh raspberries, blueberries, and wafer ash. K liked Big Nut, a dark, toasty, nutty ale. Special mention has to go to PSI, an imperial saison, which manages to boost but not smother the sour flavours of the farmhouse style with a subtle booziness.

With our minds stimulated through both caffeine and alcohol, we took them to enjoy some artwork at the National Gallery. With only a brief amount of time to spend there, we focused on the aboriginal work. These ranged from eucalyptus bark paintings using natural earth pigments, through synthetic polymer acrylics, to modern pieces that are a comment on current relations between those of aboriginal and European descent.

Dotty about art

In the afternoon, we took a walk in the park around Woden. For a residential area, it was only a short walk from our hosts' home to a beautiful space full of wildlife that could rival the collections of some of the better international zoos.

Cockamamy for cockatoos

Kangaroos, cockatoos, colourful parrots, gallahs, and much more besides, were all within only a few metres of us as we strolled through the park.

Back at the house, another staple of Australian culture was being prepared for dinner: a BBQ. Our host told us that the division of labour in Australian households is for the man to grill the food on the barbecue, while the woman prepares all the accompanying salads and vegetables, plates up the barbecued food, serves and washes up. However, he told us - facetiously - that the etiquette is for everyone to thank the man of the house for a wonderful meal.

Loony for halloumi

We divided ourselves into male and female parties, and I 'oversaw' the barbecue proceedings with a bottle of Little Creatures pale ale. With steak for the meat-eaters, we savoured grilled aubergines, asparagus, portobello mushroom, and halloumi together with a salad of red cabbage, pistachios, chickpea, tahini lemon dressing. Delicious.