Shopping and sushi
I took the day off today to choose some new spectacles (eyeglasses). Juji came along as my trusty advisor. We met up in town and took a bus to Victoria Park to eyecandy Optomery & Optical Dispensing, at 401 Albany Highway. I had my prescription ready to go; I got my eyes tested last week at an optometrist at my local shopping centre. The range of frames at eyecandy was really good. We thought Heather, the optical dispenser was really nice (friendly and helpful and not at all pushy) and very knowledgeable. We were there for about two hours – I tried on pair after pair and started a maybe pile. Many frames looked nice from the front, but the thick sides (we learned today that the proper term for the sides is not “legs” or “arms” but temples!) reminded me of safety goggles (um, not good!). I was very conscious of not looking like the lost chinese female Proclaimer. We narrowed down my choices from the maybe pile by Juji taking photos of me wearing those maybe frames so I could see what I looked like in them in the camera’s lcd display. I am REALLY blind without my glasses, and so the digital camera trick proved very useful, as were Juji’s opinions (of course!).
In the end, I chose a pair that I just loved the shape of, and they were amazingly comfortable when I put them on. You can see them here. Click on Models, then The Collection, and when the map of the world has loaded up, select Buthan. On the Buthan page, select BR. My private health insurance covered about 30% of the costs, which was good. With luck, I’ll have my new glasses in a week. Oh, and if you’re a student, make sure to ask for a 10% discount! Of course, the transaction is not complete until I pick up my new glasses, but so far Juji and I are very impressed with eyecandy. If you’re after really cool glasses, appreciate great customer service and Vic Park is not too out of the way for you, definitely DEFINITELY check out eyecandy!
After the glasses-shopping was done, we headed back into town to have lunch. We went to Jaws Cinema City for some conveyor belt sushi.
First, we had karaage chicken (deepfried chicken) and onion with mustard on rice wrapped with seaweed.
Next, we had tempura ghunkan, which is deepfried battered prawns on rice wrapped with seaweed.
We had to have tamago nigiri (Japanese omelette), of course! We had two rounds of this!
To follow, we had the chicken and mushroom inari.
Juji ate the next plate by herself, as it wasn’t to my liking. It was hosomaki mix 1: salmon, avocado and tuna mini sushi rolls.
We then split a serve of tuna sushi:
From the moment we sat down, I was on the lookout for chicken karaage on chilli mayonaise. Finally, the hot, freshly cooked karaage appeared, and we snapped it up most quickly! We had two rounds of this. I love how it is dark meat, and so moist and juicy.
As we ate, we looked at the wine menu, which featured pictures of some fancy sushi that is made to order and does not appear on the conveyor belt. Click on the pics to see larger versions, with details of what they consist of.
For dessert, we shared this orange jelly, served in an orange half.
It tasted really orangey, fresh orange flavour rather than fake jelly orange flavour. Its texture seemed to be orangey too, not smooth as jelly usually is – it was really fruity and fresh, and a lovely way to end our meal.
It all came to $34. We’ve eaten way, way more on previous occasions, but we were quite satisfied.
After lunch we checked out mobile phones for Juji, whose current phone has just about carked it. We had a drink break in Dome. I had a Diet Coke, while Juji had a strawberry milkshake.
There are a few more friends and family-only photos at Flickr, if you’re interested. I hadn’t seen Juji for ages, and it was a nice spending the day with her. And I definitely wouldn’t have been happy to shop for new glasses on my own.
Dinner post coming up.