Sorry, we are closed temporarily for asbestos removal!

Unfortunately the cafe has been closed since 29th March for  asbestos revoval both inside and out. The work is expected to take approximately 3 weeks and we hope to be open again by mid April in time for Easter. I'm so sorry for the inconvienience but the situation is beyond our control. 

Di took advantage of the break to go back to the mainland and see her family; Brenda remained here and continues to feather her new nest.  Claire got a flight out with the RFDS and has spent her break in hospital in Fremantle.  Thankfully she is recovering well from her operation and due out of hospital soon. It may be a while before she is back at work but we wish her all the best for a speedy recovery.

I must admit I have thoroughly enjoyed having some time off on Island.  I usually go to the mainland for my holidays so it has been great having some time to do all the things I never usually have time for including learning how to use my new camera for my latest passion, bird watching! I take photos of the birds and then go home and look them up in my bird books so initially I used the pictures to help me with identification.  Now that Iam getting better at knowing what I am looking at, I've spent more time trying to get some good shots.  



I wonder what these two White Terns are saying to each other. Any suggestions?



White Tern in a tree at Trannies Beach

Exciting news this week is the Common Noddy birds are back and nesting down at the south end of the island.  The White Terns are here in large numbers too, particularly in the tall trees around Trannies Beach. 

Common Noddy flying around the South End of Cocos Island

Common Noddy

When the café reopens I will have information about the local birds available to browse through for those that are interested in finding out more about our feathered friends along with me.

I’ve decided to put some of my bird pictures on the blog to keep interested people up to date on the comings and goings of our Cocos avian residents and visitors.

Designer Aprons from Dory’s Café modeled here by Deidre and Amber, two recent visitors to Cocos who frequented our Cafe

Polish Cake Connoisseurs’ leave Island for Adelaide!

Barbara and Jerry Lazarski came in every day of their stay to sample our cakes. Jerry's favourate was the Orange and Almond slice.  We hope they come back one day.

Bird spotting on Horsburgh Island during Dory's Staff day out

We had a Staff day out on the Lagoon on Saturday.  Wendy (our local Florence Nightingale) and Ian (Di's husband) came along too.  Geof (who is my partner) our pie maker, bread slicer, gardener and general help around the placer, took us out on his Glass Bottom Boat.  We went to Horsburgh and Prison Island and spent most of the day wallowing around in the water which was crystal clear and warm. I took some bird photos with my new flash camera. They are slightly out of focus but I am delighted with them as birds are few and far between around here.  This dear little fellow is a Christmas Island White Eye.

Customer seen running from Cafe!

One of our regular customers was telling amusing stories at other peoples expense last week when they observed Tina, their fitness instructor/personal trainer through the window heading towards the café.  We quickly disposed of the crumbed plate in front of our customer, at the guilty customer’s request.

‘Good mornings’ and ‘how are you are goings’ were taking place between the customer and Tina when Di  (our famous barista)popped out with a plate, laden with two pieces of cake and asked the customer if they would like extra cream!  The customer, horrified at the implications, leaped up and left the café hurriedly.  Di, with a big grin on her face says sorry but she couldn’t resist setting the customer up!

By the way, well done to Tina with the great work she is doing on the Island getting us up and moving (Di seems to be able to get people moving too!).

Claire on hols and freezers replaced by local muscle men!

Saturday 19^th February 2011

Claire left for Perth last Saturday. We hope she has a fantastic holiday and look forward to seeing here back at the café someday, hopefully.

Today was our first Saturday opening. How good to see Trish and Kim bang on the dot of 8.00am, the same time we used to see them on Sunday mornings. Thank you so much for your support guys! 

 Next customer through the door was Digger, dressed in work clothes but still making time to call in for breakfast clutching last Sundays newspaper for quiet entertainment.  Thanks also go to Ali, Levi, Jack and Megs, Brian and Joanie and all the other locals who took advantage of the Saturday morning opening (8am – 12mid day!).

Two of our freezers have broken down in recent weeks (the second one died on Tuesday). We needed help to move things around and I spied some excellent biceps on FOUR strapping young men (non residents) quietly having lunch inside the café.  We enlisted their help to lift the broken machines over the top of the glass display cabinet and out to the car. Later in the day we needed more help to bring fridges and freezers from home to the café.  This time Di enlisted the help of Ian and Chubbz, our TWO local heroes (photos to follow) who carried out double the work with half the manpower and a swig and a puff for sustenance along the way! Thank you so much for your help.  If we had any Melbourne, Victoria Bitter or Corona Beer on Island I'd buy you some to say thanks.  As the ship is still on Christmas Island where it has been waiting for weeks to unload and can't because of bad weather, and the last load of drinks for the club were dropped in the container, smashing many of the bottles and contaminating the rest of the stock, the chance of me being able to say thank you with a cold beer is pretty remote!

Local resident (friend of the stars and new owner of a Corvette Stingray – the ultimate American sports car!) returns to Island

I caught up with Graham Flynn in the cafe last week to ask him about his trip to America to collect his beloved sports car.  While he was in San Francisco he met up with his old friend Richard Hymes, George Lucas’s/Spielberg’s sound editor.  He ended up at George Lucas’s Ranch having been invited along with a number of Academy award winners for a viewing of the “Black Swan”. Wearing jeans and a jumper he felt he fitted in quite well.  It could have been a different story if he’d packed his faux leopard skin suit!