I write like a scientist...

New fave websites

2011-11-24T09:19:00.000+10:30

I'm not really much of a "Cat person". I like kittens, but who doesn't like kittens? Cats, however, I am not completely sold on. They are so self-sufficient I feel like I'm a bit redundant in the me + cat relationship, and they're so mercenary about getting what they want out of you I feel as though when they do want me, they're taking advantage. I am a "Dog person". My husband, however, is firmly a "Cat person". He has a lovely black and white called Evie who was rescued from the pound after being dumped by her previous owners who abused her. Evie is indeed self-sufficient and mercenary, and D loves dearly, and I love him dearly. So, to make my meaning clear, I am not necessarily a "Cat person" but I am absolutely a "Boys who love cats person". Savvy? Hence, my new favourite wesbite: cuteboyswithcats.net/

Look at this:

Images from cuteboyswithcats.net

Even I, horrible non-cat-loving lady am not immune to such intense cuteness :D

Close runner up for newly discovered website that makes me go Awwwww, behold the awesomeness that is fuckyesnevillelongbottom.tumblr.com/

Ahh, Neville Longbottom. FIghting Lord V in a cardie never looked so good :D

Images from fuckyesnevillelongbottom.tumblr.com

I have my fingers firmly crossed that the Bond franchise keeps going long enough for Matt Lewis to have a crack at playing Bond, James Bond :D

Miss Jackson

2011-11-19T11:13:00.000+10:30

Earlier this week I took advantage of the fact that my PhD supervisor was going to be out of the office for a Whole Day by taking myself off to brunch, as you do :) I love going out for brunch, but D loves to sleep in on the weekends, and I mean, really sleep in. By the time he's ready to leave the house it's firmly lunch time, and often very busy at the popular spots that I want to go to. So I thought that a week day all to myself was just the right time to try out a St Kilda cafe that I have been meaning to visit for ages.

http://www.missjackson.com.au/
http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/71/1460311/restaurant/Melbourne/Miss-Jackson-St-Kilda

Miss Jackson, on the corner of Grey and Jackson streets, is easy walking distance from our apartment. The entrance is off Jackson street and through the courtyard, which was unfortunately full even on that random week-day morning, so I can only imagine how busy it must be on weekends. I wandered inside past the coffee machine and pastries on display (the staff didn't do a great job of welcoming me, but weren't exactly rude) and took a seat inside against the window, with loads of beautiful light shining in.

The menu, while not huge, was long enough to leave me agonizing over decisions. I had heard great things about the corn fritters, the pancakes and homemade crumpets both sounded treaty and delicious, but I really love house-made hash browns, which swung it in favour of the leek and potato hash with smoked trout and poached egg. There was a bit of a wait for my meal (long enough to read the Frankie magazine on the communal magazine rack) but when it arrived, it was absolutely worth it.

Leek and potato hash with smoked trout and poached egg, $16-ish, Miss Jackson

The menu hadn't mentioned it but the dish came with some lovely fresh herbs - more than a garnish, less than a salad - and the dill, mint and parsley really lifted the whole dish. The hash was a dense disk of potato cubes and leek, crispy and golden on the outside and not at all oily - yum yum yum. Piled on top, the smoked trout was very moist and flavourful, and a generous portion too. The poached egg on top of the trout was cooked just to my liking with a firm white and almost completely runny yolk. With the aforementioned herbs, the elements of the dish all came together wonderfully, and it is easily one of the nicest breakfasts I have eaten in a long time.

Ridiculous

2011-11-17T15:05:00.000+10:30

Well, this is ridiculous. It seems that I cannot study for my PhD full-time, work in two different jobs a day a week each, AND keep up to day with my poor, neglected blog (not to mention my neglected husband, family, friends, housework, exercise and artistic and spiritual enrichment. ai ai ai!)
I will try harder, I promise.
Here's a quickie to get the ball rolling again, ~~stolen~~ borrowed from my wonderful friend Zhiying's gorgeous style blog: little-project.com

Getting to know you

current location:: Melbourne, Australia
day job:: Public Health lecturer
dream job:: critically acclaimed author
i love:: polka dots, English Breakfast tea, books, picnics and pedicures
favorite city:: Melbourne for living. Istanbul for traveling. Paris for dreaming.
favorite thing in my wardrobe:: Hermes scarf from my husband :)
favorite way to procrastinate:: cooking blogs, especially smittenkitchen
favorite every-day read:: Jezebel
something you're looking forward to this week:: going to Vue de Monde for a thirTEEN course degustation dinner with my hubby tomorrow night. yes, it's costing us way, way, WAY too much money, but we're celebrating D's 30th, and it's been on his bucket list since forever, so... speaking of bucket list...
something on your bucket list:: learn to play the cello

For anyone out there reading, I'd love it if you would copy and paste the questions into the comments section and fill in your own answers :)

Crayfish, Part 1: catching 'em

2011-03-15T16:23:00.000+10:30

Ever since I can remember my family have spent our Summer holidays (and any spare time in between) at the glorious little seaside town of Robe, South Australia. When I was younger we would stay in the caravan park or similar, then when I was a teenager my parents sold a chunk of the family farm and bought a lovely little beach house. It's right in the centre of town, two minutes walk to the bakery and the newsagent, three minutes walk to have you actually on the beach, wet toes and everything; it's just lovely.
At the same time as buying the house my Dad also bought a boat: classic farmer hits retirement age behaviour. Let me be clear, it's nothing fancy - a step or two above a "tinny" - but he does seem to love messing about in that boat (any other Wind in the Willows fans out there?) But the boat's main virtue, in my opinion, is that it allows us to also buy crayfish pots, crayfish pot licenses, and therefore... to CATCH CRAYFISH!!!

Setting the pots

Unfortunately, crayfish catching seems to be a bit of an art. In the early years of our boating endeavours we very often went a whole season without catching one measly crayfish. Correction - we caught many measly crays but none that were of legal size and all the ones we caught had to be released and thrown back. In recent years, however, something has changed... Suddenly we are good at this! Hooray!

Displaying the harvest

We catch lots of delicious crayfish and even the occasional delectable crab and delightful octopus. Double, triple hooray!!! The only dilemma we face now is, having caught them, how are we going to eat them?!!

The most beautiful thing

2011-03-14T08:58:00.000+10:30

Variations On Surya Namaskara - Phillip Askew & Lydia Walker, music by Jonah Rank

This really is the most beautiful thing I have seen in a long time. The performers and their piece are just breathtaking. I don't even know if I'm using the correct terminology here, are they performers? artists? yogis? Either way, their strength and control are incredibly impressive, and those two elements together make this performance? practice? work of art? such an incredible thing to watch.

Cafe Vue Lunch-box - February 2011

2011-02-21T14:48:00.000+10:30

Cafe Vue Lunch-box, February 2011, $15

Starter ~ Brandade (with potato crisps)
Salad ~ Orecchiette, broccoli & Toulouse sausage
Savoury ~ Tuna, crispy capers & mayonnaise on olive ciabatta
Sweet ~ Yuzu meringue

This month's Lunch-box was a good one! I've never had Brandade before, but its similar to a fishy rillette and according to the source of all knowledge (Wikipedia) normally made with cod and served with bread. The Vue brandade was paired with their house-made potato crisps, which were salty, oily and very moreish. The salad of orecchiette pasta with teeny pieces of broccoli and cubes of french pork sausage was delicious, if a little pasta heavy. I would have preferred a greater ratio of broccoli and sausage pieces to pasta pieces, but on the whole good. The olive ciabatta was tasty and dense, but I was a bit ho-hum about the filling: tinned tuna, mayo and shredded iceberg lettuce. I know I shouldn't have been expecting fresh tuna, but a small part of me had hoped. I don't know about the pairing of the tuna with the olive bread - I think I would have preferred the veggo option, which was filled with goats cheese. The sweet was, as always, divine: fluffy sweet meringue and tangy yuzu curd made for a delicious yuzu meringue.

Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T16:39:00.000+10:30

While I, like many others, don't subscribe to the idea that you should wait for a specific day of the year to say "I love you", or that you have to buy a card or red roses or boxed chocolates to signify that love (although, if you're reading, babe, some choccies wouldn't go astray!) I'm also not going to pass up the opportunity to pause for a moment and remember that I'm so. very. lucky to have found someone I love, who loves me back.

Photo credit: benedettarusconi.com.au

I love you, darling. I choose you today, tomorrow, every day for the rest of my life. Let's run away together... again.

Starry Night

2011-02-12T16:00:00.000+10:30

Far out, is it really February already?! Ok, let's keep it short and sweet and make it snappy or the next thing you know half the year will be gone with no posting...

My mum is one of those people who makes her own Christmas Bonbons (or crackers) with personalised gifts inside. This year my teeny tiny pressie was a super cute Special Edition polish from The Body Shop:

Starry Night, The Body Shop

Kind of a rubbish application, I know, but I love the silver glitter in black polish. My one complaint is that layering to achieve depth of blackness seemed like kind of a waste as you essentially paint over the glitter, which is the best bit, right? But all in all, good holiday fun :o)

Slow cooked lamb & veggie ragu

2010-12-02T17:03:00.000+10:30

This post has been lingering in draft form for aaages, and I finally have some time to tidy it up & get it posted!
This recipe is certainly not groundbreaking, indeed when i read it the first time i kind of though, well, that doesn't sound exciting enough to even bother cooking. But I promise you, it is. Normally when I make this we use lamb shanks, rather than the fillets, because as we all know, meat cooked on the bone is more flavoursome, tender and juicy. However, in this instance I couldn't source free-range lamb shanks, so in accordance with my recently set resolutions I had to modify the recipe to fit with the ethically produced meat available.

Slow cooked lamb & veggie ragu
originally adapted from a Weight Watcher's recipe of all things, but don't let that put you off
Serves 4 hungry people

Ingredients:
4 small lamb shanks or 400g lamb fillet, chopped
salt
pepper
olive oil
2 or 3 cloves garlic
1 onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
4 sticks celery, chopped
500 g mushrooms (swiss brown are nice if they're not too expensive), chopped
500 ml (half a litre) of good stock (i use chicken, even though it would make sense to use something meatier...)
1 whole bay leaf
800 g crushed tinned tomato
400 g "short" pasta (eg penne, spirali, not spaghetti or fettucini)
1/4 cup(s) Parsley, fresh, chopped

Instructions

Season lamb with salt and ground pepper.
Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a large non-stick casserole dish (a Le Creuset or similar) over high heat.
Add the shanks or chopped fillet and brown, turning to cook evenly, for 5 to 10 minutes. Don't worry if your lamb is browning quite quickly, you're aiming to get a nice bit of colour on the meat & seal it off in preparation for the slow cooking portion.
Remove lamb from pan & cover with foil. Do NOT wipe or rinse the pan, you want to keep the nice juices in there.
Add a few tablespoons of olive oil to the pan, turn back to medium heat, add garlic and onion and cook for 3 minutes.
Add carrot and celery and cook for another 3 minutes
Add mushrooms and cook for another 3 minutes.
Add stock, bay leaf and tomatoes and bring to the boil.
Return the lamb to the pan. Make sure the lamb is pushed right down to the bottom of the pan so it's covered by the stock & tomato mixture.
Turn the heat back to low, cover and simmer for 2 hours. Yes, this is a very long time. Yes, the meat will be falling off the bone when you're done - yum!
Meanwhile, cook your pasta according to the directions on the packet, starting once the lamb has been in for 1:45.
At this point, if you're using shanks, remove them from the pan to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm. If you're using fillet meat, ignore this step and treat the lamb as part of the veggie ragu.
Taste the ragu and season as necessary then cook for 10 minutes over high heat to thicken up the sauce a little.
Combine the cooked pasta, the veggie ragu and the chopped parsley all together (either in your pasta pot or your casserole dish, depending on what is largest).
Serve in shallow bowls and place a shank on top.

Browning the lamb

Lots of veggies!

Veggies + lamb + stock + tomatoes

2 hours later, + pasta

Finally, slow cooked lamb & veggie ragu

And there you have it! It might not look glamorous, but it sure is tasty!

Matching your cosmetics to your hardware

2010-11-10T10:56:00.000+10:30

My nailpolish (Rimmel Euphoria) matches my external hard drive! How awesome.

More progress on resolutions...

2010-11-06T14:53:00.000+10:30

...because I am failing :/

1) Post to this blog at least once a week...
It hasn't taken me long to fall by the wayside with this. How can I ensure I will post more regularly in the future?
2) ...preferably with a photo to keep things interesting and to keep me taking photos
see above
3) Submit two more articles for publication before the end of the year
Still seriously nowhere near submission. Must seriously get cracking! Must have this done by the end of the academic year. Which is only a few weeks away really.
4) Read all the popular non-fiction (ie, not proper scholarly publication level) obesity, food and ethics books I've bought but not read yet
Progress still not so good. Maybe I need to schedule in some regular reading time. I think I do better with routine. This warrants more thought.
5) Attend at least five exercise classes per week: yoga, pilates, zumba, spin, pump
Not too bad for this calendar week. I've been to spin, yoga and zumba, and pilates class is tomorrow morning. Keep at it!
6) Eat mostly whole foods
Ergh. Yes and no. Does home delivered whole food in the form of Thai food count? Is a yiros/felafel/souvlaki a whole food?
7) Purchase the most ethically produced meat and animal products we can source and go veggo when there are no ethical meat options available
Still going pretty well on this one. Keep it up!
8) Where possible, shop at Farmer's markets. Aim to visit a Farmer's market once a month as a starting point.
Well, I made it to the market, but I was tragically uninspired. Le sigh. The whole thing just seems to chaotic and disorganised to fit with my ordered approach to shopping. It's fine if you just want to buy some artisan bread and cheese, but negotiating upwards of twenty different sellers to try and find particular items is pretty tedious. I dunno. Maybe I need to rethink this.
9) Stay in touch with my brothers more. Even just a text message, but some form of contact at least once a month to start with.
Well I saw them both in person last weekend, surely that counts as a tick in the plus column?
10) Send Christmas cards to overseas & interstate friends
Dudes, seriously, still not even thinking about it yet.

Forever21 pretty, mixed-media beads necklace

2010-10-26T15:48:00.000+10:30

On our honeymoon in Singapore I went a little bit nutso in Forever21 in the accessories department. One of my purchases was this super cute necklace made of big, mismatched, vintage feel beads - some copper metal, some faceted clear plastic, some fabric covered (my faves!) and a few pearls for good measure. Love!

This is my first outing with the super pretty necklace, and I'm pretty pleased with how it dressed up a pink polo top. Pretty pretty, right?

