Oz Day?!

I have nothing much to say this week?!

Just back at work and kinda routine this week.
yoga, ocean, work, eat, sleep.
Movie - young adult.
Australia Day/invasion day /bogan day and most importantly my Grandfather's Birthday - BBQ, pavlova


For the first time in 3 years I didn't do the Havaiana thong challenge.
I already have 2 large inflated thongs in my living room from previous years.


A quiet nights out with friends - Din Tai Fung and a mini pub crawl /catch up that was well and truly done by midnight. Yes things have changed.


My other creative outlet has had a few achievements this week. Went back into the edit suite for a few tweaks and got my little film a screening at a big cinema. OUTCASTS.


Interesting tid bit - according to  my femanine hygiene products "4 year old's laugh an average of up to 300 times a day while adults only 15 - 100" -  so what I glean from this is that I have the  mind of a 4 yo.

Goong Hei Fat Choy!!

Back to work, an unexpected foodie week, spiritual well being and a kick ass movie - how else would I celebrate the chinese new years eve?

Back to work is a bit boring - so I'm gonna skip that. All I will say is I love being able to work from home!

FOOD - tried 2 great restaurants this week. 

Sokyo @ The Star (aka Star City Casino). It's a rather swanky new Japanese restaurant in a new hotel next to the revamped casino. The menu tries a little too hard with fancy combos at times but it is also a great opportunity to try stuff not commonly available - Like the morton bay bug sashimi. The presentation is faultless and everything tasted great just take it easy on the ordering. Go with a group and order a plate of everything that tickles you and then get seconds if you like it. And save room for dessert!

Atmosphere was loud and hip but thinned out pretty early. The bar and cocktail menu are very impressive along with the 4 figure bottles of wine on offer - Ouch. Thanks Dad!

Chefs Gallery - Cnr of George st and Bathurst st in the city. YUMMO! Just wish I was hungrier. This place was set up by the same guy behind Din Tai Fung but specialises in hand made noodles instead of dumplings. We got primo seating at the bar in front of the noodle making master. Very Cool!! Just go - it's yummy and they have desserts made to look like piggy's but I forgot to take a photo. But go to the link and download the menu for pics.

Spirituality and health - I have been very good and getting up for early yoga classes followed by a dip in the ocean. It gets me outta bed in the morning but also sends me to it early in the evening. Not that interesting to write about either and I would end up offending too many people with my attitude towards spirituality and how to get it - some other time when I feel like a rant.

Kick ass movie  - The Adventures of Tin Tin: The Secret of the Unicorn in 3D!!!

An absolute must see! Now, I've never been a huge TinTin fan from my youth or anything so I was expecting an epic animation of an ok boy story. I was completely blown away by this, absolutely brilliant film making. Peter Jackson, Steven Spielberg and a huge list of other recognisable names. I never imagined these 2 working together but the result is mesmerising to watch and very entertaining not to mention the potential for many, many sequals to come. Is it live action or is it animation? It's like they did a live action movie and when their imaginations went further than they knew how to realise, they animated it. But because it is a careful blending of both it creates a seamless new look to the film so that animated sequences, particularly stunts and explosions, are even more believable. This is breakthrough cinema!

And for Chinese New Year - I will be having dinner with my family and making gin dois (fried sesame dumplings with red bean paste inside) with 3 generations of cooks. Photo is not the actual  ones I made (because I haven't made them yet!) but so you know what I am talking about.

Til next week: Happy Year of the Water Dragon!!

Beefcheeks, dumplings and my week off.

What a great morning to sleep in! Rain outside and no commitments til this afternoon.

This was my one and only real week off - I start a new contract on Monday and am already getting into the routine of work. I did my laundry yesterday and am diligently writing my blog on Sunday before heading off to my parents place for dinner via afternoon tea drop in on friends. The holidays are over...for now.

