Monday lunch pho review

This was just okaaay... From Mandalay Bay on Brunswick St. The chicken was kind of weird- too thick and dry. It sounds strange but it wasn't oily enough. The stock tasted ok though.

Phometer: 6/10


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Friday bar crawl

Why are the toilets at E55 so disgusting?

We ended up there, at sometime after 2am and as always the toilets were wet, stinky, piled with used paper (but without any clean toilet paper) and I have seen better toilets on long-distance Moroccan trains. It was a fun night, mostly girls only, until the end when a very drunken G emerged from a work Christmas party (a very delayed Christmas party obviously) to share some Lord of the Fries and a cab ride home.

My cousin has been visiting from Perth with her friend from the UK- both of them curled up impossibly on our L-shaped couch for the last week. I took them on a little Melbourne bar crawl.

We started at Madame Brussels where we shared a jug of some kind of strawberry cocktail type thing. Because it was a nice sunny afternoon the place was packed.



Then we went to Croft Institute and had this cranberry, vodka, peach schnapps cocktail that came with a 30ml syringe, instead of a straw. We took the syringes with us and vowed to use them for every drink.



We had dinner at Shogun, but I didn't get any photos- a friend ordered for everyone and it was delicious- dragon rolls, rainbow rolls and pork belly.

Then we went to Section 8 and stood amongst the masses of hipsters. I drank vodka and gingerbeer and for once it wasn't raining so we could sit on the wide wooden platforms and watch the line where an orange clad bucks party negotiated with the bouncers.

The rest of the night was a bit blurry- cocktails, Eurotrash, a shot called 'Butterball' that was misleading with its name (I was expecting vomit flavour), dancing to a cover band at Kitten Club and finally E55 and the sweet tangy mayo of Lord of the Fries.

Trivia

We won trivia last night! $50 voucher to spend at the pub. That's what happens when most of the questions are about 80s and 90s music- my time to shine!


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Overall a pretty good day

I don't work Mondays and usually I'm studying, but today I:

had lunch at Naked for Satan and only spent $3.50. (See another blog I contribute to for the review).

Bought lots of magazines and got my free Becca Beach Tint from Madison.



Picked up a parcel at the post office with my Clinique order and lots of samples including 7 Day Scrub, bronzer and Moisture Surge.



Bought these two dresses for only $80 from a shop at the end of my street. I really love the denim one- it's a nice bright blue and the ruffles on the back are really cool. I'll have to wear something under it cos it's VERY revealing boob-wise (obviously).


In the corner is my Mimco glittery sneaker.

weekend weekend

We went down to McCrae late Friday afternoon to spend the weekend at the in-laws. We haven't been since before Christmas and I've felt guilty about it. I like going there, but it can be exhausting spending three days with people who are kind of your family, but not really. They have a beautiful house near the beach and we sleep out the back in the studio apartment, which is nice, but doesn't block out the lawn mower, whipper snipper and chainsaw sounds at 9am on a Saturday.

We went out for dinner on Friday night and I had this delicious seafood pasta. It looks kind of vom in this photo but it wasn't!


The rest of the weekend was me studying on the back deck and G preparing visuals for a show in March. We went for a walk along the beach and recorded footage to be projected during the show- lots of waves, leaves in the wind, my tangled hair, ants crawling- generic cliched stuff.

There was a bbq and an outdoor fire and I drank a bottle of McCrae Mist Pinot Noir and then fell asleep by 11pm. For the first time in weeks I slept longer than 6 hours and feel so much better for it today. Almost human enough to roast a chicken for dinner.

Coconut Water and Coles

Does anyone else think that shopping bags are getting thin and useless? I usually take my own enviro bags, but forgot today and look at the bag I got from Coles! It split ten metres into my journey and I nearly lost a dozen eggs.

This is what I ate for lunch today:

It's vermicelli with spring rolls from Mandalay Bay on Brunswick St. Not bad for $8.75, it had lots of crunchy bean shoots, mint, lettuce, carrot and nice slimy noodles. I LOVE the fried onions on top. They were amazing. We used to have a jar of these and I put them on everything.