Progress on resolutions

2010-10-19T22:00:00.000+10:30

I figure this whole making resolutions thing will work much better if I check in on how I'm doing regularly, to make sure I stay on track and don't waste a whole year wilfully forgetting the goals I set for myself. So I thought I'd do a quick stocktake on those resolutions I made just over a week ago.

1) Post to this blog at least once a week...
So far so good. I think having a few posts in the pipeline at any one time will help. I should have another recipe related something out tomorrow so then I have another week to think of something interesting to say. Unless this post counts and I have another week up my sleeve... Hmm...
2) ...preferably with a photo to keep things interesting and to keep me taking photos
I'm on to it. Although my food photography sucks the big one I am persisting.
3) Submit two more articles for publication before the end of the year
Nowhere near ready for submission on anything new. Must get cracking!
4) Read all the popular non-fiction (ie, not proper scholarly publication level) obesity, food and ethics books I've bought but not read yet
Ergh. Progress not so good. I've read a few pages of the Peter Singer I've been carrying everywhere. Must get better.
5) Attend at least five exercise classes per week: yoga, pilates, zumba, spin, pump
Massive fail. Not likely to improve while I'm away on conference. Must get much better.
6) Eat mostly whole foods
I'm going pretty well on this one. Exceptions are the frozen lasagne we had for dinner tonight (can't believe I just confessed to that) and several bad confectionary slip ups while I was surfing the crimson wave.
7) Purchase the most ethically produced meat and animal products we can source and go veggo when there are no ethical meat options available
Going ok so far. Need to find out more about ethical fish and seafood options. Couldn't get free range pork from the supermarket so left it out of a sichuan pork and eggplant dish. Luckily D and I both love eggplant.
8) Where possible, shop at Farmer's markets. Aim to visit a Farmer's market once a month as a starting point.
No success here yet. Will try harder post-conference.
9) Stay in touch with my brothers more. Even just a text message, but some form of contact at least once a month to start with.
2 brothers, one text message. Still not quite up to scratch.
10) Send Christmas cards to overseas & interstate friends
Surely I don't have to start on this one already?!?!

The Belgian Beer Cafe

2010-10-13T19:33:00.002+10:30

The weather on the weekend was so lovely and spring-time-ish, we decided to walk to the Belgian Beer Cafe to enjoy the sunshine and a few ciders.

I couldn't resist taking photos of some of the blossoms we walked past on our way:

I don't know what this tree is but the blossoms are so pretty!

I don't know what this one is either, but so many blossoms!!! And such beautiful spring-time sky!

The outside space was crazy busy - not a seat or a piece of grass free for us, so we did the logical thing and joined the incredibly long line for the bar to order drinks!

We tried the Rekorderlig Apple Cider and the Monteith's Apple and Pear ciders.

The Monteith's was perfectly decent, but there wasn't a great depth of flavour in either the pear or the apple, in fact, the two ciders tasted pretty similar. The Rekorderlig, however, was just delicious. Incredibly fruity but still clean and not overly sweet, and frighteningly easy to drink. According to their website, Rekorderlig is "Made from Pure Swedish spring water that runs directly under the brewery in Vimmerby Sweden". It is also officially my new favourite drink, and just in time for summer! I was super happy to discover that Dan Murphy stocks Rekorderlig, but tragically only the Apple and Pear varieties, not the delicious sounding Strawberry & Lime *pout*

We also had some of the traditional Belgian Frites and Mayonnaise, but they were so moorish they were all gone before I took a pic of them!

It's never too late to set resolutions

2010-10-10T14:15:00.003+10:30

Inspired by my dear friend Emily over at Emily is now I have decided I need to make some resolutions. Indeed I am resolved to make resolutions. Surely this is redundant...?
Anyway. I'm going to keep the list short and try to keep my goals achievable and measurable rather than inspirational and lofty, because I'll be taking stock at the end of the year and seeing how well I've done. I'm going to break it down into categories to keep my scientific brain satisfied.

Creative
1) Post to this blog at least once a week...
2) ...preferably with a photo to keep things interesting and to keep me taking photos
Work and study:
3) Submit two more articles for publication before the end of the year
4) Read all the popular non-fiction (ie, not proper scholarly publication level) obesity, food and ethics books I've bought but not read yet
Health and wellness:
5) Attend at least five exercise classes per week: yoga, pilates, zumba, spin, pump
6) Eat mostly whole foods
Environment & Ethics:
7) Purchase the most ethically produced meat and animal products we can source and go veggo when there are no ethical meat options available
8) Where possible, shop at Farmer's markets. Aim to visit a Farmer's market once a month as a starting point.
Family & Friends:
9) Stay in touch with my brothers more. Even just a text message, but some form of contact at least once a month to start with.
10) Send Christmas cards to overseas & interstate friends

Wish me luck!

Peanut Butter Brownies

2010-10-04T16:41:00.001+10:30

Confession time. I freaking love peanut butter. With a depth of passion that it is indecent for a woman to love a spread. I think it came to a head when I travelled to the US with my favourite Aunt, Maggie when I was ten and discovered that Americans have an entirely different relationship with PB than Aussies. There were peanut butter M&Ms, Reese's Pieces and many other permutations of the creamy, nutty spread that I hadn't even known I was missing in Australia. Sadly I had to adapt to life without Butterfingers et al, but my Mum indulged my peanut butter obsession with a Women's Weekly recipe, Peanut Butter Crinkles. Those biscuits are just delicious with the right amount of creamy nutty goodness offset with a little lemon zest and they have been a favourite since I was a little kid. But woman can not live by Crinkles alone. I need more and various ways to satisfy my peanut butter cravings! Fortunately I have discovered a new food blog, and already sunk many hours in to drooling over the gorgeous food p0rn photography and delicious recipes. This one in particular piqued my interest, enough to get my butt off the couch and into the kitchen:
Smitten Kitchen, peanut butter brownies Thank-you, Deb of Smitten Kitchen.

Peanut Butter Choc Chip Brownies
Adapted very slightly from Smitten Kitchen (mainly for ease of converting Imperial to Metric, and because I'm a bit slack and didn't read the recipe properly)

Ingredients:
250g butter, softened in microwave
1 3/4 cups caster sugar
1 cup peanut butter (I used crunchy because I like it on my toast, but next time would definitely go creamy)
2 large free-range eggs
2 cups of plain flour
250g chocolate chips (I used dark, but would give milk a go next time)

To make brownies:
Preheat oven to 180 celsius. Grease a 20cm x 30cm baking pan, then line with baking paper and grease the paper.
Use electric mixer to beat butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Add peanut butter and beat until incorporated. Beat in eggs, then add choc chips and stir until combined. Add flour and stir until just combined.
Spread batter into baking dish, smoothing the top with a spatula or damp hands.
Bake until brownies are golden brown and a bit puffy - mine only took 30 minutes and were already getting a bit overly golden on the edges.
I let mine cool in the pan overnight, but I think I would have been better to cut them to size after an hour of cooling.

Straight out of the oven - edges looking a bit brown...

Ooh, look at that cross-section with all those choc chips!

All cut up and ready to eat!

