Happy Holidays! Merry Christmastime!

It's been a couple of years since I last celebrated Christmas in Australia. Both Sean and I don't have any family here in Melbourne so we decided to have Christmas dinner together at my place. We started off the afternoon with hors d'oeuvres of zucchini chips, salsa and tortilla chips, and a cumin pinto bean dip and rice crackers. Sean also made a French 75 cocktail, but used cognac instead of gin.

For dinner we had a mixed green salad and roast pork with pumpkin and potatoes. Despite the warm weather is was nice to have a roast dish since I am used to a cold Christmas. While digesting all the food we had eaten we indulged in a marathon of Season 1 of RuPaul's Drag Race UK. After a while we finally had room for some dessert, which consisted of snowball cookies and a rosewater and pistachio cake that I had baked (all gluten free). It was a lovely afternoon/evening and a nice way to celebrate the holidays when you do not have family around.

Chantal and Richard's Wedding

Yesterday was Chantal and Richard's wedding day. The wedding ceremony took place at Sts Peter and Paul Catholic Church in South Melbourne. Chantal looked gorgeous in her beautiful lace dress as she entered the church with her Mum. The priest who performed the ceremony was quite a character- it almost felt like a Catholic revival at times. Family members from both sides took part throughout the ceremony, and we learned that they were getting married on the birthday of Chantal's late father, which I thought was special and a good omen.

After the ceremony there was a few hours gap before the reception started, so I had a coffee with Amrita, Philippe and their two little ones in a cafe next door to the church before heading into the city to kill some time. The reception took place at the Wattle Park Chalet in Surrey Hills which is located within some parklands. We had pre-dinner drinks, hors d'oeurves and a group photo before heading inside for dinner. Once the wedding party entered they cut the cake and then spread out speeches before the entree and main course. The food was quite tasty throughout the night. I had the pumpkin and feta tortellini, chicken breast stuffed with brie and sundried tomatoes, and tiramisu for dessert. The dance floor was pumping early as well as the photo booth upstairs. The evening was a mix of Sri Lankan and Swedish traditions in honor of their family heritages. Overall it was a fun night and I wish the happy couple all the best for their future together.

Birthday Celebrations

My milestone birthday has finally arrived, and it's been a great day! Unfortunately things at work are really busy so I was unable to take the day off. However, my parents brightened my desk by sending an incredible bouquet of flowers (which also tipped off my colleagues that it was my birthday). Justin and I escaped for lunch at Mamasita, which was fantastic as usual and fulfilled my craving for Mexican food. Then my divisional colleagues threw a little surprise afternoon tea for me with a cake from Laurent, which was really thoughtful of them.

As someone who went on a patisserie crawl last year, it should be no surprise that I chose to celebrate my birthday this year by doing the dessert degustation at Om Nom in the Adelphi Hotel. When you walk in you are hit by the sweet smell of sugar. I was joined by a lovely group of friends, with over half of us doing the degustation and the others ordering savory food to share. Onagh was kind enough to get me the Adelphi Rose cocktail, which was quite nice. I think between us we managed to order all of the degustation options on the menu. My three choices were as follows:

• Raspberry Field- Raspberry and lychee sorbet, baked meringue, raspberry panna cotta, rosewater pearls and white chocolate
• Icecream 'Sanga'- Pistachio ice cream, ricotta orange cream, vanilla chantilly, biscuit cuillere, strawberry swirled vanilla ice cream and balsamic spheres
• MagNOM- Flourless chocolate, valhrona manjari 64% chocolate ice cream, peanut dacquoise and peanut butter swirled vanilla ice cream

All of the dishes tasted and looked great, but I think my favorite was the Raspberry Field with its raspberry sorbet mushroom cap. It was really nice of the staff to write happy birthday on my MagNOM plate (I blew out one of the table candles after my friends sang to me). Since the sizes were smaller than normal desserts and had light flavors I didn't feel overloaded on sugar by the end of the evening. The degustation was a great way to sample a portion of the menu at the quite reasonable price of $48 per person. I look forward to coming back to Om Nom to try some more dishes. I would also like to thank all my friends for making turning 40 years old a fun and relatively pain free experience.

