Project 289 - Day 14 : What Are Gorgeous Boyfriends Made Of? Kisses and salmon and melons and cupcakes.....YUM!

So how did the great and glorious 3 Month Anniversary dinner go? Wonderfully, of course! Well I always knew that my partner and I would have a lovely time, but confident though I am, I wasn't entirely convinced I could prepare and serve (with suitable grace and efficiency!) an entree, main and dessert the way I wanted it done. In the end though I managed it - it's amazing what you can accomplish in 1 hour and 20 minutes!! My beautiful guest turned up with a dazzling Verdelho and a yummy dessert wine, and together we had the sort of deeply romantic night where we affirmed how much we mean to each other, while cramming in more calories into our bodies in one sitting than clowns into a Mini!!!

Here is the entree - honeydew melon & rockmelon (one melon per tray) delicately wrapped in Panchetta with rockmelon and honeydew melon triangles for decoration. Way more entree that the two of us could manage but oh so yummy and delicious by candlelight!

The came the main meal which my boyfriend helped me cook - he definitely knows his way around a kitchen. The salmon was panfried in lime and lemon juice and placed on a bed of wild rice/white rice and mushroom, with honey and sesame seed carrots, and asparagus on the side. I know I cooked it and likely am breaking a cook's code by saying this, but it was delish! (You'll note, naturally, the arty way I worked my boyfriend's foot into the frame! LOL)

... and then, of course dessert which was hot pink frosted cupcakes! What?! Isn't that a tad too "low art" for the "high art" entree and main that preceded it? LOL Well besides the fact that don't make such distinctions (far too discriminatory for my tastes), the cupcakes had a huge sentimental significance since they were one of the food items we made for Fair Day back in February and so meant a lot to both of us. Plus they're yummy and all the icing and lollies gave us a fabbo sugar high!! Wheeeeeeeeee!!! LOL

Finally here we are after a fabulous night of eating, kissing and enjoying each other's company. Happy Anniversary babe - it's been the best 3 months of my life!

(Oh yeah, and there are 5 photos instead of the usual 1. But I figure it's my Project - I created the rules, and I shall break them! LOL

Project 289 - Day 13 : And Then There Was Food...And There Was Much Of It

I am enormously sentimental. I keep concert tickets, Christmas & birthday cards, even the Lindt dark chocolate container lid that held the Lindor Balls I had on my first date with the guy who is now my best friend. If it commemorates some sort of emotionally significant event, and it doesn't weigh 6 tons (OK that would be the elephant I smuggled out of Taronga Zoo years back) or occupy half my apartment, then it stays.

This sentimentality, which I need to stress does not evidence itself with Hallmark-like treacly gushing, also extends to the way I mark important events. I love Christmas. I adore birthdays.... and I am absolutely huge on making sure that great milestones (this is the one and only time I will embrace anything imperial thank you! LOL) are not only noted, but celebrated, photographed, and remembered!

So today, which marks the three month anniversary of meeting the most wonderful guy in the world (hmm did I just slip off the no-Hallmark-sappy-talk wagon? LOL), I am making what I hope will be a wonderful meal - melons in panchetta for entree (appetizer), salmon steak in almond meal, lime and lemon juice on wild rice with asparagus and carrots for mains, followed by cupcakes (we made them up for Fair Day this year, a major Sydney Gay day out and they have much sentimental value) inscribed with "3 Months" done in Snakes Alive, Smarties and Licorice Allsorts. I see it as a grand epic food spectacular and a very romantic evening, but then I always dreamed in grand and sweeping technicolour vistas. Check in tomorrow to see if reality gave me my dream night!

Project 289 - Day 12 : Better Read Than Dead

OK I'll admit I stole the title of this blog from one of my favourite bookstores ever - "Better Read Than Dead" - which sits up on King Street, my favourite street in Sydney, and quite possibly, the world. (I can't say that with absolute certainty having not visited every street in the world; of course if I was a virulently right wing tabloid columnist, that small piece of logic wouldn't even enter into my statement.). 

Now my admission of plagiarism out of the way, I will happily state that one of my favourite things to do on a weekend is spread out the Los Angeles-sized mass of paper known as Saturday's "Sydney Morning Herald" and read it on my bed (today adorned by thoroughly conservatively-coloured sheets!) with my gorgeous guy (pictured and looking as good as ever) right next to me. 

It is one of life's cheap, simple pleasures, and with the breeze blowing softly across the rooftops into my top floor apartment, and the world coming alive via the paper's pages, and someone special next to me, virtually unrivaled for relaxation and enjoyment.

