Just another Friday night!

Quick and random pre-weekend post! Leah and I went to see The September Issue after work today, which is that documentary about American Vogue and the production of their 2007 September issue (which is always the big one) - and it was fantastic! It was basically The Devil Wears Prada, but REAL LIFE - seriously. That's totally what it was like. Anna Wintour - famous editor extraordinaire - is one scary lady, let me tell you. She walks into the room and the temperature drops like 5 degrees. She's completely ruthless, and honest in that bad way that causes lots of long, awkward pauses...i loved it.

If you want to see amazing clothes, awesome bitchiness, tantrums, icy stares, beautiful girls, Paris, London, New York, glamorous photo shoots, powerhouse designers, catwalks and couture and a general look into the scary and sometimes shocking world that is fashion, then this is a documentary for you. And Faatasi - when Andre Leon Talley (Editor-at-large for Vogue) came on screen, I turned to Leah and said "Oh my God. That's Faatasi in ten years." The scene where he goes to play tennis carting a Louis Vuitton luggage bag filled with water bottles? SEARiously. That's so you.





Afterwards we headed out to Pizza e Birra in Surry Hills for some bloody good pizza, let me tell you. I don't know if it was the one hour wait or the post-movie vodka, but that was an amazing ricotta and ham calzone... A few dirty jokes later and we were ready to head home...well i was anyway, Jo's off somewhere with the boys, getting up to who knows what!





So, i should head to bed - a big day tomorrow, with Jo's mum arriving bright and early, and Yash's birthday party tomorrow afternoon. Speaking of which, i can officially say, now that it's 12.01am on the rocket clock - Happy 1st Birthday Yash!! See you tomorrow, when i will plant a big birthday kiss on that cheek of yours.

Happy 1st Birthday Max!

Before i continue with weekend stories, i must say happy birthday to my gorgeous and hilarious (in equal parts) little cousin Max, whose 1st birthday it is today. On Saturday afternoon we headed over to see him since we can't make it to his birthday party this weekend. As one who never misses the opportunity to get down and boogie however, i decided to bring the par-tay forward a week - so we arrived bearing balloons, gifts, bubbles and most importantly, a birthday cupcake, complete with candle.

Now i must tell you - the loveliest thing about Max is his laugh. When he gets the giggles, which fortunately he does quite often, it really comes from the belly, wheezes and all, and it cracks me up. His reaction to both the elmo balloon and the bubbles was completely satisfying, another thing i love about this kid.

Incidentally, he also enjoyed the cupcake thank you very much. It was gone in under 60 seconds.

Max holding on tight to his balloon

Max and I



Bubbles! Bubbles!

Sweetest kid in the world, right? Try putting him to bed...

Max and his birthday cupcake. I blinked and only crumbs remained.

That night, we had a bunch of fun peeps over for the Bledisloe Cup - Tony, Kama, DT, Kevin, Chris and Leah helped us significantly reduce our alcohol supply, and all to see Australia go down to New Zealand by ONE LOUSY POINT DAMMIT! Is it fair? Is it right? Alas, the outcome was the same no matter which way you look at it.

Leah, Kama and I retired upstairs to watch Father of the Bride after dinner, taking a delicious bottle of Tempus Two Muscato with us (it disappeared so quickly - how to explain this? The mind boggles.) It's one of those movies that Leah and I have watched hundreds of times and know off by heart...we belted out all those classic songs too, Going to the Chapel, What's new Pussycat, The Day i met the Boy I'm Going to Marry...fun times, but i think our "enthusiasm" (read: ever-so-slightly drunkenly giddy behaviour) scared Kama. Well. Anyway.

On Sunday we took it easy - something we haven't done in a looooong time. Slept in, watched some Indiana Jones, I went and picked up brekkie at the Burke St Bakery...everyone was happy. And it was hot! Is it winter? 28 degrees and i was sweating out there. It's that weird feeling where your legs have been covered up for like three months, and you feel strangely exposed when you step out in public baring them for the first time as the weather warms up...

That afternoon we took in a walk over to an overpass near the airport where the planes often take off right overhead - Jo took the camera to see if he could get a few good shots, but they weren't taking off in the best spot after all. Still, it was nice to get out and about, and i had my Harry so i was happy...

Me and my other boyfriend

Plane! Plane!

Me! Looking my messy best.

Funny twisted tree that made a cool picture!

