fuchsia fragments

What comes to mind this week upon reflection? Food, wine and amazing friends and catch ups. Love you all.

Tuesday we went to a lovely little Thai restaurant in Surry Hills, Muum Maam for dinner with Joyce and John who was visiting from Geelong and then going back to Europe (potentially forever). Food was fresh and vibrant. Wine was awesome (thank you to my colleague @ work for recommending!) and conversation was light. Did I mention the Doves were there too? The place was a little on the noisy-side though. But intimate and relaxing...

Wednesday, Jan and I caught up over some Korean. People have been raving and raving on about the place in the alley behind Albion Hotel. It is not that good. Beautiful decor and above average service but the food is not as authentic and I don't feel that it is the best in Sydney. Its on par (perhaps a little below) those in the City and I actually think there is better in suburbia like Strathfield. Prices were on the dearer side too so it wouldn't be a "go-to" korean place. After this meal, I also don't think Korean is a favourite of mine. Definitely don't mind in every once in awhile but its sort of like Italian, I wouldn't go hunting for it...

Thursday was a blast from the past....... I left work early and eerily, I had a feeling this would happen but was picking up a couple of essentials at Target and crossed paths with Michael. So we had a short chat... its been a long time. And we've been speaking (texting/messaging) since. One of the girls who we use to hang with in the group and who still works there made the passing comment "just like old times" and I said "I wouldn't go that far" but its all water under the bridge and I'm actually really glad that things are the way they are... and I believe they can only get better. Baby steps.

Friday drinkies!!! I said I was going to be the first to be ready. HA HA no... i was last. But we went to the Ivy then had ramen at Regent's Place and watched Transformers. Underwhelming. Trains were stuffed so went to meet sis at Assembly Bar for a lift home. Zzzzzzzzzz by the time we got home it was like 1 a.m. So tired.

So I slept till like 11 on Saturday and had lunch with grandma (are you seeing how this week revolved around food???) and prepared for dinner (i.e., did absolutely nothing) in Maroubra. I didn't even lift a finger and voilla, dessert was ready! ;) It pays to be un-prepared?! Anyways, i totes suck at Mariokart. Doesn't matter which version but I did win once... with a 20? 30? second handicap. Whoop!! I will take that!!!

And Sunday... it was all about North Turramurra and the much anticipated "Rusty Chef". A competition between Jan's friends and I (the "trump card" according to Velda). 3 teams. 3 dinner parties. 3 locations. One trophy. We are apparently called "Team Beat Janice" (poor jan!!!) and we're cooking last. So Team Vio Tinto were up first with Spanish! Impressive but the paella was burnt charcoal on the bottom and the churros were a touch undone in the centre. The double proofed bread was absolutely amazing though. Tomato salad (literally tomato and oil and parsley) was confusing. The croquettes yummy but doughy. They take this competition pretty seriously. Cameras filming, interviewing the cooks and guests, etc etc... I had a lot of fun. But traffic at 10 p.m. at nighttime on King Georges Road... RIDICULOUS!!!!!!!

the reason why i don't usually got out on mondays: because it then feels like it is towards the end of the week when it is the beginning. and the trek home makes it feel even later. and then have to psych myself for the remaining 4 days!

but it was great to finally catch up with tarjay girls and receive another wedding invitation! How exciting for Mon although it was a very long time coming.

ichi-ban & max brennar. nom.

Catch up with the girls (and guys) last night... fun times!

Donna and I went to Ikea and DFO first. it was really busy and we both had to pull each other away from useless items we really wanted to buy but didn't need. Still ended up with photo frames, plates, cutlery and boxes. Love the kid's section!!

Had meatballs and lamb shanks for lunch. it was so filling but pretty good.

Then walked around DFO looking for those elusive nude, strappy, not-too-high bridesmaid shoes. no dice... :( why is it so hard??

A little disappointing...