Project 289 - Day 11 : Greater Love Has No Man Than To Give Up His Foot Blood For Fleas

Now I need to make one thing clear at the start of this entry - I am not putting a photo of my feet here to let you know in graphic detail about my foot fetish. Primarily because I don't have one! LOL So then, you ask, why is there a photo in my blog of my admittedly devilishly handsome feet? Because it was these very same feet that ended up being attacked by no less than 8 fleas after my boyfriend and I checked out a rental property that it seemed had been decorated by a joint venture company comprising City of Sydney rubbish dumps and slum lords from the less desirable parts of the world's shanty towns. 

For goodness knows what reasons, my feet are a magnet for fleas, and today was no exception. We had no sooner entered the apartment, which cleaned of all its rubbish - ahem, I mean the current tenant's possessions - would actually look quite smart, that the little black blood-sucking monsters descended, and stayed on for the ride sucking as though their lives depended on it (which technically they do! LOL) all the way to my car. Seemingly intent on checking out, and colonising, every property we visited, they clung on for deal life till I managed to clear them off somewhere between the two mouldy apartments, the sleazy real estate agent (who looked like a refugee from the 1970s), and the rusted on dishwasher.

Ah yes looking for rental properties in Sydney - the stuff fleas' dreams are made of! LOL

Project 289 - Day 10 : Then Love Walked In The Door... and I don't mean Courtney!

I have a great life. Wonderful friends, loving close family, mostly fulfilling job with great co-workers and a lovely boss, interests in everything from pop culture to current affairs, but what really makes my life feel special is the handsome man pictured. I know that everyone will say their significant other is the best thing since Lindor Balls came out in Cookies and Cream flavour (god bless the Swiss!), but in this case it's true - my boyfriend is a sweet, intelligent, caring guy who, not surprisingly I love even more than Lindor Balls. Yes, that much! LOL

The loveliest part of my week is when this beautiful sexy man arrives at my door on a Friday night to stay the weekend, and I get to enjoy his delightful company without alarm clocks summoning me to catch the next commuter train, or Outlook demanding I get my boss to the next meeting, or life generally just cracking it's whip. Friday nights herald the start of the sweetest two days of my week when the life stops for just a moment, and I can relax into the wonderful embrace of love.

Project 289 - Day 9 : He Said "Lettuce eat and be merry"

Catching up with very close friends is a wonderful thing at any time, but never more so than in the middle of a frantic day at the corporate coal face. Usually my days are so busy that eating lunch at my desk is the norm - and let's face it, it has all the ambience of a toxic waste dump in the middle of Summer. Yes that much! LOL - but every so often I escape the Cubicle O' Grey, walk briskly across campus (except on really hot days when it's Walk Slow, Don't Sweat) and enjoy lunch at the food court with someone who doesn't want a meeting scheduled, report created, or document printed.

My friend Justin (pictured with the remains of his Rocket salad in the food court) is one of those special people, and working nearby in the corporate wilds of North Ryde, he manages to see me more than most. Some days it's just a general How Is Your Life catch up, but other days it's more of a Friends Therapy Session (but without Ross or Rachel, who beyond funny one liners aren't much help in solving the great dilemmas of life). Either way time with Justin, who I met some years back via a Tuesday night movie group I started is witty, articulate, sweet and a great listener...... and doesn't want anything more than a friendly conversation. In a corporate world where I am at everyone's beck and call, that's a thing to be treasured!

I Am Much Amused......

Project 289 - Day 8 : How Bill Gates Gave Me a Creative Day

It isn't often I credit Bill Gates with anything much at all, let alone aiding and betting creativity! To be honest as an Apple aficionado, my preference is for my iMac, but my place of work resolutely sticks to it's PCs, and so day in, day out in my Cubicle O' Grey, I struggle against the mighty forces arrayed against me - specifically Microsoft program designers who seem to take a perverse in ensuring that while a process may work one way once, it usually won't the second time around! Add to that the fact that the majority of my work is rearranging meetings in Outlook, collating reports, etc, and my work day is hardly fit to bursting with fabulously creative pursuits.

But today I got the chance to put together a fun Powerpoint slide for my boss who wanted to inject a bit of silliness (with a point!) into the end of her presentation to the division on Friday. I didn't have the full Photoshop toolbox at my disposal, and the effect of all the cutting and pasting was scrapbook-like, but my boss loved, I got a creative buzz, and ended up with something more than an Excel spreadsheet to show for my day. Not that that is a bad thing - I just enjoy the thrill of creating far more, and today I got to indulge that thrill to my heart's content!

Project 289 - Day 7 - So Tell Me What You Want, What you Really Really Want!

