Jumpers.

There are many differences between man and woman. It would be impossible to list them all. But here is a significant one I heard today on the ABC.

Women, when removing a jumper, either:
a) hold jumper from the bottom, sometimes with arms crossed, and gather the jumper up and over the head, trying to avoid contact with her hair. Alternatively,
b) remove one sleeve at a time and then lift it over from the bottom, again avoiding hair contact.

Men also have two ways to remove a jumper.
a) grab jumper by the back of the neck with both hands and drag whole jumper over head in one go.
b) grab jumper from bottom and peel over back and head, turning jumper inside out as you go.

Real estate: when to buy.

Property is expensive. I hear that in Australia it is 50% overpriced… but overpriced isn't overpriced as long as people are willing to pay. If everyone stopped buying property, prices would go down, right? Maybe what we need to do is scare everybody out of the market with a self-fulfilling prophecy of housing bubbles bursting.

But while property is in demand and under-supplied, renting is sensible and you shouldn't feel bad about it. (The important thing is to rent cheap and save.)

However, I have good news! In the very long term, real estate might drop off a lot… just wait until the Baby Boomers exit the property market and go into nursing homes. I'm just biding my time…

New standard for dried fruit.

This is the best dried fruit in the world. It is made of mango and sugar. It tastes like sunshine and heaven and sugary mango. I am obsessed with finding them in Australia. If anyone sees this in a shop, please alert me.

KESC tonight at Oporto, don't forget. I think we have vouchers.

FAIL food.

This is not what I mean by FAIL food, but it's a pretty good photo of my brother "cooking" an O week BBQ. As you can see he chooses thin sausages.

FAIL food is: when you have to eat something which is neither
a) healthy or
b) tasty.

Other than filling you up, it is a complete waste of time, ingredients and calories. It fails to be delicious, it fails to be nutritious. Bad takeaway. Bad soup. Bad chicken schnitzel. I did a horrible chicken schnitzel once, it was a funny colour so I kept transferring it from frying pan to microwave and back, then I realised that it was supposed to be that colour. I ate it anyway.

Because I'm not a cook-book cook, I just cook up a batch of something in a pot and eat it all week. Sometimes there are spectacular successes, but tinged with the knowledge that I will never be able to cook it again because nothing was measured. Sometimes it is FAIL food, and I still have to eat it all week.

I see orange.

Have you ever noticed that Fanta, Cheezels and orange M&Ms have the same fluoro orange as an orange highlighter?

Guess which one this is:

KESC 5 review.

We had a completely lovely night at Giovanna last Friday. Giovanna is a lively, happening place with a mix of families, couples and groups, so we booked ahead. It is quite nice to arrive at a restaurant to a shiny, clean, properly set table.

We collected a lot of notes, and now it is up to me to compress a page of various bad handwriting and bad spelling into a coherent review. I'm going to include the bad spelling.

We ordered:

• Pizza—boccochinni and proscuitto
• Lasagne,
• Pesto—gnochi,
• Fetticini marinara,
• Chicken bosciola
• Veal parmigiana
• as well as a bowl of mussels, some garlic bread and a couple of drinks.

The portions were large, the meals were hot and fresh from the kitchen, and smelled great. They came out pretty quickly and pretty close together. It all looked and tasted pretty fantastic.

Hits

• the gnochi was the best gnochi ever, hand-made and melty
• the roasted veggies were delicious
• salads were fresh and yummy
• garlic bread was garlicy
• we liked the water bottles.

Misses

• Steak knives would have been handy for the veal and the brocoli
• no cracked pepper
• mussel casserole not the freshest
• no parsley on the lasagne
• pizza hard to bite into due to size of pruscuitto bits

Value
This is the top of the price range of Kingsford, as pastas and pizzas were around $15-20, mains were $20-30. Can't afford to go there frequently, the value for money isn't great, but it is a good quality place with great food.

Desserts
Were surprisingly not overpriced. Gelatos and tirimisu and so on. The menu didn't have prices on it, so we guessed the prices and they turned out cheaper.

Overall, we gave it 4/5 challenge stars. Best challenge so far!

Oh! Oh! Oh! Oporto!

Next Kingsford Eat Street Challenge:

6:30PM

Friday 5th March 2010

Oporto

287-291 Anzac Parade, Kingsford NSW 2032.

Check out the nutritional info on the official website or at Calorie King if wanna try and keep it healthy (or if you want a scare!).

Ifs with porridge and Bircher muesli

Porridge
I used to make porridge with milk. The thought of making it with water used to gross me out. It was a silly notion I had. Just this week, I decided to make it with water and didn't notice too much difference.

My ifs with porridge:

- If you want to save money, you should make it with water.

- If you have a large group of people to feed and you need a cheap breakfast, porridge is a great idea. You can get a 900g pack of rolled oats for $1.20! (Something to add to your blog, Jess K?)

- If you used to make it with milk, you can now eat your porridge and drink your milk separately at breakfast. It'll make you think you've eaten more at breakfast, and probably fill you up that bit more.

Bircher muesli
Bec tweeted about Bircher muesli and I've been thinking about it ever since. I first heard of it at beach mission, but don't recall ever eating it or making it.

The basic concept is leaving rolled oats to soak in apple juice, dried fruit and yoghurt overnight. In the morning, it will look like cold porridge. You add a shredded Granny Smith apple and other stuff you like e.g. sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, nuts, fresh fruit, milk, honey, cinnamon or yoghurt.

I love the idea of Bircher muesli because you make it the night before and you don't have to apply heat (thus saving gas or electricity and washing up the saucepan).

My ifs with Bircher muesli:

- If you're in a rush in the morning, breakfast is already done!

- If you need to cook breakfast for people, you can prepare this the night before and not have to wake up so early. And you can make it tasty and look pretty - just check out the comments on the highest rated Bircher muesli recipes on Taste.

- If you make it with water (instead of juice), low calorie yoghurt and add some unprocessed oat bran (for fibre) it's a very healthy start to the day.

- If you wanted to be decadent, you could make it with King Island yoghurt, full-fat Greek yoghurt and/or double cream (yum!).

My current batch of Bircher muesli sitting in the fridge is made up of oats, water (I find apple juice too sweet. For you penny pinchers out there, it's a money saver too), yoghurt and some trail mix (nuts, seeds and dried fruit) I found in the fridge. Yummo! Can't wait to eat it in the morning.

Many thanks to Bec for inspiring me.

