CatzPurrs

With the curiosity of a cat, CatzPurrs hopes to crawl into every possible nook to provide our audience with a wide range of informative & fun reads!

We’ll explore social, political and health issues of interest.    We’ll explore travel destinations, localities, cultures, cusines and restaurants.  We’ll give you suggestions, ideas and knowledge for you to explore and expand with the hope of making your life enjoyable and exciting!  We also welcome you to submit your articles on things you’ve explored and share the knowledge with the rest of us.

Once we’ve been somewhere or tried something new, we’ll give you the low down on it so you can make a decision about getting your paws dirty!

We welcome your feedback & comments.  If there is any location, restaurant, topic or item that you want us to investigate, CatzPurrs will be quite happy to paw our way in… purrrrrrrrrrrrr

I just got back from our first ever team retreat at work.  Due to time restraints, it was a pity we couldn’t taken the more scenic route to Alphine Retreat Hotel where we spent two days immersed in discussions and indulging ourselves in the food that seemed to appear infront of us every two hours!  The Alphine Retreat Hotel is situated at 3340 Warburton Hwy in Warbuton, Victoria and there is a few different ways you could get there from Melbourne depending on whether you are on a tight schedule (like we were) or you are on a leisurely drive into the countryside.

Cajun chicken salad

Set near the Yarra river banks of the Upper Yarra River Valley amidst mountains, it is a classical old building that sure has had its more glorious days in the past.  Most parts of the hotel appeared to be gathering dust and cobwebs with cracks in the windows.  The rooms are cosy but do not expect everything in it to function.  The heaters in some of our rooms did not work well, some TVs did not work while others almost worked.  There is hot water but although I didn’t experience this, I was told that the hot water is not always reliable.  And if you are a light sleeper, this is definitely not the place for you to stay for a relaxing time away!  The floor boards creek at the slightest movement, you can hear every door open and close, every tap being used, and my poor colleague who was in the next room could even hear me cough!

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This time of the year is definitely not a time to even think about dieting as most of December will be filled with Christmas parties or End of Year Celebrations as the current terminalogy is.   It’s only the second week of December and I’ve already had two of these functions!!  It doesn’t help that my birthday is in the middle of November and hence I feel like these eating sessions have been rolling on for awhile!

Yesterday was the day of our Northern & Gippsland Region End of Year Celebrations at work.  To make all things fair for everyone, this was held at a half way point called Toolangi near Kinglake, one of the areas affected by the bushfires on Black Saturday earlier this year.  The drive was about an hour and half each way across rolling mountains through bushes and vineyards.  You could still see the marks of that vicious day Victoria was ravaged by fire.  Though the bushes are now flourishing due to the unprecidented rain we have been getting lately, you can still see the burnt tree trunks and burnt patches of grass.  It’s actually scaring driving through some parts of this burnt areas as some of the trees look like they are from some haunted forest in a children story.  They literally had leaves growing out of their trunks and looked like they could get up and walk any minute.  So although it was a long drive it sure was an interesting one!

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For some reason most of the Sri Lankan restaurants seem to be clustered in the South – South East areas of Melbourne which is a fair drive for those who do not live in those parts of this huge city.  There is however one restaurant in the North East suburbs that fortunately is worth going to!

Stepping into Sigiri on High Street in Northcote actually makes me homesick for Sri Lanka!  Its walls are tastefully decorated by memoirs of the land and there is a huge glass painting of the symbol on our flag..the lion carrying a sword.  I have been to Sigiri a number of times with various friends and each time, we have been greeted with a warm welcome.  This gives me hope that the once acclaimed Sri Lankan hospitality is still alive..even in Melbourne!!

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