I'm Back.

Wow, it has been a while since I've updated this blog! Once I joined the world of tumblr, I really neglected this place... Well, I'm back. Unlike my tumblr (found HERE) which captures the random thoughts and musings of my everyday life, I think I'm going to keep this for two of my favourite subjects - food and travel. With the Sydney International Food Festival just around the corner, there will be many food posts undoubtedly coming soon.

In the meantime, here is a snapshot of some food experiences I've had over the past few months that I have been M.I.A.

There have been delicious, rather perfect home-baked cheesecakes...

A new baby...a Kitchen Aid (hurrah!)

Homemade dessert souffles (courtesy of my baking-genius of a sister)...

And one of the most wonderful afternoon tea experiences at the quaint Hopetoun Tea Rooms in Melbourne. The cakes and pastries are divine! They also have a wonderful range of organic teas (from a brand whose name has escaped me for the moment). We tried the Ruby Sipper, which is a blood orange fruit blend and the Chocolatea, which is a blend of Chocolate, Vanilla, Organic Rooibos and Black Tea. There are other interesting ones that we weren't able to try, such as Congo Bongo (a coconut and mango flavoured tea) and Passion with Envy (a green leaf tea with passion fruit). Whilst there is usually a line out the door, the wait is most definitely worth it.

That's all I have for now. Until next time...

Procrastination.

I'm in the middle of finals/exams at the moment and once again the procrastination bug has bitten. I absolutely cannot focus. So here I am writing a rather pointless blog about nothing particular interesting. The problem I guess is not so much that I can't focus, but more the fact that having finally gotten around to completing one of my essays I have this over-inflated sense of accomplishment and feel I deserve break.

It's funny how being completely and utterly bored can motivate someone to sit down and actually get something done. That was me yesterday. I got called into work and was in an office all by myself for 4.5 hours. It was almost eerie sitting there all by myself. Even more eerie when the phone rang and pierced the silence. Despite the eeriness it would seem that, that amount of time spent in relative silence and isolation makes for perfect conditions to start and finish an essay.

Random Post #13923

It's been a while since I've posted. I've decided I am really bad at this blogging business, but to be honest I haven't really had much to say the past couple of weeks. With the end of semester looming near, I've spent most of my time madly catching up on uni readings. The good news is that my arm is much better. The hideous bruise has disappeared, it took a while and at one stage faded to a weird green colour, which reminded me of mould on bread (random, I know). But it's gone now. I'm back to driving myself around, for the most part (freedom, hurrah!).

Every semester around exam time I get incredibly contemplative. This year being my final year of uni I keep thinking about what I want to do next year. I didn't apply for any graduate jobs, in fact I'm not even sure if the corporate world is for me. I'm thinking of taking a year off to "find myself" and to travel. Ultimately, I hate making decisions, and this is one that gives me a migraine. Who knows where I'll end up, but in my incredibly contemplative state I agreed to a rather drastic hair style change over the weekend and now find myself with a fringe. Not sure if I like it yet, or maybe it's just the fact that every time I see my reflection I don't recognise myself. Either way lesson learnt: when in a weird contemplative state of mind DO NOT make ANY decisions, including hair style changes.

Walking Disasters.

As I sit here struggling to type this blog with only one hand. I'm contemplating how on earth I became one of 'those' people...you know, the ones that are always losing things, running late and injuring themselves. Walking disaster is another way to describe such individuals. Well, it would seem somewhere along the line I joined the ranks of all the others.

My latest disaster is a muscle strain injury to my right arm. For several days (through my own stupidity) I dismissed the pain stemming from this bruise as being 'no big deal'...

As it turns out, I've severely strained the muscles in my arm and wrist. I cannot drive or carry heavy things...and by heavy I really mean anything because even holding my iPhone hurts. I now realise most normal people would not ignore a bruise that looks THAT bad. Everyone who has seen it has been baffled as to why I didn't see a doctor sooner. In fact, I'm wondering that myself...So now, here I am, with an arm that resembles an encased sausage of sorts.

