fuchsia fragments

Despite all my grumblings about certain aspects of the people that I work with, I am in many ways very fortunate to work for a company that every now and then takes us out for lunch to celebrate a huge quarter 3. We went to Bondi Icebergs. N i c e ! Too many white wines followed by too many cocktail meant drinking from 1 till 7. Ohh my stomach and liver. And did I mention there was a total of 16 dishes on the lunch menu? So sad to see so much food go to waste. Would have been amazinnnnnnng leftovers. Had to work really hard in the morning to clear my inbox to make sure that there wasn’t anything urgent left outstanding but managed to do it.

I probably can’t write this without coming across as a little selfish and uncaring.

My cousin who has recently completed the HSC returned home last night for a few months. And boy, was I excited about that. Not that I talk to him or interact with him or even have anything much to do with him but it means less weight on my mum’s shoulders. And more time for my family, just the 4 of us and the two furry mutts. And it started perfectly with Sunday lunch – we all sat down and make salad and sandwiches and then sat around the TV afterwards. The change in food and being able to eat more salad and raw food and non-Asian food is amazing. (You could argue that I could have this anytime, but you have to remember that I’m spoilt and my mum cooks… so we just eat whatever she makes most of the time. And it is really hard to cater for 2 or 3 different tastes so she usually makes something that my cousin will eat and we will too… but just not our preference. That is, lots of pork and chicken. Boring.)

I had a quiet weekend, thankfully. Apparently it was really hot… so everyone keeps saying. Yeah, I was in Sydney but for some reason, I didn’t think it was melting hot!!! Not sure why! I mean, it was hot when I had to move one of the cars out of the sun and back into the garage. And I did stay indoors most of the day but usually our first floor gets really hot and my room and actually bearable (without aircon) and I didn’t feel too warm and even the dogs didn’t want to come inside for too long. I even managed to make some chocolate chip cookies without them melting all over the place.

Cutest thing last night. Godbrothers (yes, plural!) came to visit. Both needed my help.. ngaw. Anyways, think Leonard is in like. Hahah, but its really sweet and cute that he confides in me (more than his mum!). I full know her name and stuff now… didn’t even take very long to get it out of him! He’s like, I’ll bring her over for dinner. HAHAHA. Sometimes, its really good to have people like these munchkins in your life. Because they bring me back to reality somewhat and make me realise that some things have more merit than others. That imaginery list that I have – the one where Mr Right has to tick all the boxes? He just made me rethink a few things… oh then he said I was really old. :O

There are just some weekends when you do a lot of things, and then feel that you can do more.

This last weekend was one of them. On Saturday, it was our typical brunch date in Surry Hills. It doesn’t happen often that I go to the same café twice within a very close time period but this was just one of those places where I really wanted something off the menu because I saw someone else eating it and it looked really good. And it was. French toast with grilled bananas and maple syrup plus crispy bacon (I actually asked for ‘extra’ crispy but it was just crispy to me). It was even more worthwhile cause I got a parking spot literally on the doorstep on the café. Big win. Chatted a couple of hours away about life, other people, you know that kind of girly gossipy stuff that we all like to indulge in.

I actually had planned to do a fair bit on Saturday and I think I did! I made the batches of white chocolate cake for Leonard’s 18^th cake, cooled, sliced, stacked and iced. I made my Christmas jams and burnt my arm in the process (but I swear by Vaseline, the white petroleum jelly kind – swelling gone in a few hours). I was so concerned that the raspberry jam didn’t set as thickly as I like jams to… I guess we’ll see but when I tipped one of the jars over in the morning, it wasn’t runny so that’s a good sign? And I even made my Christmas fruit cake. That took ages mainly because I didn’t have very many of the small cake tins so they had to be done in batches. And the cakes take 80 mins to cook so… there were a few lots of 80 minutes going on. And I was baking into the wee hours of Sunday morning. Whoops, perhaps I should have saved it for another day?

So as you’d expect, it was a bit of a Sunday sleep in and then it was cake decorating time. Ohhh, I’ve waited so long for this moment. The kneading fondant bit actually made me gag (I think it was either the smell of all the sugar or something I ate before) so that was rather unpleasant. But once I had the cakes iced with fondant and the real fun began… it was awesome. It was like thinking of so many things to put on it on the spot and random placing of figurines until they looked good. The cake looked epic and I was really happy with it. Yay.

I even made the cake pops that someone had asked for so I was feeling super accomplished and even managed to watch a few episodes of TVB (OMG, have not done that in… years?) and was in bed by 10. And up at 5:30 and ran 5k’s.

Think I may be a little high at the moment? Naturally, of course.

