This year’s Mardi GrasParade has the theme Mardi Gras’ History of the World and will take you on a sexy and baudy rollercoster ride through the ages, looking at gay history and shining a pink spotlight on some of mankind’s great figures and events.
Please note thought the parade route has changed slightly.
Coming back from Puerto Vallarta, Mexica via Los Angeles D yesterday was …
Archive for the 'Lifestyle' Category
Say no more… I am dying to taste it myself. Its sitting on the table as of now. Hopefully will taste good. 
Lifes simple pleasures are just simple and beautiful. Most of the time.
I love Friands! I simply L-O-V-E friands. You get the idea. Friands are those magic things that make your afternoons easy, it makes a cup of tea even more satiable and a worrying mind more at peace. It must be comfort-food for it does release a lot of endorphins for me. A café across from where I work sells Friands and while they are OK, $3.50 for a rather average Friand leaves a lot to be desired. I still indulge in the ocassional binge.
Chances are if you like cooking you’d already know Cookbooks are a dime a dozen. Well not quite. They usually cost a bit — the good ones anyway. You can get cookbooks for under $5 too but often those recipes are inedible and lack oomph or presentation. The thing to remember is — its worth spending that extra $$ to cook better and use a tried and tested recipe that doesn’t leave you in-satiated. D & I both love cooking and get into it often. Its a nice way to relax and know what you are offering your body. Dare I admit we’re both foodies and relish anything to do with our ‘inner man’.
We all like the excitement of visiting a new place. So much more if you’re moving to a new place of your liking. But with moving comes the responsibility and the hassle and the nasty packing and un-packing. The idea is always fun but over time when you realise the work involved the feelings miff out a tad. The ‘in-between’ or ‘meantime’ period of the move is at best… mildly put — tiresome even for a good organiser! I’m sure you’d agree if you have experienced it, unless you’re a free-spirited wandering hobit who walks the earth carefree with little possession.
Or maybe I have too much junk I carry around…. don’t we just gather and horde so much as we go through life. Funny that!
All men are created equal. No matter how hard you try you can never erase those words…
I’m a bit late to the party but can I just say I loved this movie. Pure, simple and just gold! Its a movie of epic proportions; fighting for ones basic human rights, fighting for gay rights in America sure wasn’t easy. It isn’t any easy now, and it surely wouldn’t have been two decades earlier. A lot has been said about gay activism, gay rights & campaigns against homophobic people, anti-gay religious groups and broadening the human mind, this movies does just that, it truly goes to show how America or Castro – a district in California was, back around late 1970s. This is an extremely heart-rendering and sensitive movie that touches on many aspects of the lifes tapestry. I simply love how beautifully Sean Penn brings about the vulnerable, fallible side as a gay lover. Harvey Milks social standing is huge and the price he and his friends paid and stood for has liberated many.
Holi, also called the Festival of Colours, is a popular Hindu spring festival observed in India, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad, the UK, Fiji and Nepal. In West Bengal of India and Bangladesh, it is known as Dolyatra (Doljatra) or Boshonto Utsav (“spring festival”).
Photo credit: Photo credit vikashkrgupta
Hope you had a good start to 2009 and still keeping up with your New Years resolutions. We certainly have, one of ours being: Sydney Bites Restaurant review site.
Why Sydneybites?
Well, we love going out for good food as much as cooking at home and trying out new recipes. We usually lug a camera along and we enjoy blogging. So what better if we can merge them all and have something thats fun, creative and would help people find good food reviews(with photos) and give Sydney another added edge over other good food cities in the world? Very ambitious but you get the picture… so here we are: http://sydneybites.com
There, you know it now, We watched Blowing Whistles last night at the Darlinghurst Theatre after a nice meal at Arun Thai. It(the Restaurant) never seems to disappoint…
As for the play, well where do I begin… In my opinion it seemed rather average despite the accolades wreathed on the Darlinghurst Theatre site. Looks like they’d talk up anything to get their seats booked. Its a ‘very’ average play, with some clever moments juxtaposed with again ‘very’ average and somewhat smutty humour. But obviously it seemed to have appealed to a lot of people there as some were in stitches time to time and kept thumping the floor in acknowledgement. Hmmmm, humour is a funny thing after all isn’t it?
