Astral Restaurant- Level 17 @ Star City

After so many years together I still get excited about every ‘date’ that we go on and tonight was no exception. Jacky planned a special dinner at Astral tonight, somewhere that I have wanted to try for a very long time now. It was a dinner to say “hey I know I’ve been busy with exams and work, so tonight is just you and me!”

Astral is an excellent restaurant and one that we highly recommend! A 3 course meal will cost around $88.00 per person which is pretty standard for a nicer place. For the view and food, I feel that you get a lot more value here than at a place like Wildfire

The service was flawless, and the atmosphere extremely pleasant. Everyone dresses up, even the girls that show you to your table wear a black evening dress. There is also an outside balcony area where you can enjoy the views of the Harbour.

What is really different about this place, is that they bring out these complementary little mini dishes prior to the entree, mains and dessert. The flavours are rich and leaves you lingering for more!

I'm not sure what this was called except that the white filling in between the pastry was barramundi. It was absolutely delicious! the pastry was fluffy and soft and the barramundi flavoursome.

To eat with our fresh sourdough bread roll, we had a dish with a variety of dipping salts, extra virgin olive oil and pepper that tasted like rose petals.

The 2nd mini taste dish was a parmesan creme caramel with a parmesan wafer. The flavours were very unique, it was a bit of a suprise because it was the first time that I have ever tried a savoury creme caramel - not bad at all.

entrée:
1. Marinated tuna loin & tartar, avocado, fennel & tomato confit, roquette sorbet

2. Smoked quail & Earl Grey consommé

The entrees that we selected were nice but not terrific, I found the tuna to be rather ordinary even with the different toppings and would not recommend it. Jacky's Quail dish was very strange, a whole pot of earl grey tea was poured on top of the quail as a result I felt the tea diluted the quail flavour too much.

Mains:

1. Spring lamb, 3 cuts, 3 garnishes

2. Crisp skinned snapper, seared scallops, baby leek, cauliflower, osso bucco jus

Put simply, Jacky described his lamb as "the best lamb that I've ever tasted". My Crispy Skinned snapper was probably the best dish of the night, the skin was cooked to perfection and the flavours kept simple.

3rd mini tasting dish pre-dessert. It was a peach jelly with a layer of peach mousse finished with fresh strawberries and mango.

Jacky doesn't eat peaches or mangos, but he polished the whole dessert. I think that says it all.

Dessert:

1. Paperweight of summer berries, pink champagne jelly, basil icecream

2. Chocolate & espresso teardrop, white peppercorn sorbet

Yum Yum YUM! at first I made the mistake of trying the jelly and the ice cream separately, the alcohol taste was too strong and the basil ice cream weird. It wasn't until I combined the two that I realised the flavours worked really well together, not a bad dessert at all.

The Chocolate & espresso teardrop was to die for! very rich and you will struggle to finish it if it were any larger. The peppercorn sorbet on the other hand was just wrong, ice cream and pepper are just not meant to go together!

Watching the sun set over the city...priceless.

Thank you Jacky for the wonderful experience and knowing how to make me feel special.

I love you.

Lonestar

Tonight we had dinner at Lonestar with the Westwoods, they wanted to shout us dinner to thank us for helping Nicole out with the HSC and getting her ready for the formal. As usual the night was filled with many laughs and awkward questions surrounding when we would get married so that Mr Westwood would have an excuse to get pissed.

Thank you for a lovely night!

One of the funniest moments had to be when Betty secretly told the staff that it was Jacky’s birthday so that we would get a free dessert (Jacky's birthday is in June). Unfortunately she didn't tell anyone else, so when ALL the staff came out to sing happy birthday to Jacky everyone had no idea what was going on.

I thought that we were pretending that it was Mr Westwood’s birthday so I was looking at and singing to him. Mr Westwood thought it was Jacky’s birthday and kept looking at Jacky. Jacky didn't know what was going on and sat there very puzzled, the others who were in on all this just laughed hysterically.

I must say the dessert was Huuuuge and well worth it! - Good one Betty.....maybe just tell us next time!

