January 30, 2025 • 20 mins
Episode 10 begins with a light discussion about our disappointing dining experiences! On the skincare front, Jacquie opens the snail mucin cream (finally) and discusses her initial thoughts on her experience of applying it. Tilly gives Jacquie a taste test of her home style choc chip cookies which were inspired by the incredibly popular local bake house 'Brookies Bakery'. Jacquie shares some of Tilly's handy cookie cooking tips. Then, she chats about her recent trip to Yamba, where the vibrant wildlife and serene beach atmosphere blend with a rich surf culture history. This episode promises a blend of personal stories, practical tips, and a touch of nostalgia.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jacquie (00:01):
Welcome to the Day-to-Day Podcast, calm
Conversations with a Friend, byJacquie Joy, and you are
listening to Episode 10.
You decide to check yourmessages.
(00:23):
One new voicemail it's from oneof your friends.
You decide it's time to sitdown, make yourself comfortable
and have a listen.
Hey! So nice to hear yourlatest message, but it wasn't
(01:01):
good to hear about your mostrecent restaurant experience.
That sounds super disappointingfor what you would have
expected for somewhere like that.
I mean, you would havedefinitely been expecting this
(01:29):
place to go above and beyond asfar as the customer service and
the food and even thesurroundings of the restaurant.
So how disappointing.
Again.
It's a shame you left a bithungry, but it sounds like you
had a lot of laughs with yourfriend and it's certainly going
to be a night that you'll neverforget.
And next time you'll bechoosing a lot more carefully
(01:53):
and checking out all of thereviews, I imagine, even if the
restaurant has been there for somany years and has an
incredible reputation for greatfood and service.
And, funnily enough, you knowhow.
(02:15):
We planned to go to that specialrestaurant on the weekend, the
one I had sent you thedegustation menu for.
Well, we didn't end up eatingany of the food, because we had
(02:37):
a similar, very poor customerexperience and we were finally
seated after about 15-20 minutesand by that time we just
decided to leave.
The problem certainly wasn'tthe restaurant itself as you can
(03:02):
see from the photo, it was setin a gorgeous, lush surrounding
of gardens but the problem wasthe main servile, the maitre d'
I think the person that issupposed to welcome you into the
restaurant.
(03:22):
Well, he wasn't very welcomingat all.
We actually had to wait 20minutes for our table, which was
fine.
We had arrived two minutesearly apparently, which he
didn't seem to like.
There was a lovely waitressthere who we did speak to before
(03:48):
we left and just let her knowthat we were disappointed we
couldn't stay as she seemedreally nice.
So we left and we had a fewlaughs.
So we left and we had a fewlaughs and, interestingly, that
(04:12):
lovely waitress we spoke to hadspoken to the manager who called
me yesterday and was veryapologetic and even offered us a
complimentary experience at therestaurant unlimited food and
drinks.
I was a little hesitant, butshe said that that lovely
(04:35):
waitress had offered to serve usand host us when we come back
and host us when we come back.
It was not the best experiencebecause of one person, but the
restaurant really did redeemthemselves and we're looking
(04:58):
forward to booking that up againand returning and hopefully
eating the degustation menu nexttime.
So I'll let you know when thathappens.
In response to your question, no, I still haven't tried the
snail mucin cream, so I thinkI'll have a look at it.
(05:21):
Right now I've got it in myhand.
It's a 100ml bottle and you cansee by turning it upside down,
it looks fairly viscous,hopefully not too sticky.
I can't smell anything at themoment, so it mustn't have a
(05:49):
strong fragrance.
And, okay, I'm going to test itnow on the back of my hand.
A few squeezes, yeah, okay.
Well, it doesn't seem to haveany smell, so that's a good
start and it feels a little bitlike.
(06:12):
Well, it's very clear and itfeels like the after sun gel
that I use that has aloe vera init, so it's actually quite
pleasant to put on, okay, and itgoes a long way.
(06:32):
So I've got the trial patch onthe back of one of my hands, so
we'll see if there's adifference.
Make sure that there's no skinreaction.
And, look, I might try it on myneck next time.
I'll just wait 24 hours first.
(06:53):
It's actually mostly absorbedinto my skin now, so it's so far
, so good and it definitelydoesn't feel as slimy as I
thought it would at all, eventhough apparently it's 96% snail
(07:18):
mucin and I definitely don'twant to even begin to think
about what is in the mucin andhow they collect the mucin.
But people do seem to rate itand love it.
(07:38):
Also, while we're talking aboutskin products, one of my other
friends many months agorecommended me something called
Serum of Plenty.