Chantal's Bachelorette Party

My lovely friend Chantal is getting married next month, so last night we had her bachelorette party (or hen's as it is referred to in Australia, which I personally refuse to use). The theme was "Spec-Tacular" so everyone brought along funny glasses to wear. We started the evening doing some life drawing at The Artful Hen in Prahran. After some drinks and nibbles we sat in front of our easels and did brief introductions before our male model came out. Our instructor took us through several different drawing exercises as our model did various poses. At the end Chantal sat up on the podium with him and we had to do a progressive drawing exercise where we rotated to a new easel every 40 seconds. Some of the end products were quite humorous. My sketching got better as time went on, and it was good to catch up with Amrita and get to meet her 3 month old son.

Next we walked up Chapel Street to the Temperance Hotel for dinner, where we were joined by even more people. We had our own section of the bar reserved, and Chantal's sisters did a great job of organizing everything, including some rounds of trivia. For dinner we had our choice of an entree, main and dessert.  I ate the fried calamari, roasted salmon with garlic mash, and citrus and fennel salad, and the creme brulee with rose water and pistachio biscotti. All of it tasted pretty good. After some group photos I said my goodbyes and headed home. The evening was a great success and I'm really looking forward to the wedding festivities.

Early Birthday Celebrations

As I will be back in Australia when my milestone 40th birthday occurs in February my parents decided to throw me an early birthday celebration with family and friends from the Bay Area. Mom made three poster boards filled with pictures from throughout my life and hung those on the wall in the dining area. It was great to see some of my aunts and uncles, cousins and godparents who I don't get to see regularly. We also got a bit of kid wrangling in between my niece and nephew and Lynne and Jeremy's two little ones.

Lunch was very nice between the hors d'oeuvres and the main meal of chicken tetrazzini and a mixed green salad. The chocolate cake from Victoria Bakery was rich and delicious, and accompanied by a glass of Mumm Napa sparkling wine. The funniest gift I received was from my aunt who managed to save my high school graduation senior cruise t-shirt that was given as a hand me down to my cousins in order to give it back to me all these years later. It was a lovely afternoon and best of all I've still got a month and a half until I actually turn 40!

Holiday Hustle

It's good to be back in the Bay Area.  My flight over on Sunday was the usual long haul journey, although this time I had to deal with an older gentleman in front of me who made the worst loud hacking noises throughout the flight. I think I would have preferred a crying baby instead (and some ear plugs).  I killed time by watching Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel (every shot in that film is a winner) and season 4 of Portlandia.  Sleep was not really an option with Mr. Hacky.

I seem to have brought nice weather with me as the last couple days have been quite pleasant.  I had most of my Christmas shopping done before I arrived, but picked up the last few gifts on Monday.  Today I got to catch up with my oldest and dearest friend Lynne as we braved various shopping centers around Marin as she finished up her shopping.  We also took advantage of sales and I got myself a pair of pants at Banana Republic for $20 (originally $89)!  In addition, I have been eating a lot of sourdough bread and my Dad made a really yummy dungeness crab cioppino.  With all the food I will be eating in the coming days I think I better start doing some exercise.

Christmas In The Forest

It was a beautiful day in Kalorama, located in the Dandenong Ranges, for Peter and Mark's Christmas party.  Fran was kind enough to pick me up along the way out there.  It's been quite a few years since I was last up at their house, and this year they held the party on the grounds near their live Christmas tree, which was decorated for the occasion.  As the tables and picnic blankets were set up on a slope it was a running gag all afternoon that we would end up rolling down the hill.  People brought different dishes to share for lunch, and music was supplied through people taking turns picking some vinyl to play.  Instead of traditional Christmas hats Peter had decorated some Fez hats for people to wear.  There were a few musicians in attendance, including Greg McCanish from Skyhooks, Andy White, and Nigel Griggs from Split Enz.  Fran and I chatted quite a bit with Andy, who we saw live last month at The Toff for his album launch.  After eating lunch the presents were distributed, and Peter managed to string up a Santa pinata to a tall tree branch for Rosemaree to hit (not sure Santa with a noose around his neck screams Christmas).  Overall it was a nice afternoon amongst the trees in the forest.

Shopping And The City

Since it is the holiday season I think everyone is currently focused on shopping for Christmas presents.  I have been to every major mall in Marin County over the past week and a half, even though I bought nearly all my gifts before I left Melbourne.  However, when I come home I do stock up on clothes and other items, so it's been a mixture of online and store shopping for myself. 

I have also been catching up with family, friends, and former work colleagues. We attended Logan's preschool Christmas pageant last week, which consisted of his class walking up an aisle to a Christmas song and waving (very cute and short!).  Today I headed into San Francisco with Lynne for some shopping around Union Square.  It was a sunny yet cool day in the City, and I had Boudin's clam chowder in a bread bowl for lunch and then we went over to Ghiradelli Square for some hot fudge sundaes after our shopping adventure.  Both were very yummy and quintessential San Francisco!

