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Featuring Arthur, The Crazy Cockatoo

December 21, 2008 / Animals, Sydney Life / 1 Comment

I would like to re-introduce Arthur, the sulfur crested cockatoo. He was raised mostly by Alec’s family after an unfortunate start in life, and is now, at around age 34, a vocal member of the family. He currently lives with Alec’s dad in Newcastle and has been left to us in his will – ruh-oh!

Arthur and Alec are old friends. He likes to scream “Aleeeeec” and have the underside of his wings scratched.

Nice birdy, but don’t be fooled. Evil lurks within.

Notice the dexterity with which he eats things out of his foot. This should have been a warning to me.

Oh hai!

Close-up!

Ummm …

Oh crap!

That blur you see is the birdy eating the front of my camera, which he then spat at me. Nice!

Lesson learned – only photograph cockatoos with a long lens. Don’t get close enough for them to EAT it.

Google & eBay Day Out

December 16, 2008 / Sydney Food, Sydney Life / 1 Comment

My team took out the eBayers for a day on the harbour for our end of year do. The day was perfect – warm without being boiling hot, and not a cloud in the sky. I’ve lived in Sydney all my life and have been on harbour countless times, but I just love it.

With Cheryl and Olah.

Skyline from the back of Sydney.

Being such a tourist.

Captain Cheryl!

Afterwards we set off for dinner at the Gazebo Wine Gardens.

Wearing the awesome tee Beverly gave me – it says “Kiss me, I’m a vegetarian”.

Funky interior.

Cheese to start with.

A huge sausage roll.

Yum!

Salad – an effort to be healthy. I don’t think I actually ate any of it.

Crab pasta with chilli.

My risotto. Very nice!

Pulling faces with Phuongy.

In the lift going to the rooftop bar in the Kings Cross Hotel, site of many adventures in my teens.

My camera died, so I have hardly any pics from the rest of the night, just this one of Sam in the Piano Bar in the Cross. Sadly I missed taking pics of him krumping to Elton John songs.

Gazebo Wine Gardens

2 Elizabeth Bay Road

Elizabeth Bay

(02) 9357 5333

Christmas BBQ Lunch

December 14, 2008 / Family, friends / 0 comment

Every year I meet up with my high school friends for an Xmas get-together. It’s the one time of year we can all usually meet up, so I always look forward to it.

This year we decided to have a BBQ at Bicentennial Park.

Alec talks to little Buffers.

Enjoying the greenery.

Shelley on her last weekend before moving to London.

Jules and Ro.

Kaz.

Rosalie made these amazing reindeer cupcakes – chocolate with berries in them.

Group shot. 11 years after high school finished, who’d have thought we would be where we are today and still friends?

Kahlua and Buff were on their best behaviour.

Kahlua has had an ear infection for most of the year. We finally have it sorted out and after many many months of ear pain for her, she is finally on the mend. Yay!

Twilight – My Obsession

December 13, 2008 / Sydney Life / 1 Comment

I’ve joined the legions of fans world wide in loving the Twilight book series and now movie. It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten so involved in a book that I read it in one day, and then went and bought the next three the next day.

About to see the movie, posing like an idiot in front of the poster. Yes, I did love it!

Adriano Zumbo Chocolat Cafe – Revisited!

December 13, 2008 / Sydney Food / 0 comment

I took Alec to enjoy the fabulousness that is Adriano Zumbo. We started out buying some savouries at the Pattisier, then wandered down to the Cafe Chocolat to eat and order drinks.

I forgot that the Cafe also has a menu – next time, we will just order there!

Alec’s quiche – Nancy I think.

My potato and rosemary pizza.

Alec’s ice coffee – blended like a frappachino.

The glorious interior. Love the lights.

The menu! I want everything on it.

Paris – La Vie En Rose – rose creme brulee, raspberry sorbet balls, fresh lychees, petit rose macaroons & coconut strawberry tapioca shake

Completely amazingly divine!

Eating is a very serious business

Happy full-of-food face

Nom nom nom.

We love you Adriano, and will see you again soon.

Adriano Zumbo Patissier
296 Darling Street,
Balmain
(02) 9810 7318
Mon – Sat, 8am – 6pm
Sun 8am – 4pm

Adriano Zumbo Cafe Chocolat
Shop 5, 308 Darling St
Balmain
(02) 9555 1199
Open 7 days, 7am – 6pm

Google Christmas Party 2008

December 10, 2008 / Family, Sydney Life / 0 comment

I need to begin this by saying how bad I am at lawn bowls. I have such poor fine motor skills that it is one of the most challenging games I could ever try to play.

However, the Google 2009 Xmas party was help at Paddington Bowling Club this year, forcing me to test my bowling (lack of) skills in public.

Thankfully, most people’s skills were on par with mine, so I didn’t feel too left out. In fact, it was pretty amusing watching people bowl so badly. A lot of bowls ended up knocking out other people’s bowls in different lanes, so our enjoyment of the game came from how terrible we were rather than how brilliantly skilled we all were!

After throwing all the bowls down the …lane? Alec realises he has to go and collect them. What kind of effort-plus game is this?

