Memory Lane

Last Tuesday night was one of those nights I just couldn't get to sleep.  After tossing and turning for an hour or so I watched some TV, read a few hundred pages of the book I'm presently into (The Covenant by James Michener), and did about 20 sudoku puzzles.  That took me until about 4:00 am.  Our alarm goes off at 6:00 am so I figured there was no point in attempting to get any sleep.  I resigned myself to the fact that it was going to be a rough Wednesday.  Once the sun was up, I finished off a pot of coffee, straightened up around the house, and ran a few errands.  Then I began to procrastinate about going to the gym.  I go every day, but Wednesday I could tell it just wasn't going to happen.  I made a chocolate cake instead.

Well, I certainly couldn't eat the whole cake myself so I brought it to share with the Crawlers on Thursday.  Shaun Aupiais (PE coffee distributor, barista, and coffee connoisseur) had recommended this week's shop a few months ago when we had a coffee tasting at Urban Blend (July 19 Crawl).  With all the suggesions of coffee shops I get from locals it has taken all this time to heed Shaun's suggestion and head to Memory Lane, situated at 2 Bingley St. in Richmond Hill.  Like a number of shops we've visited, Memory Lane is a renovated residential home.  Though it seats 80 (inside and outside combined) it doesn't feel crowded since tables are arranged in different rooms.  This also gives the shop a nice homey atmosphere.  Some of the rooms at Memory Lane are also set aside for antiques and "farm stall goods."  In the time I spent poking around the shop I found these really cool porcupine quill lampshades and framed mirrors.  I may return at some point to get those shades for the guest room in our house.  (Jeff and Liz, what do you think?  Would quill shades match the "Africa room" in our house here?)

Memory Lane opens Mon.- Sat at 8:30 am.  On Thursday I arrived at 9:00 (a bit earlier than usual for the Crawl) and was greeted by owner Eugenie de Wet.  We talked about the blog for a bit then she organized a table for this week's Crawlers, Les Baldwin, Nomusa Nkomo, Stella and Beryl Dawson, June Nash, Leanne Waller, Beth Vieira, Fran and Keith de Beer, and Gail Darne, while I snapped a few pics and retrieved the cake from the car.  Within minutes everyone arrived, was seated and ready to order.  Memory Lane has two baristas on staff, Josie and Felicia.  Josie was the Crawl's barista for not one, not two, but three rounds of Caffe Molinari coffees.  Nice job, Josie... the coffees were excellent!!!

Meet the Owner
Eugenie de Wet

 

Meet the Baristas
Josie and Felicia



My favorite dessert is pecan pie with a steaming cup of black coffee.  With no pecan pie in sight, the chocolate cake I brought wasn't a bad substitute.  After the cake was served we all sang "Happy Birthday" to my son, Christopher (living in the States), who celebrates his 28th birthday on Sept 20.  Were your ears ringing at about 3:30 am on Thursday, Christopher?  Happy Birthday, Son!  Well, that got everyone talking about birthdays.  We went around the table sharing our birth dates (including years) and, what do you know, Beth's birthday was the next day, Friday, Sept 16, and occasional Crawler, Fr. Dominic's birthday was Sat., Sept 17.  I knew there was a reason I brought the cake!!!

Excitement still abounds in PE as play for the Rugby World Cup continues.  The crawlers discussed SA's win over Wales and the U.S. loss to Ireland along with upcoming games including SA vs. Fiji and U.S. vs. Russia.  Since this post is so late I can happily report to those not following the rugby action that both SA and U.S. teams won those games.  WooHoo!!!

I don't know why but cricket keeps sneaking in as a topic of discussion at the Crawl.  Stella, Beryl, and Keith are all fans of the game.  They tried, yet again, to explain it to me.  All I can say is perhaps if I watched a cricket game on Tuesday night I may have gotten some sleep!!!



This Week's Crawlers
Beryl, Stella, Gail, Nomusa, Les, June, Ellen, Leanne, Keith, Fran, Beth



The Crawlers then talked about restaurants in PE.  Folks, when we have exhausted the list of coffee shops in PE I may have to start a restaurant blog... there are soooo many here in PE...  after a year here Lou and I have only scratched the surface.  What do they say?... I'm making my favorite thing for dinner.... reservations!  Now on to what has become a favorite of Crawlers and readers alike... Keith's useless fact-of-the-week.... Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in Sept, 1928.  Keith thought that Crawl day (Sept 15) was the actual anniversary of the discovery but, in researching it, I found that the date fluctuates from one report to another.  So, Sept it is... close enough for jazz.  And, finally, my Afrikaan lesson this week included the longest Afrikaans word which is 136 letters or something crazy like that... certainly puts "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" to shame!



*Check out this coffee pic that Fran and Keith's daughter,

  Mandy, sent from the Heathrow Airport this past

  week.... the Coffee Crawl hits London!!!

A bunch of Happy Birthday wishes:

~ Christopher, Sept 20

~Beth, Sept. 16

~Fr. Dominic, Sept 17

~Sheila, Sept 14

~Thurston, Sept 22

~Joshua, Sept 15

~Samantha, Sept 15

Happy Halfway to St. Patrick's Day ... Those crazy Irishmen will find any reason to party!

Thank you to Eugenie and Staff for your hospitality.

Thank you to Shaun for suggesting Memory Lane.

Until next week, 

Ellen