Cafe Vue Lunch-box - September

2010-09-07T15:59:00.001+09:30

Cafe Vue Lunch-box - September

Starter ~ Baba ganoush with potato crisps
Salad ~ Tuna and sweet corn risoni
Savoury ~ Chicken on brioche roll
Sweet ~ Lemon meringue

New obsession - manicures

2010-09-06T16:52:00.001+09:30

So, I seem to have developed a new obsession with manicures, nails and polishes. I dabbled in a bit of the odd polish when I was at Uni, but it was very slapped on, grungy style, black or navy or burgundy polish. This thing now, it is an entirely different beast. I can almost certainly date the beginning of my nail polish / manicure obsession to the (not so distant) days of pre-wedding beauty prep. Suddenly I realised, with the help of expensive women's magazines, that my nude nails were a no-no, and a manicure was part of a completed look. While I certainly don't want to subscribe to someone else imposing a stereotype on me, I do have to say that the painted nails, they make me feel happy. It's a way of injecting a bit of colour into a mostly denim, black and grey Melbourne wardrobe, and I'm really getting into it now. Up until last night I haven't been brave enough to do my own mani, preferring to pay $7 (in Singapore) to $20 to let some nice lady take care of my nails for me, but I have realised that's not really a sustainable obsession (not on my student budget). So last night, I painted my own nails, for the first time in many, many years:

Australis, Baby Doll.

Not too shabby, eh?

Belgian Beer Cafe, Moules marinière

2010-07-23T20:19:00.001+09:30

My 6 month PhD review went really well. I was worried I was going to get quizzed about why I am doing a theoretical PhD but the review panel seemed happy. To be honest I was hoping that they would say how impressed they were with progress I've made so far... full of my own importance much? Ha. Anyway, it went well, and to celebrate my office mate, Brad, took me out to The Belgian Beer Cafe for lunch.

Yum! I couldn't beLIEve the giant pile of mussels in my pot! I had the The Moules marinier, it was delicious, but boy was there a lot white wine in that stock. Lots of wine, lots of herbs (dried) and lots and lots of mussels. The mussels were served with the signature Belgian frittes & mayo and really excellent bread, which I of course used to soak up the delicious mussel, wine & herb stock. At $27 it's not a cheap lunch, but you could quite easily share with a friend (if your friend isn't a happy vegetarian, like Brad).

It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!!!

2010-07-20T23:27:00.007+09:30

We spent some time last night looking at movie trailers online and I am now hanging out to see Despicable Me. Animated films are something that I have come to love since David and I became a couple. Before then I had seen and enjoyed The Little Mermaid, Finding Nemo and probably some others I can't remember, but I wouldn't have said Animated was a genre I was in to, and I certainly wouldn't have rushed out to see an Animated film on the big screen. Since then, however, David has introduced me to the wonders of Pixar, Dreamworks et al and I am now a firm Animated fan. We saw Wall-E and Up at the movies and during both films I was brought to tears, something I didn't think would be possible when watching what I previously would have called a cartoon. I mean, come on, this stuff is for kids, right? Well, kids these days must be made of stone, because i was snivelling into my sleeve within the first ten minutes of Up, and my heart just about broke in the last ten of Wall-E. I'd also count Monsters Inc. among my favourite movies (I mean, come on, who can't love a big hairy blue monster and his eyeball sidekick who accidentally adopt a gorgeous little girl and name her Boo?!) and thought Ratatouille was great too.
What I really like about this generation of Animated films (from the Pixar crew at least) is they aren't built around a romance. Sure Wall-E loves Eva and Linguine is head over heels for Colette, but that's not what the stories are about. Eva's number one priority is her primary directive to find the plant (there's a career driven women if ever I saw one) and both Monsters and Up are essentially buddy stories with our heros up against some evil or injustice. And I think those are pretty good stories, for adults and kids alike.
Anyway, so where was I going with this...? Oh right. I am a recently converted Animated Film fanatic. And there is a new one being released soon - Despicable Me, with Steve Carrell as the voice of the #2 super-villain in the world, Gru. The part that I am really looking forward to? When Gru's recently adopted daughter, Agnes, discovers a fluffy unicorn toy at FunLand amusement park and declares that "It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!!!". I have watched that clip on repeat at least a dozen times already and it still makes me laugh out loud. And my ridiculous laughter makes David laugh. Everyone's a winner! It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!!!
Seriously though, Twilight can go suck it, I can't wait for Despicable Me.

I'm back!

2010-07-20T22:16:00.002+09:30

After nearly three years hiatus, I'm back on blogger.

More to come once I figure out what I'll be doing on here... At the moment I'm thinking weekly posts (minimum) with topics around food (recipes and restaurant reviews), books & movies, study & work, travel, and if I can ever actually craft anything (like i keep dreaming that i one day will) then crafting too :o)

What happened to eating in to save money?

2007-06-18T08:11:00.000+09:30

Ok, this is not really very significant, but I've just realised that we didn't eat one single meal at home over the weekend. Not one. Not even a breakfast. (I don't think the cup of tea before yoga on Saturday morning counts, right?) Is that bad? I'm trying hard to budget after the overseas cash splash that was my four weeks in Turkey, but my money disappears on food and drinks without me even realising it! Friday night - Korean, Saturday lunch - Japanese, Saturday dinner - pizza, Sunday brunch - non cuisine specific breakfast food, Sunday dinner - Szechwan. And I think we're going out for Pho for dinner tonight. Ai.
On the upside, all this food has been incredibly tasty and I enjoyed every last bite (except for maybe the slightly odd corn tea at KimChi Grandma, but that was a sip rather than a bite) so I guess it's not all bad.
Maybe I should copy Emily and do a restaurant review. Hmm...

Oh, BTW, I'm back, if that wasn't already obvious. Will post pics of the epic adventure sometime soon :-)

How's this for an awesome pic?!

2007-05-14T17:33:00.000+09:30

Everyone, I'd like you to meet my Dad. All say: "Hello, John!"

He's really a very clever fellow. I guess that's where I get it from :-P

Halloween!

2007-03-30T11:09:00.000+09:30

So, I realise that it's ridiculously late for a Halloween party post, but I can't be bothered writing an update, so I thought I would share these terribly flattering pics:

Kati in Wonderland, Star Fleet officer Steve, TinkerMolly:

Erm...

I have no idea what we're doing:

Party People! (check out my competition for prettiest fairy :-P )

That is all. I'm off to take some more Codral. See you later!

Moonlight Cinema

2007-03-13T13:25:00.000+10:30

Last weekend I made the annual Moonlight Cinema trip, just before the Melbourne season ended. It was my first Melbourne Moonlight experience, and I have to say, on the whole Melbourne was more picturesque and far less crowded than Adelaide. But Melbourne had bats that totally freaked me out. *shudder*

Anyway, Shelly and I walked to the Botanical Gardens from work

and scored an awesome possie:

Shelly reclined with rose in plastic cup:

We ate,

we drank,

(Shelly took a thousand random photos of me)

And then we watched Marie Antoinette.
I loved it, Shelly hated it.
I'd be interested to see what other people think. It seems to have appealed to girly and / or arty girls, but not to a single straight guy. I thought it was just gorgeous. It's very much character driven and visually amazing. It's not a documentary, or a film about the French Revolution (although it shows the Royal's perspective) so if that's what you want I recommend you go to see Le Miserables or buy a BBC doco. If you want a totally lavish film with amazing costume and set and characters you empathise with despite their flaws, then I think you'll be a fan.
I'm buying the DVD :o)

Girls just wanna have fu-un!

2007-02-22T17:43:00.000+10:30

Here's the re-cap:

I flew back to Adelaide for the weekend. Many fun things happened, including going out for dinner on Gouger st followed by cocktails at Lotus with the girls. It was an awesome night. I am still paying for it.

