The Beach

After having such a beautiful Summer's day for high tea on Friday, I decided I wanted to go to the beach the next day! I hadn't been since October 2011 - mainly because of the rainy "Summer" Sydney experienced in 2011-12.

It was just what we needed because it was 37 degrees! We went down to our usual spot - Bombo beach right near Kiama. It's worth the drive to get away from the crowded beaches of Sydney, and I really hate crowds. The best part was that Teddy enjoyed it :)

Teddy knew that sand was really hot so he dug a hole to lie in the cooler sand. Smart doggie!

Our yummy snacks

One of the rockpools

Teddy made some friends

This small pool of disgusting, stagnant water was so
smelly and Teddy accidentally fell in it!

Teddy loves his mummy

Teddy enjoying some swimming

Afternoon Tea

I had a lovely day today! I spent it with my dear cousin. Last month she said "I've never been to high tea before" - my ears pricked up as soon as I heard those words. Naturally I jumped to the opportunity and organised afternoon tea at The Tea Room in Queen Victoria Building. I've been many times and never get sick of it!

Except it wasn't in the afternoon but at 10AM - we needed fuel for shopping! I was glad to see that the Swarovski Christmas decorations were still up in QVB :)

I learned from my previous mistakes at afternoon tea - I left the scones until last! Normally I dive into them first because they are so warm and delicious, but it makes me too full to finish the other treats! I ended up only eating half of 1 scone as a result :) Oh, and I never NEVER get sick of the cheesy/oniony tart, whatever it is. The macarons were strange because they were blue! Blueberry flavoured apparently.

I'm a claaaaaaaaassy laaaaady :D

Love my cousin xx

Midnight Snack

Last night I fell asleep in front of the TV and woke up at 1:30AM with the itchiest feet and ankles! I am extremely prone to mozzie bites and do not know how the little turds got in the house. Sneaky devils.

Naturally I couldn't sleep so the obvious solution Roxanne-style was to bake something! As absurd as this sounds, this is typical behaviour of me. Funny how I could never get up in the middle of the night after a "power-nap" to study for exams yet I can stay up for hours cooking!

So it was time to expand my baking repertoire a little. I had bought some brioche moulds that were on sale at an obscure little Indian catering supplies/haberdashery store ($3 for 12 - and they came with 12 tartlet tins too, how awesome is that?!) and I wanted to finally use them!

I was disappointed in the result :( They paled in comparison to the buttery clouds that I had sampled in Paris. They tasted like really dry, stale, flavourless sponge cake. Paul had no negative feedback to give me after breakfast this morning though, so I suppose they can't have been THAT bad!

Anyway, here they are. You be the judge!

Not the deep brown I was expecting.
I used a fair amount of egg/milk wash before baking too!

Spread with truffle butter

The excess was made into a loaf

Happy New Year!

2012 was a great year. I kicked it off with my brother and sister-in-law in Ottawa, Canada. It was about -20 degrees celcius outside and we stayed in watching an ice hockey game on TV (yes there was a hockey game on new year's eve!) followed by watching that weird glowing ball drop in New York City.

There were many ups and downs in 2012. A couple of close friends got married and many girls I went to school with either gave birth or announced pregnancies - no not me yet!! Unfortunately I experienced yet another unexpected death, of a friend who was very close and dear to our family. He was only 49.

I did have a number of highlights however! Standing up with my childhood friend Judy for her wedding day in May... Seeing Europe for the first time - with lunch at The Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire UK on the day of my 27th birthday in January. Purchasing my first business - a dental practice in October and of course seeing Radiohead live and experiencing Thom Yorke's hauntingly delicious voice in November.

Last year I was far too indulgent with little self-control... As much as I adore the lavish lifestyle of melt-in-your-mouth chocolate, the audible crunch of golden flakes of pastry, the tantalizing sensation of champagne bubbles popping on your tongue... It is time to stop throwing caution to the wind and to reign in my hedonistic ways.