Views over the canal

We topped off a great weekend with pizza at Daniel and Romina's place where...yes indeedy....the old wedding album came out and we reminisced on happy times. Note, where there was any sort of action, my Dad's face seemed to be in amongst it. Surprised? Didn't think so. A fun night had by all, as always. Speaking of which, read Romina's blog here. She be funny lady!

A proper cup of coffee in a proper coffee...bowl?

To quote Romina - hey peeps! Long time no chat! In my defence, I've been real busy (read: lazy). Still, it's been an entertaining week, so here are a few stories to keep y'all amused.




Last night, Leah, Chris, Jo and I frequented some of the hottest joints in town, cause let's face it, we're totally hip dude. After preliminary drinks at the Macquarie Hotel - fine, not so hip, but hello, cheap drinks, and three vodka's later i was pretty darn happy about that - we toddled over to the Victoria Rooms in Darlinghurst, my favourite place for cocktails in all of Sydney, where i indulged in a Honey Bee (for those who haven't tried one - run, don't walk. They're delicious.) We discussed the finer points of the Victoria Rooms decor - English Colonial, we all agreed, like something out of Casablanca. Speaking of which, Casablanca was playing on TCM on Thursday night, and by chance we all happened to watch it - eerie, no??? Bah, maybe not. Great movie though, still one of my favourites.




But back to Friday, after cocktails we were suitably tipsy, but had a dinner reservation at A Tavola (which recently received one chef's hat i think, and thus has shot to fame very quickly and thus now requires reservations). But well worth it, because the pasta was delicious - they specialise in making pasta dishes, because they make it fresh in house, and LORDY was it good. Leah and I had a marvellous time quoting Home Alone for at least an hour over dinner - I'm talking the entire movie here, and we thought ourselves terribly clever and funny, but alas, I'm told the other patrons didn't find it as amusing as we did. In our opinion it IS one of the greatest movies of all time - one we'll probably be forcing on our own children for sure. I think i actually heard Leah say if her kids couldn't quote it on command, they'd be disowned. I tend to agree.




On a Friday night in town, you often see strange things - but on our walk back to the car, Leah and I were in hysterics because we came upon a perfectly formed slice of pizza lying on the ground - with a fake moustache on it. As you do. Now i know that when you've had a few to drink, things seem much funnier that they actually are, and to be fair, this is probably one of those time - but let me tell you, in that moment there was nothing more hilarious in the world. "His name is Luigi, Luigi the Pizza Slice!" Leah screeched, which set us off even more, and 24 hours later we're still finding the whole thing incredibly amusing. I'm sure we'll think fondly on Luigi from time to time for the rest of our lives.




This morning, we met up with Faatasi and Kat for brunch at the Danks St Depot, where they have this amazing thing called bacon hash, which i believe is basically deep fried bacon chunks, which sound gross but totally aren't. Faats will back me up here. They were so good. They also have bowls of coffee, which i loved. Not your regular cup - literally a bowl of coffee. If you're a caffeine addict like myself, you can imagine how impressed i was by this novel idea.




All manner of topics were covered, including the latest in Project Runway gossip, the merits of Twitter (I'm still being pressured by those two to join up...we'd be the unholy trio, says Kat, but i don't know...can i commit to another form of social media? Do people really care what I'm thinking every hour of the day? Isn't this blog presumptuous enough?), and whether or not i should get an iPhone - Kat and Faats say yes, but they are devoted iPhone users, so can i trust them to be objective? Admittedly i was seduced by the applications Faatasi showed me... i can so see myself going down that road.




Here are some pics from brunch -

My bowl of coffee

Faatasi, me, Kat - and coffee

Who's ya daddy?

Faats and Jo lovin' it up

It's nearly one in the morning now, and Jo is on a high because the All Blacks won the second Bledisloe Cup match, which means they've retained the cup. Fair enough too. Plenty more to talk about, but I'll leave it till tomorrow.

An indulgent weekend...!

What beautiful weather for a weekend in the Hunter Valley! Which is exactly how we spent it. We arrived in Morpeth late in the afternoon on Saturday, after an obligatory McDonald's stop along the freeway - David and Mel rode with us, and the boys certainly scoffed themselves silly with burgers and nuggets and sundaes...