Here are some photographic highlights:

Emily thought that me trying to operate my new lipgloss was the funniest thing she had ever laid eyes on:

and after a minute I saw the funny side too:

Elli and Margie managed to keep it together:

But it was really so funny they ended up breaking down in giggles too:

The end :o)

Max Brenner

2007-02-09T11:07:00.000+10:30

Since I moved to Melbourne people have been telling me about this place called Max Brenner, a chocolate restaurant. A chocolate restaurant. A whole restaurant devoted to chocolate. I'm quite surprised it's taken me this long to check it out.
So, on Saturday night I had my first expedition to Max Brenner.

What do you do while you're waiting for your chocolate goodies? Take photos, of course!
Tom had Jamaican (I think...) dark choclate with orange peel. Mmm mmm. This pic wasn't even posed!

But this one sure was

Belgian waffles with strawberries and Trinidad white hot chocolate. Arm num num.

So tasty. So decadent. SO totally unnecessary. I am a total Max Brenner fan. Must go back soon :o)

I heart yoga

2007-02-06T17:16:00.000+10:30

So, I went to my first formal yoga class in over 12 months on Saturday morning.
It was so, so good.
It's a school of yoga I hadn't heard much about before, called Yoga In Daily Life. I checked out their website and thought it seemed interesting and definitely worth a try. I nearly piked at the last minute when I started thinking: I won't be as flexible as I was, and I don't want to be the new person in the class, which is just dumb, because how will I ever start anything if I'm not the new person occasionally, and the clear way to develop flexibility again is going back to yoga of course!
So I went.
And I am so, so glad.
The teacher for that day was a lady of about 40 or so with steely grey hair in a long plait, wearing embroidered fisherman pants, which was a good sign (fisherman pants seem to be strange indicator of whether I will get along with someone). The class space was gorgeous! We were on the first floor of a converted shop/house with big windows along the north facing wall letting beautiful morning light fall in on us *sigh* and birds in the trees outside singing away (I swear I am not making this up). And that's all before the actual class! Which was amazing! So perfectly, exactly what I needed. Some new poses that I enjoyed learning, and some old favourites that were good to gauge where my standard has dropped to. I was happily surprised to find I am still quite flexible. My balance is completely shocking tho. I could barely manage a decent tree pose. And forget shutting my eyes. But now I have something to work towards, which is great! I really, really pushed myself and pulled focus from somewhere I thought I had lost and found lots of long forgotten muscles. And it felt so good. So totally, wonderfully fantastic.
There is nothing quite like rediscovering something you once loved but drifted away from, only to find you love it just as much as before, if not a little more this time around :-)
Happy, happy, happy. I will definitely be going back next Saturday morning :-)

Aussie Day

2007-01-29T13:56:00.000+10:30

So, Australia Day was my first Public Holiday (aside from Chrissy and New Year's) that is actually a holiday for me. Yay! So I was very, very looking forward to it :-) and boy did it deliver. I had such a lovely, relaxing three days. Ahhh. I'm going to gloss over the fact that the holiday was in celebration of the invasion and overthrow of an ancient people by my colonial ancestors and just say: Gee, It's good to be an Aussie otherwise I might be lynched.
Went to a really fun house warming in St Kilda on Saturday night where I caught up with some work people and met some new people, so that was all good. What was not good was the evening descending to Spice Girls karaoke at about 1am. Ergh. I can't believe I know so many of those songs. *cringe*
Caught up with Kati B on Sunday, so I could give her just one last hug before she and Beej head overseas. Exciting! I also managed to buy two new dresses and a jacket and a cardi/shrug. Oops. So much for budgeting :-S

PS - retrospective posting of Halloween, Carols, Christening and Christmas are still to come when pics are off camera onto comp.

My goegeous niece :o)

2007-01-23T12:31:00.000+10:30

So. Finally. Pics of the gorgeous, brilliant, delightful Amelia Anne Bond:

Posing with Auntie Molly:

Looking very cute and chubby cheeked with Grandma:

Auntie Molly becoming very clucky indeed:

Looking cute with Grandad this time:

Isn't she just beautiful?

2006-11-09T13:58:00.000+10:30

Ellinor came to Melbourne last weekend, and we had a lovely time shopping and generally catching up and stuff :o)

I met up with Elli in town on Friday for a few drinkies at her Hotel, then we wandered to little Bourke St and had dinner at Spicy Fish, a Chinese Restaurant that came highly recommended - the food was good!

Saturday we spent ALL DAY shopping at Chaddy (admittedly, not exactly a struggle). Elli had some great success in the Summer Wardrobe Update stakes, and I bought some awesome prezzies for my gorgeous new niece (pics (of the niece, not the prezzies)) to follow as soon as I manage to get them off the camera and on to the comp).
Saturday night was the inaugural MAUCS dinner (Melbourne ex AUCS), attended by Elli and myself along with Kate Bywaters, Lisa Cat and Tom Byrt. (Annie and Sam were an apology due to exam revision and other nasty study type things) Of course we went to Camy Shanghai Dumpling and Noodle House on Tattersalls lane. And of course it was delicious and ridiculously cheap. After dinner Kati had to head home for exam revision and the rest of us made our way to The Gin Palace, which was unfortunately packed with drunk race go-ers. God, some of them were untidy. Guys in gorgeous suits covered in grass stains and beer and god knows what, and girls in what might have been a beautiful outfit at the beginning of the day just looking trashy and messy and tragic. It was a pretty pathetic sight. Fortunately some of them cleared out not too long after we arrived and our group settled into some couches to enjoy Strawberry Fridays and other classics. Mmmm. And to cap it all off, we visited Lord of the Fries before Tom and Lisa had to catch their respective last trams. Most excellent evening.

Sunday morning I had to say goodbye to Elli and trek all the way to somewhere south of bloody Moorabbin to meet up with some extended family members. Might as well have been Frankstone, coz I was feeling a bit green by the time I made it there. I'm glad I went tho, coz my Gran was visiting and she's a lovely old duck, so it was wonderful to see her.

So, yes, very busy, very fun weekend :o) I think I'm ready for a quiet one!!

2006-10-27T12:48:00.000+09:30

Ok, so it's not a particularly nice, fluffy topic to launch myself back into BlogSpot with, but I'm having a dilemma. There are a few things about Melbourne that are quite different to Adelaide: trams, number of people wearing black, restaurants (other than Ying Chow types) that serve dinner after 9pm... However, in amongst all these new and interesting things there is one particular thing I'm struggling to come to terms with: prostitutes. Now, it's not the concept I'm having trouble with - oldest profession in the world, according to the adage. I'm just not sure what the protocol is when you walk past a girl on the street corner who you know would take $50 from a complete stranger and in exchange perform acts that you (ok, I) won't even consider. My dentist's surgery is on Grey st, St Kilda, which is a well known hangout for the girls. Due to the fact that I am currently having possibly the most complicated and drawn out (read: effing expensive) root canal in the history of the world performed on one of my teeth, I find myself walking down Grey street fairly regularly these days, which means I also see the local girls fairly regularly. Which brings me (finally!) to my point: Am I supposed to smile politely and keep walking, or pretend I don't know they're there and what they'll do for a tenner and keep walking? I know everyone is thinking, "Of course you should smile at them, you pretentious bi-atch! They're people just like you! How do you know you wouldn't do the same if you were in their circumstances?!", which is why I've been smiling politely and continuing to walk down the road. But they never smile back. They always, always either look away or look straight through you. Which makes me wonder, are they wishing the pretentious bi-atch wouldn't smile pityingly at them? Or are they just wishing they weren't standing on the corner?