Quietly Living Life

I have been a bit neglectful of the blog lately since I haven't been doing too much outside of my normal routine.  April has been full of its usual holidays (Easter, ANZAC Day) so it's been nice to have shorter work weeks and some days off.  I have been good about getting myself to the gym at least three times a week for one to two hours of classes (depending on the day).

At the end of March the Department moved into its new structure, so I am now working in a new division, but under my old general manager.  My main focus is still on school workforce reform, and hopefully at some point the paper I have been working on will see the light of day.  We are also awaiting the announcement of the state budget on Tuesday to see if there will be further cuts to the public service (currently 10% will be cut over the next two years). 

The AFL 2012 season began in March and Essendon has had a great start to the year.  We are currently 4-1, having lost the ANZAC Day match to Collingwood on Wednesday by only one point in a heart stopping finish.  The boys are playing better with each round, and hopefully this momentum will continue to build throughout the season.  I also hope to actually make it to at least one game this year!

Tamales at Mamasita

Although I haven't been to any gigs for the last couple months (never fear, there are some shows coming up in May) I have been catching up with friends, including Will and Helen who have been out visiting from the UK with their little ones.  I have also been getting out for lunch and dinner at some old favorite restaurants (Mamasita, China Red, Shuji Sushi) as well as trying some new places such as The Hardware Societe, The Mess Hall, Miss Marmalade, and burgers at Hoboken and Phoenix Public House.  I am also completely obsessed at the moment with the delicious macarons at La Belle Miette.  Kat and I have been escaping work to go there on an almost weekly basis.  They made special hot cross bun and Easter egg ones for Easter, and the salted caramel macaron is one of the most amazing things I have ever tasted.  Check them out if you are in Melbourne.

Another Year Older

Photo by Kat

Today is my birthday and it has been a pretty good day.  I went out to lunch at Shuji Sushi with Clinton, and then came back to a beautiful bouquet of flowers at my desk from my parents and cupcakes from my work colleagues.  They know me too well!  After work I had a lovely dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant Mamasita with Chantal, Amrita and Onagh.  We grabbed the last table and had an assortment of dishes and margaritas.  Then we headed off to the bar on the 35th floor of the Sofitel for a night cap before heading home.  Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes throughout the day (and to those in the US who will be sending them tomorrow when I officially turn a year older).

San Diego

Today Lei and I drove down to San Diego for the day. Our first stop was UC San Diego in La Jolla.  I don't think I've been there since graduating 14 years ago.  There are a lot more buildings, and Roosevelt College is now located north of Thurgood Marshall.  Lei and I wandered around campus checking out the Geisel Library and small Dr Seuss exhibit, Price Center, and a few of the art pieces in the Stuart Collection.

Next we drove around downtown La Jolla before deciding to go down to Old Town San Diego.  We stopped for a late lunch at Mexican restaurant Barra Barra and had their happy hour margaritas and yummy tacos, as well as an apple crisp burrito with vanilla ice cream to share. We then walked around Old Town and went into some of the shops. The buildings are a mix of Gold Rush era and Mission style. If we had had more time we would have checked out some of the museums there.

For the evening we went to my old college roommate Shoshana's house for dinner.  We got to meet her young daughter and chat for a while.  It's been quite a few years since we last caught up with each other in person.  Unfortunately our other roommates couldn't make it so I'll have to see them on a future trip.  It was great to finally get back down to San Diego though and Lei and I had a fun day.

Happy Australia Day

Today is my first Australia Day as an Australian citizen.  Ruth and Danny were kind enough to invite me over this afternoon for a BBQ, which is a very traditional way of celebrating.  It was also an excuse for them to christen their new barbecue.  We had a lovely spread of food, including some kangaroo while listening to the Triple J Hottest 100 countdown.

In the evening I headed down to the Vibe Hotel Carlton to help out Clinton with the 22 Chinese Language Assistants he had picked up from the airport.  Okay, I really went because I got a free dinner.  In any case, the funniest thing was that as we sat down to dinner, Clinton introduced me and the Language Assistants broke out into applause.  A chatted to a few of them during dinner, and one girl said the 12 hour flight from Beijing was her first time on an airplane.  They will have two days of orientation and then go off to their respective school placements and home stays around the state.

Happy New Year!

