Just like the Cowardly Lion, I wish I had some courage!

Last night Paul, Tash and I went to a play reading. The play was The Joy Of Text by Robert Reid. It had an amazing cast for the $5 entry fee - Shaun Micallef, Noni Hazelhurst, Heidi Arena, Kat Stewart and Tim Potter.

The play itself was really interesting. It was set in an outer suburban school (semi-rural) and revolved around a battle for the vice-principalship and a students attempt at satire. It was cleverly done.

The reading was great. The cast read from the script, but they acted as well. There were no props, so the director read the set directions from the script. They'd only read it through together once before the day, so was rough in places, but still wonderfully acted. It really did feel like you were part of the production process.

At the end of the play as we were milling around in the foyer, all of the actors came out. I really wanted to talk to them, but I couldn't think of anything remotely witty, clever or interesting to say to them. Somehow "you rock" or "I think you're awesome" didn't really feel right in a room full of artistic types. One day I'll come up with a whole bunch of amazing lines to use in circumstances such as these so I will eventually find the courage to speak to them.

Grand Final Cupcakes

Here are my Grand Final cupcakes. They were a standard vanilla buttercake with vanilla butter cream icing. The Geelong ones turned our tongues blue. :) But there was not enough black in the St Kilda ones to make our tongues black. Paul's tongue was a revolting mass of colours on Friday night after he'd licked all of the bowls and my hands were pretty special. Glad I wore my apron!! Haha!

An Epic Battle and other footy cliches

Saturday's Grand Final was AWESOME! Such a fantastic game of footy. It helps that I wanted Geelong to win, but I wouldn't have been upset had St Kilda won.

We played our usual sweeps/drinking game. I was a lot more sober than I should have been at the end of the day since I had Joel Corey and Brendon Goddard who won me the pool. I guess they must really blend in.

We had lots of great food and I ended up eating way too much! There were home made party pies and sausage rolls, seven layer dip, guacamole, antipasto, beer nuts and loads of chips. There were also my grand final cupcakes - pictures to come later.

Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the day at this stage, but will hopefully be getting some from Ali and Carter. I'm sure Tash will put hers on Facebook at some point.

Why I Love Spring

Spring is the best time of year for me for many reasons. The weather is one. It finally starts to get warmer after a cold, wet winter.

Another reason of course is that my birthday is in Spring. I've decided that I'm no longer 23, so I think I'll be turning 26 this year. I think 26 sounds mature, but still young. I think I thought that about 23 when I decided to turn 23 again so many times, but now that I'm older, 26 sounds young. Haha! At least it's more plausible. I'm no longer offered info for student elections, so they obviously think I'm too old to be a student. Or perhaps I'm too clean. Hehehe!

The most important reason that Spring is totally awesome is because footy finals fever hits. Now that I'm in the footy capital, I can celebrate without shame.

I made a trial batch of Grand Final Cupcakes on Tuesday night. They were good, but I have to perfect the cupcake to icing ratio. The cupcakes didn't rise enough in the patty pans so there was too much butter cream icing. I think I'll make 10 cupcakes instead of 12 on Friday night.

I'm also making my own party pies and sausage rolls for Grand Final Day.

Of course it's fun to see the crazy supporters come out of the woodwork. Last night as I left work, one of the academics was putting lipstick kisses on her Saints poster. I think she's planning on decorating the hallways in black, red and white balloons and streamers on Friday. I'll have to take a photo.

One of the reason that Spring is not so awesome is the show. :( I got on the train yesterday to find it littered with chocolate and lolly wrappers from the bogan children and their bogan parents. How fricking difficult is it to put the wrappers back in the showbag from whence they came?! Thank goodness I haven't encountered chocolate vomit yet!

The French Are Weird!

Megs came for another visit this weekend.

It was a pretty chilled visit. On Saturday night we went out for an early dinner and drinks at Gingerboy. The food was good and the cocktails were yummy.

Then we went to see a French play called God of Carnage that starred Hugo Weaving. It was a bit strange. Good, but strange. It was about two sets of parents that had come together to discuss a violent incident that occurred between their sons. They started off on their best behaviour and being quite fake. But then as the play progressed they descended to the level of their children and were fighting, bickering and throwing things. It was quite amusing, but odd. At one stage one of the actresses had to vomit all over the stage and then the next 10 minutes, the rest of the cast were cleaning up the vomit. Bizarre.

On Sunday we went shopping down Bridge Road. I bought 9 tops for under $150 so that's around $15 per top. BARGAIN! I took Mum's advice and told Paul how much money I'd saved, but I'm not sure he was convinced. lol

Rockabye

I went to yet another MTC performance last night, Rockabye. Geez it was a performance to get to though.

I got home and after 12.5mm of rain, we had sprung a leak in the study and water was dripping through the light fitting. After having a minor panic attack and forcing down some dinner, I managed to get out the door in time to catch the train that would get me there in perfect timing.

I got to the train station to find that it's been cancelled an the next train is delayed. So out I go to hail a taxi...

Because I was going to catch a train, I hadn't looked up the address, so I didn't know how to tell the taxi driver where to go. I'm really not very good with street names... I finally managed to describe it's location to him in reference to various other landmarks so he did eventually get me there safely. lol!

