Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 224 (Friday 12 August) - Mixed Bag

Today was a big day for my sweet adorable niece, Zara, who had to have a hernia operation. No, she hasn't been lifting too many heavy objects when she shouldn't be, although stack too many LEGO blocks together and they can weigh a ton, but rather it's a condition left over from birth. Apparently it's a fairly common thing and they have to wait till the child turns 2 to operate. Thankfully it all went smoothly, Zara came through beautifully, and all is well (the photo is of Zara waiting in the hospital's play room)

... and on a light and silly TGIF note, here's a sign my gorgeous guy spotted in the window of a shop in Dulwich Hill.... oh yeah we will be signing up! Haha....NO.

But that was not all the quirky stuff we saw today. On the way to dinner (see below), we saw a sign for a very interesting opera... all I can say is reinforce the floors guys!

... instead of seeing Rise of the Planet of the Apes tonight (last minute change of plans that occurred when Fahmi and I were in line), Fahmi, my gorgeous guy and I met up with Warren for Indian food at Jaipur Masala near Central, which made for a quick trip home. A perfect way to finish the week - my favourite food and good friends, and my guy.

Fahmi and Warren

My gorgeous guy and I

Rosewater Lahsi - YEAH!

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 223 - Yeah Dumplings!! Holy Crepe!

My gorgeous guy is finally working in Sydney, well at least for a little while, and as luck would have it (and let's face it, what other force is at work when it comes to food? OK that makes no sense at all but it sounds tabloid dramatic and so it shall stay), the offices he is working at are almost directly opposite World Square, wherein lies a fabulous dumpling place, and a fabulous Japanese crepe (yes you read right) called Mother Crepe, which has the most delicious dessert crepes ever. 

Naturally we went to both places, but amazingly (yes I note the bug-eyed look of surprise in your eyes), we didn't overeat. I will repeat. By some miracle, or that gastronomic luck, we ordered just the right amount of dumplings and the crepes were light, caramel-full, and soft and barely made an impact on the digestive system's sense of being full to pussy's bow (of course being over 40, our fat reserves absorbed every last molecule they could get their hands on and we put on 80kg).

Fabulous night!

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 222 - Come To Your Census Will Ya?!

How frustrating!

I went home Tuesday thinking that filling in the census would be a relatively quick painless thing, much like getting needles at my endodentist who is a dab hand at piercing the gum, only to be embroiled in 45 minutes of hell as the site refused repeatedly to submit my data. Bizarrely, but completely in keeping with a public service mentality (sorry Bec if you read this!) they didn't have their call centre staffed at all after 8pm on census night! Seriously, it's been promoted as this massive BIG thing, which it is, and then when it really matters that they have people you can speak to, everyone is at home. That's wonderful and I am an ardent supporter of work life balance, but honestly one night ABS! One night!

Anyway, I chilled out, went to bed, and the next day called their helpline after 8.30 a.m. to speak with someone and the system had essentially crashed. After many fruitless attempts to speak to someone, I gave up, and thought I'd try one last time to submit my gloriously full life to the scruting of the ABS statistics-adoring nerds..... and lo, it worked!!! Thank the lord.....

At least the next one isn't for 5 years so I should have calmed down by then....

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 221 (Tuesday 11 August) - Moooo Justin Moooo!

I had the loveliest dinner tonight with my wonderful friend, Justin, who is wise, fun and just plain great to talk to! We both, with permission, abandoned our loving boyfriends for the night, and went to the uber fun gourmet burger joint, Moo. I threw all pretense to healthy eating into a very high-caloric wind (no, I am not making a fart joke) and had the chorizo & haloumi burger and it was delish! Their chips are divine too.

The night ended oddly when at 8.30pm, hardly drawing near to any witching hours, the two ladies running the show packed everything around us! Really. It was the oddest thing and quite reminiscent of being at Minh in Dulwich Hill a year or so ago when the owner essentially packed around us at 9.30pm, again hardly the dead of night when all good boys and girls should be snug and safe in bed. Fortunately we were about to leave anyway, but it was the oddest of endings to things as we were pretty much forced to leave, without even a goodbye and thanks for coming. I wasn't annoyed; more highly bemused.