After a half day at work and a brief respite from the 40/104 degree heat I headed into the city to meet up with Chantal and her cousin and friends for a lovely New Year's Eve dinner at Seamstress on Lonsdale Street.  They had a 7 course degustation menu with the option of wine matching with each course.  Here is what we ate:

• Peking duck consomme with shaved green lip abalone and quad of poached Chinese mushrooms
• Pan seared wild harvest scallop stuffed with tailor made XO on poached iceberg lettuce
• Swallowed clouds... poached won tons of snake bean and golden sweet kaukau with green pea puree, coriander foam and flying fish roe
• Terrine of pork hock and oolong tea smoked duck with pickled watermelon
• Hiramasa kingfish carpaccio with young coconut, lime and pomegranate dressed in snow pea tendrils
• Cleansing parsley and lemon sorbet
• Crisp fried five spice quail, salad of fresh garden herbs, cucumber julienne and pink ginger
• Ponzu marinated wagyu and twice cooked pork belly served with drunken potatoes and gai larn
• Petit fours and coffee

The food was amazing and just the perfect amount over the few hours we were there.  My favorite courses were the won tons and the quail.  After we finished eating it was very close to midnight so we rushed outside just in time to see bits of the fireworks show that were happening along the Yarra River.  We wandered for a bit around the city and down to Federation Square before heading home.  Happy New Year to you all and may 2011 live up to and exceed your expectations.

Happy Holidays

Since I was not going to fly home for the holidays, Clinton invited me to join his family's celebrations this weekend in Rosebud, which is about an hour and half south-east of Melbourne.  The boys picked me up and we drove down around noon on Christmas Day.  His family were very welcoming and even had little Christmas presents for me (which was nice because my presents from home are currently MIA and likely stuck in customs).  I brought some snowball cookies to contribute to the meal and a bottle of wine, which turned out to a favorite of Clinton's father.

The weather was warm but not too hot and the backyard tables were festively decorated.  Various family members stopped in and joined the celebrations throughout the afternoon.  We had so much food to eat starting with chips, dip, cheese and crackers.  We then had prawns, barbecue steak, sausage, shish kebabs, coleslaw and potato salad.  On top of all this food Clinton's brother, who is a bartender, was mixing drinks and made sangria as well as various fruit daiquiris.  After digesting the late afternoon lunch we ate Clinton's pavlova and my cookies for dessert.  There were lots of funny stories about growing up in Rosebud and we played a few games.  It was a nice evening.

Today we woke up to some rain, but it managed to clear by early afternoon.  Since I haven't ever explored the Mornington Peninsula before, Clinton's parents took us for a bit of a drive around the area.  We started with a walk in Arthurs Seat State Park with its great views of Port Phillip Bay and the Seawinds Garden, which contains several sculptures by William Ricketts.  The chairlift to the summit isn't working, but Clinton, Kevin and I took a picture on "Arthurs Seat."  We next drove down to Point Nepean Road and through the various seaside towns on the way to Sorrento to visit Clinton's brother, who was working.  We took a walk along the front beach and out onto one of the piers.  After some fish and chips at the restaurant we headed back to Rosebud and then packed up the car for the drive back to Melbourne.  It was such a lovely weekend and a great way to spend the Christmas holiday.

Thanksgiving Dinner

Tonight I hosted my second Thanksgiving dinner here in Australia.  Even though I am now an Aussie I was instructed that this would be one American tradition that I need to maintain.  For the past few days I have been busy cleaning my place, shopping for food, and last night I baked a pumpkin pie.

Unfortunately a few people who were invited couldn't make it, but that was okay in the end because it meant that everyone fit at the table.  Also, those who came contributed a dish to the evening, which was nice.  Chantal brought some cheese and dips for appetizers, Ruth and Danny the salad (and a couple chairs to fill out the table), and Clinton and Kevin brought a homemade apple pie.  I was responsible for the main dishes, which were turkey, stuffing, green beans, and mashed potatoes.  The stuffing in particular came out quite well.

After digesting dinner we each had a slice of both the pumpkin and apple pies, and were then all completely full.  It was quite a fun evening filled with of lots of conversation, and time flew by because when I looked at the clock it was after 11 pm all of a sudden.  Thanks to everyone for coming and hopefully we'll do it again next year.  Good luck to all my American friends and family who are cooking and celebrating for the real date this Thursday.

Ruth and Danny's Wedding

Yesterday was Ruth and Danny's "Dutchnamese" wedding day. They started the morning with a traditional Vietnamese ceremony with both families, and then had the wedding in the afternoon at St. Margaret Mary's Church in Brunswick. It was a joyous ceremony and the priest's homily about them was quite funny. I hitched a ride with people over to the reception at Abbotsford Convent, and while they took photos we killed time in a cafe and then a small bar.

