Archive for February 10th, 2006
It has been my view for some time now that I am long overdue for a cafe review, and there is a cafe I have been meaning to review for some time, so here for your reading pleasure is my review of “Coffee @ Helen’s”.
Coffee @ Helen’s is a cafe which could be described as being in the Civic Bus Interchange, between the newsagent and the entrance to Fernwood.
I first ventured into Coffee @ Helen’s when my Friday meetings with my bus driver friend were a common occurence and I needed somewhere to have lunch between the time I arrived in Civic and the time my bus driver friend arrived. Being a small store at a bus interchange I didn’t expect much, so I was very pleasantly surprised by the friendly staff, the lovely coffee and the excellent pies, sausage rolls, quiches (we all know I like a good quiche), sandwiches and more. I was so pleased that I kept coming back each and every Friday, and then at other times when I was around the area.
During various visits, I have had a few different lunches at Coffee @ Helen’s, and I can thoroughly recommend the various quiches, which are solid but mildly fluffy, with a cheese that has just enough flavour and bite to leave an impression without overpowering the rest of the quiche. The pies are also excellent, as are the sausage rolls, but if you are in the mood for a toasted or otherwise sandwich, then this is the place to go. Prepared right in front of you, with either a preset blackboard filling or one of your own choosing, the sandwiches just don’t come much better than what you will find at Coffee @ Helen’s, it could easily be described as “heaven on bread”!
The coffee is (as the name would imply) something else which they specialise in. One thing I have noticed about many cafes and restaurants is that the quality of the coffee depends to a large degree on the person who makes it…this is not the case with Coffee @ Helen’s. I don’t know how they manage it, but every coffee made there, regardless of the person who makes it, is just perfect, admittedly some staff are more creative with froth than others, but that is neither here nor there. The coffee is fantastic here, and I would recommend it to everyone.
Another thing which, whilst not part of the edible or drinkable experience, adds to each visit, is the friendliness of the staff, who always seem to be happy, smiling, and willing to have a chat. During a quiet time you may end up having a conversation for nearly the entire duration of your visit (if you want to), which is not only good for staff morale, but also for customer morale. It is very nice to leave any cafe leaving both refreshed and uplifted, and this is, in my experience, what happens whenever I visit Coffee @ Helens.
Samuel
February 10th, 2006 at 11:13pm
Thanks to an interesting schedule change I can conveniently split today into two posts, one for the morning and one for the afternoon.
This morning started at 6:30 for me, as this was the time when my alarm went off. Having gone to bed nice and early I was happily refrshed and ready to wake up, so I got up and had breakfast. I wasn’t in any particular hurry at this stage so I spent a bit more time than usual enjoying my breakfast.
It was around 7:15 when I checked my emails and got iTunes to download the latest episode of Security Now! before going to clean my teeth and make my bed, I then took Nattie for a walk, shut down the computer and made sure I had what I needed for CIT and the rest of the day. (For those of you wondering, this morning’s post “What’s in store today” was written last night before “Thursday!” and scheduled for 7:27).
At 8:40 I left home for CIT, admittedly this was early but it provided me with the “just in case I get lost” buffer time which is important for new buildings. Last year I was 30 minutes early for a job interview so I did a bit of “sightseeing” (aka walking around the block, and the next block a couple times) before arriving five minutes early.)
I arrived at CIT at 8:50, which was half way through the weekly soap opera report, I decided that I should go inside anyway and find the room. The room turned out to be a lecture theatre with a lot of people waiting around in the foyer, closer to 9am I met someone I know and the door to the room was unlocked and the lecture began. The lecture was titled “Preparing for work in your chosen profession” although it should really have been titled “An introduction to studying at CIT in your chosen faculty”. Schedules were handed out and various things were discussed, and the morning tea break came ten minutes early at 10:20, so this friend of mine, a friend of his and I went to Cafe Yala (the cafe I mentioned in a previous article that I can’t find at this time).
The schedule said that the second block of the class would start at “10:45ish” and end at “11:30ish”, the law of averages being what it is, this was anything but true. Friend, friend of friend and I returned to the class at 11:45 only to find everyone already inside and seated, we made our way in and decided silently that it would be better to stand up the back than interrupt proceedings by climbing over people in order to get a seat, however the lecturer, being mildly witty and possibly seeing our reason for making this decision decided to interrupt the class herself to enquire about our comfort up the back against the wall.
We stayed in this position until 11:25 when the group split into two differently sized sections based on course choice for the “11:15ish” guest speakers. It was 11:40 or so when the guest speaker ended and the ambiguous section of the schedule began, according to the lecturer we were “free”, according to the schedule we were on an “optional self-guided tour of the campus” which would be followed at midday by a “barbecue in front of Cafe Yala” (there was no mention of optional, but it was treated as optional.) Having already made my plans for lunch I headed off.
It remains a mystery to this moment what the second half of the schedule page was for. This had five groups which went to five parts of the campus in sequence, each group in a different place at any given time.
Upon leaving the building, I pulled the radio out of my bag and turned it on, I soon discovered that the ad break in the middle of “Best Of Laws” was playing, I listened to Best Of Laws until just before midday, which is when I arrived at my destination for lunch.
Samuel
February 10th, 2006 at 10:43pm
I’m going to make this post very very brief as I have a lot to do today and need to get started shortly.
Today will contain my first CIT class, which is scheduled from 9am-2pm (hopefully including some breaks). After this I will be heading to Bunnings Belconnen’s grand opening where Mike Frame will be running a 2CC outside broadcast.
Mike will be on-air from 3pm-6pm Canberra time (GMT+11) so why don’t you give him a call and say g’day. Of course it would help if you have something to contribute to the program, perhaps you have a view on a news issue that you would like to express. Give Mike a call on 62554444. Mike quite correctly states that he has “an open line and an open mind”, so I’m sure he would love to hear what it is that you have to say.
I will (hopefully) post a review of my day this evening, it should be quite a day.
Samuel
February 10th, 2006 at 07:27am