Day 60: NGA

Whilst in Canberra I stayed at the Hotel Realm, a nice 5* hotel. My room even had a shoe shine, loofah, shaving kit, dental kit, Nespresso machine etc. I turned on my TV and it welcomed me to the hotel!

On Thursday we had the first day of our 2 day assessment meeting at the National Gallery of Australia followed by the Laureate Awards. Fiona Hall gave a lovely speech as she accepted the award.

The entrance to the National Gallery. The image is advertising the Renaissance exhibition currently on show.

The board and staff went out to a hatted (equivalent of a Michelin star in Australia) restaurant in the evening 'Ottoman Cuisine'. We had a banquet and the courses just kept coming and coming! The food was amazing but I was so stuffed by the end of it! We had lots of small courses, a mushroom with a nice coating of chilli and various things, a lamb kofta, chicken skewer, veal, a salmon something or other wrapped in a leaf, a bhaji type thing, the list went on and on but I loved every course. The desserts were a bit sweet for me but I finished it all off with a nice latte. This was perhaps a mistake as it was 10.30pm by this point so I was up for a while!