Food Review/Being Homesick

I woke up today, and the first thing that overcame me was a deep sense of longing. I recognised this longing as homesickness. Homesickness is an old friend of mine since 2008, it visits periodically, making me feel a terrible sense of loss, making me miss everything about home. I will begin to feel my eyes water as I think about my grandparents, my parents, my dog, the things familiar to me and meeting my friends for no reason at all. 

Homesickness is an old, familiar thing. I have made peace with it, and today I simply lay in bed, sighed as I realised what I was feeling, before forcibly removing myself from the sheets to get on with my day. 

When I am homesick, I do several things to take my mind off the loneliness. Simply put I do things that make me happy; little things to make my day better. I take a hot shower to start my day, use my favourite bar of soap (Sexy Peel from Lush), and put on makeup even though I was only heading out to nearby shops. 

I went to the office to hand over paperwork as I always do on Mondays, took my time at the local supermarket to do my weekly grocery shopping - reading labels for no reason and buying jello cups simply because I like jelly.

After grocery shopping I went to my favourite street for lunch, sat outside in the lovely 20degree weather and found myself at a new cafe: Coffea Fine Expresso. 

I ordered myself an iced soy latte, and a roast pumpkin chickpea salad for lunch, settling into my seat with some newspapers and a magazine. 

Winter in Perth often means the trees have started losing their leaves, the wind is picking up and it is raining more. Sitting outside, these elements are pronounced to me, and I realised I spent more time just enjoying the cold breeze, watching the dried leaves carpet the road instead of reading depressing news articles on the newspaper.

 

My food arrived, and my salad was so much more than just a pumpkin and chickpea salad. It was a huge pile of beautiful colours, with seasonal greens such as broccolini, french beans, snow peas, celery, radicchio, cherry tomatoes, chickpeas, chunks of roasted pumpkin, onions and chilli with a good dollop of french yoghurt dressing. 

It was absolutely lovely. I love crunchy salads and this was well beyond my expectations. I took my time with this salad, enjoying the different textures, and the mix of sweet, soft roast pumpkin, pops of chickpeas with the crunch of broccolini and bittersweet radicchio. The dressing coated every element without overpowering the salad with bursts of tomato sweetness, with hints of heat from the chilli and onions. 

My coffee was lovely, served with some ice cream, creamy and bittersweet with soy milk. I often find it difficult to order iced coffee since I prefer to drink it with soy milk, but this cafe had a good barista with good skills. 

All in all I paid $14 for my meal, and just having such a lovely salad in a beautiful street was totally worth it. 

I took my time with my lunch today,  enjoying my surroundings. Perth is a very beautiful city, and I never take it for granted. I watched the leaves whirling around the road as cars drove by, the sunlight as it streamed through the passing clouds of a winter afternoon, watching as a flock of very large, very noisy ravens passed by through the trees. 

I watched as a lovely black labrador dog sat, at the cafe's entrance while its owner ordered some coffee, smiling as I saw its tail wagging earnestly as its owner returned. I watched the cutest baby sit on her father's lap as he ate his lunch, entertaining herself with his car keys as he smiled down at her adorable face. I watched as a rosey-plumed cuckoo bird wood pigeon (thanks Yvonne!) bobbed its way around the ground, pecking up crumbs around my feet.

After my long lunch, I took a short drive to Garden city, and did some shopping, buying myself a pair of adorable knickers from Peter Alexander and a pair of lovely satin striped pants from Witchery. I walked in and out of the shops, taking my time and chatted with the salesgirls, asking them how their day was as they helped me with my shopping. 

 

As I sit now on my armchair, comfortable and wondering about soup for dinner, my homesickness has disappeared and I am calm, happy and content.

Be happy, be content. No matter how bad you feel, you alone can make it better. Do some things that make you happy, and smile at strangers, make their day a bit better - it will make a difference, it will make you feel that bit better. 

Coffea Fine Expresso can be located at: 

31 Ardross Street, 

Applecross 6153