There’s nothing like finding photos you didn’t know you had of your favourite buildings from your favourite city…New York, New York.

the view from the hotel window…

So for the days I don’t, which are many, here are some of the things I’ve thought about, which may be useful later.

How the police could make a lot of money swinging past my kids’ school and arresting all the parents talking on their phones or driving more than 40kmh, or both. The upside is I’d be able to get in and out of the school a lot quicker with fewer selfish drivers on the road.

That I should make a list of my favourite foods. And how it should include more than potato.

One day I’ll make a list of my favourite books and albums and why; because music really does make the world go round.

Given my addiction to dresses, that I should write something about my favourite labels/designers/stores.
Maybe I really should do something more productive with all my travel photos and food photos. Like start a blog. Mwahahaha.

Looking back at my order, it looks like I ordered about 52 items. Of those, one was out of stock and I got an email alert. No biggie. But there were about 10 other things that went wrong.

I got beans instead of bean sprouts. One can of tomatoes instead of two – but charged for both. Ice cream and sorbet that were both melted enough to be oozing out of their cartons (possibly because they were delivered about 9pm, the outer limit of the 7-9pm window I requested).

Let’s see what else? Caged eggs instead of free range, two small chickens instead of one, a small box of green tea instead of a large bog of chai tea.

Less bothersome were the bake at home bread rolls sent instead of bake at home baguettes and the three boxes of hash browns instead of the one kilo bag on sale.

So in some cases I was overcharged and in others, such as being charged for one free range chicken then getting two smaller ones at a higher price, I was under charged.

After unpacking and noting all the errors I called customer service and could not get through. At that time of night I suspected they weren’t actually there (there were conflicting hours on the website and the order confirmation email).

So I followed up with a polite and detailed email. When I got no response, I called late on Saturday afternoon and was told I could have the problem items re-delivered but not for a few days. Or I could get credit. I went with the latter for the four items that were the biggest mistakes – giving me a refund of about $14 (the order was about $174).

I had hoped for a reply to my email but a week on and I haven’t heard a word. The customer service representative I spoke to  said the service had been operating in my suburb for three weeks and would improve.  She didn’t sound terribly surprised by the mistakes nor terribly sorry.

Compare this with my first Coles delivery a year or so ago where I alerted them to the rather trivial matter of frozen spring onions. They credited my account without question and were pleased to have been notified.

What seems most strange about this whole situation is Woolworths is playing catch-up in a market Coles has had to itself for about a year.

Why haven’t they done some homework and tried out the Coles service? Coles has better delivery windows for starters, not to mention giving customers an estimated price to take into account the final and actual weight of items like meat, whole chickens and fruit and veg.

Part of the problem is Woolworths appears to be giving its personal shoppers’ a computerised list of items to tick off with pencil but the final results, weights and prices are not being taken into account in the way Coles does.

It surely can’t be good business sense to give me two approx 1.2kilo chickens worth about $17  instead of one 1.7kilo chicken for $13.60 or  to charge me $9.27 for 450g chicken breast that actually turned out to be $7.55.

Unable to secure a delivery window and not really having the time to take the risk with Woolworths, this week I went back to Coles. My delivery for 6-8pm arrived at 6.05pm with everything itemised and in their bags in good condition. As has become Coles’ habit, I also received some free samples.

Now that’s service. I think I’ll give it another few weeks or even months before I try Woolworths again.

Books I'm reading

With the film version starring Julia Roberts soon to hit our screens, lots of people are having a second stab at reading it and two people have asked to borrow it this week alone.
It’s my “car book” – for the times I am sitting in the car waiting to collect the kids.

Having taken the car book out of the car, I found myself in Subiaco on Sunday with 45 minutes to kill and nothing to read. So I went to Dymocks and bought The Carrie Diaries. I’m a big Sex and the City fan and have read that and several of Candace Bushnell’s books, so I expect it to be an easy read.
Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet is being filmed in WA at the moment and I am surprised I haven’t read it. Not surprisingly the backlog to get it from the library is enormous. Even more frustrating is the cheapest place to buy an Aussie book is from Book Depository in the UK or US – my favourite online book store.
I had at attempt with the audio book version earlier this year but there was something like a dozen CDs and they were 1Mb each so wouldn’t fit on the iPod!
Last but not least, The Sisters Antipodes by Jane Alison is the book club book I was supposed to have finished last night but only made it about a third through. Shame on me. I will finish it because I hate leaving things unfinished (that’s why I won’t ever walk out of a movie).
Somewhere in the middle of all this I also read Manhattan Dreaming by Anita Heiss, reawakening my desire to go to New York and frequent Manhattan cupcake bakeries.