The only plus to come out of the situation is that I have been able to justify taking time off from uni to "rest" (read: catch up on episodes of Boardwalk Empire). Hope you're all having a better week than me!

City of Fallen Angels

Just had to share the latest (and most exciting) arrival of books. It is my long-awaited, limited edition AND signed copy of City of Fallen Angels!!

This is the fourth book in the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare (which I raved about here) and is currently being adapted into a film. Yay!

Happy Easter!

Wow, I can't believe it's been almost a month since I last posted. Time flies when you're having fun...or in my case struggling under the demands of uni, work and trying to figure out my future.

Amongst all the craziness that has been my April thus far, my iPad finally arrived a couple of weeks ago (yay!)

I absolutely adore my iPad. In fact there are no words to describe how freakin' awesome it is, so I won't even attempt to express it. Sadly for my Macbook, it has seen it become rather reduntant and is now only ever used for serious uni work/cramming (and the occasional blog post).

Aside from the iPad, the past few weeks have seen both myself and my sister embark on a book buying spree - mainly from our beloved Barnes & Noble, but some have come from Borders for only $3 (what a bargain, right?!). These are just some of our purchases...

Whilst I love a bargain as much as the next person, my recent shopping trip to Borders was rather bittersweet. For the past 4 years, my local Borders store (well, local to my uni campus) has been the place where I've spent many a break between classes studying and catching up with friends over coffee. To walk into the store and see the furniture up for sale and the shelves bare, it kind of broke my heart :(

On a more festive note, it's Easter and we all know that means...CHOCOLATE!!

Happy Easter everyone! Hope you're all having a wonderful break filled with lots and lots of chocolate :)

The Cheesecake Factory.

It may be the weather but as I spend my afternoon researching exemplary damages I have found myself craving sweet potato fries. Not just any sweet potato fries, but specifically those from The Cheesecake Factory.

The Cheesecake Factory is a chain of "dining restaurants" found throughout the US. We stopped by the one at The Grove shopping complex (one of my favourite places in LA!!) on our most recent trip, and it was definitely an interesting experience. The portions of food, as tends to be the case in the US are HUGE! When I looked up The Cheesecake Factory online, reviewers (who I'm assuming to be US residents) complained that the service was bad and the food incredibly overpriced. While I understand that Americans may find food in their own country expensive, I beg to differ. By Australian standards to food is so cheap! Mains were not more than $25!!

The food was absolute deliciousness. We had The Incredible Grilled Eggplant Sandwich, which contains a large chunk of grilled Japanes Eggplant, Roasted Red Peppers, Red Onion, Melted Mozzarella (yum!) and Garlic Aioli on a Toasted Bun - it's really more of a burger than a sandwich. The best part (which we didn't pay much attention to when ordering) is it comes with a generous side of crispy, delicious French Fries AND a salad.

The other dish we had was the Grilled Salmon. Like the Sandwich we weren't sure what to expect when ordering, and the dish came out with a generous piece of Salmon and a pile of spaghetti. It was served with a basic butter sauce and some mushrooms.

(Apologies for the blurriness of the photo, can you tell I was in a hurry to eat?)

Not realising how much food we would be getting, we decided to order a side of sweet potato fries (just to be safe and make sure we wouldn't leave hungry lol). I seriously could have skipped the rest and just had the entire serve of fries to myself - they were so incredibly delicious (no joke, yum x 1000000!!).

The piece de resistance!

Needless to say, we couldn't finish the food (and there was no way I was leaving the sweet potato fries behind) so our lovely server packed them up for us. Sadly, we didn't try any of the iconic Cheesecake Factory cheesecakes. Next time, I guess.

iPad 2

Having been busy with work and uni the past couple of weeks I haven't had much time for my poor blog. As a result of being so busy there isn't anything particularly exciting to write about. So I'll share the tale of last Friday when I decided to finally indulge myself and buy an iPad 2.

