Appearances can be deceiving – the food is simply the best I’ve had in months.

The Ridge uses all organic ingredients – and you can select from vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options. I’d just spent my first week on the CSIRO Healthy Living diet before going and I really appreciated that they were diet-friendly.

Like many other diners that night I started with the grilled king prawns – huge prawns, grilled in their shells until the meat was falling to pieces. This was served with a mild salsa verde and rice – the smell and taste were indescribable (well, almost indescribable – really very good!).

Main course was crisped duck breast with asian greens. In keeping with The Ridge’s healthy philosophy, this means a half duck breast and a huge bowl of salad (other optional sides included Potato Rosti, but I was doing my best). The duck was heavenly, and half a breast was quite enough.

For dessert I chose the fruit coupe – strawberry gelato with a slice of vanilla topped with cream. Superb.

The Ridge Organic Restaurant

Farrar Shops

Farrar, ACT, Australia

Anyhow, there were three staff in their late teens visible. The two women were leaning over a display stand talking to some teenage boys, and the male staff member was slouched against the back of the counter talking to another teenager. I waited for a couple of minutes, and after the women stopped talking to what looked like their friends, both disappeared. Almost into thin air. I’m guessing, by the amount of money not changing hands, that nobody was really interested in doing their jobs there today. For a moment there, I had a New Balance walking shoe that I wanted in one hand and my wallet in the other. I put the shoe back and left, never to return.

OK, so the working day is over now, and I went to the footlocker.com.au website. Surprise surprise, it is just plain unavailable.

FootLocker management, if you get to read this, please rest assured that you have some issues…. Tash Hughes says that every dissatisfied customer will tell 10 other people, and there must be a lot of people out there who are telling 10 others about you.

Cheers, Andrew

Anyhow… there are a lot of good, bad, and just plain stupid things out there. I thought I would put some reviews together to have my say.

Geek shopping is harder at this time of the year owing to a seething mass of MAD (Mums and Dads), faces set with grim determination, hating every minute that they have to spend tripping over one another.

The online alternative? Sometimes it is viable, other times not. A friend ordered some books from Amazon over a month ago and they were still not here in time for the Canberra Web Blast.

For myself, I am looking forward to not getting wasted on Christmas Day and then hitting the Boxing Day (December 26) sales instead.