On the way home I was given a sample of Cocobella Coconut Water- pink guava flavour. I've read a lot about Coconut Water lately, mainly in the NY Food Diary at www.nymag.com and I've been aching to try it. Apparently it's rich in electrolytes and they call it 'nature's sports drink'. It's really sweet and while the packaging says that it has zero fat, it does have cane sugar in it. I'm not sure if I'd try it again... I'm not really a sweet person, more of a savoury one.

V Day

Sorry about the sideways champagne shot, but I just couldn't get Blogger to cooperate.

Yesterday was Valentine's Day. G and I had a beautiful day. I don't like bears and red hearts but I like hotels, champagne, baths and being loved. I like having a whole day of fun and activities and not answering the phone or checking emails.

Sunday night we stayed in the city, only 10 minutes from home, but I won a night in a hotel and tickets to 'Motherhood the Musical'- we skipped the musical and holed up for a night of starched sheets, foxtel and baths (I don't have a bath at home and it makes me sad). Went out for dumplings that night and watched 127 Hours. I liked it. It was soooo disturbing but I'm glad I saw it at the movies cos I couldn't get up and leave. Maybe Motherhood the Musical would have been just as distressing?

We stayed at the Mantra on Russell St... it was okay... but definitely didn't feel 4.5 star. The room was kind of tiny for a studio, but the pool was nice and it was clean and newish. We woke up late, ate leftover dumplings in bed and then went out for an adventure. Walking through Bourke St Mall I saw this:

ZARA IS COMING TO MELBOURNE.

Zara is my favourite store of all time.
I'm sooo excited. But worried. I hope it's not too expensive. I hope it's not crap. I hope it's not seasonally confused. I'm wearing a Zara cardigan (NineWest bag, Sportsgirl dress, stupid face)
Just after this photo was taken a man walked up to me and said 'move you fat pig'. I almost cried! But he looked crazy homelessish. I hope he was crazy homelessish.

We had a picnic, napped in the park, went to the NGV, rented bikes and rode them along the Yarra while school kids practiced their rowing and the coaches followed them on bikes with megaphones. One of the coaches yelled into his megaphone 'You're not puffing enough to blow out the candles on your Mummy's cake'. Is that official rowing terminology?

We had a drink at Ponyfish Island- Gin and Tonics out jam jars and then went to an early dinner at Miyako. Teppanyaki! The chef did lots of fancy stuff with two spatulas and eggs. I had yummy seafood- prawns, scallops and salmon. The best thing was the prawn head- she cooked it for aaaages with garlic and butter until it went all crispy and then added it to my fried rice. Best topping ever.

This is us, kind of tipsy, post-Teppanyaki, about to get back on the bikes and ride back to Russell St. I've never ridden a bike in Melbourne before and I liked it! There were hardly any hills.

Australia Day

Australia Day this year I was already hungover, but I still drank lots of cider, went to a bbq in a laneway and wore VB pyjamas that I'd had since 1999 and were nearly shredded and torn and held up with a safety pin. Later, we went to Jim's Greek Tavern, where the waiters were the rudest I've ever had and not in that charming rude way, in a tea towel throwing, yelling, imitating kind of way.

The lamb was good though. Lemony and tender.

I don't think I could go back, I just can't stand being yelled at my old white haired men with a VB in one hand and a fork in the other when I ask if we can have bread.

Novelty cakes

I started making novelty cakes about a year ago. With no previous experience, education, want or need. Suddenly it just seemed imperative that I bake semi-decent sponges and top them with thick icing and candy.

I get lots of requests now, which is weird, cos it's not something I ever thought I'd be good at or interested in.

This is one I made last week for a 30th. The birthday boy requested 'boobs' and that's what he got.



This is me, looking at something on the ground and not where anyone else is.


I know it's a bad picture, all boobs and beer, but I was chief photographer that night and spent most of the time taking pictures of other beautiful people. I'm wearing an OLD Zara dress, circa 2005 I think... it is leopard print silk, knee length and swishy. I've only worn it twice, but maybe I'll do it again. I wish you could see my necklace- it's blue, beaded and silver and from Ethiopia.

At about 2 am we went to a bar in Northcote and played Connect 4. It worries me that I almost couldn't remember how to play it. And that I lost every game. On the right is a verrrry nice cocktail.


They had lots of games there- we tried to play Uno but noone could agree on the rules. Who knew that Uno could divide people so much?