Happy Diwali to all your readers. If you’re unaware what Diwali means, its the festival of lights where candles and handmade earthen oil lamps are lit to celebrate the victory of good over evil. D gave me the surprise of my life when we had sparkles pre-dinner on Diwali night here in Sydney… Awww bless, very thoughtful and we celebrated again tonight pre-dinner with D’s family. We have had two celebratory Diwali nights even without being in India So spoilt, so blessed.
After a much long hard working week… Friday came by and boy it was well deserved. Apart from being the miraculous day Fridays always are we were also catching up with HP and going to City Pocha — a Korean BBQ restaurant where we have been umpteen times as the food is really good. When you see a lot of locals eating here the obvious reaction is it would be worth the while — the food is always good there and rather fresh. But to our surprise and disappointment while the food was really nice the service was despicable. At the end of each table they have a buzzer, yeah bit weird but a very practical idea, except that we pressed it many times and they would just not service our table. To be fair and honest to the situation City Pocha was inundated and seemed under-staffed but thats no excuse not to serve patrons or have waiters that are clueless. Okie get this, one of the waiters who was initially servicing our table didn’t speak a word of English and didn’t know what lettuce was even after pointing out to what Lettuce looked like. I have nothing against people that don’t speak English but honey don’t be in Hospitality or the Service Industry with such brazen assurance. Far worse, we asked for more Kimchi at least three times and they never bothered. Finally after waiting for about half an hour while they frantically served others and pissed us right off, we were truly at the end of our tether and HP had to go to the reception to ask them to serve us. Not the best way to spend Friday evening but at least the food was fresh and tasty.
Edited: The name of the thai place is Sumalee Thai in Bank Hotel Newtown. Thanks D.
As you would have figured Be like Others *was* depressing. Luckily D took me to a lovely Thai on King Street. Having a senior moment… the name escapes me. (will update tomorrow) I hadn’t been to this one before. The entrance is right from King Street and you go through the pub area down 2 flights of stairs it comes out into a whole different semi-outdoorsy feel sitting area with gas-heated lamps… Nice. Ages back as I was told by D one side of the building was oopen to the tracks where you could see the trains go past… Even though we were seated right in the heart of Newtown there was no noise, almost expcept for the ambient chitter-chatter. We had the traditional Green Curry. I *love* a hot and spicy Thai green curry I do! And also the traditional massaman. The food was really nice but we had to pay separately for extra rice — odd! And yes we didn’t get water. Not the best service but not bad enough to turn up our noses. Not yet anyway. We could have sat there for another hour and cogitated! but we had a show to catch.
Continue reading ‘Newtown Thai, Colbie Caillat and Nouvelle Scene Paris’
Thank you all who came to the Tupperware party. It was great to see you all and we did have a fun afternoon. Thank you all also for the lovely nibbles that you got and a big thank you to DS for keeping the kitchen going so smooth when we were all having fun.
At some stage Claudia would have mentioned to you how very much I really like the Antarctica set and on doing the math post our party I did qualify for one. Yay! I am really happy about that and a big thanks to you all. Of course now that I’ll have the Antarctica set with me soon I’m starting to feel the need for some pantry organisation. And nothing organises your pantry better than those versatile Modular Mates… the cranberry lids do look nice. I bought myself the Cool Cubes, On the go set with a sports bottle, the lime/orange squeezer. Looking forward to my delivery. What did you get?
Up until Sunday the 1st of June 2008 I truly was a Tupperware Virgin. I knew what they meant and had heard good reviews from Tupperware converts and people that used them but never ever held one in my hand or knew what they could possibly do and what life changing experiences they could bring about! It was nice of Adrian & Richard to invite us over for a lovely Tupperware party. Great experience and need I say that I learnt a few things. Having had done practically no research at all I was under the impression that I would find something nice to buy under $20.00 well! That was about to change soon! Although David had dropped in a hint to say they are not really your average run of the mill plastic. Yet I landed up buying a bit even for my first experience. The stuff is really good! Trust me Or maybe I’m easily convinced. But I’d like to think the former!
