Adventure, baby!

Sydney

Isis’ Hen Night

/ friends, Sydney Life / 3 Comments

Isis chose a hen day with a difference – a pole dancing class followed by dinner.

The class took place at Studio Verve, a little place in Surry Hills. I have taken a few pole dancing classes several years ago when it was just starting to become a trend, and it’s amazing to see how much it has changed from unstructured lessons in strip clubs to properly kitted out studios with syllabus’ and levels of classes.

The hen looks hot to trot.


Go Isis!


Alice takes a spin.


My turn. Weee!


Our instructor, Angie, shows us some advanced moves.


It looks pretty easy, eh?


Our turn to learn a routine.


Finishing pose.


Gratuitous butt shot #1.


Gratuitous butt shot #2.


Posing after the hard work is done. Hussies!


Group shot – go pole dancing!


The hen and Alice start with the drinks.


I try to get the hang of spins.


Me and Jenn – posing again.


Changed and ready for the night on the town.


All the girls at Pazzo, Surry Hills. Delish food at a reasonable reasonable price. It was about $50 pp for antipasto platters, bruscetta, a main (I had pumpkin filled pasta with pea pesto. Ultra tasty!) and a dessert platter. It was also BYO. We all brought a bottle of wine and got incredibly sloshed.


Yuuuuum! The marriageable dessert platter.

Google 10th B’day Party

/ Sydney Life / 2 Comments

We celebrated Google’s 10th birthday with a party at Simmer on the Bay, Walsh Bay.

Candles with the sun setting in the background.


Giant cupcake in the foyer – wishing it was real!


I’m such a poser.


With Flo, from Shopping.com.


Food coming around on a giant plank.


Caught doing what I do best – talking.



Google mural.


Crazy performers in the background.


“Oh hai!”


With Katia.


Leanne with a fish and chips bucket. I tried to collect a few of the buckets to bring home but the efficient workers took them every time I put them down!


Pucker up for some SUGAR!



The night progresses and the wine kicks in.


This was taken off the top of Darren’s head, hence the strange bits of hair in the foreground.


Hugs all around.


Surf’s up, Olah!



Leg and foot shot. No idea where this came from.


Little goody bag we took home.


Cute optical mouse.


More sugar – mmmm!!

Happy Birthday Mum!

/ Sydney Food / 2 Comments

A very rainy cold day was not the best way to celebrate my mum’s birthday, but despite the weather we managed to have a really great day.

Alec and I met my parents and Tim #2 (a friend of my brother, Tim #1, who is staying with them for a while) at a King St Wharf restaurant in the city. I was too hungry and cold to photo the meal, but it was delicious and I sat under a very toasty heater, so i was a happy girl.

We adjourned to the nearby Lindt Cafe for dessert.

The birthday cake – a hazelnut, chocolate creation. Delicious!


The birthday girl.


Mum’s soy cap – with tasty chocolate flakes.


Alec’s dark hot chocolate – very French style!


Tim #2 and Dad share a laugh.


Our table of chocolate goodness.


Me and Mum.


Cold! Wet! Ready to go home.

Sydney Breast Cancer Foundation Lunch at Jordons

/ Sydney Food, Sydney Life / 1 Comment

I love a good cause, especially when it involves the Sydney Breast Cancer Foundation.

Today I spent a lovely afternoon at Jordons in Darling Harbour with many other like-minded women supporting a great cause.

I’ve been to a few of these style of event and I think this was the nicest so far. It could have been the lavish displays of pink everywhere, or the excessively girlishness of it all that did it for me – or it might have been the delicious food and the simplicity of the event. No entertainment was needed, no excessive speeches. Just a few poignant moments and plenty of time to chat with old and new friends while raising money for the cause.

Google table – yeah!


Pink merchandise everywhere.


Sussing out the silent auction items with the fabulous view in the background.


The Mimco bag I had my eye on – and “won” in the silent auction. Hey, it’s for charity!


With girly partners in crime.


Our table of 20 like-minded ladies.


Sweet touches on the table.


Angela Bishop, the MC.


Cous cous with lentils, fetta and more.


Pumpkin risotto with spinach and sun dried tomatoes.


Fresh salad.


Tasty chips.


Most delicious dessert – pink mirangue with some kind of berry / passionfruit cream. So tasty I ate two.


With my bag after the auction end – while I was still on a buying high and before it set in that I had accidentally bought a bag.


Bye for now!

Malabar at Crows Nest

/ Animals, friends, Sydney Food / 2 Comments

I’ve never been a fan of Indian food – with the exception of cheese naan (which I was told recently wasn’t traditionally Indian – what a disappointment!).

Beverly and Lisa however have been raving abut their favourite Indian place in Crows Nest, Malabar, so in the spirit of trying new things, I agreed to come along for some new flavours.

I was pleasantly surprised by the delicious food – although I shouldn’t have been surprised since B & L are usually right when it comes to good restaurants. I was also pleased by the variety of vegetarian food on offer.

The interior – very dark unfortunately which made it not optimal for taking photos.


Colourful menu.


The house specialty is Dosai – B & L have been raving about it for a while now so I had to try it out.


The Dosai – a thin pancake wrapped around lightly spiced potatoes. Very, very tasty.


Hello there Lisa!


Patti Samosas – filled with spiced potatoes and peas.


Malabar Paratha – some kind of fried doughy bread. Delicious!


Bev in food heaven.


Nomming isn’t always a graceful thing.



Dessert – pistachio ice cream.


