Neighhh!

A bunch of us donned frocks, fascinators and hats and got in touch with our inner princesses at Royal Randwick today .

We were in plebs today - wasn't too bad. We got a nice patch of lawn at the far right of the course and planted ourselves there for the majority of the day, only uprooting ourselves to (i) place a bet, (ii) re stock on the champers or (iii) check out the *ahem* form (its amazing how, as you move from one end of the track to the other in plebs, the sort of people you see changes!)

I just love the buzz at the races - the people watching, the horses, and just hanging out in the sun with a glass of champers. There were some amazing looking people out and about. There were also some very ugly shoes around too - even one of my guy friends noticed how some gals were having issues getting the whole shoe/dress co-ordination thing happening.

The AJC has put a Punting Guide for Princesses on its website. It's pretty good. I really should have had a read through it before I went today - I haven't been to the races in so long that I had to have the basics of a "place" bet explained to me by one of the TAB ladies - which was kind of embarrassing.

ARRRR!

I just realised we all let International Talk Like A Pirate Day slip by without even an ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Maybe next year.

Into the kitchen ...

It was with trepidation that I made my first foray (for a long time) into our kitchen as solo chef (as opposed to assisitant, photographer, or general nuisance), to test out a recipe from one of my new recipe books: "500 Cupcakes", which was an impulse purchase from Peters of Kensington.

I used the recipe for the Raspberry and Coffee Muffins, but as we didn't have any raspberries, I improvised and made Strawberry, Date and Coffee Muffins instead.

I had my "finished" batter and it was all going smoothly till I realised I had a block of untouched butter on the bench...the book listed butter as an ingredient, but then made no mention of it in the method section!! So I had to melt it up and add it to my ready batter. I also wasnt sure how much they would rise when they were cooking, so I didnt put as much batter in each cupcake as I could have. Still, was all good.

Even my mum was impressed - and she is a tough judge!

Il Locale

Meighan and I had dinner at Il Locale at Haberfield last nite. Although it's pricier that the other restaurants on Ramsey Street, we thought we deserved a treat: I have now finally finished the grad program at work and Meighan has had a very successful month with her new health and fitness regime. I've also been wanting to eat here for a while, as its always buzzing with people at dinner and lunch time whenever I've happened to be driving past.

We ordered the Seafood Platter for One (M) and Spaghetti with Lobster and Broccoli (me).

Here are the results of our amateur gourmet food critiquing:

Seafood Platter for One
What was it:
Octopus, prawns in shell, calamari tube, pippies, mussels and other miscellaneous crayfish (no veggies) with broth served on crusty Italian bread (to soak up the broth from the stew).
How much:
$28
Comments:
The presentation of this meal was very impressive - a very deep white bowl brimming with seafood - prawn antennae, mini octopus tentacles - so it was off to a good start. As described above there was a whole myriad of seafood in there. The seafood and stew, which M was pretty pleased with, was served on top of a couple of slices of crusty Italian bread (at the base of the bowl), to soak up the seafood broth. I sampled a bit of the brothy bread, and it was pretty tasty. M found the meal really filling and didn't finish off all the bread and both at the bottom of the bowl. She thought it was pretty good value too, compared to my meal.
Rating:
Credit - probably a high credit from M's feed back

Spaghetti with Lobster Tail and Broccoli
What was it:
Bowl of spaghetti with half a lobster tail with soft cooked broccoli in a pink cream sauce.
How much:
$25
Comments:
This was my first foray into the world of lobster (believe it or not) and I was totally unimpressed by the tiny half tail. When the menu says "lobster tail", the implication is that you will get a whole tail. Have they not heard about misleading and deceptive conduct? The meat was also a bit dry. As the menu didn't mention anything about the sauce in the description of the meal, I assumed it was a tomato based sauce - I was unpleasantly surprised by the pink cream sauce, which wasn't in the menu's description (I'm not a huge fan of creamy sauces) so that was another no no. The broccoli was a good addition as it cut through the creaminess a bit, but if it had not been so soft cooked and bit crisper, it might have made the meal a bit more interesting.
My mum's pasta kicks ass compared to this meal.
Had they asked me what I thought about the meal (as often happens when they clear up), I would have griped to them. However they didn't, so I didn't.
Rating:
Pass, and I mean bare pass, like 55/100

We spent a fair bit of time eying off everyone else's meals (in their defence, everything smelled great), and as the fish and meat mains looked pretty impressive, as did the pizzas, we came to the conclusion that maybe these people just don't do pasta very well. However, this SMH review, makes me think the whole menu might be a bit hit and miss.