What's a party without cocktails!

DanceArts 2005

It's 1:00am in the morning and I've just come home from the DanceArts Showdown 2005. It was a terrific night! There were 12 performances with guest appearances from D2MG and the XY Project (who were just amazing!).

Trish & Cynth congratulations on such a great job! I have so much admiration for the both of you! All your hard work really paid off, it’s something to be really proud of!!! and wasn't the turn out just great?!

Here are some pics from the night.

The turn out was great! we sat upstairs because they ran out of space below

Left: D2MG Right: the little girl was sooo cute!

We had to do a girl photo!

Jc (one of the Mcs), JY (of JY Jewels - looking goregous) & Mario who was busy filming all night

Di & The Odyssey

Group Shots

After all the dancing we were exhausted! We decided that we needed some chicken satay sticks and Pancakes to recover. We headed back to Beverly Hills and ate ourselves to death at D2D Cafe (who has the friendliest staff!)....this was kind of funny considering we only watched the show and cheered, imagine what would happen if we actually performed in the show.

Great Job guys!

Tash & Ali’s 21st

The birthday girls looked gorgeous and a great night was had by all who attended.

Happy Birthday Tash and Ali!

Thanks for the invite!

Theme: 7 Deadly Sins

Tash & Ali

Jacky & I went as 'Pride' - Prom King and Queen - get it?!?! hor hor hor

Sitting with Ken & Matty gave us such a good laugh! they used cigarettes as props but people just assumed they were smokers without a light

aww this pic is cute

Princess King Matty

The rest of the photos here.

Happy Birthday Vivien!

Wishing you an excellent birthday, I hope that the coming year brings all that you wish for and that all your goals will be fulfilled. Thank you for your friendship!

SALE

Memories are made of these...

Jacky's nephew is around 3 months old now, very cute!

Baby Issac

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JY and I were just laughing at some old photos of mine tonight.....ahh the memories, highschool seems like a life time ago. I look at these photos and I almost don't recognise the person looking back at me. Some of these pictures are a bit embrassing ...but what the heck!

Left to Right: 1997(Yr 10 Formal), 1998 (KMH formal), 1998 (Kingsgrove Formal)

1999 (My Yr 12 Formal)

Yr 10 1997 - My hair was sooo short! My Mum made my Yr 10 Formal dress and despite Marcus calling it a 'poo yellow' it was actually a lime green with 2 layers (shiny silk on the bottom and chiffon on the top). Wendy was at my house getting ready that day – would you believe our dates came to pick us up in a stretch limo??

KMH 1998 - Charley took me as his date but I can't find where I put the scanner to scan another photo. I remember getting my hair done for this and I wanted to cry at the salon because it was HUGE! I even caught a taxi home so no one would see me!

Kingsgrove 1998 - Jacky met my Mum for the first time when he came to pick me up to take me to his formal. Things went OK - Mum was always going to be difficult because she was annoyed that I was dating before finishing Uni (she'll hold it against me forever). She wasn't too sure about Jacky either, because he tragically had an undercut and she came to the conclusion that he must be in a gang??!?! Eventually she came around – it only took a few years!

Yr 12 Formal 1999 – You can’t see the dress clearly but it was by Lisa Ho (yes mum made it once again) it had a long train at the back and was made from 3 layers of silk (baby blue, an aqua colour and another blue at the bottom) finished with diamante straps. It was on this same night that I met DJ Ho , I didn't realise this until recently.

Fund Raising @ Work

Every year we support Starlight to raise money for kids with cancer. This year we're trying a few different things from lolly guessing to lunch time cook ups!

I have a very talented girl at work who makes jewellery for fun, she doesn't usually sell her pieces but at the moment she is selling a few pieces at work and donating part of the profit to Starlight to help make the dreams of a little boy & girl come true.