We stayed in a little B&B just down the road from where we were having dinner that night - the original Arnott's Bakery! Now it's converted into a restaurant with a beautiful atmosphere and delicious food! Predictably (disturbingly?) David and I ordered the exact same meal - homemade prawn tortellini to start with, followed by steak with potato gratin - yum! And for dessert? Pear and rhubarb crumble. *sighs* It was a feast.

The Arnott's Bakery restaurant - so pretty!

Steak and potato!

Jo and I at dinner

After dinner, it was off to the Maitland Gaol for our nighttime history/ghost tour - which was not as scary as we thought it would be, but very interesting all the same - i never thought I'd be the type to feel sorry for prisoners, but after seeing that place? I actually did. It only closed in the mid-nineties, and the conditions in that place were pretty bad. For a while, it was NSW's only maximum security prison.

Until 1984, the prison had no running water or flush toilets - can you believe that! I was pretty shocked. The cells were hideous - i guess i should have expected that, but still, when you actually saw them, i was still taken aback. Inmates spent 22 hours a day in those things - one hour of exercises in the morning and one in the evening.

Chris (mid-seizure?), Leah and I in one of the 'nicer' cells

Me, Leah and David in the area of the prison where Ivan Milat was held.

David washing his hair (cue laughter) in the shower block

Leah, Chris, me, Mel and David in the shower block!

Some of the writing in one of the cells - many prisoners came in sane and were driven to insanity on the inside.

All in all a good tour - definitely an insight into a different world. Back to the B&B for bed, and then up bright and early on Sunday morning for our cooked breakfast, which was yummy too. Bacon, eggs, toast and jam, mushrooms, tomato's... good thing we started the day heartily, cause we had plenty of wine tasting to do that day!

We headed into Pokolbin, which is one of the main areas for wineries in the Hunter Valley, and started the day at my favourite place - Peterson's Champagne House! DELICIOUS is all i can say. Leah and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves tasting all sorts of champers (perhaps a bit too much at that time of the morning...), and both came away with a bottle (ready to crack one open on Saturday night Leah?) It's a neat little place, that has a bubble machine making bubbles fly through the air every few minutes!

Bubbles!

Champagne purchased? Check!

Looking less tipsy than we actually were...

Right next door to Peterson's is the Hunter Valley chocolate shop, so we stopped in for chocolate dipped strawberries - as you can see, David was in heaven. At least i think it was because of the strawberries. Otherwise i don't wanna know.

Leah beelines to the rude section of the chocolate shop - jelly boobies anyone?

After another stop at a winery that resembled something NASA would build (and where, i regret to inform you, Leah and I tried nearly everyone on their tasting menu, which led to some unfortunate 'ET phone home' photos that I've chosen not to post here...), we travelled on to Audrey Wilkinson winery, which had some beautiful views, as you can see!

Vineyards, vineyards and vineyards oh my!

Hey look - some more vineyards

By this stage, it was well and truly time for lunch, before we all fell down - but not before Chris was yellow-carded at the bar for smooching Leah. Hello? No public displays of affection while wine tasting. Everyone knows that dude.

So it was off to Tempus Two, one of the biggest and well known wineries in the area - not just for their wine, but for their food! The Smelly Cheese Shop was where i was headed baby - not to be missed by true cheese lovers like myself. And yes, it really was smelly. For our late lunch we shared some cheese platters and pizzas, before heading in to taste the good stuff.

Say cheeeeeeese! Get it? Say cheese? Cause we ate so much cheese? Didya?

At Tempus Two

We indulged in some gelato and coffee to top off the afternoon, before stumbling back to the car to head home. It was nice to get out of the city for a weekend, and the weather was so amazing! Is this winter? I don't want to curse our luck, but it's been so beautiful.




Other news - well, there isn't really any. I've finished season 7 of SVU and loved it - best season so far that i've watched! Loved the last 4 episodes. We've also taken to watching Absolutely Fabulous on weeknights - I'd forgotten how hysterical that show is. Sweetie darling! But Patsy's such a hoot. Righto, better get to bed - work tomorrow, followed by more work on Wednesday, and then another two days of work after that. *sighs* I was meant to be born rich, i just know i was, but somehow it all went horribly wrong...

Sore throats suck

Quick post. I have a sore throat. And it sucks.



I think i hate having a sore throat more than any other cold and flu symptom - probably because i love to eat, and it really ruins a good meal. The only thing that feels good to swallow is dry toast.