Desserts were all around the $12 mark, which I think is a bit much, particularly as you can just go across the road, as we did (to Dolcissimo) and get some great desserts for a lot less.

Would I go there again? Probably not.

SYD - BNE - ROK - GKI

Well, I just came back from my trip to Great Keppel Island and I had a FABULOUS time!

Woke up at 4.30 am-ish on Tuesday to get my 6am flight to Brissie. The only downside to going to GKI is that you have to get 2 flights, and then a coach and a jet cat (or alternatively charter flight, but unfortunately, the charter flights only take bookings for a minimum of two people) to the island itself.

I was initially a bit disappointed with my room, simply because it didn't quite live up to the picture on their website (they made v good use of "mood lighting" ), but really, it was actually pretty good, and best of all...the beach (and pool, for when I was feeling lazy) was literally a minute from my doorstep!

I had to share my balcony with two possums. The first time I noticed the possums, was when I was going to put my towel out to dry on my first day and one was clawing at the flyscreen door, trying to get in. This was kinda disconcerting. I was held hostage in my own apartment by a feral possum :) They actually were ok to live with, and so long as I kept the door shut I was fine (one of the guys who was living a couple of apartments down from me got bitten on the toe - I didn't see what happened, but only heard the commotion, and it was pretty funny).

The weather on Tuesday and Wed was absolutely glorious! Lots of sun!!! Needless to say, I spent most of my time outdoors, either in one of the pools, or lazing about on one of the beaches reading or just laying about. I did a bit of snorkeling too, and *drumroll* I even did a bit of "bush walking" to Shelving Beach, one of the more isolated beaches away from the resort. This reminded me why I am not too huge a fan of bushwalking.

Apart from the breakfasts, the food at the Resort Restaurant isn't really that great. Lunch is v boring, and they only do buffet dinners. The muzac they play there is a bit ordinary (all that Mix sort of stuff) - and they play the same stuff - the 3 times I walked in there for lunch, Bic Runga's "Sway" was playing. Major groundhog day moment each time.

However, there is small pizza place, not associated with the Resort that makes unbelievably yummy pizzas. I had their Capri pizza 2 of the 3 times I visited them - nice thin base (not oily- bonus points), tomato sauce, mushrooms, spinach (silverbeet, not that English spinach, raw and sliced thinly, including stalks) and fetta cheese (it comes with onion, but I ordered it without). I never thought I'd say this, but Young Alfreds' - you have competition. They were playing one of Neil Diamond's "live" concert CD's one nite - so funny - my parents were (are) big Neil Diamond fans and he used to get a lot of airplay at our place when I was a young'un - so that was kinda cool...nice and nostalgic.

The great thing about the Island is that everything is close, and they really do have everything - one nite I takeaway-ed my pizza, then picked up a "takeaway" champers & OJ from the Wreck Bar, and planted myself by the pool beneath the Sunset Bar, where they happened to have a live acoustic due performing - bliss.

Thurs and Fri were proof that the slogan "beautiful one day, perfect the next" does not hold true - we had 2 full days of constant tropical rain. So it was just me and the possums on the balcony (joined by some lorikeets), reading. It cleared up on Fri nite, so I went out for dinner and had a chat with a couple who drove up to Qld from the nthn beaches in Syd, saw a movie at the Sunset bar, and then topped the nite off with a drink with some other guests at the Wreck bar. Till 3 am. : )

Yesterday, Saturday, was my last day : ( I was a bit bummed about the relatively early check out time (10am). But I was determined to squeeze as much sunshine from this holiday as possible, so after a coffee on Fishermans Beach in front of my place, I then wandered off to my fave beach there, Putney Beach, and lazed about reading (I havent enjoyed reading this much in AGEESSSSS) till it was home time:(

I have to admit, I am a fan of the whole traveling solo thing. Its really not as bad as I thought it would be. It has some downers, like eating alone, having to apply sunscreen on your own (I realised this morning I missed a few spots), not having anyone to take photos with /of you, and getting a bit freaked out when I was bushwalking (there were a couple of really steep rocky bits and I kept on thinking - what happens if I fall and sprain an ankle while I'm out bushwalking - no-one will miss me!!!)

However, the big bonus is that I could do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. Which was really nice. It also helped that most of the other guests and staff were pretty friendly, so I wasn't a total nige!

Whoever said a change is as good as a holiday had it all wrong. Sometimes, nothing is as good as a holiday.