:-D

2006-10-17T08:02:00.000+09:30

Oh my goodness... I think my blogspot is back! I have no idea what stopped making it work, but I just kept randomly fiddling with settings and now here it is again! Yaaay!

It's a teeny bit late for a weekend update, but what the hey.

2006-07-12T12:53:00.000+09:30

Actually, lets start on Thursday. Everyone in my office was very excited to hear about the Myer sale and we all managed to convince ourselves that we definitely needed something that was on sale. At 5.30 we all hopped on the tram and went into town together (which was actually quite nice as far as tram rides go - I really like doing things with work people outside of work, even if it is a random tram ride LOL). So, arrive in town, walk to Myer, battle through crowds... only to be bitterly disappointed by the crappiness of stuff on sale. I've heard other people found great bargains, but we all seriously lucked out. Pho for dinner at a Vietnamese (duh!) place on Little Bourke, which was nice, but I didn't think it was as good as Charlie's Pho Shack on Grote street.

I had a loverly weekend. It was my first weekend in Melbourne not looking for a house and not moving into a house *happy sigh* Very low key and relaxing.

Friday day. Work, urgh.
Friday night I was supposed to be having dinner and drinks in town with an old friend, but she bailed. So I wandered along Chapel street for a while then crashed out early.

Saturday I had a huge sleep in then walked to Prahran Market. Prahran is such a nice market. Quite a bit more expensive than South Melbourne or Victoria, but it's very, well, nice. I bought heaps of yummy fruit and veg and other good healthy food. There's a stall that has the most amazing fresh pasta - it's a bit pricey, but I can't be bothered making it myself. LOL. I managed to restrain myself from buying cheeses and dips, but when I eventually give in, it's going to be very, very tasty :o)
Saturday arvo I pottered.
Saturday night I met up with Annie & Sam and Tom and went on an excursion to Box Hill for noodles. Yes, it does sound like a bit of a mission for noodles, but a friend who has lived in China recommended this particular place, so we thought we'd check it out. And boy was it worth the drive! Fantastic food! If anyone else is serious about their Asian cuisine it's called Noodle Kingdom and you have to try the Lanzhou (sp???) Beef Noodles. The noodles are hand-stretched and they are just indescribable. After eating far too much delicious food it was back to Camberwell for creamy White Russians (made with an added shot of cream) - yuuum. The perfect dessert.

Sunday I met up with my lovely Aunty for Brunch at Big Mouth. As always, very tasty, and very interesting people to people watch. Gotta love people watching in St Kilda. Then I spent all afternoon at Southland shopping for sensible house-y type stuff. I was tragically disappointed when Tom sent me a text asking if I wanted to see the Piccasso that arvo. Not disappointed because he invited me - disappointed becasue I would have LOVED to go but I was all the way out at bloody Southland, and I never would have made it in time *sad sigh* Better luck next time.
Sunday night, I had a bit of a downer when I discovered that my new DVD/VCR doesn't work ($140 doesn't buy you anything these days) But I managed to lift my mood by watching yummy Johnny Depp and eating yummy veggies and Turkish bread. Seriously, how can I guy in a pirate costume with smudgy eye-liner be so hot!

*happy sigh* again

I'm so over Live Journal...

2006-06-29T16:55:00.000+09:30

It's official. I'm sick of LiveJournal. I'm coming back to Blogspot.

Seeing as how I'm back, I thought I should give you a little update of my day.

It started wonderfully. I was having a great hair morning, which generally means the day ahead is going to be good. On the tram I helped two elderly gentlemen buy tickets, which made me feel all helpful and good and stuff.
Then I arrived at work.
My day quickly disintigrated.
I really don't feel like re-living it, but it involved other people being complete morons and making my job much harder than it needs to be. Lets just say, if you want me to issue information to patients it would be a good idea if you went ahead and checked that the information is correct before you give me some stupid, INCORRECT document and want it sent out that day. Grrr.
After becoming VERY angry at other people's apparent stupidity I decided I had to get over it before I completely freaked out my co-workers.
So... I walked to Chapel street and bought myself a pair of boots! Yaaay! I saw them in the window yesterday and have been thinking about them LOTS since then, so I decided I had to have them. They're round toe, flat, semi scrunch-down, APPLE GREEN leather! They were even on sale :-D
Now THAT restored my good mood :-D

And now I'm going to Chadstone.

Bring on more post-shopping endorphins (or whatever it is that's making me so happy :-P )

Overdue update time...

2006-06-05T13:03:00.000+09:30

So...

I've moved to Melbourne :-D

I'm working for Monash Uni. My new job and workmates are awesome.

I miss my friends and I miss the familiarity of Adelaide,

But I am absolutely loving it over here! I haven't had enough time to get homesick yet, so here's hoping I stay busy.

I put in an application for a gorgeous little apartment in St Kilda! You can see the beach from the bedroom window! Uber cool.

So, yeah, that's my news.
I have a very strange sense of being super busy and a bit overwhelmed, but am also feeling very happy and peaceful about where I'm at right now.

It looks like the move to a new city was just what I needed :o)

PS - I'm posting on LJ slightly more regularly than on blogspot, so it might be worth checking for updates there...

Dinner at Babanusa

2006-05-04T22:09:00.000+09:30

So, these are a little overdue, but here are a few pics of dinner at Babanusa. It was my very first Sudanese meal, and I found it really interesting, and very yummy. The pumpkin and peanut dip was such a strange taste combination, but totally irresistable. We had a few interesting conversations about Sudanese cuisine, and I learnt that Adelaide has the largest Sudanese community outside of Sudan. Cool, hey?

An out-of-focus pic of Tom and Emily, which I find strangely appealing :-)

2006-05-04T22:05:00.000+09:30

Emily and Jonny (and the waitress in the background) at Babanusa.
There seems to be an awful lot of wine glasses on the table... I don't remember drinking that much... it must have been Emily... it's always the quiet ones.

2006-05-04T22:01:00.000+09:30

Margie-Mark at Babanusa
Sorry Mag, I know you hate that name, but I just think it's so cute!... like you :-P

Random pic time again

2006-04-18T22:33:00.000+09:30

With Lukey at Mars.

Oh what a big night that was. So many belly buttons, so little time.

:o)

2006-04-18T21:58:00.000+09:30

I sat down to post, thinking I had all this stuff to catch up on, but now I don't know what to say...

I miss Mag already, and she's only been gone a few days :o( Pretty silly, but I hate having to say goodbye to people, especially such a wonderful friend.

I'm waiting by the mail box for my letter from the Melbourne people (being a bit vague in case anyone from work magically finds my blog) I'm starting to feel nervous about initiating contract negotiations. I feel like I should be organising my life, but I don't want to get too carried away with things before I know for definite what my situation is.

Easter was wonderful. I went home to Robe to spend time with Mum and Dad and had a lovely, peaceful, relaxing weekend. We spent lots of time reading and talking and drinking wine and eating yummy food and easter chocolate and going for walks on the beach. It was just what I needed.

The scarf is still under construction. Did I mention I have a short attention span?

Life and stuff

2006-04-02T19:06:00.000+09:30

News from Molly-land:

I am employed again... back in my old job. I'm no longer on the nasty Hep C or Stroke studies. I have landed a Flu Vac study, which is very busy but not nearly so depressing. I'm in a new room, which is not nearly as nice as my old one - smaller desks and more people to share with. I'm a bit dark about that. Although, I can see the airport now, so I spend a fair amount of the day watching planes land :o) The 'Interpretive Dance' escapade has resolved itself, thank goodness. Turns out the situation wasn't nearly as serious as I thought - we were actually working with test patients (as in, not really patients at all) to test a new database! Pfew!