I can’t remember what this was called but it was a dessert with cottage cheese I believe, deep fried into dough somehow.



We adjourned to Bev’s house afterwards for ferret play and internet surfing.

The ferrets REALLY want to get on Cute Overload … “Ein, get out of my WAY!”



Malabar
334 Pacific Highway,
Crows Nest, NSW,
Australia
(02) 9906 7343

Rockpool

/ Sydney Food / 1 Comment

One of the things I love about my job is getting to eat at restaurants that otherwise I would never be able to.

We took some clients to Rockpool this week. I’ve heard amazing reviews but since it’s a seafood restaurant have never though of going myself.

Lucky for me, I was given the chance to try it out and see how they handle a fussy vege like me.

The entrance to Rockpool is very unassuming. Located at the The Rocks end of George Street it fits right in with low-key cafes and pubs. Even once you enter, the decor is very understated.

Vegetarian-wise, there were three options from the appetiser menu but only one from the mains, so I tried a dish I otherwise probably wouldn’t have.

Bread to start – crusty, fresh, hot bread.


Four tastes of the sea. I love the presentation. The presentation of all of our dishes was amazing, as was the service.


My goats cheese tortellini with raisins and pine nuts. Delicious! I just wish there had been more!


Tuna, snapper and leatherjacket sashimi with fresh wasabi, sushi rice, ginger and soy dressing.


Dishing out of my baby vegetable tagine and stuffed date. It was delicious, but slightly too spicy for me.



Potato gratin. So very tasty I could have eaten it all on my own.


Leaf salad with palm sugar vinaigrette. Delicious!


Date tart (original since 1984).


Chocolate rice crackle cake – delicious! The presentation, the fluttery gold leaf decorations, the explosion of chocolate mousse and caramel … ahhhhhh!


“Strawberries and cream” with rosé jelly. It gave me food envy.


Food porn shot!


Petits fours. Made on the premise. Jaffa balls and orange marshmallow pillows with salted caramels. OMG … my stomach was fit to bursting by now.


Super cute little coffee.


Such an amazing meal and service. I can see why Rockpool has such an outstanding reputation.

Rockpool
107 George St
Sydney, NSW
Australia
(02) 9252 1888

Perisher Snow Trip

/ Australia, NSW, Sydney Life, Travel / 2 Comments

The annual Google Ski Trip is a wondrous event. This year the engineers were bussed down to the resort on Lake Crakenback on Monday for some days of skiing and, umm, making coffee? The rest of us departed later in the week. While the official ski trip departed Wednesday afternoon and arrived Wednesday evening, giving us only one day of snow, my team of crazy hyper athletes decided to drive down on Tuesday night so we could get some extra snow time.

We spend Tuesday night in Cooma, at the pub / hotel. It cost us $25 a night per person for a room with four beds – and yes, we really did get what we paid for!

I was so happy to drive on the next morning into Lake Crackenback and grab my boots and board from the resort. Alec left a spare Perisher pass for me at the resort so I let my uber crazy team head on off to Thredbo to throw themselves down black runs, while I joined Alec and some of his team for some easy green runs at Perisher.

I’m not an awesome boarder by any means. I have boarded exactly four times now over 10 years. Each time I go to the snow it takes me the entire time I’m there for my body to remember how to board – just in time for me to leave again!

I had two good days of snow on this trip so I spent day one literally falling down the slopes and day two began to regain any skills that I had once had on previous trips.

There was a lot of snow up on the mountains for the end of the season, and we were blessed with sunny, warm days. Unfortunately, this also meant the snow wasn’t nice and fluffy – instead if was pretty icy and hard in a lot of places – I seemed to find quite a lot of these icy patches with my butt.

Ready for take-off!


Cheesy!










“I’m the king of the world!”


Just before my board slipped out from under me.





Tired!





Sunset at the resort.



This kangaroo and I eyed each other off … note the joey in the pouch!






The actual trip was fabulous .. only bad side came at the end of the second day when I was struck down with a nasty virus. I was the sickest I have ever been, and was eternally grateful that I had Alec there to take care of me. I was told that the virus was going around the area – it was pretty concerning how many of us got sick! At least I didn’t waste any precious snow time being sick however – now that would have really been terrible!

RSPCA Cupcake Day

/ Sydney Food, Sydney Life / 1 Comment

Anyone who knows me knows that my passion in life is animals. I am the hugest fan of the RSPCA and would do anything for them to help them fundraise.

2008 marked the first year for the Cupcake Day for the RSPCA and I decided to bake up a storm and raise some cash at work.


Since my oven doesn’t work, I went over to see my parents and baked with their state-of-the-art wonderful oven. The recipe I used was the same one I have been using since I was about five – it’s a very simple, never-fail, vanilla cupcake recipe that always turns out perfect – fluffy and crumbly in the middle with a great texture and taste. I did however tempt fate by making a second batch and throwing in a good heap of Cadbury drinking chocolate to see what happened. What happened was I stuffed up the recipe and half of the chocolate cupcakes sunk in the middle so were un-sellable. They were still tasty and devoured by family however, so it turned out OK!

Batch number two goes into the oven.


Batch number one comes out – perfect!


Iced! Glorious sprinkled cakes with lemon yellow icing.


Chocolate with white butter cream icing and chocolate sprinkles.

Dispite some hiccups at my work, the day went off very well. Several other Googlers brought in treats they had baked as well, and together we raised $170 for the RSPCA. Google also gift matches any money we donate to charity, so it ended up being $340 we made in total. I hope to raise even more next year!