One of my caregivers shot this video of smoke rolling in over Mt. Coot-tha yesterday. Going to be another smokey day.
And look at these two living it up in Bordeaux on their way to Moubisson.
They look cold.
Health inspectors are poorly paid and take a lot of shit.
Can’t report reality, gotta keep tourism and biz happy regardless of how little they know about food safety.
A Brisbane restaurateur has been fined more than $20,000 after pleading guilty to racially abusing a health inspector who found a “cockroach infestation” in his business.
Ravendra Prasad (right, exactly as shown) said the public should be comfortable eating at his takeaway restaurant, which has remained open since he was charged, as he left the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Tuesday.
Toby Crockford of the Brisbane Times reports the 11 charges against the 64-year-old, who either owns or is involved in three restaurants, stemmed from two inspections in 2017 at his Indian Feast restaurant in St Lucia.
The health inspector found at least six breaches of the food standards code on July 5, 2017, which included a “large number” of live and dead cockroaches and cockroach faeces in the Indian Feast kitchen.
The restaurant’s licence was immediately suspended, resulting in the five-day shutdown, after separate infestations were found behind a dishwasher and freezer.
Brisbane City Council lawyer Roman Micairan said the kitchen was in “a state of uncleanliness” and, in addition to the cockroaches, “food waste and other debris [was] strewn around”.
Mr Micairan said the discovery of the cockroaches led to Mr Prasad becoming upset and insulting the health inspector, which included comments regarding the inspector’s eastern European heritage, telling her to go back where she came from and questioning whether she could do her job.
During a follow-up inspection on August 18, 2017, the cockroach issue had been rectified, but the inspector found food-processing breaches, including pre-cooked food not be cooled at the correct temperature, increasing the risk of bacterial growth.
Defence lawyer Peter Trout argued Mr Prasad’s insult was “on the lower end of the scale” and his client had been “adamantly remorseful” after lashing out.
Darren Cartwright of The Courier Mail writes in the local paper (local being Brisbane) that the hit comedy Crazy Rich Asians turned out to be a real-life horror film for a young couple who allegedly discovered the movement in their popcorn was a “dirty, great big” cockroach.
Shaun Walsh and his partner Caitlin Rose were in the middle of enjoying the runaway success comedy at Birch Carroll and Coyle’s cinema complex at Morayfield on Saturday night when things went awry.
Mr Walsh said Ms Rose was eating the treat when the movie started and about half an hour later placed the container on the seat next to her.
When she went to retrieve more popcorn, some 20 minutes later, she heard “movement” in the popcorn.
“She jumped up and screamed a little bit and then jumped across me,” Mr Walsh told The Courier-Mail.
“I didn’t believe her at the start, so I turned my light on and here’s this dirty great big cockroach.
Queensland, with its sub-tropical climate, has fabulous produce and seafood.
Even if regulators are a bit dopey about food safety.
Jill Poulson and Tanya Westthorp of the Courier-Mail report health authorities are warning people who have bought strawberries in Queensland, NSW and Victoria to throw the punnets out after several incidents of needles being found in strawberries sold at Woolworths.
Queensland Health and Queensland Police today took the extraordinary step to urge people who bought strawberries across the eastern seaboard in the past week to throw them out after three separate incidents in Queensland and Victoria.
Police suspect the ground-down needles were deliberately planted in the punnets with the culprit intending to cause ‘grievous bodily harm or other objectives’.
The needle allegedly found in strawberries purchased from Woolworths at northside Brisbane. Pic: Supplied.
The contaminated strawberries come from one farm and are sold under the brands ‘Berry Obsession’ and ‘Berry Licious’. They are sold from Woolworths and it’s believed they may also be sold at other stores. A product recall is underway.
It comes as a 21-year-old Burpengary man ended up in hospital after he swallowed part of a needle when he bit into a strawberry bought from Strathpine in Brisbane’s north on Sunday.
Two more incidents in Victoria were confirmed yesterday.
The Sunshine Coast is an idyllic spot on the Pacific Ocean, about an hour north of Brisbane.
But according to Shri Rajen of the Daily Mail a huge, and unidentified gastro outbreak has left more than 1,000 people in hospital.
Emergency departments in the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, were flooded with 1142 patients with gastroenteritis.
Around 600 cases were treated at the Sunshine Coast University Hospital.
Gastroenteritis can be either infectious or non-infectious, public health physician said, Dr Andrew Langley, reported The Sunshine Coast Daily.
He said, usually bacteria, parasites and viruses are the cause of infectious cases.
‘Noroviruses are a very common cases of viral gastroenteritis. Causes of norovirus are not routinely reported to Queensland Health,’ Dr Langley said.
‘If you have gastroenteritis, you should not return to work until diarrhoea has ceased. Children should not return to childcare or school until diarrhoea has ceased for 24 hours,’ said Dr Langley.
Last month, a gastro outbreak has forced Mt Maria College in Brisbane to close after 20 students and two teachers were sent to hospital with vomiting and diarrhoea.
Last year nearly 2000 people admitted themselves to hospitals across Sydney.