Sydney as many of you already know sports the minus 5 degree experience in the Opera Quays. While this has been open about 2 years back I never had the opportunity until yesterday. I finally experienced the Ice lounge at Minus 5 where everything is made of ice… the seat, the cocktail glasses, the ice table, ice chairs the ice sculptures of-course. The girls who serve at the front desk and on the way in through the antechamber seemed rather miserable though! No smiles, flat as a sheet of paper, totally bereft of any emotions. Too much cold weather does that to you! Seriously though, thats a very small whinge to the fun we had in there…
Given the love we have for food and dining out its almost impossible to pass up an opportunity and given we hadn’t seen John, Tanya and Pam in such a long time it was only fitting we caught up nice and proper.
We did pose for a quick snap, unfortunately it was long after dinner and coffee. The Ginger Room, 165 Wycombe Road, Neutral Bay.
The Line of Beauty , appropriately named or not, or am missing the link still, sure makes for an enthralling story that takes place in the Thatcherian UK — early 80s when Britain is experiencing the winds of change. Reading the reviews in the newspapers the other day I wondered if this would go wayside but soon caught my attention as I started watching the drama on ABC last night. The story starts with Nick Guest(Dan Stevens) moving in with Toby his best mates family — the wealthy Feddens. All through his graduation years at Oxford Nick has fancied Toby but moving in with the affluent Feddens at their London home brings about a sea change in the young heart of Nick. He experiences his sexual urges, falling in love head over heels after losing his virginity, drug induced highs and lows… dysfunctional and dramatic living, till things start to heat up. Amidst the euphoria of the champagne and parties, Nick witnesses political scandal, the deception and hypocrisy of the rich and desperate tragedy of the outbreak of AIDS. It truly makes for a gripping family drama. I’d say its a must watch if you’re reasonably broadminded. Here is a review from The Guardian Unlimited.
Pink Martini has hit our soft spot since the time we’ve been listening to them. China Forbes(Vocals) and Thomas M. Lauderdale’s(Pianist) multi-cultural families and upbringing brings forth a unique touch to their music. Having learnt many languages and music in different parts of the world also gives them an edge of immense multiculturalism. We knew most of the songs that were played but it was good to hear the background behind them all and what encouraged them to write or compose the tune. I love the Hang on little tomato song, such a song of hope and dulcet sound of La Soledad (the solitude). Music truly transcends cultures, languages, all barriers…
The lovely-lovely D has won us a fully paid ticket to Paris for two for a week. This also includes a stay at the Accor group of hotels in Paris for a week. GRATIS!!! Oh My God! We’re so ecstatic. I can’t even start to tell you… there’ll be more updates soon. The only pressing need is that we need to avail it by the end of this calendar year and we’re both extremely busy but hey you can never be too busy to take a free luxury ride to La Pari!
Bonjour Paris! Here we come.
It was the start of the weekend. It was Friday evening. Robyn, David and I went to the Safari bar in the Exchange Hotel in Balmain. Its a lovely pub indeed and the Brasserie menu is very reasonable. My beer battered flathead fillets with lime and corriander was rather scrumptious. If you live in the Inner West Sydney, or Sydney if at all this is a worth try. Of course we had to go to Glebe Point road for our coffee and cake tradition. It was a lovely night indeed.
The last time D gave me a few clues I could very well tell our venue was going to be Tabou for a scruptious meal… satisfying our inner man is important and we acknowledge that…. my clues mind you were very cryptic yet I could get my head around it. This time though, it took much longer but did work finally…
My 1st set of clues were: Beautiful Awkward Pictures
Last weekend we were lucky to get free tickets to the Goddess Divine Energy exhibition at the Art Gallery, NSW featuring Hinduism, Buddhism, Tantra, Chakras, Yantras, Mantras and Mandalas. It was absolutely fascinating and one could clearly see the effort that had been made to put this whole presentation together as some of the stone sculptures were flown in from different parts of India, Tibet, Nepal and some archeological finds of the Indus valley — the oldest clivilisation that walked this planet… the twin cities of Harappa and Mohenjodaro, which now belong to Pakistan. Unfortunately though we left it too late to go to the Art Gallery and it was somewhat crowded but that aside it was such an amazing and esoteric experiences.