James is a 7 year old boy with Cerebral Palsy (sorry Di told you the wrong illness last night but checked at work this morning) and his wish is to 'see carols by candle light with his mum in Melbourne'. So if you would like to contribute, please make a purchase of something below. They are all handmade and good quality, unlike the $12 earrings you can buy from Diva I have found that these do not discolour even after a long time. They would make a great X'mas gift (so email me if you're interested as some pieces are one off).

Necklace $100

Above earrings Left to Right $70, $60, $35

(*edit first pair sold out - till further notice)

Above earrings all $40 (Real Crystal)

(*edit first pair gone but avail in blue or red beads)

If you think that they look nice here, you should see them real life! unfortunately I'm not very good with the camera yet and had to take the pictures quickly during lunch time.

Stuck

You know when you have so much to blog about that you don't know where to start? So I'm not going to start at all.

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Did anyone watch the idol finals tonight? See the maroon dress that Kate wore at the beginning and the brown dress that Emily wore at the end? My Mum made those =)

Confessions

Dear Jacky,

I know that I was suppose to look for a birthday present for Martin at lunch today and I had every intention to do so. However, as I was walking towards David Jones I accidentally stumbled into Mollini; seeing that I was there I may as well have a look around right? Would you believe that Mollini was having a shoe sale?? I spotted a gorgeous pair of pink heels with little crystals that would go perfectly with the pink dress I bought the other week, it was the last pair and they had it in my size! (You wouldn’t want me to wear a dress without the matching shoes would you now?) So I had to buy them.

On the way to the counter I spotted another stunning pair of heels, seeing that I didn't own anything like it I thought I’d try it on just to have a look, you know how it is. It just so happened that they looked really good with my suit today (much better than the ones I was already wearing, I know this because the shop assistant told me so, they’re so helpful aren’t they!).

Well, I couldn’t decide which ones to buy…so I bought them both! Now, I know what you are thinking and Yes I do realise that this is the 3rd pair of shoes that I have bought this week and that my closet has absolutely no space and that you are sick to death at having to climb onto the chair to take down the shoes that I can’t reach – BUT they were on sale! Just think of all the money I saved.

By the time I left Mollini it was already time to go back to work, seeing that you’d probably need a break from writing your thesis and studying for exams I thought that it’d be a great idea if you went to buy the present for Martin. I’m a genius! I don’t know why I didn't come up with this idea sooner – well, good luck with finding a present, I’m sure that you’ll make an excellent choice.

So…. how was your day?

Love your Wonderful Girlfriend (who feeds you and lets you play WoW)

Emily

R.I.P Roxy

Jacky has 2 dogs a German Shepard and a Kelpie cross. The kelpie was put down today because she was poisoned over the weekend and the family watched over her as she convulsed all night.

It's been very difficult; at first the family blamed themselves, maybe she ate snail poison…but then after a few tests the vet came to the conclusion that she was deliberately poisoned. Who would do such a thing? Who!??!?!

Whoever you are, you can just burn in hell.

Costume Ideas

I’ve been invited to a 21st where the theme is ‘7 Deadly Sins’ when turning to my friends & Sister for costume ideas; I seem to receive a common response…..'Well you love food & you're always eating....GLUTTONY!’

Thanks guys.

Random things..

I was eating rather brown toast one morning when it caught the attention of my manager. He noted that I was eating vegemite and asked if he could have some vegemite too. I had to explain that I didn't have any vegemite and was in fact only eating plain toast. I burnt it by accident, but seeing it was my last 2 slices I ate it anyway... when was I ever one to turn away from food?

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Happy Birthday Ming! Hope you had a great night at Opera Bar last night sorry we didn't stay long! It was great to finally meet Mai, she seems lovely.

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Di’s wrist turned a little nasty looking after pole dancing today, so we went with her to the doctors to have it checked out. It was quite a funny moment when the doctor mistook her for a Med Student trying to get by, by being a sex worker on the side (see Di’s recount of the story here).

Pole dancing also went up a notch this week and today I learnt how to hook the pole with the back of my leg before using my body weight to spin down and around the pole. We also learnt the first moves to our dance routine. If anyone thought pole dancing was a piece of cake…check out the bruises I got on my leg today.