Here I am out walking at the crack of dawn again - actually dawn was some way off, and all I had at that stage was her less attractive cousin, Pitch Black, to keep me company - and underneath the sign of my favourite Indian restaurant in Sydney - Posh Spice! It used to be called Tamana's On Top (occupying the site of an old sex shop, no less, hence the pun I guess) but they decided that a bit of retro styling may work a treat, and so was born a weird branded marriage of sub-continent cooking and Victoria Beckham's pop alter ego.

Thankfully it's not all 90s pop references and hot pink signage. The food is excellent, the ambience delightful (rich dark chocolate walls and bright orange and red tapestries), the service is friendly and fast.... and they even have Bollywood dancing! I go here quite a lot - subcontinent food and I have always had a very close relationship, ever since I grew up in Bangladesh - and I have even got to know one of the waiters quite well. Yes my very own Tandoori Cheers no less! Well at least one person knows my name... well, my face anyway..... OK at least they don't spit on me! LOL

Project 289 - Day 6 : Give Me Liberty or Death... or Snacks. Definitely snacks.

I know the photo must look like a glossy refugee from a supermarket catalog, and while I am all for giving lost and catalog-less images a home, what it shows is in fact my snacks for the day. Some years back when I lost 14 kg, what worked wonderfully was having a series of small healthy (let's not focus on the sugar content of the muesli bars shall we?! LOL) snacks spaced throughout the day. It kept my metabolism running like a well-oiled engine (yes I know what you're thinking - a gay man just used an automotive reference! Can the apocalypse be that far off?), and stopped me racing in a sugar-craving frenzy for the nearest well-stocked vending machine. 

Now that the weight is gone, and vending machines the world over are safe from being tipped over and their contents emptied into my stomach, I have kept up the eating habits of old. The only dark spot on the whole healthy glow (which can be seen from space - have a look sometime!) is my continued intake of Pepsi Max, which is all chemicals and not the least bit good for me. But I figure that I don't drink (much), smoke or do drugs, or lead an immoral depraved lifestyle (contrary to the beliefs of my former Christian brethren who think I have immoral all sown up, and on display in my very own Museum of Sin), so why not retain one small vice? Besides it helps dissolve any excess calories that get through and that can't be a bad thing!

Normal is a Twisted State of Mind... Especially on a Monday Morning

Project 289 - Day 5 : And He Lived With a Fetta Pancake In His Hand

One of my favourite things to do on the weekend, and especially on Sunday, when all of Saturday's errands are done and dusted, is go to brunch with my boyfriend and a close friend or two. Top of the list for places for this brunch to occur is a funky cafe at the Erskineville end of King St called "South End". The food is creative, delicious, serviced by friendly smiling staff, and the decor is op-shop creative with mismatched chairs, cushions, tables etc - exactly the sort of left of centre place I love to be.

This photo shows one of the my favourite brunch friends (and the guy who often walks the dark streets of Newtown with me during the week day mornings), Fahmi, tucking into a zucchini and fetta pancake, topped with spicy tomato relish, with haloumi on the side. The reason the photo shows only the meal itself mostly is that Fahmi, being Singaporean and devoted to food, often returns from holidays with 90% of his photos being of the food he has eaten, and not the diners he is with! So I thought it quite appropo that the shot would centre on the food itself. It speaks very much of who Fahmi is, and the delight I get from sharing my Sunday mornings with my lovely man, close friends and yummy adventurous food.

Project 289 - Day 4 : Man Voted Most Likely To Go Rental

Today was one of those perfectly blissful Autumn days of cloudless blue skies, light cooling breezes.... and random ferret attacks on passers-by. Just kidding about the cooling breezes..... 

It was also Saturday, prime prospective rental digs day and my boyfriend Stephen, who's back in Sydney after a stint in the country, was eager to stop living out of suitcases (there's no running water in them, and they keep toppling over in moderate to strong breezes), and find a place of his own. So with list in hand, and utterly unfunny jokes from me about him telling prospective real estate agents he wanted the apartment to grow dope or breed dogs for death matches in inner city basements after midnight (in Sydney this may well get him the apartment!), we set off for a fast-paced, exquisitely-timed drive through Ashfield, Dulwich Hill, Marrickville, and sundry other suburbs. 

In the process we found wonderfully spacious apartments with carpet so worn it's presence was more a memory than a fact, places that were freshly renovated in apartments blocks that should be condemned, and one unit at the top of a building (they were all on the top floors of buildings - why are the renters closest to the sky fleeing their abodes in droves?!) crammed so full of the departing resident's boxes that getting a sense of space was a real challenge. Did we find a place to replace the tottering Samsonite tower? Not just yet but we'll press on, and if Stephen's concentration in this photo is any guide, we'll find it soon!! 