Update: I forgot to add that porridge and bircher muesli (if you leave out crunchy stuff) are very braces friendly food.

Jelssie vocab: Exclamations.

When you are startled, or impressed, or even confounded, instead of saying "Wow" or "Cool", try and use one of the following exclamations:

Heavens to betsy!
Cripes!
How perplexing!
Golly! (or it's longer version, Golly-gee-willikers!)
Goodness gracious me!
Whacko!

Fat sausages are wrong.

Why do supermarkets even sell them? They are so gross. They take longer to cook. They are gross and inconvenient and wrong.

Thin sausages are just superior in every way. I'm not even going to make 5 dot points for you, thin ones are better.

How to spot a killer.

I am developing a theory for solving television crime. Currently I am studying it's application in those one-hour American franchises like NCIS, the Mentalist, Law and Order, etc etc. My proposition is as follows:

The killer will be the 2nd person you meet.

Reason: You need to be introduced to the killer early enough for you to forget them while the detectives pursue red herrings. The 1st person is too obvious, so is often a red herring. The later persons are usually a distraction from the second person, so are also red herrings.

Identifying the 2nd person: As well as being the 2nd person, common traits of the 2nd person are that they lurk in the background behind an obvious suspect, or they seem nice and helpful—to foil the suspicions of investigators. In fact, "2nd person" is a pretty good tag for characters who blend into the background and turn out to be killers... but it is amazing how often it is literally the 2nd person.

Note: This theory only applies to one-hour crime shows which follow a formula and are really more about the personalities of the cops, etc. It probably has little relevance for other shows like Midsommer Murders, which is long and annoyingly random, or Wire in the Blood, which is a psychological chase.

I have been working on this theory for quite a long time, perhaps 6 months. It needs refining because it is not always true, but I am testing it against every crime show I watch.

Fringe issues.

By fortunate chance I was asked to model for a Toni and Guy trainee, as I was walking through the shops after work a few weeks ago. It was hair-washing night anyway, so a free wash and blow-dry was a good offer. Trainee and I swapped numbers in case she needed me again, and I got another free hairstyle last night. I don't know much about hair, so I took the opportunity to pump her for information on why some perms are frizzy, how to get hair off from wrapped around a round brush, and who can have fringes. Fringes are all about the forehead:

1. Tall foreheads can have any kind of fringe, and they often look great with a front fringe, which grows straight down. I don't have a tall forehead, but even if I did I've got one of those cow-licks, and fringes don't grow straight.
2. Short foreheads don't suit a front fringe. But you can do a side fringe, one of those flicky fringes like on Grey's Anatomy.
   

Anyone with any forehead can have a flicky fringe. But it is the more annoying fringe because you have to keep flicking it back out of your eyes.

KESC5

Guess what! We get to eat something NOT ASIAN!!! After this, and Oporto, we eat another 3 blocks of asian before we get to a pub.

So this Friday we will be meeting at Giovanna at 6.30. I think it is 285 Anzac Parade. It would be good to let us know if you are coming, if you can, cos a Friday night at an Italian place might be a little fuller than the last few places we have eaten.

I'm looking forward to it!

Something not about food, clothes or speedos.

It is not the habit of jelssie to be deep and profound, but just for some variety I'll finish the week with something I read today on a proper theological blog...

If you hadn't realised, I like to be observant, and often I judge. I'm sure you're all still reeling from my opinion of "cold toast".

But on Sunday nights I also judge what goes on up the front of church. And when I'm serving (sort of up the front), I turn and judge the participation of the rest of church. I can see all sorts of failings.

Conveniently, somehow, I never fall under my own scrutiny.

Claire Smith helpfully pointed out the obvious today on Sola Panel. I think everyone (who complains about their church) should read it.

...We will now return to our regular programming.

Toast law.

Toast is hot. There is no such thing as cold toast. What you have there is very dry bread. If butter won't melt on it, it isn't toast.

Clueless part 2.

There were many helpful suggestions to my Clueless clothes post, thankyou for your comments. It made me realise that there are a lot of factors to consider when deciding what to wear, and a card or rotation system doesn't cover all factors.

• Mood
• Weather
• Matching and coordinating (but not matching too much, that is called 'matchy-matchy')
• How fat I feel
• How much is in the washing basket
  

The other solution I have been considering for the last 3 years is creating a "uniform", by buying a bunch of same colour shirts and same colour skirts and trousers. Here is the beauty of the uniform:

• It removes much of the decision making process
• Since you don't need variety, your "uniform" will take up less room than all the other clothes you normally choose between.
• You can rewear the same clothes and nobody notices.

The last point is significant. It seems to me that everybody rewears their clothes once or twice, but everybody tries to hide the fact that they rewear clothes by sneakily alternating their outfits. That's how I do it, anyway. So my bedroom always has half-dirty clothing draped off draws and door handles, waiting for their 2nd turn to be worn. With a uniform, I can rewear my clothes the very next day, and nobody will know the difference!

Clueless.

At the moment, I find getting dressed an uninspiring chore. My clothes are boring. I have no interest in wearing any of them. The end result is hard to evaluate anyway because there are no full length mirrors in my new place.

One of these days I am going to take Elsie's suggestion and photograph all my clothes in matching outfits. Inspired by the Clueless movie wardrobe software. Then I can print the outfits on cards, and randomly select a card each day. Maybe put weather symbols on the back of the cards so I pick something weathering.

Jelssie vocab: Greetings!

I do not wish our common tongue to become bland. We should strive to be more creative in our expression. We shall colour our speech with words and phrases we like the sound of. I will include suggestions and examples in my posts for you to incorporate into your daily life as you see fit.

Today's vocabulary topic is Hello/Goodbye. Instead of Hi, Hey, or Hellohowareyou, why not say:

Good morrow!
or:
Greetings, dear sir/lady!

And instead of Bye, why not say:

Farewell!
or:
I must away!

Never okay

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say to men, it's NEVER okay to go running in just a singlet and your budgie smugglers unless:

1. you are currently competing in an Iron Man competition (or similar) and that's what all the competitors are doing or

2. crocodiles just ripped off your shorts and you are running for your life.

Put on a pair of shorts! Think about the rest of society that has to see you running! How hard is it?!

Humid.

Before Sydney I lived in Bowral for 6 months, where it is cool and pleasant and nobody sweats. My first summer in Sydney was a nasty shock, because I had forgotten what humidity was and I felt sticky and sweaty all the time. This current warm, steamy spell is just as yucky. Washing isn't drying, you sweat, you get heat rash and other itchy skin flare-ups, mould is thriving, dry food is going stale and soggy instantly.