I have wanted an iPad since the first one was released but I kind of decided to save for a holiday instead - but since I'm no longer saving for anything in particular, on a whim I decided, why not finally get one. Of course, I took the normal person route and ordered it online rather than lining up for insane amounts of time outside an Apple store. Apparently, one guy (who I might add, already owns an iPad 2) was out there for 50 hours. I saw these crazies on my way to work Friday afternoon and couldn't believe the lines and the camping equipment around!!

Anyway, while I patiently await the arrival of my iPad 2 sometime in April I decided to buy a pouch to store it in. Slightly sad, but I was in one of my favourite stationery stores, kikki.K, and couldn't resist.

Pretty, no? (okay, I'll admit, it looks A LOT better in real life)

Then, when I arrived home a little while ago, I found this waiting for me...

Seems it was a day for iPad 2 accessories to enter my life lol. It's mildly ironic that I have a cover and a pouch for a product I don't yet have. Oh well, I guess in the meantime I can look at them and think of the awesomeness that will be the iPad 2 :)

NYC Fashion Week + Food = Fun Times!

So having been in NYC for two fashion weeks, I cannot stress how much fun and alive the city becomes (well, admittedly the city is pretty awesome and bustling anyway but there is a certain air about it when all the fashionistas come out to play). Whilst it may at times be a trip down struggle street trying to find a cab during fashion week (not ideal when you are weighed down with bags from a shopping spree) there are a lot of fun things that you can do to partake in the fashion week festivities.

This year my sister managed to score a reservation at a Fashion Week Afternoon Tea at the Mandarin Oriental's Lobby Lounge - needless to say it was a lot of fun and once again an absolutely incredible experience (and I know I keep saying that about everything NYC related, so I apologise and will try to think of another way to describe it).

The Mandarin Oriental is so plush and nice, that by the end of the afternoon I was tempted to max out my credit cards just so I could stay.

The Lobby Lounge is located on the 35th floor and has AMAZING views of South-West Central Park and Columbus Circle.

Food-wise this is the BEST afternoon tea I have ever been to, ever! Sydney High Teas do not even compare. The service was brilliant, the waitstaff were super friendly and accomodating - and like many restuarants throughout the USA they actually ask you if you have dietary requirements/allergies upon your arrival, which is music to the ears of a vegetarian (me) and a sufferer of an insane amount of allergies (my sister).

Then as if the service isn't enough to make you feel all VIP-like, the food is simply amazing. To start as with all high/afternoon teas there were a selection of savory sandwiches. They were good but I can't say I remember all that much about them as I got distracted by the arrival of the Lobby Lounge's signature ginger scones.

The scones are infused with a hint of ginger and then accompanied by the kitchen's signature ginger marmalade. I was worried that it may be too overpowering but the two combined to create a very delicate flavour.

And then the sweets arrived...

I have only one word to describe it all...YUM!! Unfortunately, as is the case with afternoon teas you tend to get full really quickly. The portions are all deceptively small and you think you'll be able to eat it all but alas that is not the case. Thankfully, in the US of A, restaurants around the country pack up your left over food so that you can take it home with you (hurrah!). I only wish they still did that here in Australia.

The sweets were so adorable and were all fashion themed...

Diane von Furstenberg Biscuits.

Hot Coco Chanel - a delectable chocolate mousse.

This was a plain old strawberry and vanilla cake. I don't recall it being fashion house inspired.

Jimmy Choo Caramel Tart.

Apple Brown Betsey Johnson - an apple crumble/tart of sorts.

Donna Karat Cake (aka Carrot Cake).

My only regret about the afternoon tea was not selecting a black tea to accompany and counteract all the sugar being consumed. Instead I decided to be adventurous and try a herbal tea (herbal teas are generally outside of my comfort zone so I don't know what possessed me).

I selected a Mountain Berry tea which was a beautiful, rich, berry red colour and tasted like bubblegum. The tea itself was nice but because it had a mild sweetness to it, it wasn't the best accompaniment to such sweet food. Even so, the fashion week afternoon tea was by far the best food experience I had in NYC and was a nice way to be a part of a NYC Fashion Week festivities.

NYC.

