I'm not ignoring you...

I've been a bit over whelmed these last 2 days, I have all my summer clerks starting on Monday and there's so much to do. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have a whole chunk of my day taken out tomorrow (I will be in a meeting with all the other Law firms for 3 hours held at UNSW).

I was invited to wine tasting tonight (it's pretty cool how many client parties we get invited to)and Jacky's has a work function. After looking forward to the wine tasting all week I think I will give tonight a miss, I want nothing more than to change into my pjs and curl up infront of the TV.

I have a lot of food posts saved as drafts and will post when I get the chance.

Dessert Night @ Roula's

It's been a big year for Roula, I think getting engaged on new years was a sign of things to come. 6 months later there was the amazing Kitchen Tea, a week after that there was The Wedding followed by the honeymoon, moving out and setting up her brand new home. Come to think of it, it's been a pretty big year for quite a few of the girls and it's taken another 5 months before we could all find time to catch up for a bit of dessert at Roula's new place.

We couldn't believe our eyes when we walked in, all this for 9 people and she prepared this all herself!!

Mars Bar crackles, toblerone tiramisu, pavalova with pink cream, chocolate fondue, cream royales, black forest cake, cheese platter & nibblies.......I was in heaven.

I think this was the first time in a long time where I actually ate so much I felt sick (but how could you not?!?! there was so much to try!). Roula, you have a beautiful house and you are absolutely the perfect hostess!! Thank you so much for such a wondeful dessert night.

I had to leave a little early because of Jacky's Mum's birthday dinner at the Friendship Oriental in Beverly Hills (and what a feast that was!) unfortunately no pics as it was family time. I think I'm going to come out of these holidays looking like a giant snowman, I have dinner lined up for most days of the week up till Christmas!

Andrew & Donna's Wedding

Work friend: “So what did you do on the weekend Emily?”
Me : “Went to a wedding”
Work Friend: “What?? You go to a wedding every weekend!”
Me : “Pretty much”

But you know what? I just love weddings, each one is unique in its own way and the personalities of the couples usually shine through with what they choose to do on the day.

On Saturday we attended the wedding of one of Jacky’s WOW mates, this was our last wedding for 2006. The reception was held at Crystal Palace in Canley Vale with 360 guests. I didn't know many people and I forgot to bring the flash, so after a while I decided to put the camera away to just enjoy everything.

A few photos from the night...

The bridal waltz

It's tradition at Asian weddings for the bride to change a few times, here were her dresses.

Finally, a Rendition of 'Loving you' by the groom and his groomsmen hand actions and all.

Congratulations Donna & Andrew!

Some more fuzzy photos here

Some other Weddings of 2006
Annabel & Caleb
Emma & Darren
Roula & Anderee
Barbara & Edgar

Not Happy Jan

I’ve just come back from my lunch break a little annoyed. This all started yesterday when I saw that a large camera shop on Pitt Street was having 50% off all their digital services. This was perfect because I needed to develop 172 photos from my cousin’s wedding so that I could put them into an album and give them to my aunty as a gift. My aunty is coming over on Sunday and it’s unlikely that we will catch up again before Christmas so I had 3 days to put it all together.

The shop was busy but they assured me that they would have the photos ready in 1 hour. To make a long story short, after a lot of waiting they didn’t have it ready and I ended up going back to work late and empty handed.

So I went again today to pick them up, when I got there the salesperson couldn’t find them. I could tell they had lost them because they kept looking in the same drawer 50,000 times. At one stage they even offered me a pile of someone else’s photos asking if they were mine, the family in the photos were clearly white and I think I look pretty Asian (I did mention to them it was of my cousin’s wedding).

Finally she decides to check a box of receipts that she had on the counter, after some digging around she declares that they were collected yesterday!

Me: “By Who!?!?” I ask “and don’t they need my receipt???”
Girl: “No usually they give us a name and we show the photos to them, when they confirm it’s theirs they will pay for it”.
Me: “So you are telling me that someone has paid for and collected all 172 photos?”
Girl: “errr…yes, are you sure someone didn’t collect it for you?”
Me: “No I’m sure.”