I am still knitting my scarf. Progress is a bit slow and sporadic - I am still really enjoying the knitting, but I keep forgetting to actually take it out and knit. Fairly hard to make any progress when it sits in the bag for a week :-P

Hmm, what else... I have been on a bit of a spending spree lately. I've bought clothes for work, trackies, a pair of vintage black jeans, two v-neck jumpers and a black, crochet shrug. Should I be admitting I bought this many clothes? I actually didn't spend too much though. Nearly everything I bought was on sale. Honest.

I have some new plants too: a fuschia and a frangipani on my little balcony and a cordyline inside. I really love plants. Even though my balcony isn't at all like having a real garden I do love being able to have nice leafy plants and pretty flowers to look at and fresh herbs to eat :o)

Thats all for now. Bye.

Molly can knit!

2006-03-21T11:13:00.000+10:30

Here is my scarf, so far. Woo hoo!!!
Margie taught me how to knit on Saturday night and I am absolutely loving it! I know the scarf looks a bit wider in some places than others, but I'm not really that fussed. I am so excited to be doing something crafty and constructive! I've almost finished the first ball and have two more to go, so I'm starting to think that i might end up with a chunky and not-so-long scarf, but that's totally cool. I am in love with the colours too. Very happy :-)
I think I have the knitting bug, coz I'm already starting to think about what I might like to knit next :-)

Il cielo che danza - LOTS of pics - enjoy!

2006-03-13T11:36:00.000+10:30

2006-03-13T11:35:00.000+10:30

2006-03-13T11:34:00.000+10:30

2006-03-13T11:33:00.000+10:30

2006-03-13T11:32:00.000+10:30

2006-03-13T11:30:00.000+10:30

2006-03-13T11:29:00.000+10:30

2006-03-13T11:27:00.000+10:30

2006-03-13T11:25:00.000+10:30

2006-03-13T11:22:00.000+10:30

The sky that dances

2006-03-06T02:52:00.000+10:30

More pics to come, but I had to post this one as soon as I arrived home. It was such an amazing performance and an absolutely beautiful night.

My ponytail plant is flowering!!!

2006-02-28T17:36:00.000+10:30

After seeing Margie and Mark's excellent strawberries, my balcony garden was leaving me with a severe sense of inadequacy. Then I discovered... my pontytail plant is flowering! Yay!! They're not supposed to flower until they're at least 10 years old... my pot plants are so advanced for their age :-P

2006-02-28T17:35:00.000+10:30

I mean, look at this crazy thing!

2006-02-28T17:31:00.000+10:30

... and it is covered in lots of lovely bees!

mmm, just stuff

2006-02-25T21:01:00.000+10:30

In this crazy tumultuous world we live in, it is great to know that some things are still constant:
- no matter how good a multi-tasker one might be, trying to laugh and drink Smirnoff Double Black simultaneously will result in all sorts of nasty, choking mess
- any gathering involving more than about ten choristers and some alcohol will generally yield Morals Report worthy quotes (eg, "Well, whose getting off first then?" from a suspisciously sober alto :-P )
- going to the Central Market and eating a Zuma's 'Full-on' breakfast at 1pm on a Saturday is an awesome start to the weekend

All my friends are getting married...

2006-02-23T23:40:00.000+10:30

Well, not exactly all my friends...
It was my girlfriend Donna's wedding the other weekend. Yay! I did the first reading at the ceremony, and made her cry. Excellent.
The reception afterwards was so much fun. This is my fave pic of the night - Donna (sans husband :-P ) busting some moves on the dance floor. Woo hoo!
I get such a kick out of hearing her refer to Dan as her hubby! Too cute!!

Parisian bakery

2006-02-23T00:08:00.000+10:30

So, I just returned home from AUCS coffee and was feeling very hungry, so decided that instead of having a midnight snack I would look through holiday photos to distract myself, when I came across this pic of a gorgeous little Parisian bakery Ben and I bought lunch from one day. Yu-um. I battled through in my dodgy French, then we took our yummy cake-y pastry-y things and ate our lunch by the river. Sitting on the bank of the Seine eating a chocolate eclair... *sigh*

2006-02-21T21:52:00.000+10:30

Yes, that's me, hugging an ancient Scottish monolith (you can tell it's Scottish from the heather in the background, for those who didn't quite get that one).

No, I can't be expected to go back to living in Adelaide and working 9 - 5 (make that 7.30 - 4.30) after having done things like monolith hugging.

Yeah, feeling very random at the moment... no, I'm not on the "University cigaretttes"... it's a completely drug free state of weirdness...

Get me out of here

2006-02-21T21:47:00.000+10:30

Ok, I'm not really sure what's wrong with me, but lately I have been feeling incredibly bored, but seriously overwhelmed by life at the same time.

I think I need to get out of Adelaide. I'm applying for a job in Melbourne. I think Melbourne would be good for me.

Any suggestions about what the hell I should do with my life would be most welcome. Seriously guys, I could use the input.

Australia Day

2006-01-27T21:43:00.000+10:30

I had a very busy Australia Day!

Woke up super early and went for a long swim at Brighton, before it got busy and hot. The water was so beautiful! I really want to get down to the beach some more this Summer.
Then I met up with one of my best mates from school, Alicia, and had brekkie with her on Jetty road. Ish has just come home from a 2 year stint in Qld with her boy, so it was great to chill with her.
Then home to whip up a salad and off to a barbeque at Simon's place (Simon is my mate from Uni and now one of my best friend's boyfriend's - Adelaide is too small!). It was soooo hot outside. I don't know if it's a traditional Australia Day / Hottest 100 thing but we pulled out the kiddy pool and all stuck our feet in to try and stay cool.
Unfortunately my phone ended up having a bit of a swim, so it's now completely cactus :-( Big grrrr.

And another big grrr for 'Wish you well' being number 1. What's that about?! Not sure how i feel about the countdown this year. I'm a bit sad the Royksop's 'What else is there?' didn't make it in at all, coz i love that song. But Yay! to Sarah Blasko's 'Flame Trees' making it into the top 10. I know lots of people don't agree with covers in the Hottest 100, but that's such a beautiful track.

Random Photos # 02

2006-01-19T06:56:00.000+10:30

My fave photo of Christmas this year: me with my cousin Ming's little girl, Maeve.
(This is one isn't really random, but I love it so much I couldn't make myself wait to put it up with a Chrissy update post.)

Random Photos # 01

2006-01-18T07:04:00.000+10:30

I heard that people were desperate for procrastination material, so I've been going through my 'My Pictures' folder looking for pics that might entertain other people...

This is me and my Uni mates at a house party, possibly later in the evening after we'd all had a few. I think this was the party I made jelly-vodka shots :-D
(L-R: Donna, Robb, Jess, Andrew, Em and me)

My Bro's Wedding!

2006-01-04T19:57:00.000+10:30

So, my brother's wedding.

Ok, what I have to say right from the start is, it just wasn't my thing. Hanging out in the Barossa isn't the way I would choose to spend the second to last weekend before Christmas. And if I was ever organising a wedding I think I would have done it quite differently. But that doesn't really matter in the scheme of whether or not it was a good day and a good wedding. I think that Sam and Kylie were very happy with how things went, and so were Mum and Dad and (i think) the rest of the family, which is fantastic.