But it's not all bad. Here are some pros to cheer you up.

• No dry skin. Save money on moisturiser and lip balm!
• Air plant is thriving!
• Wisps of hair form cute curly ringlets!

Wanted: Rental Boyfriend for Lunar New Year

I saw this article in the New York Times about a Chinese girl advertising for a boyfriend to take home for the Lunar New Year. So timely given that the Lunar New Year's Day and Valentine's Day fall on the same date this year.

I hope my parents don't ever give me that much grief that I would resort to those kind of tactics. But I hope I wouldn't. I would feel uncomfortable about the deception and dishonesty, but understand the lengths people go to stop other people's nagging!

(H/T to Alex for the article.)

Being a thoughtful couple

As I crossed the Harbour Bridge tonight by train, I thought, "If I were married, I would celebrate Valentine's Day the day before and spend V Day with a whole bunch of friends (single and married) so nobody would feel left out."

This year for me, Chinese New Year trumps Valentine's Day (well, CNY trumps everything). Next year, perhaps, we'll take the opportunity to get friends together.

John Piper and skin hunger

Skin hunger is a topic Jess explored earlier on jelssie. Here is John Piper's response to How would you offer hope to someone who is addicted to cutting himself? His response touches on the topic of skin hunger and looks at people's need for touch, need to feel loved and cared for.

Food on a Stick Adventure Tour!

Jess and I are excited to announce our new eating venture: Food on a Stick Adventure Tour (FOASAT)!

The idea came to us while we were eating at Erica Restuarant for the fourth Kingsford Eat Street Challenge (KESC). We just realised how good food on a stick can be. We both had Chuan Bar in mind. And I was thinking of Pitt St in the city where you can get all this Korean food on a stick. And of course there's your Pluto Pups at The Easter Show.

We have no plans yet for kicking it off, but we are excited about it!

I also think we need to have a KESC round 2 once we've completed all the restaurants. I've noticed new restaurants popping up. Tropicana doesn't exist anymore and it's now called Zhou Mama or something like that. The point of round 2 would only be to visit the new restaurants that have opened up since we've started the Challenge.

Double dose Saturday

I've just realised that Saturday is a great day for me to do a double dose of exercise.

If I get up at my usual time in the morning and do my morning exercise, I have the rest of the day or morning for some more exercise. I could go for another jog with my flatmate (good test of endurance). I could do the Coogee to Bondi walk with my sister (great views and quality time). I could go for an ocean swim with Jess and friends (refreshing).

I must take advantage of double dose Saturday.

Heads up!

Today is the Friday before Valentine's Day. I'm a single girl in a big city. The world is full of experiences waiting to happen. What to do, what to do?

While I wait for Midsomer Murders to start, I will be checking out a new show on the ABC… Sleuth 101, some sort of a cross between Spicks and Specks and Cluedo. I hope it is the highlight of my week, and that's saying a lot because I really like The Mentalist.

Position Vacant: Valentine.

This temporary position, starting on the 14 February 2010 and finishing on the 15th of that same month, is ideally suited to a single man of good faith.

The applicant must possess good communication skills, an eye for the colour red, and a willingness to make a girl feel special. Displays of chivalry much appreciated.

Send your application by email to jelssie@fastmail.fm. Each application should include a 50 word description of your proposed Valentine tribute.

Applications close 9am on 13th February 2010.

If no suitable applicant is found, the position will be awarded to Elsie's mars bar slice in heart-shaped tin.

Of Books and Birkenstocks

I've worked out a bargain way of buying books and Birkenstocks.

When it comes to books, I'm usually quite happy to borrow them from the library or get them second-hand. However, I don't always have the time to look for second-hand books nor are they always available. So I will usually head straight to booko and let it compare various websites for me, to tell me which is the cheapest online store to get it from. If it happens to be Borders Online, I will hop over to OzBargain and see if there are any valid 20% or 25% off voucher codes and apply it to my order. Savings galore!

If booko tells me that Book Depository is the cheapest, I will visit both the US and UK site to see if there is any price difference. They too do free shipping.

For Birkenstocks, you will rarely find them on sale in Sydney at a Birkenstock outlet. They pretty much never do sales. You'll find them on sale at Hype when they have their post-Christmas 20% off in stock sale, but they don't carry a large range of Birks. You might also find them on sale if a shoe retailer is trying to get rid of the last of their stock. They're not much cheaper at the shopping outlet at Birkenhead Point either. So I turn to eBay. You can get a pair brand new shipped from Germany at about 65% of the original price (and that includes postage). Or you could try Birkibox, which ships directly from Germany and they sell on eBay as well.

Birks are quite sturdy, so I've only bought my second pair after having my first for over four years (and that was wearing them a lot).

Vicarious Valentine.

It is impossible to avoid noticing V Day. I always fantasise a little bit about receiving a big bunch of flowers, or something poetic from an anonymous admirer*, or anything of a Valentiney nature… nothing ever happens.

So since there is no fun to be had with a real Valentine, "we shall have to be philosophers, Mary," and make our own blog fun!

Here is some sensible advice you girls might like to remember:

"It is face powder to catch them, and baking powder to keep them."

So simple! Things were perhaps much easier in the 50s.

Stay tuned for more!

*although I have spent this year spurning the poems and tributes of an unwanted weirdo admirer, so if I did receive something anonymous I would be cross and suspicious.

Exercise theory.

I think there are 2 schools of thought. Not counting people who avoid exercise.

1st group are all about goals. Exercise is intensive, because you are trying to lose weight, or run a marathon, or something. You do hard exercise because you want results. I sometimes try this way but I can't sustain it for long because it takes a lot of willpower.

2nd group are about being generally active. I can easily say that I am an active person, because I walk to work and stuff, do a little bit of swimming, carry my groceries home from the shops, etc etc. Being active is good for your health, keeps you in good shape if you eat lightly, and I find it is easily sustainable— you just don't get peak fitness or any other measurable results.

5fifty5 challenge.

Elsie has been inspiring us with her motivation! I'm going to follow her lead and get motivated.

I want to read my bible EVERY DAY as per my NYR, and to do that I realise I need discipline and routine. Unfortunately, evenings are not a good time for routine, because I'm always either busy or lazy. So that leaves mornings.

I have blogged about the beauty of the early morning weekend. And then I came across this post at girltalk...