She recommended it highlybecause it made her skin feel
(07:58):
very hydrated after using it.
It made her skin feel veryhydrated after using it.
Apparently it has very highquality vitamin C in the formula
.
It's actually well.
(08:20):
It says it contains 15% vitaminC, so apparently that's
supposed to help with a varietyof things like any spots on your
face, any dryness, any wrinkles, any redness.
So I've ordered up some of thattoo, now that it's back in
(08:42):
stock.
If you're interested in seeingthat, I will send you a link,
but I'll let you know how thatgoes.
I've never really been intoskincare.
I've always been very lucky tohave good skin but I'm finding
these products just make me feelreally hydrated and feel good
(09:08):
and glowing, which I love.
I mean, your skin is amazingtoo.
It always seems very radiant.
But it's nice to know aboutthese things.
As I'm getting older, the mainarea I notice that is dry is my
neck.
That's probably where I'll tryand use that, or maybe the snail
(09:32):
mucin will do the trick.
Obviously, the cheapest form ofskincare is drinking a lot of
water, so I got out the oldbottle a friend gave me last
year and cleaned it up, filledit up and have been using that
(09:58):
twice a day.
It has some special markings onit with the times of day, so it
gives you a good idea of howmuch you should be drinking
throughout the day, and I justkeep it on my desk as a reminder
, and I've found that that hasreally helped as well.
(10:20):
Interestingly, the extra waterin my system seems to have got
rid of any bloating feeling Ihave, so that's an unexpected
surprise, so I thought I'd letyou know about that.
Thanks for asking how Tilly isgoing.
(10:44):
I did see her yesterday, so Ipassed on your hello and she
said a big hi back and hoped youhad a very Merry Christmas and
Happy Holidays.
When I went over there sheasked me to taste test one of
her brookie cookies, which wasactually a very decent size
(11:08):
homestyle chop chip cookie witha few walnuts added in there,
and it looked like the type ofcookie that your grandma would
bake.
It was super delicious and Ihad to slow myself down when
eating it.
I could have eaten two quiteeasily.
(11:30):
This particular cookie wasinspired by a biscuit she
purchased from a place calledthe Brookie Bakehouse which is
based here in Brisbane.
You may have heard of itbecause it's been a hugely
successful venture for Brook theowner and it's sort of turned
(11:54):
into a cult phenomenon.
And now apparently they alsodeliver the cookie dough to the
US.
And now apparently they alsodeliver the cookie dough to the
US.
They also can fly the cookiesaround the world, so I'm not
sure how that works.
She has become so popular aftershe started up some TikTok
(12:25):
videos, which was about a day inthe life of her as a baker.
She has millions of followersnow and if you actually go to
the store in person you have toline up for at least half an
hour to even get inside the door.
Tilly has learnt a few secretsabout her cookies after reading
a bit more about them onBrookie's website.
Apparently these includedoubling the usual amount of
(12:48):
choc chips for these particularcookies and using mostly dark
chocolate instead of the milkchocolate.
Apparently, using cold butteralso reduces the amount of air
incorporated into the dough,which helps slow down the baking
(13:11):
process and apparently thatallows the inside of the cookie
to cook properly.
So, interestingly, sherecommends chilling the biscuit
dough before cooking so theyhold their shape.
Another tip was to not overmixthe cookie dough, which I do all
(13:37):
the time.
Tilly said another secret wasto measure out each cookie ball
or cookie exactly, so they wouldall take the same amount of
time to cook, which makes sense.
And I know when I've cookedcookies previously that I don't
(14:03):
measure each one out and, as aresult, some cookies are very
overcooked and some are justright and some are very
undercooked.
So there are a few helpful tips, are a few helpful tips.
(14:34):
So here's some ambience to setthe scene for a yamber trip
which I haven't spoken to youabout yet.
We spent about a week there andwhat you can hear there was the
lapping of the waves in thelake, a few rosellas or
lorikeets squawking away therein the background and also a
(14:54):
little bit of wind.
So we stay in a house on theforeshore and in the backyard
between the house and theforeshore, and in the backyard
between the house and theforeshore, there are maybe 50
plus gum trees or eucalypt treeswhich are native to Australia,
(15:18):
and it seems as though theserainbow lorikeets have made
themselves at home in thesetrees.
I took a recording of the birdsone morning to show you.
So here it is.
They are so loud and there areI mean it sounds like hundreds
(15:43):
of them, and each morning around5, 6am they'd start up and
welcome us into the new day.
I don't know if you've seen arainbow lorikeet.
You would have had to have seenit while you were in Australia
on one of your vacations here.
(16:04):
They are native to Australiaand they are certainly loved by
tourists.
There was a place called theCorumban Bird Sanctuary.
I'm wondering if it's stillopen, but that was incredibly
popular over the years andtourists would visit and these
(16:28):
lorikeets would almost swarm thevisitors sitting on their head
and shoulders.
And they're very, very friendlybirds and they're great in
photos because they are sobrightly coloured.
They have usually bluecolouring on their head, their
(16:51):
beaks are red, green wings andunderbody is often a mixture of
different colours.
They look like rainbows, hencethe name.
Needless to say, it took us afew days to acclimatise to this
and to be able to sleep throughall of the loud noise.
(17:16):
So Yamba is a small but gettingmore popular beach town.
It's about an hour south ofByron Bay, which you would have
most definitely probably heardof, I think Byron has its own TV
series now and it certainly didbecome very popular with some
(17:40):
of the big Hollywood stars verypopular with some of the big
Hollywood stars.
Anyway, Yamba is definitely apopular but not so crazy busy
tourist attraction.
It actually initially becamevery popular for surf riders or
(18:03):
surfboarders.
Here.
I discovered a park near thebeach, so I'll read a little bit
out to you, and it's entitledYamber's First Surfboard Rider.
Tommy Walker is recognized as asurfing pioneer, pioneer and
legend, being the firstAustralian to ride waves at
(18:25):
Manly Beach, Sydney and MainBeach, Yamba.
At age 18, Tommy became a seamanon the Sydney Wharves.
He visited Hawaii in in 1908and had a 14-foot Hawaiian
(18:45):
redwood surfboard custom-builtfor him by the father of modern
surfing, Duke Kahana moku.
It was during the summer of1911 to 1912 that McLean
(19:06):
photographer and Yamba Surf Clubmember, Osric Notley, captured
Tommy in a stand-up positionriding a wave.
It is now established thatTommy was, in fact, the very
first surfboard rider inAustralia, so that's an
(19:30):
interesting fact of this place,and the plaque also contains an
interesting black and whitephoto, of course, of Tommy
riding his surfboard, but heseems to be doing a handstand on
it.
So he was obviously onetalented surfer dude, and it
(19:58):
seems that the main beach atYamba was one of his choice
surfing destinations.
I'll tell you a little bit moreabout the Yamba trip next
message, but in the meantime,don't work too hard, and I hope
(20:22):
you have a great rest of theweek and we'll chat soon.
Take care and bye for now.
Welcome to the Day-to-Day Podcast, calm
Conversations with a Friend, byJacquie Joy, and you are
listening to Episode 10.
You decide to check yourmessages.
(00:23):
One new voicemail it's from oneof your friends.
You decide it's time to sitdown, make yourself comfortable
and have a listen.
Hey! So nice to hear yourlatest message, but it wasn't
(01:01):
good to hear about your mostrecent restaurant experience.
That sounds super disappointingfor what you would have
expected for somewhere like that.
I mean, you would havedefinitely been expecting this
(01:29):
place to go above and beyond asfar as the customer service and
the food and even thesurroundings of the restaurant.
So how disappointing.
Again.
It's a shame you left a bithungry, but it sounds like you
had a lot of laughs with yourfriend and it's certainly going
to be a night that you'll neverforget.
And next time you'll bechoosing a lot more carefully
(01:53):
and checking out all of thereviews, I imagine, even if the
restaurant has been there for somany years and has an
incredible reputation for greatfood and service.
And, funnily enough, you knowhow.
(02:15):
We planned to go to that specialrestaurant on the weekend, the
one I had sent you thedegustation menu for.
Well, we didn't end up eatingany of the food, because we had
(02:37):
a similar, very poor customerexperience and we were finally
seated after about 15-20 minutesand by that time we just
decided to leave.
The problem certainly wasn'tthe restaurant itself as you can
(03:02):
see from the photo, it was setin a gorgeous, lush surrounding
of gardens but the problem wasthe main servile, the maitre d'
I think the person that issupposed to welcome you into the
restaurant.
(03:22):
Well, he wasn't very welcomingat all.
We actually had to wait 20minutes for our table, which was
fine.
We had arrived two minutesearly apparently, which he
didn't seem to like.
There was a lovely waitressthere who we did speak to before
(03:48):
we left and just let her knowthat we were disappointed we
couldn't stay as she seemedreally nice.
So we left and we had a fewlaughs.