So after a week filled with reacquainting myself with the incredibly boring routines of uni and work, I have finally found some time to post up pics from my recent trip. Looking through the photos makes me incredibly nostalgic and it is clear I am suffering from the usual post-US trip depression.

Okay so on the surface this picture is your typical out-the-plane-window shot but I took it because it shows the aftermath of the February 1-4 epic snowstorm that hit 2/3 of the US...and well, I thought it looked kind of cool.

The lovely Radio City Music Hall.

The view from the Top of the Rock. I don't think it matters how many times I've been here, it is always such a great experience.

Atlas and Rockefeller Centre.

For anyone wondering, this is a picture of the "World's Largest Store" (well at least Macy's claims to be). The reason this has made it into this post is that I thought my lovely travel companion would appreciate it haha

The iconic NYC landmark - the Plaza Hotel. While us mere mortals can only imagine how nice it is to stay here, there is a wonderful food hall accessible to all located inside, as well as the lovely Sarabeth's Bakery.

Lexington Ave.

Home to Bloomingdale's, the store that many people I speak to can never seem to locate when in NYC haha. Well, I found it people, I found it.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. There are no words to describe how incredible this place is. Love it!

Times Square.

I have a love/hate relationship with this place. I love it for how alive it is no matter the time of the day. But then I hate how loud it is when your staying right around the corner and trying to sleep.

So that is all for my photos for now. I keep getting asked what is my favourite place or thing to do in NYC. To be quite honest I couldn't narrow it down to just one thing. It is such an incredible city with so much to see and do, and quite frankly I love everything about the place. In terms of a favourite moment, well that I can easily answer. Being picked up in a limo from the airport and driving over the Brooklyn Bridge to see the Manhattan Skyline at night is definitely up there as an absolutely incredible experience. We may have even squealed with delight :)

I'm Back.

So, I've returned from a grand adventure in the US of A and with my return home I have felt decidedly re-inspired to begin blogging again. But then again who wouldn't feel inspired after visiting one of the most wonderful cities in the entire universe, aka New York City.

While Los Angeles was part of the trip, it really feels like a blip on the radar compared to my time in NYC. If I had to choose between the East and West Coasts of the USA, I'd have say that I'm definitely an East Coast kind-of person. My sister and I had grand plans to travel to other East Coast locations like Boston or New Haven (potentially even DC) but alas the weather being as unpredictable and miserable as could be put those plans to rest. Though I can't really complain, we were more than happy to stay in NYC the entire time. It doesn't matter how many times you visit you never truly get to see and experience all that New York has to offer. We made a list of things that we had missed out on last year. The list was long - so long in fact that we didn't even get to see/do all the things on there this time around...meaning another trip is in order just as soon I can save up more funds, haha.

I'm still in the process of uploading and organising my photos. So my return to blog-land must end here for now, with the promise of photos (for my friends who have requested that I post some up soon) and some tales from my time in New York.

Random.

Wow. I can't believe it's been 2011 for 10 days already. Today marks the first day of the new year in which I am actually at home and just chillin' out. I haven't had much time to blog lately and have been feeling rather uninspired. To sum up my year so far:

- I have worked to the point where I may scream the next time a person says "you must love seeing the show every night" or "oooh you're so lucky to work here" because when 50 different people say that I don't feel lucky, I just feel irritated and mildly annoyed.

- I have said goodbye to two of my closest friends as they leave ol' Sydney town to embark on what I'm sure will be grand adventures.

- I have dined out almost everyday of this new year, and had some really great food. But now all I want is a home-cooked meal.

- I have festival-ed at Sydney Festival First Night (yes, I realise festival-ed is not a real word but since my brain is having trouble functioning and for lack of a better word I'm rolling with it).

- I have attempted to re-enrol in uni but it would seem they don't want me to return. I'm half tempted to take that as a sign that I should skip it and just travel...maybe?

And now here I am today, exhausted and feeling like I need a year off from my life.

Amongst all the 'busy' that has been 2011 for me so far there are a few exciting things coming up in my life in the near future. So maybe I'll return to blogland then, but in the meantime I'm taking a blog hiatus. Hope everyone is having a great 2011 so far!