And I thought: what if I got up early on weekdays? What if I woke up at 5.55am? I could do my quiet time, drink tea, watch the sun rise, and be undistracted. I could get to work calm and organised and on time.

So I started this morning, but slept in.

It's my 5fifty5 challenge. Everything is more fun if it's a challenge!

Get over it

I've recently started exercising regularly again. It's taken me about six or seven years to reach this point (i.e. the last time I can remember exercising at this level of intensity and regularity was about six or seven years ago). I know it has to be a lifestyle change, so I was getting a little freaked out by the fact that I will be exercising nearly every day for the rest of my life IF I want to stay healthy (God willing).

Then I read this tip from Michelle Bridges (a trainer in The Biggest Loser Australia) in a recent Sunday Life:

Get it in your head that training is something that you do every day. You make your bed every day, you take a shower every day, you train every day. Big deal. Get over it.

Okaaaay. I've started making my bed every day now.

Heart-shaped box

I made a Mars Bars slice* using my recently acquired heart-shaped tin.

First I lined the tin with baking paper. Then I firmly pressed the base in.

Next was the chocolate layer.

And this is the final product:

*Technically speaking, since I bought the ingredients from ALDI, it was a Titan slice.

Early to rise

In the past few years, I've really struggled with my sleep. I struggled to go to bed at a decent hour, which meant I didn't get enough sleep, and hated waking up. I would usually wake up around 8am (ah, the luxury of living close to work). I would wake up tired, not rested. I would be in awe of Karen (and others), who would wake up at 6:15am to get to work early. The thought of waking up at 6-something really freaked me out. I just don't know how people did it.

This lack of sleep meant I would yawn all morning (and probably all day) and just generally be lethargic.

Just before Christmas, I made a commitment to my health. I was going to eat health-fully and exercise five to seven times a week. I worked out the best time for me to exercise would be first thing in the morning: before work, before breakfast.

I don't know if you can call it a habit yet, but to my great surprise and delight, I've been able to get up at 6:00am most of these past few mornings to exercise. This is how I did it:

Gradually wind your clock back

I think I started at 6:30am. After a few days, I wound it back another five minutes. And another five. And another five, till eventually I was waking up at 6:00am.

You gotta have a reason

To be able to get up at 6:00am, you must have a really good reason. Something that you really want. I really really really wanted to exercise. I was making all this effort to eat health-fully, therefore I was going to take advantage of it by exercising. Later on, my motivation became comfort: in summer, 6:00am is a much cooler part of the day to be exercising. It meant I could jog, whereas if I exercised later in the morning when it was warmer, I would only walk.

Lots of positive self-talk!

At first it was a struggle. It was hard. The first few times, it took me 10-15 minutes to get out of bed. I would chant in my head, "Come on Elsie, you can do it! Come on Elsie, you want this! Come on Elsie, you want to be fit and healthy!" over and over again until I got up. You've really got to remind yourself why you want to get up in the first place. This morning, I think it only took me a couple of minutes.

Allow yourself to struggle

It's okay that it's hard to get up and you feel worse for wear for the first couple of minutes. But once you get dressed and get out the door to exercise, half the battle is won!

Getting up at 6:00am on a regular basis to exercise has improved my sleep quite a bit. I don't yawn at all in the mornings anymore. Imagine that! No more loud yawns from Elsie! I get really tired at night and most of the time, I will go to bed because I want to sleep enough so I can wake up at 6:00am. I've had a few late nights, but they're now the exception rather than the norm.

I do however, allow myself to have naps on the weekend (one for each day) if I need them, while I'm adjusting to this new routine.

Anyway, this is to give you hope! Even I, who was terrible at waking up in the mornings, can wake up at 6:00am on a regular basis and not be fazed by it!

Advice for a post-grad

God willing, I'm looking forward to starting post-graduate studies this year. Here's some advice from a couple of friends:

You want to go to the class with the most number of English speaking students!!! Trust me, there will definitely be group assignments! Bond with the nerds now!

Friend 1

In your first lectures and tutorials (you need to act early) observe who asks questions, prepares for tutes etc - you want to see who is conscientious. It's good to see who is dressed up/mature age, they are likely working and studying part-time so they're pretty motivated and organised.

If you want to be really keen, look up last semester's course notes to see which subjects have group assignments so you can chose your group members in the first or second tutorial. Don't be shy get in early, approach the good students, exchange email & mobile no.s. If you're not pro-active you may end up in a group where poor communication/ English will make assignments even harder to complete.

Friend 2

Well, I've enrolled into the Monday morning class. I figure anyone who's up for class on Monday morning has got to be fairly serious. I shall be on the look out for conscientious nerds with excellent communication skills. I wonder if I should nerd it up too...

Windows at work.

This is the window at work where I take a little break and do my eye stretches:


On a rainy day, Anna and I call this our bay window, as per the BBC P&P where Elizabeth sits on a wet day to read letters from her sister, while English rain splashes gently against the glass. Sigh.

This is the view from the bay window. You can imagine that park is "a prettyish sort of little wilderness", if you like. Life would be boring if we had no imagination.


This other window is exciting for a different reason. It has a very dull view out onto what I call 'The Prawjects', after Bill Cosby. But this week a Fed used it to take photos of drug deals! So I have a new respect for it.

KESC 4 review

Well, this was my disappointingest challenge yet. But I will try and be fair and balanced.

It was a pleasant, cool evening when we met at Erica Indonesian last Friday. We decided to sit outside, since this is the only place you can eat outside in Kingsford at night, other than Maccas. So that is a plus.

There were eight of us! Biggest challenge ever. We were therefore able to cover a lot more food... noodles, fried chicken, and I had deep fried sweet and sour beef.

Prices are good, around $9 per meal, although you can get lots of small things.

Serving portions good, but there was often a lot more filler (noodle) than meat. That's common for Kingsford though.

They are helpful in how they serve the food, eg sauce on the side if requested.

Taste was average. Fried chicken was well liked, but some other stuff wasn't special.

Temperature was a problem - mine was almost cold, others were also getting cold. So that was quite annoying.

One of our meals was forgotten.

So, if I wanted to eat a cheap Indo cold dish outside, I might go back. But if I wanted something hot and delicious, I would not go there.

Next challenge, Italian!

Scraping the barrel.

I feel I've been posting some pretty thought-provoking stuff recently. So all you get from me today is this:

I hate moonpig.