I still didn't quite get to everything I needed to get done. I did get my car rego'd,  floated around Gordon's Bay on giant inflatable thongs with bestie, catch up in Manly, up to Nelson Bay dumpling making and eating session, haircut, check in with next week's job and even started on my taxes and read some scripts for next week. Oh and to prove I am not a complete alcho - I stayed in on Friday night and only had 3 drinks on Saturday night and was home by 1030. (tho 2 of those drinks were absinthe?!)

It's been a huge movie week-  I saw Puss in Boots - which I had been wanting to see for months and HIGHLIGHT of the week - The MUPPETS!!!!!! And I've been catching up on some DVD's too and the original animation of Avatar: The Last Air Bender. Which means happy me!

Now - The Absinthe Salon should be experienced at least once.  If I actually liked the taste of aniseed and liquorice more then I would probably love Absinthe, but as it is I've tried it a few times with varied and interesting experiences to follow, I don't need it in my life. It's not like it's tequila - ahh Patron, my one and only.

Afterwards I went in search of a good feed and ended up with beefcheeks at the Dolphin hotel and they were excellent. My fellow diner had the lamb which was also a gastronomical delight. For Pub grub - highly recommend the food there. Beefcheeks - who knew?

My little tummy was so satisfied from the Absinthe experience and the beefcheeks that I was more than ready to go home after that - so I did. And I like the word beefcheeks too - can you tell.

Now because I am such a grown up here's a photo of MY muppet (thank you FAO Schwartz) and I'm off to play with the kids.

A little Magic and a few more cocktails

I have just been reprimanded for pre-mature blogging. Who knew my weekend would end up to be so eventful?!

If you haven't been to the Victoria Room in Darlinghurst on a sunday night for their Performance Carnival night you haven't really been to the Victoria Room at all!

Magic tricks, singing, tap dancing, pole dancing, trapeze and cocktails - now that's a winning combination. And it helps when the Magician is an old friend who is getting you cocktails on his bar tab - recommend the sugar daddy and the horny devil. Did I mention the cocktails have cool names that are fun to order too?!

Rewind a little to the Dumpling and Noodle house on Victoria St in Potts Point (between the Soho and Doughboy). It's a tiny little place with yummy and cheap dumplings. It's pretty tight inside so we got a prime table outside on the street - til the rains came. We were lucky enough to get a table inside so we could continue our scrumptious meal and watch the waters rise to cover the footpath where we were just sitting.

I mentioned it is next to the Soho - well the Soho was empty but had a sign out front that said $8 cocktails. Nuff said? Just a starter - Apple and cinnamon mojitos.

Two skills which you rarely see combined are static trapeze and singing. Each difficult on their own to most and very impressive when a toned and  topless guy does both at the same time. It got a little scary when they decided to re-enact the Dirty Dancing routine (never did like that stupid song).

Highlight to the night was the pole dancing. Pole Dancing has kinda a bad reputation as a stripper thing. But if you have ever tried this (and I have) there is a definite talent to being able to do this well. Funny (and a shame) there are not more men doing this coz it uses a lot of upper body strength and men are generally biologically advantaged in this department. Some absolutely beautiful and powerful moves were demonstrated to us tonight by a very fit man in sequinned shorts. Most impressive.

Did I mention how great the Magician is? Magic is always fun. Magic Dave roams from table to table performing tricks, sorry, illusions, and making people laugh. I'm sitting right in front of him and I can't figure out how he does these card tricks and slight of hand stuff with a little handkerchief. But I love being caught up in the illusion too, so I don't know if I want to know.

In Summary - Go to the Victoria Room on a Sunday evening. A total WOW experience and a great night out.

Sydney Festival

Every year I tell myself that I really should get into the Sydney Festival more. Somehow each year, I don' t quite get there.

This year I have managed to go to Flickerfest opening night and to First night in Hyde Park - kind of.

Flickerfest - I figured it was the place to be for a filmmaker who has just finished a short film. I went, I sat on the incredibly uncomfortable chairs for the way too long speeches and enjoyed the selection of shorts on an unseasonably cool summers night at Bondi Beach. I could have stayed for the afterparty but I was quite content to go home. Yes, I'm getting old, ok! But I've just really been enjoying sleeping lately - it's holiday mode and who am I to fight my urges?! And it really can be quite the wank fest at these industry do's and sometimes I'm just not up for it, not to mention the breakfast plans I had for Saturday.

