I went all the way to this place due to the high ratings, and I was disappointed except for the coffee, which was excellent. My dish was good enough, but nothing especial. I had the bacon mash cake dish and it was lovely; I especially liked the accompanying sauces and pickles and a the overall dish. However, if you mention 'bacon' together with 'mash, I expect the bacon to be more noticeable.
Friendly staff.
OK premises
8/28/2018
8/11/2018
Ubuntu Vegan Cafe (Hawthorn Vic)
I had a great experience in this vegan cafe. I am not vegan but
omnivorous, so I also eat vegan. and I am fascinated by how veganism
works with taste.
I had the Lizzy burger, with comes with a basket of sweet-potato chips. Wow! It is a mix of beetroot brioche bun, pineapple and Portobello mushrooms, an odd mix of things, I thought. However, all the flavours work together and my burger was finger-leaking yummy. The chips were also yummy, crunchy and very tasty. The main downside is that, due to the way the burger was assembled, the filling kept sliding out, so I had to use knife and fork to finish my burger. To me, that's a let down because a burger is something I want to eat with my bare hands.
I'm a bit of a coffee nerd. Not having skim milk to have mine was a bit of, I dunno. However, they have an excellent soya milk coffee! The soya barely noticeable.
The staff were totally awesome, genuinely friendly.
The premises lack character, so it is not a place you go to experience the place and ambience.
Pricing is on the high side.
I had the Lizzy burger, with comes with a basket of sweet-potato chips. Wow! It is a mix of beetroot brioche bun, pineapple and Portobello mushrooms, an odd mix of things, I thought. However, all the flavours work together and my burger was finger-leaking yummy. The chips were also yummy, crunchy and very tasty. The main downside is that, due to the way the burger was assembled, the filling kept sliding out, so I had to use knife and fork to finish my burger. To me, that's a let down because a burger is something I want to eat with my bare hands.
I'm a bit of a coffee nerd. Not having skim milk to have mine was a bit of, I dunno. However, they have an excellent soya milk coffee! The soya barely noticeable.
The staff were totally awesome, genuinely friendly.
The premises lack character, so it is not a place you go to experience the place and ambience.
Pricing is on the high side.
8bit (Footscray Vic)
The place is a bit run down, and needs an update re seating area and interior. However, you don't go there to enjoy the premises.
My burger was excellent regarding flavour, easy to eat, well assembled, and the way is presented is perfect not to make a mess on the table. My only criticism is that there was a noticeable difference in temperature between the bun and the filling, something I found odd. Flavour is everything to me, so this was a very flavoursome burger.
Onion rings and the accompanying sauce were awesome re flavour, but the rings were a bit oily.
Friendly staff. Fast-ish service.
I'll be back.
Crux & Co Patisserie (Melbourne CBD)
They have a small selection of cakes but, wow, the yuzu cake is absolutely yummy and beautifully presented.
The barista prepares an excellent coffee and he is super-artsy with his coffee art, which he personalises for each client. Nicest coffee art I've seen in Melbourne.
This cafe is inside the Sheraton, barely noticeable from the street. It has a very small seating area, but it is very cozy and quiet.
Staff were very friendly, especially the boys.
I'll be back
Burma Lane (Melbourne CBD)
I had a great experience for lunch in this place.
I had some of the grazing tapas-sized dishes, and I was very impressed with the creativity of them all, and the wonderful mix of flavours. Everything I tried was yummy and satisfying. Perhaps the thing that surprised me the most was their tofu dish; tofu is one of those ingredients that, unless you know how to cook it, it can be bland and boring. Not here, the dish was so full of flavour and so silky that I would go there just for their tofu dish.
Attentive service and genuinely friendly staff.
Beautiful premises.
A bit pricey but totally worth it.
11/11/2017
Microsoft Sculpt Mobile Mouse
The Sculpt Mobile, obviously, is designed for people who are on the move and travel frequently, but it is also a mouse perfect for people with small hands.
This mouse is a pleasure to use. It runs softly and smoothly on a gaming mat, the rugged fabric surface of my sofa, and on the bare surface of my desk. It's quite ergonomic, at least for my hands' shape and size. It is simple, nothing fancy, two click buttons, a scroll wheel, and a Windows button. It's very responsive and accurate, with an excellent tracking system, so I don't have to move my hand much to get the mouse to move on the screen. Clicking is soft and incredibly low pitched, and therefore not noisy at all. Highlighting is quite intuitive and fast. The Sculpt Mobile is not heavy, but not as light as other small mice I own, mostly because the materials are better quality and less plastic-ish.
Although the instructions on the packaging recommend downloading installing software from Microsoft, I didn't need to do that as my mouse was immediately recognised by my laptop as soon as I plugged the dongle.
The dongle has a storage place on the mouse belly to keep it safely away when moving or travelling.
The main downside of this mouse is the scrolling wheel, not as smooth or sensitive as other mice I own.