Once it was established that the photos were given to someone else they began to crack jokes about never taking naked photos, I was neither impressed nor amused. Meanwhile the clock was ticking and I was supposed to be back at work 15 minutes ago (it takes another 15 mins to get back to Circular Quay), I just stood there glaring at her.

She ended up apologising and said that she would re-print them moving them to the front of the queue. It would take another hour so I organised for Jacky to pick them up.

I will not be coming back to this place.

The Malaya

Recently I’ve come to realise that really good and genuine friends are hard to find. Some times people grow apart, other times things happen and the dynamics of that relationship are changed forever.

Last night I caught up for dinner with 2 very close friends Ming & Angii. The funny thing about our friendship is that we don’t see each other often, but we always know what is going on in each others lives (thanks to MSN, email and mobiles). With these guys I can totally let down my guard, they don’t judge me and I can tell them anything.

Over dinner we reflected on how much we’ve grown up. We’re no longer the same 16 year old kids with crazy dreams; instead we’ve actually started living them. So thank you both so much for your friendship over the years and Ming I will be sure to send you some burger rings for X’mas.

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We took Ming for a belated birthday dinner at The Malaya on King Street wharf. With yesterday’s sweltering hot weather it was really nice to find somewhere with a nice view and air conditioning. We arrived at 6:00pm and within an hour or so, the whole place was packed with people.

I stole this photo from their website because because I forgot to bring my camera again (what's up with that!?!) so you will have to put up with pics from my camera phone.

We went with the $40 set menu and there was plenty of food to go around. Compared to other banquets out there at around the same price this was fairly good value (considering the location). Having said that, you can easily get the same dishes at the same quailty for a lot less at smaller Malaysian eateries.

The $40 (per person) Set Menu

Popiah - Thin pastry skins filled with sliced chicken, king prawns, shallots, vermicelli and beansprouts, served with a sweet soy and chilli sauce and ground fresh peanuts.

Satay Lamb - Singaporean style marinated pieces of lamb fillet skewered, barbequed and served with Malaya Satay sauce made from fresh ground peanuts and chilli.

Salt and Pepper Prawn - King prawns lightly battered, deep fried and tossed in fresh chilli, salt, cracked black pepper and shallots.

Kwai Du - Flat rice noodle stir-fried dry style with chicken, prawns, beansprouts, onion, shallots, chilli and egg.

Chilli Beansprouts and Snow peas - Beansprouts, snow peas and shredded Chinese mushrooms stir-fried with garlic, soy sauce and fresh chilli.

Peppered Chicken - Marinated pieces of chicken thigh fillet stir-fried with fresh chilli and cashew nuts in a sweet pepper sauce.

Curry Prawns with Roti Canai - made with their original recipe since 1963 and served with pan fried crispy Malay Bread.

Korma Lamb - Malay style green curry made with yoghurt served with rice.

If you and your friends love a bit of spice then give this place a go, my favourite for the night was definitely the peppered chicken.

The Malaya
39 Lime Street
King Street Wharf
Sydney
PH: 02 9279 1170

Sculpture By the Sea

Before we headed to Sculpture by the Sea Jacky and I decided to stop somewhere to have breakfast, after checking out a few places we decided to give Doxa a go. The place is very unique; the designers have done a fabulous job with the use of mood lightings throughout the restaurant. The rest of the area is then sectioned off into areas with a different theme, large red day beds, eating booths and a raised platform. The kitchen is wide and open and located at the very front of the shop, it's fun watching the prepare the food.

Because the decor was so exquisite we had high expectations of the breakfast. We ordered our food (1 big breakfast $9.00 and 1 vegetarian breakfast $8.00) and waited and waited and waited. In fact we waited well over 1 hour for scrambled eggs and toast!

Was it worth the 1 hour wait? Absolutely not. My toast was untoasted while Jacky's toast was burnt black all one side (he didn't touch it which is very rare). The slice of tomato was cold (as in just out of the fridge cold) and salt & pepper shakers were no where in sight.