No really we will.... yes I know all the stories about Sydney's rental market, but we have a Global Financial Crisis on and ... what's that? Oh we've finished the blog for today? Oh sorry... right... no problem....

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TODAY'S QUOTE : "I like the thought of dismembering you" - my boyfriend Stephen (taken wholly and completely out of context! Go on guess the actual context! I dare you! LOL)

When Good Fruit Goes BAAAD

I was sent this via email the other day and loved it..... 

Project 289 - Day 3 : My Cubicle, My Kingdom

So here's the thing. Work places are not generally thought of as the place where creative

fulfillment is attained, where dreams are made (unless your dreams revolve around endless Outlook appointments and a lack of working printers, in which case here's a bottle of Vodka... you'll need it!), and the funky and fun sit by side like two kids swapping snacks at play lunch. 

However, I have decided that my photo for today, and now my almost insurmountable challenge, is to take some cool arty, and dare I wish for it, fun photos of work and select one to be the face of Friday March 20. What I do have in my favour is the fact that it is TGIF (Thank God It's Friday!) which is the only day of the week where you have a fighting chance of fun and relaxed even remotely putting their heads in the door - assuming they have an Outlook appointment, of course!) so you never know.... perhaps for one day, I may find that corporate life isn't inimicable to some sense of creativity and out of the box fun.... watch and see.....

Hours and hours of cubicle-sitting later, here are the two photos (yes I know I am cheating again - must stop flouting the rules.... ah what the hell!! LOL). The first one is a snapshot of my desk taken from what I tried to make a creative angle. In reality it just looks I got a terrible case of inner ear infection, throwing my balance off kilter but hey, let's call it art anyway!! The second photo shows my favourite gal pal at work, Sammi, hard at work on yet another legal contract for a customer, again at an odd angle....how does she do it? LOL While the photos don't capture "A Day in the Life of....." necessarily, they give you a brief glimpse into the world my work day happens in, and the people, especially Sammi, who make it more than bearable, and even immensely enjoyable at times.....

Project 289 - Day 2 : It was a very dark and not-so-stormy morning

This is King St at 5 am - fetching sight isn't it? LOL I sometimes do think I am stark raving mad for setting the alarm for 4.45 a.m., and hitting the footpath at 5 a.m. for 55 fun-filled minutes of wearing my sneakers through the sole. It actually does wake me up quite nicely, and regardless of if I'm by myself surgically attached to my iPod, or walking with my good friend Fahmi, I really do appreciate the endorphin-push into my day....

Welcome to Project 289 - Day 1

What is Project 289 you ask? (Even if you're not asking, I will pretend you are; it comforts me, just like the ever present voices in my head.) Is it a new type of cologne? A mysterious new water-fueled car? A top secret military project that will ensure world peace, an endless supply of tofu (not tested on animals), and free Wii for all? It is, surprisingly, and I appreciate this will shock you, none of the above! I know! Who saw that coming?

Project 289 is a fabulous idea I picked up from my dear friend Sandra in Canada where you take a photo of some part of your day every day and at the end of the year you have a visual record of your year. Now given that I have just heard about this very cool idea, I've had to deduct January and February and half of March's day count off of the original Project 365, ending up with my enigmatically titled, and sounding perilously like a 1970s cologne for men, Project 289... 

.....and the first two photos....OK I am cheating a tad today but forgive a boy some initial eagerness (let's see how perky and committed I am come November shall we?! LOL)... are of me after my morning walk (alone today because my usual walking partner got legless last night precluding walking naturally this morning...it could take him days to find his feet!), and the "Sydney Star Observer" a gay newspaper I collect every Wednesday on my walk as I come back via King St, Newtown....

What will tomorrow's photo be? I know you will waiting with baited breath so I shall go and get showered and leave you bathing in existential anticipation.....

It Keeps Getting Better

So here I am.... the year is screaming through March like bargain shoppers at a discount outlet, and I haven't blogged in 2 months.... the plan is to blog again daily right after I go on an insanely early morning walk - hello 5 a.m.!! - and when presumably I am chock full then of endorphins, which in turn should theoretically result in fabulous bon mots spilling forth from my energised brain.... that's the theory anyway..... in short, life is freaking marvelous! I have just seen one of the best concerts of my life (Coldplay on their Viva La Vida tour of Oz), fallen in love with fried tofu in tamarind sauce (a love that cannot be denied!), and I am enjoying getting to know my beautiful boyfriend better and better as each day passes, and realising that life may take a while to reach some of the choice destinations but it gets there eventually.....