What a crazy election! With the situation last night resulting in a hung parliament and the Independent MPs holding the final decision of which party (and therefore which uninspiring individual) will "run" our great nation, I am officially over this election. It's going to be a week (or longer) before we know how this saga will end...I for one have run out of patience to wait, listen or care. But congrats to the Greens on their achievement of 10 seats in the Senate (up from 5 in the last election) and their first ever seat in the House of Reps. Last night it seemed they were the only people talking rationally, making the most sense in their analysis of the election result - compared with Labor party individuals, namely Stephen Smith, resorting to nonsensical jokes (perhaps it was his coping mechanism, but nonetheless it was too strange and painful to watch), and the Liberal people (in particular a Senator on the ABC whose name has escaped me) ranting about how the Libs had rightfully won.
Aside from the craziness of the election giving me a headache last night, my Saturday was pretty great. My sister F and I took our cousin R out to High Tea to celebrate her birthday and recovery from her operation/illness of the past few months. We chose one of our favourite High Tea destinations, The Gallery Tea Lounge at the Sheraton on the Park.
The High Tea here is a choice between a traditional three-tier stand filled with an assortment of delectable treats or a buffet. Being the food enthusiasts that we are, F and I knew there was no way we would not be choosing the buffet option. The food here is always delicious, and there is a good variety of savoury pastries, wraps and sandwiches - which many other High Tea places tend to have a severe lack of. This buffet is made even better as there are options for those (such as my lovely sister) with allergies/particular dietary requirements.
Now it is my opinion that determining whether a High Tea is good can be determined through the quality of the scones. I have consumed a fair few scones in my time and it absolutely pains me to eat one that lacks the all important light and fluffy texture, and instead resembles a rock. At the Gallery, however, the scones have consistently been of the melt-in-your mouth absolutely delicious variety - and yesterday was no exception. In addition to wonderful scones, there were delicious glasses of the most tasty and creamiest chocolate mousse, creme brulee cheesecake- flavoured, mini-vanilla cupcakes, coffee cake, strawberry tarts, walnut tarts....just to name a few of the incredible sweet treats that were available.
(if you look closely you can see the little glass of delicious chocolate-y goodness!)
In fact there was so much to choose from, that even between the three of us not everything was sampled. To accompany the food diners have the option between a Vittoria Coffee, a pot of Twinings loose-leaf tea, or a Max Brenner hot chocolate. I cannot express how tempting it was to order the hot chocolate, as anyone who knows me would understand I adore Max Brenner hot chocolates. However, after ingesting copious amounts sugar the thought of an incredibly rich and sweet drink seemed like too much. So an Orange Pekoe tea was selected. And what a good choice that was, Orange Pekoe has officially edged out Earl Grey as my current favourite tea.
So, after several hours of sitting, chatting, eating and drinking it was proposed that a shopping expedition was needed to work off all the sugar. Never one to turn down an opportunity to help others spend money (especially as I am currently on my second attempt of a self-imposed shopping ban) I happilly obliged. Now I feel it must be noted that cousin R is a master shopper, always has been, always will be. When I was younger and she would drag me to the shops I found in tiresome and irritating, but now that I'm older and an appreciator of all things fashion yesterday was A LOT of fun.
Out of all the shopping I even managed to find what I have deemed the "perfect" uni bag, and thus the search is over (just as soon as it began!). In response to my quest to find a bag many people suggested something that had wheels. While a good suggestion, unfortunately I am simply too vain and self-conscious to get one for uni, so alas that idea was vetoed. Thanks, though, to everyone for the suggestions!
I ended up settling on a Crumpler backpack, which F highly recommended as it was her uni bag of choice over the years. As a fan of the Crumpler range, there was little resistance on my part. So here it is, my new maybe "perfect" uni bag...
The only disappointment was that I had seen a wonderful red backpack when purchasing my Crumpler laptop bag last year but was informed that they no longer had that particular bag this season. They didn't even have the lovely caramel coloured one that F owns, and was my 2nd choice for colour. So black it was. I guess black is classic and practical (it won't get dirty, like the white one the sales assistant kept trying to get me to buy).