So we left and we had a fewlaughs and, interestingly, that
(04:12):
lovely waitress we spoke to hadspoken to the manager who called
me yesterday and was veryapologetic and even offered us a
complimentary experience at therestaurant unlimited food and
drinks.
I was a little hesitant, butshe said that that lovely
(04:35):
waitress had offered to serve usand host us when we come back
and host us when we come back.
It was not the best experiencebecause of one person, but the
restaurant really did redeemthemselves and we're looking
(04:58):
forward to booking that up againand returning and hopefully
eating the degustation menu nexttime.
So I'll let you know when thathappens.
In response to your question, no, I still haven't tried the
snail mucin cream, so I thinkI'll have a look at it.
(05:21):
Right now I've got it in myhand.
It's a 100ml bottle and you cansee by turning it upside down,
it looks fairly viscous,hopefully not too sticky.
I can't smell anything at themoment, so it mustn't have a
(05:49):
strong fragrance.
And, okay, I'm going to test itnow on the back of my hand.
A few squeezes, yeah, okay.
Well, it doesn't seem to haveany smell, so that's a good
start and it feels a little bitlike.
(06:12):
Well, it's very clear and itfeels like the after sun gel
that I use that has aloe vera init, so it's actually quite
pleasant to put on, okay, and itgoes a long way.
(06:32):
So I've got the trial patch onthe back of one of my hands, so
we'll see if there's adifference.
Make sure that there's no skinreaction.
And, look, I might try it on myneck next time.
I'll just wait 24 hours first.
(06:53):
It's actually mostly absorbedinto my skin now, so it's so far
, so good and it definitelydoesn't feel as slimy as I
thought it would at all, eventhough apparently it's 96% snail
(07:18):
mucin and I definitely don'twant to even begin to think
about what is in the mucin andhow they collect the mucin.
But people do seem to rate itand love it.
(07:38):
Also, while we're talking aboutskin products, one of my other
friends many months agorecommended me something called
Serum of Plenty.
She recommended it highlybecause it made her skin feel
(07:58):
very hydrated after using it.
It made her skin feel veryhydrated after using it.
Apparently it has very highquality vitamin C in the formula
.
It's actually well.
(08:20):
It says it contains 15% vitaminC, so apparently that's
supposed to help with a varietyof things like any spots on your
face, any dryness, any wrinkles, any redness.
So I've ordered up some of thattoo, now that it's back in
(08:42):
stock.
If you're interested in seeingthat, I will send you a link,
but I'll let you know how thatgoes.
I've never really been intoskincare.
I've always been very lucky tohave good skin but I'm finding
these products just make me feelreally hydrated and feel good
(09:08):
and glowing, which I love.
I mean, your skin is amazingtoo.
It always seems very radiant.
But it's nice to know aboutthese things.
As I'm getting older, the mainarea I notice that is dry is my
neck.
That's probably where I'll tryand use that, or maybe the snail
(09:32):
mucin will do the trick.
Obviously, the cheapest form ofskincare is drinking a lot of
water, so I got out the oldbottle a friend gave me last
year and cleaned it up, filledit up and have been using that
(09:58):
twice a day.
It has some special markings onit with the times of day, so it
gives you a good idea of howmuch you should be drinking
throughout the day, and I justkeep it on my desk as a reminder
, and I've found that that hasreally helped as well.
(10:20):
Interestingly, the extra waterin my system seems to have got
rid of any bloating feeling Ihave, so that's an unexpected
surprise, so I thought I'd letyou know about that.
Thanks for asking how Tilly isgoing.
(10:44):
I did see her yesterday, so Ipassed on your hello and she
said a big hi back and hoped youhad a very Merry Christmas and
Happy Holidays.
When I went over there sheasked me to taste test one of
her brookie cookies, which wasactually a very decent size
(11:08):
homestyle chop chip cookie witha few walnuts added in there,
and it looked like the type ofcookie that your grandma would
bake.
It was super delicious and Ihad to slow myself down when
eating it.
I could have eaten two quiteeasily.
(11:30):
This particular cookie wasinspired by a biscuit she
purchased from a place calledthe Brookie Bakehouse which is
based here in Brisbane.
You may have heard of itbecause it's been a hugely
successful venture for Brook theowner and it's sort of turned
(11:54):
into a cult phenomenon.
And now apparently they alsodeliver the cookie dough to the
US.
And now apparently they alsodeliver the cookie dough to the
US.
They also can fly the cookiesaround the world, so I'm not
sure how that works.