At 6pm the reception officially started with hors d'oeuvres and drinks in the courtyard. We then headed inside and sat down for the eight course Vietnamese seafood banquet which included oysters, scallops, lobster, abalone, and trout. In between the courses we had speeches, the cutting of the cake and first dance, which Danny and Ruth had a refresher swing dancing lesson for. After all that food we managed to hit the dance floor during the last hour of the reception. It was a great night and I am sure they will have a long and happy marriage.

Ruth's Hen Night

Last night was Ruth's hen (or bachelorette) night. It was thankfully a very civilized affair. We started at Ruth's place around 4pm for the "triangles of wisdom" craft activity where everyone created a colorful triangle with some words of wisdom that were then strung together to create a banner. Next we headed out to dinner at the Turkish and Middle Eastern inspired restaurant Baba on Lygon Street in East Brunswick. For $35 per person we got a massive amount of food off the three course food safari banquet, which ranged from dips to assorted vegetables dishes and a lamb roast claypot. It was all very good and we had heaps of food left over.

After dinner we discovered a cute little bar a few doors down from the restaurant called Eydie's. We found a nice quiet spot at the back near a fake fireplace and had a couple of drinks before heading for home. Next Saturday is the wedding, so it was nice to meet and chat with Ruth's family and friends before the big day.

Karaoke

Today was Natalie's birthday so she invited some friends and a group of us from work to celebrate with her by having a karaoke fest at Chi Lounge in Chinatown. We had our own private room for four hours at $25 per person, which was used to cover food and drinks for the group. It was an entertaining evening and we had a wide selection of music to choose from. Clinton did a good job of picking the divas to sing along to- Mariah, Britney, Beyonce, Lady GaGa, and Madonna. We also had some ABBA, Snoop Dogg, *NSYNC, Kanye West, and finished up the night with a rousing rendition of the Spice Girls' "Spice Up Your Life." I was hoarse by the end of the night but had a great time.

Visiting Regional Victoria

This morning I caught the train from Southern Cross Station up to Ballarat. It was my first time on V/Line and the nearly hour and a half train ride was a comfortable one. Michelle picked me up at the station and then we headed over to get Tash. Her little cottage house is very cute. After a bit of a chat we hit the road for Hepburn Springs to have lunch at Chowder House. Co-owned by an American chef, we had been wanting to try out this place for a while now, and Michelle thought it would be a good way to celebrate my birthday. They have about six different chowders on the menu. I had a traditional clam chowder, Tash had a seafood chowder and Michelle went with the chicken and corn chowder. All of them came with a piece of homemade cornbread as well. The big bowl of chowder tasted fantastic and although not too thick was quite filling. It definitely met my expectations.

After a quick drive around Hepburn Springs to check out the many mineral spring spas in the area, we went to neighboring Daylesford to have a walk around downtown and visit some of the shops. In one of the first places we went into I spotted this necklace and really liked it, so I bought it as a gift for myself. After a while we ended up finding an ice cream shop and stopped in for some dessert. Once we returned to Ballarat we had a drive around the city and the now dry Lake Wendouree (a victim of the drought). One of the great things about many of the towns in the region is that they still have a lot of their historical buildings from the gold rush era in the mid-1800s. We stopped by Michelle's townhouse so I could have a look at it before she dropped Tash and I off for the train ride back to Melbourne. While Tash went off to watch the Tropfest short film festival at Federation Square, I headed for home.

Happy Birthday Danny

After our big shopping excursion last week today was the day for Danny's American/Australian-themed 30th birthday party. A group of us gathered at Princes Park in Carlton this afternoon on what was a very hot day. We set up a table in the shade with a variety of American foods as well as some Kool-Aid. Surprisingly a lot of guests weren't big fans of the Kool-Aid, which I guess is an acquired taste. Ruth braved the barbecue grill in the sun and we had hamburgers, hot dogs and sausages along with some salads. I contributed a classic macaroni salad, which came out just as I remember it from my youth (it was the first time I had made the dish).

Danny had brought a variety of balls, so while some people kicked the footy we were throwing around a football. I think we had people throwing spirals after a few tries. Danny's attempt at an American accent contest didn't really take off, so we sang happy birthday and had some of Ruth's chocolate ripple cake, which was in the shape of the number 30. It was a fun afternoon and as darkness descended on the park we cleaned up and headed for home.