First night - A huge event which takes over a good chunk of Sydney's CBD with multiple stages and performances. I checked out the Art Gallery and walked through Hyde Park a few times and enjoyed waling down the middle of city streets usually full of car traffic. I knew a few other people in the crowd and thought great, lets get out amongst it and experience the Festival.  We walked through it, experienced the disappointment of the ANZ "chill zone" at the Keystone Festival bar, saw some cool blow up Tim Burtonesque characters on Macquarie St and out the other side of Martin Place in search of a small bar.

Bit of a fail on my part here as I seem to be rather forgetful this week. I forgot my wallet when I went grocery shopping earlier this week and actually left the house without my phone tonight (I had to go back and get it), I went on to mistakenly wander down Clarence St believing it was Kent St, lost the little festival book we were using as a guide for some places to find and directed us around the block to find a little cocktail bar on Burton St in Darlinghurst.

Clarence St  did bring us to the Red Oak Beer Cafe and tasting plates for $20. I got the seafood one to the left. I love Seafood Chowder!! And honey beer and crisp apple cider aint bad either. My companion got the meat plate which also got a thumbs up. the only downside was that it wasn't filling enough so we went a few doors down and got Oporto - you can never go wrong with Oporto!


Now my plan for the evening was to eventually circle back to the Festival - but I really don't like crowds these days. I'm going though a bit of a hermit phase, but not completely coz part of me still gets me to the event before remembering my dislike of the general public. I know it doesn't make sense but I really am on holiday mode right now and I don't have to make sense - it's my blog!

Back to the festival and the crowd around Norman Jay's Bus and a failed attempt to find a friend in the crowd. Damn text messages wouldn't go through!! So we decided to go for cocktails which led us on a roundabout trek to 13b Cafe & Cocktail Bar aka The Safehouse.  The cocktails were fantastic the "Amazingly Perfect" cocktail really was Amazingly Perfect and easy to drink (vodka, passionfruit, grapefruit juice and sweetness). Then I had a drink with Maker's Mark, maple syrup, lime, rosemary and pepper. Interesting, a touch sweet with the maple syrup, and weird licking pepper off the side of your glass but very drinkable. Atmosphere, service and even toilets were all impressive, The cockroach and spider put a bit of a downer on the whole experience.

Heres hoping my mate survives the spider bites. If he doesn't - Who wants to come to the Victoria Room with me on Sunday night for Performance Carnival?

Happy New Year?

New year's - A contemplative moment. No big party, no big hangover - have I lost it or have I matured? I hope neither. I had a quiet night in at a friends house with pizza and cocktails and fireworks and a lot of catching up.

As 2011 draws to a close I was simply tired and pre-occupied I have been working pretty hard this past year and hardest in the last few months when I decided not to make any money and do a couple of love jobs. Best decision ever!!

Another year done and what have I learnt?
Professionally - I learnt to say no and to stand up for what I am worth. I do know what I am doing and I'm pretty damn good at what I do too.
I learnt the direction that I do NOT want to head in.
I CAN write.
I also accidentally stepped onto the path of Directing. Something I never really thought I wanted...until I tried it. So that is why I am so preoccupied at this time - I am in the midst of finishing up my first short film, first of My Own that is and I am extremely excited about it.

Personally - Well, still on my own and not too much has changed.
Many of my friends are coupled and familied up, settling further into the suburbs. I have new little babies around for me to play with and be a bad influence on and spoil.
New friends seem to be younger in general and don't get half my references to the "old days" - hahaha!
Made it to Uluru (finally) this year.
Found the creative in me and gave it an outlet.
Stressed myself out and proved I can sleepwalk.
Burnt my ears in Dubbo, killed a pair of red gumboots, flew through the air with the greatest of ease on the flying trapeze (once), swam in the ocean in Winter, mastered various dumplings and got slightly addicted to deal websites.

Hope you all had a great year and best wishes for all of us in 2012!!