I hated it the first moment I heard the jingle and saw the logo swoop in. By the third time I had to shut my eyes and mute the TV. I hate moonpig with every particle of my being.

Consider this a warning. Don't go looking for it! Escape if you can! Although moonpig will find you, maybe while you're watching The Mentalist, maybe while you are eating breakfast with the Today Show... moonpig will find you.

Handbag v backpack

Handbags are the correct way for a lady to carry around her purse and other lady business.

They are fun to shop for, because you don't have to go into a change room. They can be very pretty. They can have secret pockets and special lining and hidden compartments. Who can resist?

However, handbags and satchels are usually carried on the one side all the time. It's like crossing your arms the other way, it feels all unbalanced and wrong to tuck your bag under the other shoulder. Carrying something heavy on one side means your back is twisting to the other side to compensate. Not good for you. One day you'll bite into a carrot and your jaw will get stuck, and you'll have to undo all the contributing factors.

So, backpacks. They are all basically sporty, ugly, and comfortable. Not ladylike at all, but when you walk a lot and carry heaps of stuff around, the backpack beats the handbag.

I wish there was an in between way.

Good ideas for presents for women.

There are some dreadful ads on TV about obnoxious women who aren't satisfied with their Valentine's Day presents, they're all "flowers aren't good enough! I want diamonds!". Presents are lovely in any form and I wish I was more thoughtful and gave them more often.

However, even though presents are always appreciated by sensitive women, I have a green bag full of soaps and smelly things and candles. These things build up faster than any woman alive can possibly use. Women know this, and still give them to each other! Not to mention trinket boxes, teeny tiny photo frames, and figurines of teddy bears. If you want to buy a woman a small gift, for a thankyou or something, these are my suggestions off the top of my head. They are low clutter as well as special treats.

• Gourmet tea, or hot drink equivelant
• Gourmet chocolate
• Movie tickets
• Earrings (I plan to make a list of all my pierced friends)
• Flowers

Small and special is better than lots of tacky. And usable is better than ornamental, because it is hard to know a woman's particular taste, and ornamental presents are dreadful for clutter. Flowers are the exception to the ornamental rule, because they are always pretty and they are short-lived.

Facebook frenemy.

I live at peace with every man, except one. I always have an enemy. When I was 9 and did gymnastics, it was Fabian. When I was in years 11 and 12 it was Irish Daniel, a creepy loner boy with an Irish accent that nobody believed. Current enemy can not be named even though he's not really as loathed as the others were; now that I am more mature, I just scowl at him a little through slitted eyes.

I have a friend request from this semi-enemy, which is nice of him. I'm glad the dislike isn't mutual. I am trying to accept, and build a little bridge, but facebook is stopping me:

This person cannot be added as a friend.

Skirt theory.

I love skirts! No shoe fetish for me (the universal female shoe fetish is a myth, I reckon). Skirts are wonderful. I have raved about dresses, but I tend to be conservative in my dress choice, whereas I can go a bit fancier with a skirt, cos it's less overwhelming. A floral dress is whoa! floral! whereas a floral skirt is just right. Any skirt is just right.

Advantages:
The ultimate in comfort, coolness, prettiness.

Disadvantages:
1. General lack of pockets. My new skirt with pockets is the first thing I want to wear now.
2. You need to be aware of the wind. Light fabrics can be annoying.
3. You need to hang them on skirt hangers in the wardrobe. I've never liked skirt hangers, they are the tongs of the wardrobe, catching on each other and falling off the rail and getting in the way.

Anne.

I have been swimming in Anne of Green Gables nostalgia recently, as I often must. I grew up reading and re-reading Anne; her dreams were my dreams, Gilbert was such an ideal man, and frankly you can do a lot worse—I stand by Anne.

I think Anne and Gilbert are still lodged firmly in my subconscious, as an influence, for better or worse. This is pretty normal, lots of girls grow up with Anne. I guess it's better than a certain current obsession with the undead but probably just as unrealistic. Two people who are made for each other, who don't realise it at first, who become best friends, and who grow to love each other through suffering? That's a noble criteria in my dreams but a useless one in my real life.

Might as well bury my nose in Avonlea and live vicariously. Innocent love, pretty dresses, gloriously coloured countryside, buggy rides, lavish home decorating, swirling piano music...

Erica Restaurant this Friday!

I'm super excited about the first Kingsford Eat Street Challenge for 2010. We'll be dining at Erica Restaurant at 6:30PM this Friday. It's at 275 Anzac Parade, Kingsford. It's Indonesian cuisine.

To whet your appetite, check out the review from He Needs Food as well as the menu.

Naked salads

I am incorporating more vegetables into my diet. I did not grow up eating Western-style raw vegetable salads, so I can be a bit clueless when it comes to green salads and dressings.

The principles I've stuck to when creating a salad are:

• Choose a variety of colours (pleasing to the eye),
  
• Choose a variety of textures (pleasing to the mouth),
  
• Choose vegies you like and will actually eat, even if it costs a bit more (pleasing to the mouth and mind),
  
• Be game and try something new or different.

You can also get more salad ideas by visiting the food court and seeing what's on offer, or taking note next time someone kindly invites you over for a meal.

Here are two salads I've made recently and I've quite liked them.

Salad 1 (great name huh?)
Baby spinach leaves
Sliced Spanish onion
Sliced yellow capsicum
Orange grape tomatoes

Salad 2 (salsa style)
I had the following ingredients diced finely, and mixed it through my main meal or had it on the side:
Cucumber
Spanish Onion
Orange Capsicum
Egg tomato

My salads are usually naked (i.e. undressed) because I'm not used to eating salads and not used to dressing them. However, I do love my Lee Kum Kee Chiu Chow Chilli Oil (a whiff of that stuff gets my tongue tingling, ready to salivate), so I will sometimes add a small teaspoon to my salad.

Would love to hear your salad/vegie ideas if you've got any.

Making a clean start.

LB and I both ended up with some accumulated communal shared house stuff from our previous places. In particular, we have a lot of cleaning supplies, including 3 bottles of sugar soap and about 5 bottles of dishwashing liquid. Strangely, the multiple windexes are all LBs and the multiple and soap pumps and refills are all mine.

Car: Freedom and burden.

Elsie has a car. Jess doesn't. This is a sort of combined thoughts post.

Cars are a source of freedom. You can go anywhere and take anything with you at any time of the day or night. That is quite wonderful.

