New for old

Along this stretch of Ginninderra Drive today, the old power poles (above) were being replaced with new ones (below). Quite a job, in terms of worker safety and minimising electricity supply disruption.

Lego and hot chocolate - perfect!

The kids and I went for a long walk down the hill yesterday morning, and ended up in Florey, at the Perfect Bean cafe. Geoff currently has a display of his Lego Star Wars models in the cafe, which was great for keeping the kids interested while breakfast was on the way.

The hot chocolate (and the rest of the breakfast!) met with general approval, and was excellent fortification before the trek back UP the hill (just me - the short people cadged a lift with the husband :) ).

I'm on a 'get healthy' program, and the poached eggs and baked beans fit into my nutrition plan perfectly. And the espresso was just what I needed. If you need to go gluten-free, you can eat here without worrying about cross-contamination - Kelly (one of the owners) is coeliac, so she's very aware of what's needed in that respect.

The cafe is open Tuesday to Friday 8am-4.30pm, Saturday 9am-2.30pm, and Sunday 9am-2pm.

Fish'n'chips, anyone?

Florey Takeaway. There are plenty of these shops, specialising in hamburgers and hot chips, scattered throughout Canberra's suburbs, but not all of them can boast such bright tilework!

Florey shops

Part of the Florey shops, with the fairly typical verandah-style frontage and central car parking area.

Delivering the mail

Postman at the intersection of Southern Cross and Coulter Drives, Belconnen. Belconnen is behind us, the suburb of Page is in front to the left, and Florey is ahead and right. The postie was rugged up well against the cold yesterday - they have to deal with freezing temperatures in winter, sweltering temps in summer, and magpies in spring.

Some fast facts from the Australia Post website, referring to the 2009-10 year:

 

• We delivered 5.1 billion items of mail.
• We deliver to 10.7 million Australian addresses.
• We deliver mail five days a week to 98.8% of delivery points.
• We deliver mail two days a week to 99.9% of delivery points.
• We maintain approximately 16,039 street posting boxes.
• 96.1% of domestic letters were delivered on time or early.
• 97.9% of bulk mail was delivered on time or early.
• The basic postage rate is 60 cents.