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 220 (Monday 8 August) - Wacky Google searches

It was so much fun the last time I did this that I tried it again today!

I typed in Yellow Turnips Dropped in Acid and got the following photos:

This one makes sense...

But the rest of them? Seriously Google?

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 219 (Sunday 7 August) - Y-y-y-y- yum Cha!

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 218 (Saturday 6 August) - Brunch, Lunch and Blu Rays

Started with brunch with my guy and my lovely friend, Warren at Lou Jack's (which has frankly seen much better days, service-wise)....

Followed by lunch at Nakhon Thai, Brighton le Sands with my friends, Ellen & Tracy (housemates) and John & Susie. Food was delicious but service hilarious as the waiter gave us twice the prawn fritters we'd ordered and 1/6 of the mixed entree we wanted... only $22 a head though so not bad at all! Then we had ice cream and a walk over to the beach on Botany Bay. Delightful...

Tracy, Steve, Ellen (Facebook check in shot)

Susie & I

Susie, Steve & I (sun shining directly into eyes, hence the squints)




Ellen, me, Steve, Tracey and Susie

.. and we finished off with connecting my blu ray player at long last! We watched The Day After Tomorrowe, followed by two episodes (7 & 8 of Falling Skies), and accompanied by yummy Indian curries.... fabulous!

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 217 - TGIF....Dance Ninja Dance!

I love this view today.

It's the entrance to St Peters station and ordinarily it is the portal to work hell..

Today the last time I darken it's griffitti-speckled alley for another week.

Let the ninjas dance and be free!

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 216 - Dawn... Lovely Girl isn't She?

I finally got up today for the first time in weeks and walked! Yes I got exercise at last!

I feel so much better for it and I am determined that the winter fat will be gone in short order!

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 215 - Magazines etc to Read but Where is the Time?

My life has become such a blur of things to do and people to see since I decided to break the torpor of the last few years, and get the novel ready for publication, and renew a lot of creative pursuits such as writing and extra blogging, that I scarcely have time to breathe these days. But bless me, I still cling to the idea that I will watch the first 3 seasons of Eureka one day, or the first 6 seasons of Weeds too, or finish all the unread books I have bought that are languishing unloved on my bookshelves (I have instituted a no-new-books policy which is good for both my peace of mind and my wallet) or read the magazines I keep buying even as available time vapourises around me.

Yes it's all annoyingly aspirational but as an extrovert, who, like many extroverts believes he can do a million things all before lunch, I refuse to concede defeat! I will let you know how I get on...

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 214 - Vroom!

I had to take my boss's top level BMW series 3 all the way across town - to within 2 km of home which was awful... so close and yet it might as well have been on Mars thank you! - and after almost dying of fright worrying about driving (a) her car and (b) such an expensive car, I relaxed, got it there and back intact (much to my great relief), read lots of Twitter while the very nice guys at Spinning Wheels in Waterloo fixed the puncture and marvelled that along with the girlie calendars that they had hot men ones too. They clearly know the market in which they operate!

Waiting for the bus to work that morning

The yummy calendar in question

Dinner with my bestie from work Sammi at Miso, World Square, Sydney. Love the Blue Rocket!

Delicious moist karaage chicken & edamame beans for entree.... oishi ne!!

Now I will go happily back to driving my unassuming and cheap Hyundai....

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 213 - I Got Re-Tweeted! and Pepsi-Maxed!

It is so cool to have something you said on Twitter re-tweeted because it's funny, clever, or just plain goofy because let's face it, who's ego doesn't like that kind of stroking? So when two of my Twitter friends re-tweeted the following quip about Monday:

"Monday - I am afraid that it's no longer working between us and I will be moving in with Friday permanently....It's not me, it's you, Andrew"

It may not be the wittiest tweet of all time but two people thought it was funny enought to send on to 1000 of their followers!

My ego is happy and smiling....