But cars are also a burden. You have to carry around a lot of little burdensome thoughts in your head, like *how much petrol have I got left? *where/when can I get the cheapest petrol? *that's a new noise, can it wait till the next service? *should I park nearby and pay?

Without a car, the choices are a lot more limited, but that isn't always a bad thing. Life is simpler if you live within the bus routes. And public transport is slower etc etc, but on the other hand if you go to the CBD or the shops you just hop on a bus, trance out, and then get off and walk away without worrying where you park. So there's a strong argument for the freedom of not having a car as much as you can.

Spinster.

I have been semi-jokingly referring to myself as a spinster for many years. I know it is unlikely, but I quite like the word. It has a Marilla Cuthbert quality to it. Quaint, moral, busy, witty, old ladyish. It makes a change from "single", which just means "unmarried". Try "spinster" instead, the vintage version. Learn to love it.

Pace of change: never been slower.

On the radio today I heard something surprising: we think we live in a super-fast changing world, but we don't really. 50 or 100 years ago, technological changes were happening which had huge effects on how people lived and the possibilities of their world. The telegraph enabled near instant international communication, which was previously restricted by physical transport speed. Radio technology. Also the car. Air travel. Production line manufacturing. Plastic. etc etc etc. This stuff really changed people's lives. We think the world is changing quickly because a new and improved ipod is released every 3 months. That's not life-changing. The personal computer, maybe digital technology, and definitely the internet, are the significant tech life-changers in my lifetime.

How to swallow a big sticky pill

Earlier I groaned about not being able to swallow this multivitamin and mineral supplement.

I worked out that my problem was that it was:

• big and
• sticky (i.e. it would stay on my tongue and refuse to move)

I solved my problem by:

1. Leaving the pill in its foil wrapper and smashing it with a mallet. It usually breaks into three smaller pieces
2. Putting a small piece on my tongue.
   
3. Taking a sip of water, without swallowing water or pill.
4. Throwing my head back to get the pill floating in the water instead of sitting on my tongue
5. Once it's floating, swallow and down zee vitamins and minerals go!

Of course, this method only works if it's not a liquid capsule or something that can't be smashed into smaller pieces.

Irony.

This sums up my day:

The hanky.

I'm a hanky girl. I don't hate tissues, but I was brought up on hankies. Although tissues cost more over time and I am pretty stingy, so that's a big mark against tissues. Also, I don't like disposable culture. Also, hankies feel more solid and I blow my nose pretty hard. Also, hankies have more romantic potential - the waving of the hanky from the train window, the lending of the monogrammed hanky from the considerate and prepared gentleman*.

The trick with hankies, though, is not to use them and absentmindedly leave them around all used looking and disgusting ... on the couch, the coffee table, my desk at work, my inbox ...

*Speaking of gentlemen and ladies and hankies: my Dad is constantly asked "Do you have a hanky?" to which he replies "Do I have daughters?"; so now I just ask "Do you have daughters?" to save time.

Garage sale vintage win!

Look what I got for $8!



















- 1 x baking tray
- 1 x bar tin (not that easy to find!)
- 1 x heart shaped baking tin
- 1 x coin purse with sequins
- 1 x Glomesh handbag

I finally own a Glomesh handbag!

I also considered a coat and a small tv, but decided not to buy them. There were also vintage hats and glove.

Novel twist.

I just finished reading Cloud of Witnesses by Dorothy L Sayers. I found it in the cull of my parents bookshelves. It is a murder mystery novel, but in the end… it wasn't a murder. It was a suicide. Which was such a let-down. Crime books always resolve with catching the bad guy, and that's what gives you the sense of resolution and "all's well". A nasty minor character was hit by a bus, but that's not the same thing.

My profound thought on music.

Heard someone on the radio compare U2 to Coldplay in that early U2 songs were about STUFF, they had agendas for the world, but Coldplay is all about navel gazing.

I wonder if all songs are overall more me-focused at the moment, compared even to other recent music eras? We've heard it about hillsong enough times, it's all "me me me". But it must be a wider phenomenon reflecting this age of individualism and over-sharing.

KESC 4!

Friday 29 January, 6.30pm.

Erica Indonesion House, Anzac Parade. Mark it in the diary.

Advice on the logistics of rental-sharing.

RANT: For the last 3 years I have lived in a 3br unit. The original 2 housemates left and were replaced. There were 2 rent increases. The unit was sold. We all paid our rent separately, some weekly, some fortnightly, and some monthly. At the end of the 3 years, $339.13 is missing. And it is pretty much my job to sort it out, because I am the only original housemate and also because it has ALWAYS been my job to sort this stuff out. For some reason the agent always contacted me first, so house problems were always first of all MY problem.

So here is some advice for beginners in the rental-sharing game.

• In a house of 2 people, things are clear. If there is a problem with money or jobs, it is either you or the other person. In a house of 3 or more, it is less clear, there is a lot more passing responsibility around and hoping someone else will fix it. Some people are deliberately evasive, some just make no effort to help and hope someone else fixes it, some are genuinely innocent bystanders. So 2 is logistically easier. If there are 3 or more, be extra especially clear and accountable.
• If it turns out to be a house full of evasive types, be the first one to move out, because you don't want them all to move out and leave you with all the mess they made.
• Try and make it so that your name is not the first one on the lease. Don't be the first in line for the agent to call. I don't know if this works or not, but I'm tired of agent calls and emails, so it's worth a try.
• Everyone should pay their rent weekly. I did it monthly because it worked better for my personal budgeting, but weekly is the simplest way to track payments if everyone pays weekly.
• Divide the rent up according to the size of rooms or whatever. If you can all pay slightly different amounts rent, you can quickly see who missed a weekly payment.
• Start saving, so that you can buy your own place and be rid of the renting for good.

There is some more good advice in Anna's guest post.

The Engagement Photo Shoot: A Recent Phenomenon?

I wonder if the Engagement photo shoot is a recent phenomenon. I certainly don't recall friends getting photo shoots in the late 90s and early 2000s. But in these last few years, I have noticed most engaged couples do a photo shoot before they get married.

It could be that it's always been done, but with the advent of Facebook, these photos are more widely distributed, so it seems like every engaged couple is getting them done. I know photo studio shots are a big thing in Asian pop culture. Some of them can look very *gag*gag* cheesy, whereas others can look super-cute.

Radio rocks!

My Christmas list this year was basically just a digital radio. My parents went to great lengths to find one for me since they are only available in the areas which actually have digital radio signals. I took it back home and was instantly rewarded by being able to listen to Norman the Quiz on the ABC, even though the cricket was playing on the normal radio, because there is a separate signal for ABC Grandstand.

I enjoyed FAB4 for a little while. But I've also been giving the normal stations a go, and of all the music stations my new favourite is 2CH. My inner nanna loves easy listening. This is a sample of what I heard last night while I cooked dinner:

Three times a Lady
Catch a falling star
My girl

Quality!

Thoughts on moving house.

I moved on Saturday, with help from Dad, Bro and Girl from church. It was dreadfully hot, but overall it went well. Here are three tips.

1. It is physically exhausting. Drink powerade.
2. Use your towels to pack your breakables.
3. Empty the crumbs out of your toaster before you pack it.

Jagged little pill

I've recently started taking a multivitamin and mineral supplement. It's quite a large pill. The first few days were fine - I could swallow it. Then I started choking and gagging on it just to get it down. And today has been the first day that I just cannot get it down. I don't understand how I lost my ability to swallow pills (although last year I had some trouble swallowing echinacea pills).

So I've done some research on the net and here are some tips on swallowing pills:

- have it with yoghurt
- tip your head forward not backward when swallowing
- cut it in half
- put it in jelly
- relax and distract yourself by watching tv while you swallow

The first three haven't worked for me. I hope at least one of the last two works.

The cost of similarly branded clothes between stores

The price differences for the same branded underwear between the stores (i.e. David Jones/Myer vs Kmart/Target/Big W) has got to be one of life's little mysteries.

I was shopping for sports top by a particular brand. For the purposes of this post, let's call the brand T. T has a range of sports tops.

I went to Myer and noticed that the RRP for T's sports tops was $56.95 - $59.95. I then went to KMart and noticed its RRP was $24.95. That's a significant difference! Admittedly, it was a different range, but it was the same brand. Did it warrant such a big price difference?

I think companies create different ranges for the different stores. DJs and Myer target "richer" shoppers. Target, KMart and Big W are more known for their discount prices. So many brands create a more expensive range for DJs and Myer and a budget range for Target/KMart/Big W. It's a bit like Peter Morrissey creating a range of sub-$100 dresses for Big W, when his dresses would normally retail for much more.

So where did I end up buying my sports top?

In an ideal situation, I would have bought them from Kmart on sale, as that would have been the cheapest price between the two stores. But they weren't on sale. So here was my decision-making process:

1. I wanted the sports tops now and it looked like I would have to pay at least $24.95 for them.

2. Myer's tops were reduced to $26.25, making it a difference of $1.30 per top compared to Kmart. I considered this difference to be negligible.

3. Since I already had one T's Kmart sports top at home, I could buy a Myer one to see what the difference was, and if Myer's T range was truly superior to KMart's T range.

4. Hence I bought Myer's T range.

New Years Resolutions.

Not one, but five! I'm a big fan of resolving to do good things, cos even if you fail you probably get some good out of it in the short term. And a few years ago on Jan 1st I started one of those read the Bible in a year plans, and I did it. A resolved resolution! It can be done. So this is what I need discipline for this year.

1 Not think about food unless it is really exciting food
2 Read the Bible EVERY DAY
3 Pray also
4 Read one edifying book every month
5 Practise hospitality

Christmas Eve 2009.

Thanks for reading! We've had a lot of fun with Jelssie this year. Have a lovely Christmas and remember God incarnate.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

Looking forward to seeing you next year!

Love Jess and Elsie

Pre Christmas Pre New Year Pre Summer School Pre Moving House post:

1. Make lots of lists

2. Send lots of emails

3. Go AAAAARRRRRGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Why saving is bad.

I'm a good saver. I hoard a bit. Sometimes I buy or I'm given things that I perceive as "too good to use". So they become junk and clutter. Which is such a waste! Instead of wearing a nice pair of earrings I keep them safe in their box until they are out of fashion, a total waste of fashion and space. Much better to use them for their purpose and let them really live, until they are lost or broken when I can get rid of them with a sense of satisfaction.

Freeze to prevent spillage

I'm not a great fruit eater. My flatmate left me a mango and two kiwi fruit before she went overseas (I love mango!). I had a couple of nectarines that came all the way from Woolies, Port Macquarie. To help me eat them all, I decided to turn them into a salad. I diced everything up and it looked delicious and juicy.

"I'll take some to work," I thought. "But what am I going to do about the inevitable fruit-juice-spillage-while-carrying-salad-on-the-way-to-work?"

Ding!

"I knows!" I thoughts. "I'll freeze it! That way it can't spill at all, and I can leave it to defrost at work. And if it's a particularly hot day, I can have a nice slushy treat!"

How to throw things out.

Elsie is on holiday at the moment so I'm not sure if she'll be posting, but in the spirit of Elsie I am posting on de-cluttering, one of her favourite things. As I get ready to (hopefully) move house, I am doing a lot of it.

My new rule for de-cluttering is: if you only ever see an object when you do a clean out, chuck it away. My normal pattern is to find it, admire it, relive the memories, and then put it back away until next time I do a clean out. Now the hard rule is chuck it.

There is a book at my parents house which is just below the Bible in importance. It is full of wisdom and revelation. It is The Messies Manual. It is a book about cleaning, for messy people! Because messy people think about mess very differently to cleany people. For example, 'Frugal Messies' keep junk they don't need just in case one day they do need it. For slightly 'Sentimental Messies' like me, junk isn't just junk, every piece of junk has a lot of associated memories, and when you find the junk, all the memories come back, and you can't throw out the junk because you are throwing out the memories.

So having realised that all I want is the memory, not the junk, I am now taking photographs of my junk as I throw it out.

Rental Conspiracy.

Sometime in the mid-late 90s, apartment block builders of the Eastern Suburbs all put their heads together and decided that every block of flats I ever inspect should be built to face west.

The limit of the internet.

Don't know where I will live after 10 January 2010 due to lease ending and housemates leaving.

Faced with this dreadful uncertainty and feeling a burning desire to know, I find myself going to Google, and then realising Google can't tell me that. Stupid internet, doesn't know the future.

Big dates in history

Today, checking through my 2008 diary for useful information I need to save before I throw it out, I noticed the following significant entry on Tuesday 27 May:

I haven't seen a grey since then, but I wish I had marked the first anniversary this year.

Scuffy heels

I've noticed I have identical scuff marks on the heels of my high heels (grr). See how there's an exposed white bit?