But down to details now.
The Friday night before the wedding I drove straight to Tanunda from work and met up with both of the families and the bridal party at Sam's place. Mum had cooked this fantastic dinner for us all to have together, and that was great coz I had a chance to catch up with the fam. After that, we all went and crashed out at The Weintel (in the hotel/motel everyone was staying at just on the edge of Tanunda) which was... interesting.
Saturday morning, Mum and I had been booked in to have our hair done at a hairdressers in Tanunda, which was... again, interesting. Having said that tho, it was very inexpenisve and the girls were lovely, so that's all good really. Then everyone sat around for a few hours and then rushed at the last minute to get ready.
The wedding was in Kylie's family's church, which is lovely - a little, old, Lutheran place outside of Tanunda. There were a few flowers in the church - pink roses with baby's breath etc. Sam and his groomsmen were in black tails with waistcoats (in December? are you mad?!!) Kylie's bridesmaids were in strapless, fitted, long, pale blue satin, and Kylie wore a strapless, ivory satin gown with a fitted bodice with lots of beading, then full over the hips into a big skirt and train.
The service was quite nice, but the pastor did bang on a bit about the sanctity of marriage, which was interesting considering he knows that Sam and Kylie have been living together. Even for someone who is a practicing Christian it felt a little like the hard sell. Anyway.
Photos.
Then, the reception. The band... interesting. The food... interesting. The company was fantastic though. I spent the night hanging out with Sam's best man Will's partner Elle. Poor Elle was left a bit stranded, because Will was at the bridal table. But we had a great time chatting and drinking wine and whatever. Um, later on my Mum kept on dragging me on to the dance floor to dance with her.

Ok, enough. I'll be back later.

2006-01-03T10:44:00.000+10:30

Forgot to mention - I pulled out a filling yesterday eating Panforte. Oh my goodness it hurt. So now I will be spending this afternoon having expensive emergency dental work done. Yay.

Catch up # 01

2006-01-03T07:47:00.000+10:30

I've said it before, but really, I'm not very good at this whole remembering to post thing. I have so many things to catch up on I'm going to have to update a bit at time.

At the moment I'm at work, staring out the window thinking about all the people who are still on holidays. I've only had public holidays off over Chrissy and New Years, so I haven't really had a break at all. *sigh*

Well, I just heard my boss arrive so I'd better dash and come back later.

I recieved heaps of new jewellery and lovely things for Chrissy etc, so I'll have to put up pics.

Next installment: My Brother's Wedding!

better late than never, right?

2005-12-07T22:51:00.000+10:30

So, obviously I'm not very good at this whole blogging thing. Note to self: Must post more often, so stuff I want to say doesn't accumulate into a small essay.
And, just while I'm here, note to friends: If any of you ever even dabble in the idea of having a big important funcion I will be wanting to attend (like a wedding) in December, just be ready for me to get mad at you. Who get's married in December? Who? Well, obviously my brother otherwise this wouldn't be so topical. Like it's not enough I have to shop for shoes and bags for my mother, grandmother and elderly aunt for the 'Big Day' (wish it was the Big Day Out instead) but I have to do so to the strains of hideous, schmaltzy Christmas Carols amongst the crush of people trying to do their Christmas shopping, which, by the way, I haven't even started!!!
Deep breath.
So, yes, I'm still alive, if a bit frazzled.
And I'll be back soon. I promise.

Finally! Mark's BDay BBQ - Chapter 2

2005-12-03T10:48:00.000+10:30

Cute couple Heidi & Johnny looking BBQ ready

2005-12-03T10:27:00.000+10:30

Happy little BBQ go-ers Elli, Margie and Emily

2005-12-03T10:16:00.000+10:30

Emily enjoying a paddle in the creek

2005-12-03T09:52:00.000+10:30

Michael and Heidi enjoying a bevvy, and Emily looking suspiciously beverage-less

2005-12-03T09:43:00.000+10:30

Cute couple #2 Phoebe and Alasdair

2005-12-03T09:28:00.000+10:30

Miss Margie and Miss Molly...

2005-12-03T09:22:00.000+10:30

... and just for something different - a rare pic of me not doing the Studio2000 smile :-D

Mary Mark's Birthday BBQ

2005-11-22T19:53:00.000+10:30

A snag with a snag :-P (yes, I know it's a rissole, but I couldn't think of anything cute to say about rissoles) Here's Marky Mark manning the barbie. I'm having issues uploading pics, so this is all for the moment from Mark's Birthday do.

Friday night lights

2005-11-21T20:17:00.000+10:30

This is Jess and me somewhere between Jimmy Rowe's and the King's Head. I think we were on Franklin street. And just so you have the whole mood captured, we were singing Busta Move. Jess started it, but she's blaming me now. Typical.

The Weekend That Was

2005-11-20T20:59:00.000+10:30

I had such a nice weekend, I don't want it to end yet :-( I had to pack in a few things, so I was pretty busy and didn't really have much time to just chill, but I DO love getting to spend time with all my wonderful people :-)
Friday night I had a night out drinking and dancing with Jess, which was awesome. We had a few yummy drinks at Zhivago's and a few silly dances at Jimmy Rowe's before we walked all the way to the King's Head (in heels!) to meet up with Simon and some of his mates (photos to follow). Fantastic night - one of those that's not too planned and just ends up being a totally wicked night. Yay.
Then Saturday day I had a really nice lunch in China Town with Sarah. It was lovely to sit and chat and catch up with her. Then that night was Clayton's Birthday cocktail party, which was very swanky and cool. Met lots of new people and also got to catch up with Clay, Pete and Emily & Gabe, which was great, coz I haven't seen those guys for ages.
Sunday morning took my Granny shopping. I'm not going to clarify whether or not that was fun - I'll let you fill in the blanks. Then Sunday arvo was Marky Mark's BDay BBQ, which was fantastic, and in my opinion the perfect was to spend a Sunday arvo (pics to follow for this also).
So yeah, that was my jam packed wonderful weekend. I'll put up the pics when I get myself organised.
Work tomorrow *sigh*

Working over Summer

2005-11-19T11:51:00.000+10:30

So, I found out this week that I have to work the Wednesday - Friday between Christmas and New Years, which is pretty annoying. So, I'm going to have to drive to Robe on Christmas Eve morning when all the other crazy people are on the road, and then drive back to town on Tuesday night. The three days pay will be handy and all, but I'm a bit sad that I don't get to hang out at Robe for longer. I miss Uni holidays when you can just chill and relax and not have to worry about anything until March... except for exam results :-P

Random wondering 002

2005-11-16T17:10:00.000+10:30

If you're an RAA member and you get a flat tyre, but you change it yourself, do you think you could get a rebate from the RAA? You know, for the labour they didn't give you? I should have just bloody called them instead of deciding I was an independent woman who can take care of herself and getting all dirty and irritated in the process of proving my independence.

The view from my office window

2005-11-15T20:59:00.000+10:30

Random wondering 001

2005-11-15T18:33:00.000+10:30

Does anyone else find it odly ironic that when you're unemployed you have all the spare time in the world, but can't afford to acutally DO anything or enjoy yourself, and then when you have a job you have money to go out and do stuff and enjoy yourself, but all that spare time you were planning on filling up with the afore mentioned stuff is now annoyingly occupied with bloody work?

Or is it just me?