Oh and in #ThingsI8&Drank (so much fun to use Twitter hash tags EVERYWHERE!):

My first Pepsi Max in months - in my defence, I had gone to work feeling the after effects of a migraine from the night before, when I usually feel like I have been run over by a truck and excoriated by an apple corer (guilty today on both counts), and this was my way of getting through the day...

Far better was the dinner my lovely man prepared that night - an original pesto and pine nuts pasta with actual shaved parmesan. Sublime....nom nom nom!

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 212 - Kohi o Nomimasu ka?

What a gloriously lazy day!

Normally my gorgeous guy would have to work at home on one of his many projects but with them winding down, that hasn't been as pressing. So today, after his big birthday party the night before, we slept in for ages, luxuriating in the fact that we had nothing at all to do that day - the best kind of sleeping in is when you don't feel pressed to jump up from bed for anything - then drove into Newtown for brunch @ cafe ism, some shopping and then finished the clean up of the kitchen... then we napped. So gloriouslu decadent and wonderful. I loved it.

My gorgeous guy's latte. I am not a coffee drinker and stuck to juice but it sure looks pretty doesn't it?

Alas the day did not finish off as wonderfully as it started, with a migraine hitting as my beautiful man and I were finishing off dinner (leftovers from the par-tay!) and watching the ABC News. He went home early so I could crash and seal myself off from the world, and I ended up sleeping for 8 hours straight which never happens....


___________________________


Oh, and one more shot of my delightfully cute nephew, Bodhi. Walking now, and more than 1/2 as tall as his mum, my sister.... at 1!

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 211 (Saturday 30 July) - Easter in July?

Tonight's the night the teddy bears have their... no, wait, no bears tonight.

Essie right at the start of things

Fahmi

Fahmi, Steve & Essie (out of picture) in animated discussion

John looking most dapper

Fahmi and Peter

Ian & I

Essie's delightful semolina-based biscuits

Instead, we had a lots of Easter bunnies, chickens and eggs at the Easter-themed birthday dinner for my darling man, Steve. It took a huge amount of buying up at post-Easter sales over two years or so, which included buying a fabulous white Easter tree (yes there are such things), a lot of skullduggery and secret keeping (the theme wasn't released to anyone bar two very close friends, who made the entree & got the desserts organised - thank you Fahmi and Warren respectively!), and a lot of work on the Saturday itself, all of which was totally and utterly completely worth it when I saw the look of utter delight on my guy's face when he first saw all the decorations up. That's why you go all that trouble isn't it? So that the guest of honour will feel special, honoured, loved, and the centre of attention, and to see how much he loved it was all the reward I needed.

The gang

The birthday boy and I

Lots of great conversation

Peter in bunny ears

John in bunny ears

Essie in bunny ears... sense a pattern?

Justin and Cam in bunny ears

Warren's ears flash purple....

...... and now red... yes how demure!

My gorgeous man, the birthday boy, stylin' it up!

The two of us bunny-ing it up!

The 'cake' with rapidly burning smiley candles is presented

By the glow of candle light

Blowing out the candles

Smiling as they burn to zero

"I have bunny ears on? Moi?"

Close to midnight we kept talking and drinking...

While we couldn't assemble all his friends, we did manage to get 10 or so along, in direct competition with some other big birthday parties on that night, and the evening flowed along beautifully. Music was courtesy of this year's Eurovision mix when everyone was milling around with their hibiscus-flower infused champagne, and then Astrud Gilberto and some of Fahmi's beloved Motown sound during the meal itself. Fahmi's cauliflower soup was sensationally creamy and delish, my Moroccan meatballs turned out just fine after two days of soaking in the tomato sauce in the fridge, and the dessert, salted caramel tarts was just divine, all finished off with Warren's fabulous Easter cocktail served in small chocolate Easter eggs (raspberry chambourd, Baileys, cream and chocolate powder), and all that fabulous food fueled a fun night of great conversation, lots of silly bunny ears wearing and the sort of one you want at a birthday dinner, any birthday dinner....


But especially at my gorgeous guy's big night. Happy birthday babe...I love you.