Overall, I love this mouse. It is not the flashy type that doesn't work, but the 'normal' does-the-job-to-perfection type. After trying and returning two flashy mice for not being good enough, I am happy to have this normal mouse as more than good.
11/06/2017
Microsoft Arc Mouse
I was expecting a lot from this mouse because Microsoft is my favourite brand of mice, and also because I have one of the first Arc mice to ever come out to the market, many years old, and it's still working and in a very good condition.
THE THUMBS UP
The newest Arc Mouse is very minimalist in design, bends and unbends incredibly easy, and is amazingly flat; in fact, the flattest mouse I've ever seen. It's a bit heavier than other flattish mice, but the quality of the materials is way superior as well.The size is good for people with small hands, like me, as would allow them to have two or three fingers resting comfortably on the mouse (I doubt most men would be able to do so, though). The surface is soft and velvety, pleasurable to touch, and easy to handle because the rubbery material allows the hand to stay in place without slipping out even when it is sweaty. The arch of the mouse is also good, not too high not too low, at least for my hands. Although my thumb and pinkie are left out of the resting area, the round smooth sides and the hight of the arch make it comfortable for the fingers to hang around or underneath the edges.
The working area has been intuitively built and designed and, at least in my case, I had not problems moving, clicking and using the scroll, as my fingers sat and moved in the same way they would sit on a normal mouse.
One can customise the speed and functionality of the click buttons, the sensitivity and speed of the scroll, and also activate or deactivate the multi-finger use.
I tried the mouse on different surfaces (my desk, a gaming mat, my fabric sofa) and it worked perfectly on all of them.
Once installed, the connectivity was good. The mouse worked well, no drops during work time, except once when I left the computer to sleep. It was responsive to touch, easy to handle, but it was not especially fast or fluid as my simpler mice are.
This mouse is perfect for travelling or if you are on the go quite often, as it can be fit anywhere.
THE LET DOWNS
The main letdown of the mouse is the clicking, because one has to click really hard, almost push down the click, and that makes something as simple as clicking a pain, slowing down work. Besides, the noise is metallic and noticeable. Unfortunately, after an hour or so of use, my finger joints were noticing the effects, my forearm was saying hello-hello, tired of so much hammering. This tightness of the clicking might ease with time and use, but not everybody has the time or willingness to spend futile time trying to love something that cannot be fully loved. If you have strong hands or stronger hands than mine, this won't be an issue, but it is an issue for me.I expected the set-up to be easier than it was. I followed the basic set-up instructions in the leaflet inside the packing case. I tried it in my two computers, both running on Windows 10, but one of them quite old and the other brand new. I expected the device to be automatically recognised by my laptops' in-built bluetooth, but that was not the case in either despite the bluetooth being on. I had to download the drivers and do a bit of troubleshooting for the device to be found and paired in my brand new laptop, but the bluetooth connectivity wasn't good in my old laptop and I cannot use it with that.
One of the most annoying things about this mouse is the battery holder. It is so tight that it is really difficult to do something as simple as getting a battery out.
The worst thing about this mouse is that after a day of use ruined the whole bluetooth system of my computer, simply destroyed it. I don't know if a sort of drivers incompatibility or what, but my brand new computer switched off the bluetooth, then kept it hidden, then it would not allow me to turn it on, and I couldn't uninstall the Arc Mouse, and I had to totally uninstall everything bluetooth related to be able to uninstall the mouse driver. Even after that, after reinstalling all drivers, following Microsoft's and my laptop maker's instructions, my bluetooth has been destroyed. My bluetooth worked perfectly until I started to use this mouse!
I SUGGEST
If I were Microsoft's mice master mind, I would work on improving this mouse clicking and work flow to make it soft, mute and fluid, and, consequently, enjoyable.I personally like dongles as, until now, they work faster than any bluetooth connection, they would work even if the bluetooth fails, and it would be a way of having a two-way mouse that can face any adversity and adapt to any eventuality.
And since this mouse's drivers and my bluetooth did not get well along, I suggest Microsoft dudes to work together so nobody experiences the mess I have after installing this mouse.
IN SHORT
The mouse's shape and surface are great, as well as the overall design and thinness. This mouse is perfect for travellers or if you are on the go quite often, as it can be stored anywhere. However, the hardness of the clicking and the resulting lack of flow in the use aren't good unless your fingers hammer the click a la typewriter. And in my case, the mouse messed up my whole bluetooth system in a laptop that is less than a year old, something unforgivable.I got this as a gift for my birthday, but really, knowing as I know how expensive this mouse is and having used it for such a short time and having such a big problem with my laptop bluetooth, I can bluntly say that it is not worth the money or the hassle.
REMINDER
A work mouse is like a pair of shoes, one needs the right size and fit to be able to move properly; otherwise, one will be in pain. If the shoes are expensive but good, that is an investment; but if hey are expensive but mediocre, then it is a waste of one's money and and one is walking barefoot.Think about that dear mouse designers.