Gastroenteritis can be easily passed from person to person due to its highly infectious nature.
Australia is a special place.
And there are more public bathrooms than I’ve seen anywhere else.
The man outed as Brisbane’s alleged poo jogger has resigned from his corporate role at a leading retirement village.
Andrew Douglas Macintosh, 64, was a senior manager at one of Australia’s leading retirement village operators.
As revealed by The Courier-Mail, Mr Macintosh was charged with public nuisance after allegedly defecating on a unit block pathway in Greenslopes while on his morning run.
The alleged deed was captured on camera by a fed-up resident.
Andrew Douglas Macintosh was charged with public nuisance after Greenslopes residents snapped off a shot of a jogger defecating on their pathway.
Mr Macintosh was a national quality manager with Aveo and a member of Brisbane City Council’s Inclusive Board.
Mr Macintosh faced Holland Park Magistrates Court this week before his charge was downgraded to an infringment notice, resulting in a $378 fine.
This morning Aveo confirmed Mr Macintosh — a former director of the Retirement Village Association of Australia — had now resigned from the company.
Holly Hales of the Daily Mail reports a popular Vietnamese restaurant in Brisbane‘s trendy West-End has been accused of disregarding food safety laws after it was searched by health inspectors.
It come after eight diners were left with a bad taste in their mouth after claiming a visit to the restaurant gave them food poisoning.
Trang Restaurant has previously found fame being named Brisbane’s best Vietnamese food but the new allegations claim defrosting raw chicken found underneath a sink was allegedly among discoveries made by inspectors during a visit to the premises.
Despite the allegations of contempt for food safety laws, Trang has retained a largely satisfied customer-base
The allegations come as council health inspectors filed a complaint in the Brisbane’s Magistrate’s Court accusing the eatery of skimping on food safety laws.
The Courier Mail also reports complaints filed in late February included sightings of infected food, which was found throughout the restaurant.
It is thought the raid was catalysed by eight diners allegedly contracting salmonella after eating at the restaurant between February and March this year.
Police suspect there are likely to be many more victims of a group of marauding mums that have reportedly gone on a scamming spree fraudulently receiving free meals, drinks and even cigarettes from restaurant and bar owners desperate to get rid of them.
The “boisterous” posse, with kids in tow, reportedly “trash” restaurants and cafes as part of the ploy to get staff, at the end of their tethers, to let them off the bill.
Benedict Brook of The Courier Mail reports in one case, they have also been accused of placing glass in a meal and then demanding a refund.
It’s thought at least six businesses in Brisbane’s CBD and nearby suburbs of Spring Hill and Fortitude Valley have been targeted by the gang, most of who are said to have an Irish accent, over the last week.
The apparent scam is just one of many that plague hospitality businesses that have to balance the needs of genuine customers against scammers wanting something for nothing.
While in Brisbane the ploy involved glass, in Adelaide hairs are often placed in food by dodgy punters. In Melbourne food allergies are part of cafe con jobs.
In an angry Facebook post on Monday, Marie Yokoyama from the Birds Nest Japanese restaurant in Fortitude Valley explained how the women had set about to get a free feed.
“They are a group of about seven — four children and three ladies — and they are unbelievably rude. They came in and totally destroyed the restaurant.
“Halfway through the meal one lady started screaming that there was glass in her meal and that her mouth was bleeding. I believed her and then asked to see the glass.
“Upon inspection I knew that this had not come from our restaurant but they were relentless.”
The restaurateur said they didn’t have any thick glass of the type produced but this didn’t placate the customers.
“I was so scared and terrified of them that I made their meals and drinks free — around $180 (in) value.”
The post said the group demanded further drinks, for free, and left their excitable children unattended while they smoked outside.
news.com.au reports today that the group of mums accused of scamming up-market restaurants and stealing from supermarkets may have also trashed four brand-new apartments in Brisbane.
A customer dobbed (that’s Australian for, to inform against someone) a popular Brisbane restaurant Les Bubbles to food safety authorities after a rat scurried past her during the dinner rush, a court has been told.
Melanie Petrinec of the Courier Mail reports embattled restaurateur Damian Griffiths was today fined $3000 and company Limes Properties Pty Ltd was fined $30,000 after pleading guilty to breaches of food standards.
Griffiths was overseas when the case was mentioned in the Brisbane Magistrates Court last week, and did not appear in person.
Instead, his lawyer made submissions in writing to the court to say Griffiths was “simply unaware of what was going on” at his former restaurant when the rat was discovered in October, 2016.
Les Bubbles is now under new management and a spokesperson says all checks and pest inspections were now up to date.
Brisbane City Council prosecutor Andrea Lopez said it was irrelevant if he was aware or not, and revealed it was a customer who raised the alarm with authorities.
“A live rodent during a busy dinner rush has actually run across the room in the restaurant,” she said.
“The rodent has been quite comfortable in the food business.”
Subsequently, food safety inspectors claimed to find dirty equipment and rodent droppings in multiple areas including under the kitchen bench, under a downstairs bar and near the dishwashing area.
Ms Lopez said the rat droppings indicated “quite a large presence of rodent activity”.