Continue reading ‘Goddess: Divine Energy, at the Art Gallery’
So we went car shopping last night… there was this nice little Volkswagen Polo, small, blue, cute, advertised through a private sale. Looked practically unused (on the web), or a rather well maintained seldom driven car. We had our eyes on it… and we were going to go give it a whirl. Booked. Appointment made.
Oh such a lovely weekend went by so quick again… from the lovely huge meatosaurian meals at Ribs and Rumps to the very home cooked BBQ with friends… don’t weekends roll on too fast?
Now speaking of food and trying out good receipes… thought I’d try some of the software that is available for mac. There are a whole heap here at Pure-mac but some of those webpages look fairly out of date. I have tried Mac Gourmet and Connoisseur and neither take my fancy. Am off trying Organized Gourmet and Kitchen. Whats your favourite gem to this end?
When was your last Ribs and Rumps experience? Well ours was almost a year back… a special treat from D when I had arrived back from my US sojourn.
We sat in their cute retro booth and eat like two happy little mudlarks gnawing every bit of morsel. It was finger licking good. D’lish! And despite making many mock promises to go there for another monsterous meal we just haven’t enough time to do it. Tonight we are meeting the lovely Marisa and I bet it will be another gorgeous night out with steak knives and live stock in mouth. Roll on Ribs and Rumps.
Christmas came and went all too quick. Gusty cold currents from the Antarctic south landed snow in parts of Tasmania and even right down at Victoria where many bushfires were ablaze at the same time. It has been a bizarre summer, anything but hot and sultry baring a few occasional days when the humidity soared. Given how comfortably we abuse our planets eco-system this shouldn’t really come across as a surprise.
Catching up with Jac and Lisa is always so much fun, its a shame we don’t do it enough. Although, truth be told we seem to be following a little gastronomic pattern of gorging ourselved with plentiful enough to skip breakfast, morning tea and lunch the next day whenever we seem to go out. Surely no complaints can be had of the finger licking good food of The Clove but what more when one goes to the premier wine bar of Sydney — Winebanq and then follow it up with a traditional French cuisine at our all time favourite — Tabou in the company of lovely friends.
We finally watched ‘Friends with Money’, after all the goss and rave thats been going around. About a week or maybe two earlier, I remember watching Chris Murray’s review on the movie on sunrise telly, he’d given it a rating of 4 out of 5. A good satire. The film surely has a lot of ‘modern’ comedy very carefully placed of sharply observed situations of the new millennium. Continue reading ‘Friends with money’
Deep within a forest, at the summit of a volcano, exists an extraordinary world—a world where something else is possible. A world called Varekai. No doubt I’ll update my post after having witnessed it in the flesh and blood. Varekai in Romanian dialect of the gypsy and nomads means ‘wherever‘ Varekai is a form of expressing movement growth and the infinite passion to wander this planet. It is Cirque du Soleil’s way of paying homage to the art and spirit of circus and the tradition thereof. Continue reading ‘Varekai – Cirque du Soleil’
In a few hours from now we’ll be at this gorgeous little place seated by the window overlooking the Sydney harbour as the night lights come on in the city and the ferries sail by over a scrumptious meal at the Harbourside Indian Restaurant. I can barely wait to be there. Having gone past this restaurant many times, I’ve always wanted to go in for a meal. Am waiting with baited breath.
As photographer for the sophisticated Home magazine, Harold Cazneaux produced some very extraordinary catalogue of Sydney style in the 1920s and 30s.
From the Art Deco skyscrapers of the city centre to images of modern home design and interiors, Cazneaux depicted all that was fashionable and new and strikingly modern and glamorous.
It will grab your attention as you go past. It’ll make you stop and look inside and ponder.. gee and it looks really nice and cozy. Colourful. I have gone past this place a number of times and wanted to go in for a meal… until the day finally arrived… we rocked up at Kathmandu Ma — a Nepalese restaurant on King Street, Newtown. The place is adorn with a lot of Nepalese souvenirs, big and small old and relatively new, right from the majestic panorama of the icy Himalayas framed against a maroon wall to the very traditional anodised metal amulets and necklaces and bracelets, the nepalese triangular flags that you see atop their shrines.