The fruits of my sin are evident on my waistline, butt and thighs. Call it cliché but my new year's resolution is to get into shape. So to all ye new-year-dieters out there, I wish you all the best for 2013 - a bumpy road to hot and smokin'... Here's to a sexy year.

Happy Holidays!

So it's been ages since my last post, I apologise. I've generally been just burnt out from working so much. There was the great rush toward the end of the year. I was so glad to see the last day - we did a half day; people were still ringing to come see us that afternoon! For lunch that day my 2 staff members and I went to try the new buffet at Penrith RSL.

The buffet was quite nice! There was a chocolate fountain, a sushi train and lots of seafood - which the girls and I went straight for! We had to be quick - what I disliked about the buffet was their closing time of 1:30!!!! We finished work at 12:30, exchanged gifts then rushed over to the RSL and got there at 1:05. Oh, and their soft serve is fantastic! I was quite satisfied. I gave the girls some spa pamper days at Hopewood Health Retreat in Wallacia.

For Christmas Paul told me to open one of my presents early because I "might want to use it before Christmas". He was right, because I was baking lots of treats for my relatives. He got me a pink KitchenAid mixer!!! I was so over the moon! I've always wanted one but didn't see the point of spending the money - especially knowing that it's only $150 (YES $150) in Canada!

I baked my heart out on Christmas Eve - and it was a 40 degree day in Western Sydney :S I was home alone with just my Teddy and I noticed he was missing - I found him lying on the floor in front of the toilet! I was sweating so much but my labours paid off.

Wanted it to look like an assorted chocolate box menu hehehe

They were a big hit with the family and I didn't make TOO much of a mess! But you start to run out of bench space pretty quickly! I thank the person who invented disposable piping bags!!!! Paul also got me some cast-iron cookware... I kinda get the feeling he wanted to benefit from the gifts he got me...???

So I ate, drank (including Tasmanian sheep's whey liqueur - what the???) and was merry! I have a few cleaning out days planned before we bring on the New Year!!

So from our family to all of yours, we wish you have the happiest holidays and a prosperous 2013!

Slowly We Unfurl as Lotus Flowers

Ahh.... I am still on a high after last Tuesday night when I got to see RADIOHEAD!!

I don't know where the time has gone; it was back in February that I was on my way to work and Tom & Alex on Triple J announced that Radiohead would be touring in 2012 with a Sydney visit included. On March 1st tickets were to go on sale at 9AM - I gave Paul the task of the purchase since I had a 9:00 patient that day and would have been unable to do it (not to mention his internet abilities far surpass my own). At 8:55 he was pulled over to the side of the road, laptop open with wireless broadband stick in. He succeeded in getting us Row V to the side of the stage but it was better than no tickets! That day, tickets for both November 12 and 13 sold out within 4 minutes.

So last Tuesday I left work an hour early and hopped on a train to Central - first time on a train in ages! Paul met me at his favourite sushi restaurant, Yumei at Capitol Square. We originally tried to book Wagaya which is across the road from Sydney Entertainment Centre but I figured all the other fans attending had the same idea, cause they were booked out. When we were heading toward the entertainment centre Paul realised that he had lost the tickets!!!!!! He had folded them and put them in his back pocket and when he checked they were no longer there. My heart stopped for a moment then went into overdrive. We told the ticketek girl so she did an ID check on Paul then we had to wait a while to confirm that no one had found our tickets and tried to get in with them!! She then had to wait a few minutes to change the code of our lost tickets to prevent them being used. Finally she told us everything was OK and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Our replacement tickets!

I probably should have brought binoculars because we were really high up! At first I was wondering why the place was so empty for a supposedly "sold out" show. I then discovered why - the supporting act "Connan Mockasin" weren't very good. The lead singer had an accent ringing of Kiwi and he even thanked us all for our patience with them! They had experimental, psychedelic type music but it didn't seem to have any structure or harmony. I still don't know why Thom Yorke himself (apparently) picked them. If anything it made Radiohead that much better!

