Went on a wonderful weekend away with the boy for his bday...

A snapshot of the weekend I planned:

• first, we had breakfast at Corelli's at newtown, beautiful mochas, fresh and yummy waffles with berry compote, yoghurt with fresh fruits, finished up at about 11.30am.
  
• next, we headed for our destination, newcastle - we drove to Brooklyn (on the way) for fantastic fish and chips (Tracey recommended it), we got take away fish and chips with salad (it was huge and the dressing was very sweet and yummy) and had it along the wharf (Tracey's recommendation again), the weather was beautiful and I was wearing a lovely summery dress that I got for $1.50. Felt fantastic!
• After lunch, we were back at it and drove towards newcastle. got there at about 3pm, checked into the hotel (travelodge had an awesome deal, $99) - I was impressed by the standard of the hotel. For $99, I thought I was going to get some motel like thing, and didn't think the pictures online reflected what the real deal was going to be, but boy I was wrong. The room was very clean, the windows were open, to air it all out, the bathroom consisted of a bathtub as well as shower, the tv was an lcd with a hdmi slot, very good space wise, overall, I was very impressed! =)
  Since the drive was long, we stayed in the hotel till dinnertime - so we watched some tv, had a refresher shower, got dressed etc
• Our dinner booking at Paymaster's was at 6.30, but we were fashionably late haha got there around 6.45 maybe?
  Dinner overall was ok, probably a 6/10 for me. Summary of experience:
  
  * Entree was nice, we shared a stuffed field mushroom with feta, and other mediterranean flavours (the boy picked it knowing what I like *giggles*), some sundried tomato and pesto bread, garlic bread - bread was sourdough (my fav)
  * next was the main - I had the confit of duck maryland, it was really nice and tender, and it was served on a bed of spinach and potato+sweet potato stack. The plum sauce (with real plum bits) was a bit too sweet for my liking, but overall, I think my dish was nice.
  The boy had the lamb main, served on a beetroot and rocket salad - it was interesting, I don't think he was too impressed with the flavours and how cold his main was.
  * next we got the lemon tart served with chantilly cream to share - it was ok, the pastry of the tart threw us, it wasn't fresh =( the boy finished it off while I was sipping my lemon, lime & bitters.
  * our entire evening was spent rushing to dishes as the waitstaff always quickly cleared our plates and brought the next dish out straight away. It was like I had to always leave a bit of food on the plate, so they didn't rush us and let us eat in peace!
  * the restaurant was packed which is apparently always the case
  * I honestly have to say, I've had better modern Australian, not the best! and rushing us like that, OMG, I felt like I was being watched all the time, which made me feel uncomfortable.
• After we finished dinner, it was getting pretty dark and late (scary for someone like me, with a real phobia of unknown places after dark), so we headed back to the hotel
• showered again, watched a movie and then headed to sleep
• The next morning, we woke up early (8am ish) got ready to check out, and was ready for the day ahead =)
• first we had breakfast at estabar - it was a beautiful coffee shop right infront of the newcastle west beaches, watching as the waves splashing onto the rocks, watching ppl powerwalk/exercise along the beach, soaking up the beautiful sun =) love love love
  anyways, for breakfast we had, affogato for the boy, and I had a hot chocolate, we shared sourdough break with avo+lemon+sea salt - it was divine, I'm in love with this combo, will definitely be eating this more often at home.
• next we drove off to our next destination, the maitland markets
  The markets was ok, very country town like, we bought a few markety things and were planning to stay till 2pm, but left at abt 12ish. Some of the things we bought included:
  * Olive sourdough bread, going to eat some tonight =)
  * snowcones - S is a fan haha
  * some Yellow tree honey, not sure of the name, Yellow something, apparently, really good
  * We were going to have lunch at the markets, but it got wet and was pretty normal, e.g. kebabs, pluto pups, chips, fairy floss, etc - so we decided to head to Rock Restaurant's cafe (2 chef's hat) - Firestick cafe in Polkolbin instead.
• The drive there was long, took us about an hour, and after tomtom's fantastic directional skills we got there.
• Before eating, along the way, we stopped by the "the smelly cheese shop" and a "chocolate shop" (as posted on grabyourfork) - bought some chocolates and some nice jams. They stocked pop tarts hahaha I've never had a poptart before, so S insisted that we buy it so I'd get to try it haha
  Bought some really nice marinated olives from the smelly cheese shop too
• Next was lunch at the Firestick cafe.
  We ordered the wagyu beef burger and a proscuitto pizza to share. The food was really nice, totally up to scratch *2 thumbs up!* The teas we ordered was ok.
• Afterwards, we stopped by the "Hunter Valley Cheese Co" and got some blue vein cheese, we were planning to eat the sourdough bread for dinner and so bought some accompaniants for it.
• After bumming around, and getting more food, we started to slowly head home. The drive back was fast, had a really interesting and meaningful conversation with S on the way home.
• Didn't end up eating the breads, cheese, wine for dinner, instead we went and had korean chicken and some snacks.