If you’ve been madly trying to finish the last five seasons ready for the final season, save yourself some time and watch this 10 minute quick guide to Lost from the Reduced Shakespeare Company, via The Guardian.

Think of all the time we could have saved! Loved the Oceanic 11 bit…

And although I probably shouldn’t say this, I don’t think I like the South Australian team. Nope. Can’t wait to watch when it’s Paul and Melissa’s  turn to cook for 10 people.

The first episode features Michael “Mossy” Moss and wife Gabrielle from NSW; he’s a senior police officer, she’s a lawyer and they’re the only competitors with kids (six from memory).

They have to prepare a three course meal for their competition rivals as well as judges Pete Evans and Manu Feildel.’The meal is prepared and served in the contestants’ homes – so having a flair for entertaining and interior decorating helps.

After just one episode it’s easy to tell Pete and Manu know the ropes when it comes to the demands of reality TV, which is quite a different beast  to daytime cooking shows.

They know how to work the camera, play with words and make the contestants squirm as they await the verdict. But so far, they’re not being mean – just honest. No one wants to wait 90 minutes for a main course.

Unfortunately the same can’t be said of  Mossy and Gabrielle’s rivals, who are happy to dump on them and are brutal when it comes to scoring.

During the interview segments with the rival couples, I couldn’t help feeling these people have all watched too many episodes of Survivor and all think they are Matt Prestons or Rob Broadfields in the making (minus the years of experience).

They complain about the mashed potato, the choice of meal, the presentation, the cheesecake. About the only thing they seem to like is the jus.

Key to any show like this is casting. There is always going to be a degree of animosity in a competitive environment, contrived or otherwise. It’s not just about cooking, it’s about presentation, conflict and performing under pressure.

Unlike Masterchef, I don’t see My Kitchen Rules necessarily sending viewers for the pots and pans. What it may lead to is more dinner parties and a more picky, discerning (and potentially backstabbing) breed of diners and guests.

My Kitchen Rules premieres tonight Feb 1 at 7.30pm on Seven, with episode two screening tomorrow at the same time.

Probably my least favourite family film this holiday season has been Alvin and the Chipmunks: the Squeakquel.  Yet another sequel that fails to live up to the original and comes across as little more than a dash for box office cash. I gave it a 2 star rating, as you’ll see if you click on the link above to the story in The West.

Most of the parents I follow on Twitter have echoed my opinion.

The Princess and the Frog, on the other hand, was an old-fashioned delight. It should appeal to girls from about four to 10 and maybe some of their younger brothers. This is a classic Disney tale, in the hand-drawn animation style I grew up with.

Start with a familiar story,  add a twist, well-drawn (literally) characters, humour and catchy music and the rest falls into place. You can read the full review at The West here.

Adults will particularly enjoy Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox with George Clooney giving voice and life to the title character. The clever use of cuss for cusswords (cuss that!) was particularly amusing.

Although Avatar is rated M in Australia, we took the kids (9 and 5) to see it at the drive-in last week. Having already seen it without the kids in 3-D, we figured the five-year old would probably fall asleep and if he didn’t, he had come through all six Star Wars movies unscathed – even watching Anakin writhing in fire and molten hell before his rescue and resurrection as Darth Vader.

Interestingly it was Ms 9 who fell asleep several times in the home stretch and Mr 5 who stayed awake. He now likes to boast he has seen two rated-M movies ( I think Star Wars ep III is the other one).

While I generally wouldn’t recommend Avatar for under sevens, if you have children who have enjoyed and understood the earlier Harry Potter films, LOTR or The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian, Avatar shouldn’t do them any harm.

If you live in Perth make sure to take the family to the Galaxy Drive-In in Kingsley this summer. It is Perth’s last surviving drive-in and looks as though it hasn’t changed much in 20 years.

Grab some rugs, chairs, doonas and take-away and you’re set.  Best of all, it will cost you about half of what the cinemas do. Tuesdays are a bargain at $15 a car.

Avatar is screening until January 13 and at weekends there’s a double feature with Aliens in the Attic – although I suspect not many kids will stay awake for that one.

The drive-in is particularly popular with family groups and owners of 4WDs, station wagons and utes for the obvious reasons of comfort – just park backwards and leave the tail open.

Yet I haven’t been to the very top of either due to my lifelong fear of heights. In fact, I remained on the first level of the Eiffel Tower alone eating a baguette while my husband and kids went all the way up in 2007.

At least I made it to the Top of the Rock in New York in October, although we never ended up with a photo of all of us against the Manhattan skyline.

I was going to call this post Terrified of Dizzy Heights but only fans of the band DIG would understand.