the garden slug

I was talking to a customer last night and she actually said, “Hey, go update your blog now!”

I’ve come to think of blogging as me talking to myself during off-peak hours. I still haven’t quite gotten used to the idea that people actually read this stuff.

So here’s the update. I’ve been working on a new homepage layout, but I’m not quite sure of it, so I thought I’d ask you what you think.

Click here to view it. (The links don’t work, it’s a test page.)

Place your votes here, just for fun. You may also leave us a comment or two or twenty

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[ Note for closet geeks: I spent half the day trawling the web for a suitable polling system that works with WordPress. I installed and tested a few and they sucked weren’t very good, but Democracy here works like a dream. Yowzar! ]

We are sorry to see you go, dear plant.

[ Back in its heyday ]

This is my favourite blog post so far.

The lackadaisical afternoon sun crept in lazily and swept across the vintage floor tiles of Slug
I could not help but heave a sigh of relaxed relief…the new western diner, theGardenSlug was just cafe zen mecca
There was no time pressure, there was no clanking of noisy glasses, there was no rush rush, there was no attitude
There was personal and friendly service, there was K.D Lang at the background,
There was homecooked food in the foreground, there was so many reasons to chat and laugh.
Modern isolated haven, old fashioned wholesome heaven, casual romance, romantic casual…No fluff, just luff.

I think the author has captured what we are and hope to be, both in words and in pictures.

Thank you, babymicrophone.

p/s: I must say, our textured wall looks great, even in monochrome! hehe

… from Judy, for taking such crummy pictures of our pineapple tarts. Hence, the Pineapple Tart Artist took things into her own hands and sent us a pictorial lecture on how the tarts are lovingly handcrafted, from beginning to end.

Crummy pics or not, we’ve sold more than a hundred tubs in the last fortnight alone. They’re going fast, so grab them while you can. Call us to place an order (6346 0504). Alternatively, online ordering is available for the hermits amongst us.

And now, we share with you Judy’s step-by-step on the entire painstaking process. Pictures by Judy. Captions are by me, the baking buffoon.

Step 1: Mould the base into petal shapes with a twig and a sharpened stone. I’m guessing it looks yellowish ‘cos of the flour, eggs and butter of some snooty Danish/Belgian variety.

Step 2: Schlepp on generous amounts of gooey pineapple mush. Don’t forget the itsy bits of, um, extra pastry on top. Just to make it look a li’l more festive.

Step 3: Take a break. Step back and admire your work thus far. Take plenty of pictures.

Step 4: Chuck ‘em in the oven. Make sure the oven light is on so you can occasionally check to see if they’re behaving.

Step 5: IMPORTANT! Shut the grubby oven door, else they won’t bake!

Step 6: Beam like a proud parent. Take plenty of close-up shots… from all possible angles…

Step 7: Ready to rock ‘n’ roll in your mouth like candy

Time for shameless advertising now.

$17 for a 30-piece tub, and $25 for a 45-piece tub.

Order online if you’re like me and don’t enjoy talking on the phone.

It’s my fault. I’m so sorry you have not been able to access the blog these past three days, and it’s all my fault. (~~ Nerd speak ahead).

I wanted to upgrade our blog’s machinery to the most recent release of WordPress. Apart from it being named after Ella Fitzgerald, I was also attracted to some of its exciting new features.

So I followed the instructions, performed the upgrade, and then our bright orange & green blog completely disappeared. Some of you may have already seen the lovely white page with six lines of gibberish, when all you wanted was to find out this week’s specials. I am so sorry.

The next few days were spent desperately trying to get the old blog back. At some points I nearly succeeded, but ’twas only half the blog it used to be. I’m not an expert in these things, but fortunately I’m blessed with a certain degree of patience. (Mama always said, if you ain’t smart, you best be patient. Okay, Mama never said that. I did.)

Three sleepless nights, non-stop fiddling with files, folders, code, setting my laptop on fire, whatnot… the blog is back. So now, I’m a genius.

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Sophia chucked chillies onto my laptop while I was busy resuscitating the blog. How rude. These chillies are meant to go into our award-winning Zesty Beef Salad dressing.

I’m sorry if the Zesty Beef Salad may have slight hints of iBook after this. It’s Sophia’s fault.

It’s amazing what word-of-mouthblog does.

We love the photos and the affable review here (okay, and the author is cute), and this short post alone has brought in ten diners already.

Wow. *dumbstruck*