I wonder how it is that I'm causing them. Is it because when I walk on soft grass, the heel sinks into the ground and when I pull it out, it gets scuffed? Or am I scraping my heels against concrete steps or something? Anyone know?

I'm kind of annoyed, but I'm sure not that many people are looking at the heels of my heels ('cept you now will, dear reader).

Blue da ba dee da ba die

I reached into my handbag and realised...















...it's not just red that I dig.

How to get a longer weekend!

I'm not a huge sleeper-inner. On weekends I sleep till 9.30 or so. But, there is no real need for me to sleep in, because I get good hours of sleep all week— so I don't need a catch-up, it's just the luxury of waking up in my own time.

But, if I get up at a normal weekday time on the weekend, I get an extra 2 hours each day! The weekend is effectively 4 hours longer! 4 hours of precious weekend daylight. It's amazing, having that extra time.

Summertime clothing

Given our high rates of skin cancer and our nation's high exposure to UV rays, Australians should adopt ways of dressing similar to Arab men. Think Lawrence of Arabia and long, flowing white garments.

I like how in that kind of dressing, the vast majority of their skin is covered including the neck, the arms and the legs.

I would like to cover my arms, legs and neck more during summer, but I can't help but associate long sleeved clothing and pants with winter. I don't think I have summer-appropriate long sleeved clothing. Someone should design a range. In the meantime, I'll do my best to remember to put SPF 30+ broad spectrum on my skin each day.

Scientists should:

Invent an elastic that lasts forever and never loses its stretchiness. And then make certain small items of clothing out of it. And then women won't have to do their least favourite sort of shopping as often.

Challenge 3: Spice Neon Chicken.

Four challengers met last Friday at Sydney Spice Chicken Pot. The exterior is promising, as Elsie pointed out, there is a neon chicken which is a rooster.

Inside, it turns out to be a hot pot place. The tables have 2 levels, you have bowls and the hotplate on the top of course, and on the shelf below (where we mistakenly put our handbags with great excitement at the convenience) you put the little bowls of raw ingredients for when you need to add them to the pot.

Anyway, the menu was a little confusing at first. It has some english, thankfully, but it comes in the form of a checklist which you tick boxes and hand in to the waitress. The waitresses were very helpful explaining it all.

We ordered a Chicken Hot Pot for $33 which was plenty for the 4 of us. It was surprisingly spicy, only just bearable for some of us, so we asked for more water to be added. The chicken is a lot of bones and knobbles. Not much that you can just put straight in your mouth. But lots of it and definitely tasty.

As they top up the water you then add the other little things you ordered by the bowlfull. Like, rice noodles, cabbage, tofu, skinny white mushrooms, dumplings and I forget what else. We ended up eating too much (well I ate too much), but that is normal for hot pot.

It cost about $15 each. Pretty good value. Obvious why it is so popular with the students during semester.

We decided that we wouldn't come rushing back, but probably in the winter it is a really good place to go when you want some spicy hot pot.

Christian office dress codes.

Monday weekly meeting with boss.

First item on the agenda was my dress.

Well, the aircon is fierce, and I have no jumper with me.

Apparently this sort of footwear reinforces negative Christian stereotypes.

So how am I supposed to wash 'em?

Laundry. I sort them into warm wash and cold wash.

Hence this label on my new $15 Target jeans is confusing.

Can you read it? In green it says THINK CLIMATE COLD WASH & LINE DRY. Then further on it says WARM MACHINE WASH SEPARATELY.

So how am I supposed to wash you jeans? Does it matter either way?

Using every last bit

So you think you've reached the end of your product. You can't squeeze anymore lotion or cream out.

That's when I get my "holy" knife for some action. I have set apart a knife to be my "cut-through-plastic" only knife.

And voila! You can now use the product that was trapped and could not be squeezed out :) See, there's quite a bit left, even though I couldn't squeeze it out.

Don't expose your product to air continuously if possible - that will dry it out.

Target sets new standard for bargain jeans

Jeans are a staple in my wardrobe. I could wear them to work all the time and I usually wear them in winter.

If you look at one of the lists to the left, you will see that Jess and I have Esprit jeans in common. Meaning we love them. The most flattering cut of jeans I have ever owned are Esprit jeans. Sadly they have started to wear and I am not sure I can patch them up.

I have paid $50-$80 each for my last three pairs of jeans (Saba, cK, Esprit) and then another $10 to get them hemmed up.

But tonight, I picked up two pairs of jeans (one straight leg, one bootcut) for $15 each at Target!

Good points:

• The cuts are reasonably flattering (I think, but if I'm wrong, do tell me. That's what a true friend would do [in a loving manner mind you :P]),

• they seem to be the right length (meaning I save $10 per pair in not having to get them altered),

• very cheap,

• and I like the colour of the denim.

I'm not sure about the quality. Time will tell.

So Target, if your jeans turn out to be good quality over time, you have set my new standard for bargain jeans.

Bonus tip! I have also learned that if you look bad in one brand's bootcut, it doesn't mean you look bad in every brand's bootcut. Frustrating because it means you can't stick to one cut if you want to keep jeans shopping simple. Liberating because it means you have more to choose from.

Dogs in costumes.

Dogs in jackets and shoes are pretty dumb, but this costume I saw in the Courier is AWESOME.

ETS.

I'm not sad for the death of the Emissions Trading Scheme. Trading pollution is moving the pollution around, and mostly moving the money around, hoping that somewhere along the way the pollution is reduced. That's my limited understanding of the matter, anyway.

Not that I have a better plan, except to live frugally and wait for the new earth.

The honeycomb divide.

Violet Crumble used to be my favourite chocolate bar. Maybe because it was the biggest. Value is important. Then somehow, Crunchie took the place of favourite honeycomb based chocolate bar.

You know how a Crunchie has a hard dense side and a light bubbly side? I always bite the hard side first so I can save up the bubbly side. Violet Crumble is light and dense with no bubbly bit.

I was thinking of switching back to Violet Crumble, to relive the good times. I had a Violet Crumble this week, and it wasn't that good. The only thing that impressed me was that I ate half and then left it for a few days and the honeycomb didn't dissolve from exposure to humidity the way I expected. But I'll never go back.

Kingsford Challenge 3!

This Friday, 4 December at 6:30. Probably the last challenge this year! Awww.

We are going to Sydney Spice Chicken Pot, it is a very asian place without much english in the signage, bright red signage, trendy seating.

Sorry I don't have as many email addresses as I used to so you will all have to find out from this blog.