So after all that I got my program and settled down in my seat with 10 minutes to spare. Too late for my traditional champaz though :(

The performance was really good and thought provoking. About the generation of women who 'forgot' to have children while they were busy having their career and the celebrity craze of adopting African babies. Does it actually help the country or hinder it?? Is it actually doing the child any good by replacing its identity?? Lots of food for thought.

Seminars!

We've had so many seminars this week. One on Monday, two yesterday along with a meeting, one today and one tomorrow. I skipped today's and I think I'll skip tomorrows. How am I meant to fit in a full week of work and attend all the seminars??

Taronga Zoo

Sunday was the zoo trip.

The views from Taronga zoo are amazing! The animal shows are fabulous.

We were lucky enough to see the Seal Show, the Bird Show and the Elephant show (complete with baby Elephant).

Here's the seal show:

Here's the Bird Show. The view from the bird show were fantastic and it was so well done. If you ever find yourself at Taronga, you should definitely make time to see it.

The Dove edging the seagull out of the way so it could open the banner and start the show.


To be honest I can't remember what this one was. Perhaps a hawk???



An Owl of some variety. He's flying in the last shot. It might be difficult to see him when it's this small.



Barking Owl

This was the South American Condor. She was only young and didn't want to do what she was told, so she didn't leave at the end when she was meant to. And part way through the performance, she flew off to the lawns and had to be retrieved. Very funny. Reminded me of a certain puppy who has selective hearing.

Here's the Elephant show. Unfortunately the photos for this aren't great as we were standing behind tall people and the baby was so far away.

When the big elephants were playing soccer, the baby was running around after the ball. He would then climb on it like a fit ball. It was just the cutest thing. He got a bit too close at one point and got hit in the head with the ball just after one of the adults had kicked it. He ran straight off to his keeper for comfort. It didn't take him long to get back in the game again though.

Here are some other animal photos from the day.

Nigel the Blue Tongue Lizard who refused to poke his tongue out for the camera. He was very smooth to touch.


The Giraffes have a lovely view...


...as do the Mountain Goats.


Right after I took this photo one of the other chimps swung down next to these guys and started... ummm... enjoying his own company. I'm sure that would have made for some awkward parenting moments. lol


This was one very happy Tapir who was getting a brush from her keeper. She was rolling onto her back and lifting her legs and her chin. She did not want the keeper to stop.


The Tiger was enjoying the lovely sunshine.


I love the Meerkats. They're so cute!



The Fishing Cat was just gorgeous. Such a sweet face!





The Leopard Seals. They were swimming around the tank and popping their heads up out of the water. The under water viewing section was amazing. It was so cool to watch them swimming underwater.


NZ Fur Seal enjoying the lovely weather.

Taronga Zoo was a really wonderful experience. It's one of the most expensive zoos I've been to, but I think it's well worth the $40 admission fee considering all that you see there.

Worshiping at the Temple of Neil Perry

Our dinner at Spice Temple on Saturday night was amazing, as I've already mentioned in my summary.

I'm just going to post the banquet menu here so I don't forget it.

Banquet Menu for the entire table

Cabbage and radish pickle
Cucumber with smashed garlic
Tofu and preserved egg with soy chilli dressing
Shredded lamb shoulder with salted chilli

Fried squid
with whole five spice and dark chilli paste
Fish drowned in heaven facing chillies and Sichuan peppercorns
Leatherjacket Sichuan style

Three shot chicken
Beer, chilli and soy
Stir fried David Blackmore’s wagyu brisket
with baby eggplant and chilli

Broccolini with house made oyster sauce

Blood orange granita

The wine we had was a McLaren Vale Cascabel Temperanillo 2008. It was perfect with the food and really yummy!!

On the Water

We spent quite a lot of time on the harbour. On day one we went to Manly and wandered, drank coffee and people watched. The beaches at Manly were lovely. It was a nice, relaxing way to start a very relaxing weekend.

Sun, Surf, Sand :)


The Manly Ferry

On day 2 we took several ferry trips. The first was to Double Bay. Again we wandered and people watched, but this time, instead of coffee, we were a bit decadent and shared a bottle of sparkling wine instead.

Boats on the water at Double Bay


The Pier at Double Bay


I love the Edwardian Style Manor on the right and the Gothic Style House on the front. You'll probably need to enlarge the pic to see them properly.






Watsons Bay

I really liked the view back to the city from Watsons bay especially with the rocks in the foreground.

The second ferry of the day was past Kirribilli House

Apparently, unlike the Royal Residence, the flag flying doesn't mean that the PM is in residence.

The final ferry of the day was the Balmain Ferry. This took us under the Harbour bridge so we could see the other side. It also gave us a wonderful view of our hotel.

Luna Park


Cool to see the old terraced houses in front of the sky scrapers.


And this is the view of Circular Quay on our way back in for the night.

I like boats. I think they're beautiful and fun and I like to take photos of them. I took quite a large number of them (and other nautically themed objects) during our ferry trips.

The sky was blue, the sun was out and as a result I have lots of pics of the various harbour landmarks.

Here are some bridge views:

Bridge Climbers



From Circular Quay


From the Manly Ferry



From the Watsons Bay Ferry



From the Balmain Ferry


A different angle

Some Opera House Views:

City Views: