Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 31 - Couscous I Can!

A long day at work - I abhor Mondays with a passion and today was a nasty one, not helped by my less than stellar mood - but I wanted to make a yummy dinner for my guy who was coming over for dinner. So on the way home my fellow EA, Sandra came up with a very yummy recipe for a chicken breast cooked in chilli & garlic on a bed of couscous mixed with coriander, low fat fetta cheese, sun dried tomtatoes, lime juice and mushrooms on a bed of mixed rocket and spinach leaves..... the result?

DELICIOUS! Yes I know I made it so that sounds a little arrogant but it did taste good, and it showed me that when I can be bothered to cook, I actually don't do too badly. The best part was that my gorgeous guy and my housemate both loved the dish.

Score! We even had Weis Mango Bars for dessert..... what's not to like?

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 30 - Za-za-za-Zanzibar!

A wonderfully lazy Sunday.

Sleeping in with my guy, blogging, reading, swimming 1km, and then drinks with Fahmi and Steve at the Zanzibar where the cocktails are delish - although I was afflicted by the same issue as yesterday when I had brunch with my guy and Warren at Cafe C and my apple/pineapple juice became apple/pineapple mint when they ran out of ginger; this time I could have my Thai Iced Tea when they didn't have lychees or mint - the shade plentiful on the rooftop bar, and the company wonderful...

(Unfortunately my lovely guy was stuck at home all day working on tender documents for the next stage of his contract and couldn't make it so I zipped from the bar - well under the limit thank you after switching to cokes during the afternoon - to his place for a dinner of Thai food and cuddling...noice)

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 29 (Saturday 29 January) - More Kulcha, More Pic-a-nicking

I normally draw the line at more than one Domain event each January, not because they aren't fun because they are in bucketloads (of tabouli, chicken and champagne), but because it's an investment of so much time, effort etc when so many other cool things are happening at the same time. But having had a brilliant time at Symphony in the Domain last Saturday, we decided at the urging of friends Ian and Ingo, to pack the blankets into the backpack once more, slice and dice some more tomato and cucumbers, chill the wine and head on in to the Domain with our friend Warren for another day of picnic-based kulcha.

While Opera isn't entirely my thing - I like it to some extent but am far more at home watching Symphony or a Coldplay concert - the opera that was performed Carmen was brash, colourful and melodramatic and featured some instantly recognisable music, and so while the two main characters were utterly unsympathetic making it hard to be too concerned about their fate (which robs a drama, even those sung, of much of their power to enthrall), I enjoyed it along with the time spent with close, wonderful friends on a balmy (almost chilly) Summer evening under the stars (and bats!).

It's Life Jim But Not as We Know It...... I Think

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 28 - The Truth is at St Peters Station

I am a big believer in truth, accountability and freedom, not to mention a healthy helping of democracy and good ol' fashioned justice, all elements that are not generally in ample supply throughout the world, no matter what that bastion of goodness and dececny (self-styled), the USA, may say. But occasionally comes along someone that tries to level the playing field by trying to fight City Hall, and that someone at the moment is Julian Assange of Wikileaks.

Now I doubt his motives are as pure as he claims but to be fair, no one ever has entirely pure motives no matter what they do, but I do believe he is genuinely trying to keep the bastards honest on a global sale (where are the Democrats when you need them?!), and that is something to be applauded and supported. It is a very popular cause in my area of Erskineville/Newtown where people vote most passionately for liberal causes (and I don't mean you Tony Abbott!) and so I wasn't surprised to see this placed on one of the walls leading into St Peters station...

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 27 - Candy-Coloured Creamy Conversation

Mmm gelato!

It wasn't on the menu originally - the catch up with my dear friend Jason was all healthy sushi at Sushi Train on King Street - but after a long catch up, we decided that a walk along King Street would be just the ticket, and naturally, one cannot walk without a gelato in hand. (No, really, you can't - slow languid walking screams for a dairy dessert of some kind, preferably in a cone.)

My one concession to healthy eating was to get a raspberry sorbet on top of my peppermint chocolate scoop but Jason eschewed any pretense to low fat eating and went for two full on gelatos. Which, really, is what I should have done! (I had swum 1 km that night after all so justifying and rationalising would have been a walk in the park.) Esepcially since I was wearing my ice cream sundae T-shirt....

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 26 (Wednesday 26 January) - Happy Ostraya Day Oi OI Oi!