Sigh … the long walk of shame.

Laughing off the cold and embarrassment at my terrible attempt at bowls.

Mario Brothers Pizza & Pasta, Crows Nest

December 6, 2008 / Sydney Food / 0 comment

On a whim, we joined friends for dinner at Mario Brothers Pizza & Pasta at Crows Nest. I’m always willing to try new pizza in the quest to find the perfect slice.

Garlic bread – completely awesome.

My Margarita pizza. Perfectly cooked.

Clan Cooper!

Alec and Daniel shared a super supreme.

I loved that the bases were so crisp. They were much better than the soggy ones we get from our beloved LCC (I’m sorry LCC!). My only criticiscm was the cost – my medium plain cheese pizza was almost $17!

Nomming away.

Red with a good red.

Note the matching crazy looks on the faces of Alec and the woman in the picture.

Tired and full of glorious pizza.

Mario Brothers Pizza & Pasta
314 Pacific Highway
Crows Nest
(02) 9966 5551

Adriano Zumbo Patissier & Cafe Chocolat

December 6, 2008 / Sydney Food / 0 comment

Searching for the perfect chocolate on a Saturday, we drove down to Balmain to try Adriano Zumbo Patissier and Cafe Chocolat.

Quite simply, I’m in love.

The two stores are located within metres of each other, and both serve glorious things that will make you swoon. Our advice? Visit the patissier first and pick up savories and cakes, then take it to the Cafe Chocolat to sit down and order drinks. The patissier doesn’t actually serve drinks or have tables, so if you do it any other way, you will be in a bit of a mess, like we ended up in.

All of the cakes at the patissier look so amazing we don’t know what to try.

We settle on a Charles de Jour to share, and two quiches ($5.20 each) and a sausage roll to get the savory stuff in before the sugar overload begins.

Back at the cafe, the patient staff have our drinks on hold. We score a large table – and begin the feast.

Old school drinks menu. I had a butterscotch shake. Totally delicious, but not big enough.

Inside – the chocolate.

I took a few home for Alec to try, but the consensus was while they were lovely, the big draw card here is the desserts.

Macaroons – I tried Chocolate Orange, Chocolate and Chocolate Caramel – the Chocolate Caramel was by far the best. I will get it again! ($2 each)

Cute interior at the Cafe Chocolat.

Food – ready for go time!

Lisa’s cherry hot chocolate. It was far too heavy and sweet – it didn’t help that the day was about 30 degrees either!

Happy girls with the nom nom food.

Love the chandelier.

Finally – the Charles de Jour! Tart pate sucree, vanilla ganache, vanilla creme chantilly, vanilla water bursts and vanilla glacage.

One of the most amazing things I have tasted in my life.

For some reason we ordered a chocolate brownie as well ($6). In retrospect we should have ordered something more exotic, but we lost our heads for a few minues.

Leaning tower of chocolate! Nuts, chocolate, mirangue.

Adriano Zumbo Patissier
296 Darling Street,
Balmain
(02) 9810 7318
Mon – Sat, 8am – 6pm
Sun 8am – 4pm

Adriano Zumbo Cafe Chocolat
Shop 5, 308 Darling St
Balmain
(02) 9555 1199
Open 7 days, 7am – 6pm

Guylian Chocolate Cafe, Sydney

December 4, 2008 / Sydney Food / 0 comment

Time to try the new Guylian Belgian Chocolate Cafe on George St, in The Rocks, after a night of shopping.

It didn’t start out well – the doors slipped closed when we were about to enter, and the doors locked from the inside, causing Bev to lose the final straw after a frustrating day, and nearly break the doors trying to get in. In hindsight, I like to think it was a sign from abut trying to prevent us from entering.

Famous seahorse!

Nice decor.

Friands.

Mmmmm …

Good range of chocolate, but nothing really unique.

Desserts! Note the price is take-away – add an extra $4 – $5 to have these at the table.

We were quite stunned at how pricey it all was. The prices in the window looked OK, but when we compared them to the menu and saw the price hike, we shied away from the expensive desserts on principle. Compared to the Lindt Cafe, which is a higher quality grade chocolate, they were even more expensive, and didn’t taste anywhere near as good. Very disappointing!

Cranky Bev – with very good reason!

My classic shake – good, but not spectacular (about $7)

Hot chocolate (about $7)

Going for the money shot all at once.

Peanut and chocolate cookie – quite try and bland and cost about $3.

Chocolate cookie – same again.

Bev ordered a croissant and chocolate dips – about $7.

One chocolate was liquidy and tasty, the other like a bowl of solid chocolate.

Yum!

Guylian Belgian Chocolate Cafe
The Rocks,
91 George St
Sydney

Starbucks Free Coffee & Belle Pizza, Crows Nest

December 3, 2008 / Sydney Food / 0 comment

On the way to dinner, Bev spotted a sign outside the Starbucks at Wynyard station saying “Free Xmas Coffees”. She races to the station to meet us, and we all flew back to Starbucks to line up for free beverages and gingerbread men – bonus!

The staff busily making our tasty treats.