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.