Anyway, I can’t help but notice this because it is kind of a pet peeve of mine. When people use slang at work. Actually, it isn’t even slang, it is just inappropriate use of the English language. Words and phrases like “you’s” and “heaps busy”  and “but however” and “yeah cause…” or in email and commas and other punctuation is used in incorrect places (yes, I am one of those people who will read something and pause mentally when I see a comma or full stop)… it makes me wonder if people still care about the English language or if teachers are teaching children all the little things that matter (more likely, the child does not bother to learn the correct use of words and grammar). I remember my primary school teachers saying “You’s is not a word! Ewes is the plural for female sheep.” And “A comma is used to separate or group things not just cause you think there needs to be one after every 5 words”. And finally… writing emails like you were actually speaking to someone in conversation… big no!!!

I thought it was touted as probably one of the highlights of Sugar Hit 2014. I was quite thoroughly disappointed by it all. The famed Vertical Garden by the chefs at Signorelli Gastronomia did not seem to wow as much as I thought it would and some aspects of the dessert didn’t quite seem to fit together. Yes, it was visually aesthetic although the green wafer  was probably more kryptonite than leafy green. I didn’t feel that the chocolate soil added much depth and the overpowering flowery-perfume taste of the frozen nougat made it difficult to taste much else. I did like the pistachios encrusted on the garden wall and the pretty miniscule fresh flowers too. The berry coulis was tart and cut through the sweetness and I only wish there was more of it. Put it this way: the Yalumba dessert wine wasn’t very sweet when accompanied by this dessert. And that’s saying something.

It wasn’t actually the dessert itself that contributed to my feeling of disappointment. It was the (and this is my opinion only) way it was all handled. I guess when we booked, we thought we were really lucky to secure a table for 8 at 7 PM considering that they advertise for a start of 8 PM. I guess you make the assumption that they are so busy that they have decided to allow additional bookings an hour earlier. But we arrived at the restaurant right on time only to be told by the ever-talkative maître d that the kitchen was running an hour behind schedule with the desserts and that not all the servings were ready. At this point, a few questions popped up in my mind. Our party is here, why can’t you serve the ready portions to us first? And make up the time in the kitchen as your wait for other guests to arrive? Surely, you can’t be telling me that your 108+ servings of Sugar Hit and not one was ready? These items are supposed to be scaleable! So… suspicion set in.

Our [“starving”] party was more than happy to go with the offered table and enjoy some dinner whilst the kitchen frantically worked on the desserts (supposedly). And of course, this is probably the game that the restaurant was playing all along. Because I saw another party of 6 do the exact same thing (another group of 20-somethings catching up it seemed). Pyrmont isn’t the greatest location and if you wanted to dine elsewhere, it is the Casino or back in the city. So a gamble that pays off extravagantly for the restaurant. We all ordered mains, and a couple of us wines. My calzone with ricotta, ham and mushroom was bland at best. They don’t offer chilli flakes nor is there salt and pepper for diners on the table. I realise that some restaurants believe that their meals should be eaten as is but seasoning is completely up to one’s individual preference so these condiments should be readily available! The service was mostly crisp and yet again the talkative Italian waiter was funny and charming if not borderline brazen. If one was cynical, you could see it as an act to divert you from all their cunning tactics to have you dine with them? ;)

Anyways, we had a long stay [long to me at least!] at the restaurant and I think one dessert to share between two would have been more than enough. They could have free poured the complementary wine a little more as the glasses weren’t quite standard dessert wine servings and since the wine was sponsored, it seemed a little stingy. . . I won’t be back.

Saturday was a bit of a haze. It was a hazy day. It was hot. It was windy. I was tired. Unbelievably so. My day was broken into bits with the highlight being going to the fish market and spending an about not too much more to the amount I spent with Val the weekend before but buying so much more. Like a whole salmon for sashimi. And tuna, kingfish, oysters and prawns. So good. Had some family friends over for dinners. Yummo, especially with all that Margaret River wine! Never thought this would happen again but got invited to an 18^th birthday. Reorganised my supplies for Christmas. Even put the wreath out already. Not long to go now. . .

Sunday was spent with Jan. We haven’t caught up one on one in a few months so took the opportunity to go see this year’s Sculptures by the Sea. I was more interested in the Sea and the Housing. Lol. It was a lovely day though but a little on the breezy side. And parents with their irritable kids were out full force. Please keep a tow of your spawn, they should keep to the left, be quiet, not touch the artworks that say ‘please do not touch’ and walk obediently alongside mumsy or pops. Not 10 metres behind or 3 metres to their right! We ended up walking all the way to Bronte and back. Hmm, not sure I’d so it again though. I am not much of an artistic or creative person so did not understand very many of the pieces (or did not try to anyway). And definitely not a fan of crowds. On the bus back, helped a group of American tourists find their way back to their hotel in the CBD. My good deed for the day was done and with that my weekend was done too. So so tired.