Tonight, Justine and I decided on Indian take away for dinner. After making our decision — we were going to share a fish punjabi masala — I called the local place. The local Indian restaurant is pretty good, has been featured in The Age Good Food Guide and not too far away.

So, I was surprised when I got a “number not available” type message when I called. Thinking I must have dialled incorrectly I tried again. Same thing. Maybe there was a network problem. I tried my mobile. Nope, definitely not available.

Well, it was a nice night for a drive. We drove to the place only to find it has closed down. This is especially strange since I drive past it every day after work (though never actually look over there, as it’s on the other side of a divided road). This really sucks, it’s hard enough to find a good Indian restaurant; there are two in our area (or were) and we haven’t tried the other one yet. I just know it won’t be any good.

How about Nando’s? It’s not too far. On the way, Justine convinced me we should have another crack at some Krispy Kreme donuts. Besides, it was a nice night for a drive. It, however, is far. We got to Narre Warren and though the line was smaller than our last visits, it still took us 35-45 minutes to finally get to buying some donuts.

My favourite Krispy Kreme donuts are the custard filled and cream filled ones. They didn’t have any of either of them. In fact, about half the varieties I wanted weren’t available. Disappointed, we drove home with an uninspired selection of donuts.

Not before stopping in at Nando’s. And not before stopping in at Safeway to buy some fancy custard to pour over a plain chocolate-covered donut.

At least something tonight lived up to expectations (and it wasn’t the donuts)

After hearing my failed story of obtaining some Krispy Kreme donuts, Lesly at work decided to try his hand at getting some. He very kindly offered to buy me some too, should he make it to the now mythical “front of the line”.

Well, after an hour-and-a-half wait in the regular line (not the drive through line), Lesly did manage to get to the front of the line, and purchased seven dozen (yes, 84 donuts) boxes for himself and various other people.

Justine and I received two of those boxes: one “regular” and one “mixed” dozen. The mixed dozen weren’t what we ordered — apparently they’re so busy you don’t really get much of a chance to complain if the order is wrong — but are a good overall reminder of Krispy Kreme.

Yum!

For what I think is the first time this year, Justine and I saw a movie at the cinemas! There’s not really been many films we’ve been interested enough to lay down $40 to see up until this point.

The movie we decided to see was Pixar’s latest, Cars. We caught a 6:55 session which, unfortunately, wasn’t in the great VMAX cinema. Instead, it was in the second-last cinema at the back, so most likely one of the smallest in the complex. I was surprised to see that Village are now charging adults an extra fifty cents to see a movie in VMAX; of course, there are no discounts for seeing films in this shit cinemas at the back, are there? The price of food has increased yet again, making me wonder if it’s really worth bothering with. For fifty cents less than before, I got a smaller drink and no chocolate bar.

The cinema was tiny, with about 10 rows. The screen was small but adequate, except that the right-side was blurry throughout the whole cinema. Justine didn’t notice it until I pointed it out during the end credits, so maybe I’m just overly picky.

As for the film: well, it’s a Pixar film, what do you want me to say? I could’ve watched the “outing” scene where the two lead… “actors” … “drove” (?) around the town’s outskirts for two hours straight and be satisfied. It really is that beautiful.

The story was a pretty generic DIsney/Pixar story, so no surprises, but it was still an enjoyable film with all the usual in-jokes and sly humour that make Pixar films stand head and shoulders over the rest.

After the film ended, we decided to check out the Krispy Kreme store at Fountain Gate, since today was the grand opening (well, yesterday now, since it’s after midnight and the firewall computer died and needed reinstallation).

My God, the people! When we eventually locateed the store, we saw the line of cars proceeding ever so slowly towards the store, so decided to park and walk over. Mulling around the store were fifty or sixty people outside, and almost no one inside. Two weedy guys were standing guard. “What’s the deal?” I asked. They explained that the store was no longer able to sell product with the exception of drive through. I suspect it was because of the time we arrived.

This wouldn’t usually be a problem, except that the wait for donuts was two hours in the drive through line. I kid you not. There must have been 150 cars in the line waiting, and more joining the line every second. There were even police around to keep the whole thing in check.

Madness! I’m surprised there wasn’t a riot, when some people could get no donuts but we saw others walking around with 16 boxes (containing a dozen donuts each) between two people.

When Richard was in Sydney last week, he sent me an SMS asking me whether or not I wanted some Krispy Kreme donuts, since Sydney is the only state in Australia in which those donuts can be purchased. On our trip to Sydney last year we found Krispy Kremes and decided that we like them very much.

So, my answer was “of course!”. Initially we asked for a dozen to be brought down, but once realising that they’d have been sitting around for almost a week by the time we got our hands on them, that may not be such a good idea. In the end I asked him to get a couple for us.

Today we ate the donuts (they were purchased last Friday, so they’re not quite a week old) and I think they were actually quite alright — especially considering their age. Must have been all the sugar.

Thanks, Rich!