There was about a half hour break before Radiohead came on. By this time the centre was filled to the brim.

I also had a couple in their 40's come sit next to me and I tried all night to ignore their constant making out and fondling in my peripheral vision. The woman was drunk to begin with when she arrived and at one point she spilled her beer down my leg. It ALMOST ruined my evening but Thom Yorke made up for it and then some.

Lotus Flower is such a fantastic song to start with, especially with the vocal loops that play during darkness in the lead up to the introduction. It just got everyone more and more riled up with every passing moment. The introduction was just like in this YouTube video from a Radiohead show earlier this year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1f7trBwlDE

The best my Samsung Galaxy S3 could capture from Row V
I love, LOVE the way Thom Yorke moves!

What I didn't understand was the standing ovation they received following Paranoid Android. It's a good song I guess, and I absolutely loved it when I was a 12 or 13 year old, but Radiohead has evolved into so much more between then and now. I actually prefer their experimental electronic music of more recent years. It just goes to show how significant this song was to everyone there that night - as well as being pivotal in Radiohead's international success as a band.

Street Spirit

Some stand-out songs for me other than Lotus Flower were Bloom (a song I love to pieces anyway), The Daily Mail (which Thom Yorke dedicated to Rupert Murdoch) and How to Disappear Completely - this made me want to just shut my eyes and absorb Thom's haunting voice. I couldn't see very well but could count 3 or 4 drums set up for There There. The music was just so powerful. The beer-spilling, canoodling couple next to me left when there were still two more encores. They mustn't have been true Radiohead fans!

The third and final encore was Idioteque - Paul's favourite song. Judging by the response earlier, I think Paranoid Android would have been a better song to end with. It seemed to be the climactic point of the evening.

This was definitely an evening I will remember for the rest of my life! I really, really hope there will be more Radiohead experiences in the future.

Hooray!!!!

A big step in the new chapter of my life began this afternoon at about 3PM when my lawyer settled the purchase of my very first own dental practice! It is scary. But exciting! Paul has been absolutely wonderful to me by doing all the nitty-gritty paperwork. I've delegated him to be practice manager! I absolutely HAAATE paperwork!!!!!! I'm still scared. Aaargh. Hooray!

A Glitzy Weekend

We had a stay in Saturday this weekend. My cousin and her fiancé came over for lunch. Paul made his famous "sleepy burgers" - you seriously need to take a nap afterwards and many have done so on our couch. It's just a nice fat, juicy patty with beef mince, onion, garlic, breadcrumbs and some concoction of flavours that Paul fashioned by instinct! This time we also experimented with onion rings - the deep fry was on for freshly cut fries (Fry's Fries) so we figured, why not? I think I can feel a triple bypass coming on earlier than I expected.

As for me, I stuck with where I shine best - beaters, sugar, oven. I created glitzy chocolate puddings. Golden Glitzy! Cadbury Crunchie Glitzy :)

Teddy is usually fine with having company
over. Although he'll want to jump up into
your lap - hewon't touch your food, he just
wants to be part of the table conversation!

No this is not a spring roll - it is a battered and
deep-fried Snickers bar. Yes, Snickers.

Steph's Wedding

What a beautiful day it was. So happy that the rain held out for the ceremony and reception. A lovely patient of mine (a retired hairdresser) did my hair for the day! Stephany was absolutely stunning and when she got emotional I felt a little teary-eyed myself! We met at the bridal preparation house for a pre-ceremony "hossah" - food and dancing until the groom's family come meet the bride... we then went as a big group to the church. I was actually glad for the overcast weather because it was better for my photos!

Steph with her special bridal "yalekhta"
A traditional Assyrian decorated dancing cloth

Steph's gown modelled after an Elie Saab creation

Me with one of the dental nurses
and her lovely sister

Saying goodbye at the reception