After this experience we don't think we will be returning any time soon, but I guess all places have their off days.

Doxa
108 Campbell Parade
Bondi Beach

After Breakfast (although it was now almost lunch time) we began the Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk to admire the the sculptures by the sea. We walked past BBQ by the Sea (what a great idea!) and were tempted by the grilled swiss bratwurst with roast onions and european mustard all on a country style roll + drink for $11.00. The smell was incredible but we had just eaten.

There weather was excellent and a lot of people turned up for the 2nd last day of the exhibit.

Some one asked me if Jacky was carrying a man bag...but no...that would be my bag he's carrying

The sculptures were great but we didn't do the full walk because we ended up getting changed and lying on the beach for the rest of the time to soak up the goregous weather. It's days like these that you really really love living in Sydney.

The rest of the photos here.

Canteen

The other week I caught up with a few of the girls for brekkie at Balmain. Originally we had planned to go to Kazbah after hearing about their unique North African, Moroccan & Middle Eastern-inspired breakfast menu. However The place was booked out for breakfast until lunch time! (Kazbah - we will be back!).

With hungry tummies to feed we walked a few shops down to Canteen. Dee heard that this place was recently taken over by someone famous? We found a nice spot outside and proceeded to try pick something from the gigantic menu. When I say gigantic I mean in variety and size, the menu takes up one side of the wall from the floor to the roof.

Big Breakfast - with scrambled eggs, mushrooms, chorizo sausage, bacon, sourdough bread and tomatos

'Canteen' Eggs - served with spinach, tomato, mushooms on sourdough

Corn Cakes - served with smoke salmon, rocket and a herb mayo

I thought this place was great, the food came out quickly and prices were reasonable. Most importantly I thought the quality of the food was excellent and on this occasion cooked really well. The tomatos were tasty (possibly organic?) and the sausage from the big breakfast was not your usual butcher variety. I also liked how my corn cakes were finished off with the herb mayo (adding that little gourmet touch).

Canteen
Shop 1
332 Darling St
Balmain 2041 NSW
Phone: (02) 9818 1521

Kanye West & U2 @ Telstra Stadium

Up until last night, this was the closest that I had ever come to Bono of U2

Vegas 2002

I must admit that up until now, I've never been a massive fan of U2 but I knew that I wouldn't forgive myself if I didn't go see one of the (if not THE) biggest band in the world. I am also a big fan of Kanye West and after seeing him live in concert earlier this year I couldn't wait to see him again. At a little over $100 a ticket this concert was a bargain!

Telstra Stadium - someone said that over 80,000 tickets were sold for Saturday night's concert

I was a little bummed because I didn't think cameras were allowed in, so I didn't take mine and only had my camera phone. The photos turned out ok and despite the crowds we got pretty close to the stage.

Left: the crowd behind us Right: Kanye west on stage

Having seen Kanye perform live before, I don't think that this concert did Kanye any justice. It was early and the crowd was still slowly building. The venue wasn't quite right (it was hard to hear him clearly) and It took him a little work to get the crowd hyped up.

We waited another 45mins after Kanye finished for the sky to get dark and for U2 to come on stage. The weather couldn't be more perfect, warm but with a cool breeze and the crowds were all well behaved! People were friendly and no one pushed.

Just before they came on all the light's went off and there was this moment of calm and silence that I just can't describe. Minutes later the screen lit up and U2 burst onto the stage, the crowd went nuts! I am so glad that I went because it's one of those moments in my life where I wouldn't have known what I missed unless I went.

I went to this concert thinking that I wouldn't know many songs, I was so wrong! I sang along to almost every song that they sung.

U2 voiced their message of peace....

Bono asked everyone to pick up their mobiles and to hold it in the air, I looked around the stadium and the sight was amazing!

When I said the crowd was friendly I wasn't kidding! There was this man next to my sister who was concerned that she couldn't see because she was short. So he picked her up and threw her on his shoulder so she could see the stage....it was hilarious! And it wasn't one of those 'creepy old men moments' either.

We left just before the last song so that we could beat the crowds, what a night to remember!