Life's Treasures

This was a good weekend, it started out quite good with G making a lovely 4-mushroom risotto with pan-seared scallops and ended up fabulous with me finding a couple of treasures.

The scallops were sweet and juicy and the risotto was just flavoursome with the different types of mushroom. We topped it off by sharing a lemon meringue tart from the new pastisserie which we wanted to try out. The baker, a lovely Asian woman, friendly and generous and understands building goodwill, gifted us with a little tart of our choice after we picked the regular-sized lemon meringue tart. We chose a chocolate swirl tart. That got my undying loyalty and I vowed to support her business which didn't look very busy when we went. We returned on Sunday and bought a small sourdough baguette and a cherry cheesecake tart. Once again, she gave us a free little tart, we picked the chocolate meringue this time and it was delicious.

After dinner, we wandered down to Hyde Park for the opening night of the Sydney Festival. We wanted to hear "The Pink Martini", a group from Oregon, play their multicultural blend of music. The music was great, even though the drizzle came and went, in various intervals, but cooling down the temperature considerably. The night ended with a fireworks display. It was a really pleasant night.

On the treasure finds, the first was this beautiful gold-flecked, dark glazed lidded container from the local Salvos store. The form was professionally thrown as well, it was not an amateurish piece I could tell, the potter's signature was a flourish on the base of the container. I would have to do some online research to try to identify the potter. When JF's gallery reopens for the new year, I'm going to pay him a visit and tap his expertise. I could hardly believe my eyes and the price tag which was not very clearly written - it was going for the princely sum of $1.

Hugging this to my chest, I had crossed the road to the retro furniture and bric-a-brac shop that was closing down. I had wanted to visit the week before after seeing the closing down sign but didn't get the chance. Entering the shop which was housed in a Victorian terrace house, I immediately spied a lovely dining table sitting forlornly in the middle of the centre room. It was a table which could be extended or retracted and had lovely legs. The wood was strong and firm, it was a beautiful piece. I peered under and found the label "Parker Furnitures" - bingo!

I went out to the front and asked the guy tending the shop for the price, he hesitated and pointed to the lady in front of us - she was waiting for her son to view this table in 15 minutes' time and she was very likely going to buy it. I was disappointed but didn't think that it was quite ethical behaviour to try to cut her by offering a higher price (it was only $90) and an immediate binding offer! The guy told me half in jest to return in 15 minutes because he didn't want to be stuck with the table if she didn't take it, as they were clearing the last bit of stock. Well on my return trip later that evening, I did pop my head in and checked if she had bought the table, not surprisingly she had. My last hopes were dashed...

On Sunday, I convinced G that we should walk past that retro furniture shop just to see what else was left. I saw a small wooden cabinet sitting on the front of the shop, we quite liked it but I wondered aloud what the little bolt sticking out of the top was for. We then saw a display cabinet inside and from what we could see (as there was a box of stuff wedged up against it), it looked quite nice - firm wood, clean lines and in a really good condition. I asked the price. $60 and the base was the cabinet we had seen out in the front! Now that explains the little bolt. I had been wanting a display cabinet for my glass and ceramics and this was perfect. I immediately bought it. The guys were nice enough to agree to transport it at the end of the day after they closed up, down the road to my apartment.

We checked out the cabinet after we moved it upstairs. The label inside said "Chiswell". Another good buy! It was lovely as it was before we knew it was a Chiswell, but knowing that I got a Chiswell for $60, I could not stop smiling the rest of the evening.

Finding treasures unexpectedly is one of life's happiest moments.