In other news, had a nice day out yesterday with my cousins Susie and Adriana. It was nice to wile away an afternoon sitting in one of our favourite coffee shops before heading to the movies to see The Ugly Truth, with Katherine Heigl and my other boyfriend Gerard Butler who is totally gorgeous in that masculine, rugged way...do i drool? Sorry Jo.



It was a fun movie, not serious in any way, so if you're after an Oscar winner then give it a miss. But we girls enjoyed it :)



Alas, my day was ruined with the development of this sore throat - hopefully it will go away soon, and in the mean time, I'll comfort myself by making Jo be my slave (unfortunately Gerard is on location), watching Law and Order: SVU and finishing off Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Road rage

So this evening we felt as though we had stepped into the twilight zone after going to dinner in Randwick and witnessing a genuine case of road rage.

It was the most bizarre thing, this girl was in her car and must have attempted to pull out in front of another car - not a big deal, she didn't hit him or anything, and it looked like she was trying to pull out safely - but the guy in the other car stopped (holding up a long line of traffic too), got out of hit car, went over to the girl in her car, stuck his head into her window and started screaming at her for trying to pull out! And i mean SCREAM, he was so loud and rude, i thought he was actually going to hit her, he was like a madman! I'd never seen anything like it, and Jo actually felt bad that he didn't go over to stop him, because the girl looked terrified. He went on and on for like ten minutes...what a weirdo. I can't believe people can get so angry so quickly over something so stupid, but there you go, i guess it happens.

Thankfully the night got better after we had dinner at this great little Moroccan restaurant which has the most delicious food - their signature dish is this Lamb Tajine, with prunes and almonds and other spices, which is heavenly! They also do an amazing chocolate souffle which we had for dessert.

After a busy week at work, it was nice to let off some steam last night at work drinks (and we certainly did let off steam...!), and then celebrate our friend Abbey's birthday with dinner at this Thai place in Surrey Hills. We wondered over to the Burdekin for drinks, and the light outside was so pretty that i whipped out my camera for a picture!

City glow

The lovely Abbey

Today we went "visiting" - a term i use when i know we're going to drop in on a bunch of people for a quick catch up! We saw my cousins Charlie and Gerda - who supplied us with tea and chocolate cupcakes and lots of laughs as always.

Then in was on to my brother's - they have quite the menagerie of animals, who kept us thoroughly entertained all afternoon - so without further ado, let me introduce...*drum roll*

Reginald, AKA Reggie - as his expression here shows, Reggie is slightly wary of having a camera shoved in this face, which is exactly what i did on at least 20 occasions in the time we were there.

Ennis, the newest addition - totally and utterly adorable in every way, though my brother assures me this is because he is only 10 weeks old - apparently when he grows up he'll be quite ugly, so there you have it.

Jose the kitten. Spent most of the afternoon hiding from the dogs...in the dog house.

I know people, it makes no sense to me either. But you just can't talk reason to cats.

"Hey guys? Guys? Are you in there? Where's the food y'all?"

*peer* "Scooze me, you has food?"

"OK I'm sitting. Where's the biscuit?"

Me and Ennis hanging out

"Listen, just let us in the house. We swear we won't touch anything. Is that pizza on the bench?"

Afterwards, we really felt we hadn't had enough animal lovin', so we headed over to my parents to see....

Cooper - don't let that dopey face fool you. He totally knows how to scam food off the innocent bystander.

Comet the bionic dog. Held together by metal plates only.

Cooper and I bringin' the love home.

Mum and Jo

And that's the weekend so far folks!

Fun times in our nations capital.

I'll just precede this by saying that over the weekend, Jo's wonderful mum Dawn celebrated her 60th birthday - a huge milestone - so even though we spoke on Saturday, I'm going to give her a shout out again - HAPPY BIRTHDAY! We wish we could have been there to celebrate with her, but we're looking forward to her visiting us in Sydney later in the month!



OK, here we go - on Saturday morning, we departed bright and early for Canberra, our capitol city, an expedition that was born out of my friend Kat and I wanting to see an exhibition that was showing at the National Portrait Gallery, and basically bullying Jo and our other friend Turnsie into coming along.



We started the day with breakfast at McDonald's - which is how any successful road trip SHOULD start i say - and then embarked on the three and a half hour drive to actually get there. Yes, there were a few arguments regarding capitol punishment and the often pathetically weak sentencing of murderers and rapists in this country, and yes our minds were boggled during a discussion on time travel and Stephen Hawking's theory of black holes - but other than that, we arrived unscathed and raring to see the exhibition. So our first stop was the National Portrait Gallery!