I love Ostraya Day.

It's a chance to..... have a day off! Seriously, I am proud to be Australian, and love the country I live in, but frankly when life is stressful, and I am exhausted, a whole day off mid week to sleep in (tick!), have a lazy brunch (tick!), watch Ellen (tick!), nap (tick!), swim some laps with no one around (tick!), drink some wine and eat cheese & dip (tick) before heading out to Enmore Park, Marrickville for Oz Day festivities - complete with delicious Yum Cha, paella, & Peruvian food and lamington-flavoured Serendipity ice cream with fireworks at 9 p.m. to round things off - with my gorgeous guy, and friends Fahmi, John, Essie and their two kids (tick!) can't be beat!

A glorious, wonderful day..... well except for the heat which was 31 degrees plus and which made me envious of the fruit and dips in the fridge. I came very close to joining them and the lamingtons....

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 25 - Back in the Saddle...Just Need a Horse

Getting back into exercise has been far harder than I expected after the Christmas break as I was beset with a head cold, very sore back (which is still niggling me on and off instead of completely healing itself as it has done in the past, making me feel very old), and a crowded social calendar.

So to make it out walking this morning at the ungodly hour of 4.30 a.m. - yep that's when I walked out of the door; I am quite mad, yes, thank you! - was something of a triumph and hopefully will be followed by many more early mornings of walking and evenings of swimming.....

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 24 - Hum Drum of Life

No one really likes Mondays.

Oh, there are some people who will pretend they do, just so they go against the prevailing hatred of the first working day of the week - which is fair enough since it's only fair that Monday have some friends - but most of us loathe the day so it was no surprise to me that I dragged myself from bed, wishing I could suddenly develop either unimaginable wealth or a disease bad enought to keep me at home for the day (yet with no lasting ill effects or high medicinal costs). My lethargy wasn't helped by getting home near midnight the night before after a session of the Open Air Cinema - totally worth it as the movie, and the experience, as always, was superb - and so I went to work arriving with the otherworldly sense that my consciousness had somehow managed to stay at home while my body dragged itself across Sydney.

I spent the entire day in a weird haze, wishing that I could just quit, be done with the job, and re-invent myself, all in one day. Of course it's not that easy, and I am taking taking steps such as seeing a career coach to start the changes a-happening, but I was seized many times today by a run-from-the-room-screaming urge to be done with everything then and there and never come back. Sure, we all feel like that sometimes but today it felt compellingly strong, so strong I wanted to act on it and leave...just leave....

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 23 : Dumplings, and Plastic and Big Screens

A full on day!

Thankfully we did have the chance for a decent lie-in - very much needed after my back spasmed badly at 4 a.m. and as I screamed in pain, I woke both my boyfriend and I up! - but once we were up, it was all systems go, run like you're on Ritalin, do not Go etc etc as had Yum Cha with close friends Jeff & Jane (partly planning Jane and my joint speech at a wedding of a mutual friends in Melbourne in February) at Palace Restaurant, Sydney City before quickly shopping for a suit at Politix, and heading down to the Opera House where we met close friends, Warren and Jonathan, Ian & Ingo,and Fahmi for...

... an innovative walk through inflatable art installation called Mirazozo, which relies on sunlight hitting coloured strips across it's structure to create an ethereal, otherworldy and very colourful 'maze' inside where you are encouraged to sit and reflect and absorb it all. Of course, the number of small kids having fun did rob the experience of any zen-like calm, but the colours and effects were captivating and it would have been easy to spend far more than the allocated 20 minutes taking it all in. Truly beautiful and unusual.

From this awesome piece of art, we walked around the cove in the Botanic Gardens to Mrs Macquarie's Chair and the first of my Open Air Cinema nights. Tonight's movie was Please Give, a character-based New York-set ensenmble movie which speaks to how hard life can be, no matter how well intentioned you are, and while I found it a little depressing, it was nonetheless engrossing, and coupled with a perfect fine night - no rain (despite earlier threatening clouds) and a cool breeze, the company of the close friends (see above) + Peter who arrived near 7pm, great food and wine (although my fish and chips were a little over done) with views out to the City, Bridge and the Opera House, made for a wonderfully relaxing, very chilled night.

The only downside was getting home neat 11.30pm with Monday looming but who cares with a day as sublime as this one to remember?