Time flies by way too quick when you’re having fun. Things have been generally rather busy the last few weeks and that explains it all. I have still not finished my vietnam gallery and have had to keep my all chores aside until I finish my two current side-projects(yes exciting). Here’s hoping I’ll talk about it soon. Oh a lot of things happened in the past few weeks where do I start…. of the things that I can remember.. watched Superman Returns, bought Aperture, watched Wah-Wah, Maxine turned 4Ø, High School Musical, caught up with Ruth and Andrew lost a game of scrabble with Nick, David cooked an absolute divine home made boscaiola, had lovely Indian food at the Malabar, slow cooked ribs at the Balmoral Bathers, fascinating garlic prawns at Miros on Liverpool, scrumptious breakfasts at the Avenue and Xenos, dinner at the Austrian Schnitzelhaus, wait no, its not all about food… but thats all I can remember… after all I am nothing but my inner me… oh and copious amounts of red. Life is hard… but I’ll come around before you know.
Adrian, Richard, David and I went down to the Rose Seidler House which was built between 1948 and 1950. It is one of the most uncompromising modernist houses in Australia. Nestled in natural bushland of Ku-Ring-Gai Chase, with great view from its glass walls and sun filled deck. We took a few photos around the place. Considering this house was designed and built in 1948 it is very modern and extremely well lit. If you visit Sydney and have similar interests I’d recommend visiting the Rose Seidler House.
I’ve have been looking for a rental unit in lower north shore for a while now. I am a bit over Hornsby(though I kinda love the greenery and the bushland shire feel it has to offer — my weakness), will give you that Russ… and I’m dead bored here so am trying to move out of this place. But its not always easy to find a place even if for a short time… Far worse none of the ads in papers or on the internet EVER tell you if they take pets which means you have to call them or find out when you visit…
I have two free Wagamama vouchers that expire on the 31st January 2006. If you are interested in having them please reply this post. These vouchers can be redeemed at any Wagamama outlet in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane or Perth. Feel free to exhibit your greed!
Glorious weekend. I should have posted this on the weekend of the 26th November 2005 — but as you know I have a job to keep, a cat to feed, brush, bathe, walk, my inner man to please and a lot more exciting things that are not meant for you unless you are happen in the elite ‘puff’ club of the far north shore and no they are not web related either. Schade! Which also means I cannot tag them with technorati much really. And then I keep thinking to myself should I write about ‘em at all, chances are I’d get stalked like a friend of ours did a few weeks back… and now with the trees from my neighbours gone they could literally peep in and see me sleeping in my birthday suit with a pussy on my new summery sheets, scary!
Well almost! I decided to have number 1 cut, well number 2 and a bit more on the top and down to number 1 all the way at the back and the sides. Well that actually did happened last Thursday. Friday was our last work day at ATP otherwise known as Australian Technology Park as we are moving office and start back in St. Leonards were we were about four years back! Most of Thursday and Friday went in packing up our stuff. Exciting! Good news for me though… its easier to get to St Leonards from where I now live than ATP.
Mum, Dad and I spent a fair bit of time planting bulbs I had bought somedays back. Autumn is the right time to plant your bulbs in if you care for plants and flowers in particular. Mary-Anne and I had bought a fair bit of ‘em from J N Hankcock & Co. We have gone through few pots of Fressias, white, creamy white, scented ones, coloured, double coloured, tall mixed tyes, Nerines, white, red, pinking red, wine red, Daffodils, pink laces, white, mixed… oh there is a lot of variety and to add to that I even got a Ctenanthe — an evergreen photosensitive foliage, and all this commotion as Chumki quietly and leisurely watched us working in the garden. She is not allowed to go out. The moggy neighbours cat is all out to get her and frequents our driveway way too often. We have moved some furniture around the lounge area and few pots and plants too — it looks awesome ofcourse, Ian and I just don’t have a formal degree in interior decoration is all. But that doesn’t stop us…
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