She has become so popular aftershe started up some TikTok
(12:25):
videos, which was about a day inthe life of her as a baker.
She has millions of followersnow and if you actually go to
the store in person you have toline up for at least half an
hour to even get inside the door.
Tilly has learnt a few secretsabout her cookies after reading
a bit more about them onBrookie's website.
Apparently these includedoubling the usual amount of
(12:48):
choc chips for these particularcookies and using mostly dark
chocolate instead of the milkchocolate.
Apparently, using cold butteralso reduces the amount of air
incorporated into the dough,which helps slow down the baking
(13:11):
process and apparently thatallows the inside of the cookie
to cook properly.
So, interestingly, sherecommends chilling the biscuit
dough before cooking so theyhold their shape.
Another tip was to not overmixthe cookie dough, which I do all
(13:37):
the time.
Tilly said another secret wasto measure out each cookie ball
or cookie exactly, so they wouldall take the same amount of
time to cook, which makes sense.
And I know when I've cookedcookies previously that I don't
(14:03):
measure each one out and, as aresult, some cookies are very
overcooked and some are justright and some are very
undercooked.
So there are a few helpful tips, are a few helpful tips.
(14:34):
So here's some ambience to setthe scene for a yamber trip
which I haven't spoken to youabout yet.
We spent about a week there andwhat you can hear there was the
lapping of the waves in thelake, a few rosellas or
lorikeets squawking away therein the background and also a
(14:54):
little bit of wind.
So we stay in a house on theforeshore and in the backyard
between the house and theforeshore, and in the backyard
between the house and theforeshore, there are maybe 50
plus gum trees or eucalypt treeswhich are native to Australia,
(15:18):
and it seems as though theserainbow lorikeets have made
themselves at home in thesetrees.
I took a recording of the birdsone morning to show you.
So here it is.
They are so loud and there areI mean it sounds like hundreds
(15:43):
of them, and each morning around5, 6am they'd start up and
welcome us into the new day.
I don't know if you've seen arainbow lorikeet.
You would have had to have seenit while you were in Australia
on one of your vacations here.
(16:04):
They are native to Australiaand they are certainly loved by
tourists.
There was a place called theCorumban Bird Sanctuary.
I'm wondering if it's stillopen, but that was incredibly
popular over the years andtourists would visit and these
(16:28):
lorikeets would almost swarm thevisitors sitting on their head
and shoulders.
And they're very, very friendlybirds and they're great in
photos because they are sobrightly coloured.
They have usually bluecolouring on their head, their
(16:51):
beaks are red, green wings andunderbody is often a mixture of
different colours.
They look like rainbows, hencethe name.
Needless to say, it took us afew days to acclimatise to this
and to be able to sleep throughall of the loud noise.
(17:16):
So Yamba is a small but gettingmore popular beach town.
It's about an hour south ofByron Bay, which you would have
most definitely probably heardof, I think Byron has its own TV
series now and it certainly didbecome very popular with some
(17:40):
of the big Hollywood stars verypopular with some of the big
Hollywood stars.
Anyway, Yamba is definitely apopular but not so crazy busy
tourist attraction.
It actually initially becamevery popular for surf riders or
(18:03):
surfboarders.
Here.
I discovered a park near thebeach, so I'll read a little bit
out to you, and it's entitledYamber's First Surfboard Rider.
Tommy Walker is recognized as asurfing pioneer, pioneer and
legend, being the firstAustralian to ride waves at
(18:25):
Manly Beach, Sydney and MainBeach, Yamba.
At age 18, Tommy became a seamanon the Sydney Wharves.
He visited Hawaii in in 1908and had a 14-foot Hawaiian
(18:45):
redwood surfboard custom-builtfor him by the father of modern
surfing, Duke Kahana moku.
It was during the summer of1911 to 1912 that McLean
(19:06):
photographer and Yamba Surf Clubmember, Osric Notley, captured
Tommy in a stand-up positionriding a wave.
It is now established thatTommy was, in fact, the very
first surfboard rider inAustralia, so that's an
(19:30):
interesting fact of this place,and the plaque also contains an
interesting black and whitephoto, of course, of Tommy
riding his surfboard, but heseems to be doing a handstand on
it.
So he was obviously onetalented surfer dude, and it
(19:58):
seems that the main beach atYamba was one of his choice
surfing destinations.
I'll tell you a little bit moreabout the Yamba trip next
message, but in the meantime,don't work too hard, and I hope
(20:22):
you have a great rest of theweek and we'll chat soon.
Take care and bye for now.
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