On the road to Canberra

Old Parliament House, which we stopped by briefly

The exhibition was celebrating 100 years of the magazine Vanity Fair, and featured loads of photographs of artists, actors, writers, scientists, politicians and other notables, which had been used as Vanity Fair covers through the ages. Each photograph had a description about the person in it and their achievements, as well as details about the photographer. I thought it was great - really enjoyed it, especially because you knew so many of the people who were photographed, and being interested in photography, knew some of the people who took the photos as well, like Mario Testino (who took a series of very famous photos of Princess Diana, and later of Prince William) and my favourite, Annie Leibovitz, whose creativity and genius just amazes me whenever i see any of her work - she's photographed just about everyone there is to know, and has had some amazing moments - like taking the last professional photographs of John Lennon - he died only 5 hours after the shoot.

Afterwards, we headed to Lake Burley Griffin, which is an artificial lake in the middle of the city, and is named after the American architect Walter Burley Griffin, who won the design competition in 1912 for the city of Canberra.

Kat, Turnsie and I have fun pointing out our favourite flags...


...and then Kat attempts to push me into the lake.




Turnsie in a moment of solitude and reflection...


Kat and I by the lake



Jo and I having bucket loads of fun



Wheeeee!

Kat and I

We headed to the serviced apartments we were staying in after this, to get ready for dinner. But first, we knew something else was in order - and that, my friends, was jumping on the bed.

Yes, it's true, in age we ranged from 24 to 35, and yes, it's also true that by day we appeared as responsible, law abiding, hard working citizens of this fine country.

But on this cold, August evening, we four strengthened the ties of everlasting friendship by joining together in the quest to capture the finest bunch of bed jumping photos the world has ever seen.

Here is a mere smattering of what resulted:

We emerged from the frenzy, broken, beaten, exhausted. The bed itself fared far worse.

We had spent over an hour jumping around like lunatics searching for the best shot, the right pose, having thought we actually broke the bed several times (Turnsie, this means you), and were now sore and damn tired - alas, it was a poignant reminder that we were indeed adults, with adult bodies. Oh, to be a child again!

Still, onwards and upwards. We had dinner with some friends at the Charcoal Grill, which was actually very nice - i enjoyed oysters and veal, topped off with fresh apple pie. However within 20 minutes of leaving the restaurant, i was violently struck with an illness that shook me to my very core. I am talking, of course, about food poising.

Well. I think it was food poisoning. All i know we got back to the apartments just in time for me to be sick all over the place, several times over! Better out than in though, and once i was done i felt much, much better. I went straight to bed and woke up good as new on Sunday, ready to rock and roll.

We checked out, and headed straight to the Kingston Markets, which were actually great! They had lots of local artists and craftsmen showing off their wares (i was tempted by a $300 owl - it was awesome!) and even better, a huge food section where you could taste everything from cheese to fruit to chocolate to freshly baked bread. Yum! I had a lovely cup of hot apple cider, spiced with cinnamon and cloves, and Kat had some delicious mulled wine. And we tasted everything! I picked up some melting moments and walnut and date shortbread, and an antipasto foccacia and a boysenberry pie, and we had chocolate dipped strawberries and tried chai tea and blue cheese and pesto and fetta bread and all manner of jams and chocolates. So much food goodness!

Jo and Turnsie at the markets

Me at the markets!

Afterwards we raced over to Poachers Pantry, just outside of Canberra City, for our lunch reservation. This place is kind of a local secret - the food is delicious, the service impeccable and the atmosphere really cosy! It's a great place, always booked out too, so we had to make sure to make a reservation even for lunch!

We tried some appetisers, including the delectable goats cheese souffle and yummy mushroom and poached duck ravioli, and then got some platters to share, one with all sorts of cold meats, another with vegetables and seafood, and yet another with cheese! It was SO good, i didn't even know what i was eating half the time, but mmmm it was excellent! Really enjoyed it, highly recommend going if you are in the area!

Our platters! Or what was left of them.

Kat, Turnsie, me and Jo at lunch :)



Me outside Poachers Pantry, bonding with nature.

After our leisurely lunch, it was time to head back to Sydney. We'd had a really fun weekend, and by the time we got home we were super tired and ready for bed.

And that was Canberra! The End!