Giveaway - Taste of Melbourne + Paris to Provence Festival Tickets

The weather in Melbourne is getting better and better. Combined with daylight savings, it makes for very pleasant days and night. That means it's a great time for food festivals. Coming up, there's two great food festivals that I can't wait to attend. Luckily, I've been offered free tickets to both festivals that I want to give away so that you can attend the festivals and enjoy them too.

Taste of Melbourne

The first festival is Taste of Melbourne. This year it will again be held outdoor at Albert Park. I love the outdoor aspect and had a great time last year.

Where: Pelican Lawn, Albert Park
When: Nov 14-17, day and night sessions

Paris to Provence

Image courtesy of Spice & Soul

The second festival is Paris to Provence. I haven't been to this before and am greatly looking forward to it. I love French food and culture so can't wait to experience a small snippet of it. I'm sure a few croissant and macarons will cross my path.

Where: Como House and Garden South Yarra
When: Nov 22-24, day sessions

GIVEAWAY

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COMPETITION CLOSED

Thank you all so much for entering. I really enjoyed reading all your wonderful stories. Accept my apology as I thought I had posted the winners the day after the competition closed but I must have not hit send. Anyway, the winners are below and have all been contacted and the tickets sent out to them.

Winners are

Taste of Melbourne - The dream world and Luke Marshall
Paris to Provence - Rose, Patrick Tong, Moni

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2 x Double Passes to Taste of Melbourne 2013 (Thu, Fri, Sat or Sun sessions)
3 x Double Passes to Paris to Provence 2013 (Friday session only)

5 winners will each win a double pass for either festival.

HOW TO ENTER
Just leave a comment. You can write about anything. Maybe you've been to either festival before? Maybe you have some good tips? Or maybe you have a dish that you loved or are looking forward to trying?

Make sure there is a way for me to contact you. If I can't get in contact with you within 2 days, I will redraw the prize as I need to urgently send out the tickets to you.

Conditions of Entry
- Anyone can enter. One entry per person. You can transfer the prize to friends or family.
- Competition closes November 3rd 9pm AEST. The winner will be announced on the following day and published on this same post.
- The winners will be randomly drawn.
- I will contact the winners directly to get your address to send the tickets.

Inner Thoughts of a Hipster Waiter

Hi everyone, if you're still reading this blog, I haven't posted in a while. Every time the uni semester gets underway, I find myself super busy and the blog gets put on the back burner. Uni semester is now approaching the end and I'm studying for my exams. There's nothing like procrastinating about my uni exams to motivate me to write a blog post. I wish we could setup more urgent deadlines for everything to procrastinate about so we do the things we were supposed to be doing willingly.

So here is a fun post which popped into my head when I was talking with Michele and from reading this article called Forget the farm food fanfare where waiters describe the origin of every ingredient in a dish. I've noticed that at any restaurant worth mentioning in terms of trendy places in Melbourne, they mostly employ hipster waiters who carry a certain look and attitude. Here's a post dedicated to them. The aim of this post is to incite laughter in the observational style of one of my favourite shows, Seinfeld.

Inner Thoughts of a Hipster Waiter

1. What did that customer order? I wasn't listening as I was too busy staring my fellow good looking waiter.

2. These Chinese symbols and abstract design tattoos are totally giving me hardcore waiter credentials.

3. I hate having to spend so much money to find vintage looking clothes to wear to work every day.

4. I have to read more "how to improve your memory books" as it's so hard to remember orders without using a notepad as that looks so daggy.

5. If I distract the customers with my good looks while I recite the menu, they won't know that I don't eat this unhealthy food in order to maintain my weight.

6. If a customer asks for my opinions, I'll just recommend the most expensive dish as you can't go wrong with that.

7. I have to tone down my tourist accent so these Orstaylians can understand me.

8. I wonder if anyone will notice how much hair gel I have on and that I constantly touch my hair before I serve them food.

9. The recruiter was so wrong when they told me that my pierced eyebrown, nose and tongue wouldn't allow me to get a job.

10. It's so hard balancing 3 plates on my arms. I'm much rather carry two at a time and just strut across the restaurant.

11. I love how leaving the customer waiting as it makes me feel more important.

12. If I put on a fake British/European accent, I find I get way more tips.

13. It's lucky Melbourne restaurants are really hiring people like me so it means I can constantly swap restaurants and meet new people.

14. If I work this job for another 3 months, I can head off to Queensland for a 3 month holiday.

15. What did that customer order?


If you have any more inner thoughts of a hipster waiter, I'd love to hear them in the comments. Hope you had a laugh. If not, clearly you don't have a funny bone. Go hit yourself in the elbow to activate your funny bone.