Then we headed to hurricanes in darling harbour for an early dinner booking. people ended up being pretty late due to the wet weather. But better to drive safe! the food was pretty good... but we had like 2 rounds of food food which was pretty epic. but managed to finish it all as harry was on a cochlear salary. (yes, that was the joke of the night)

then we decided to go to brighton for bay vista which was pretty random but pretty cool. it meant that we would finish on a normal outing night time. had to be seated across two tables but still good. had the concrete peanut butter shake. it was ... challenging. but we finally finished it. YAY!!!!!!

went across the road for some beach time and trying to take instax but failed. so harry picked on cherry and stole her shoes and they went running through the wet sand. johnson and donna joined in. . . before it was time to go.

always going to be children!

and now have semi ideas of a road trip - maybe.

foodie week.

kicked off with ultimate skyfail. read here... mumbrella: skyfail @ event cinemas

had dinner at miss chu tuck shop which is in the same building as chef's gallery. but downstairs. then got gloria jeans and cha time in preparation for skyfall.

it was supposed to be good. full cinema, good atmosphere, supposedly awesome movie.

randomly discussing relationships, game theory and matrices (all interrelated topics of course...).

and movie starts. and about an hour in... it all goes downhill. W T F !!!

but hey, we smart girls - so we got our free movie voucher, but we WANTED TO SEE THE END OF SKYFALL. so we snuck into vmax. and probably watched the first hour or so again.

which meant it was late when we finished. so we were like embarassing ourselves running through the cinemas and down the stairs (maybe a bit like cinderella if you want to be poetic) to make it to our respective bus, bus, bus or train.

and i WIN!!! even though i live the second furthest from the city. express train trumps buses!!!

today...

met two of my favourite contractors. was gooooooooood meeting. very easy going and laid back. of course, i'm their fav person at my company ;)

then randomly bumped into jan after work. so we went froyo.

then i went to bevo to catch up to catherine and hear about her americas trip and what to do and what not to do. and tab was randomly on the table behind us.

food was awesome. mushrooms and haloumi, ink spaghetti with crab and fresh chilli and mediocre tiramisu. but such good value even though couldn't use entertainment card with weekday special. but still really really good for a local restaurant!

now need to catch up on some zzzzz time!

Started my day with a cake delivery. For a second, I thought I had the wrong house. But it went well. Cat's aunt looks just like her!!! And their floors were so polished and shiny. Mine aren't...

 I would technically count the bit where I lay in bed not wanting to get up and whatapping the girls as the start to my day. But unimportant.

Then drove to central to pick up Donna. Her bus was late so I listened to Guy Sebastian in the car park and didn't want to get out of the car for a bathroom break cause I was too cheap to put coins into the ticket machine. LoL.

Drove to Surry Hills for brunch@Bills. It was an easy half-hour wait. Had to find a couple of spots cause my car too big for some spots. Donna was like "Oh, really??". YES!!! IM SORRY MY CAR ISN'T A LITTLE VW! It was only like $1.10 per hour anyways so no dramas. And I'm pretty good at parallel parking these days ^^

Then we helped Cherry move her car as she was in a 1P spot. So I pretty much stood in the middle of the spot as it was a pretty awesome spot right outside Bills. And it was pretty unrecognisable as a spot. Awesome teamwork.

We were seated not long after that. And even though our order took ages to arrive (I am pretty sure they gave our order to the people who came in after us as they had the exact same thing), the food was really good. So was the coffee. Was itching to get a second but didn't succumb. Maybe should have gone for the large. We had Corn Fritters with bacon and fried tomato, Hot Cakes with banana and maple and Vivi had dairy-free scrambled eggs, gluten-free toast and avocado salsa (hmm, maybe the special order made our whole order slower?). Looked really yummy. And she couldn't figure out the salt. Hahaha.

 Decided to leave Cherry's car in her free spot and drove my car to cinemas. $10 parking so easy. And had just enough time to organise our tickets, drinks and bathroom break.

Breaking Dawn Part 2. Pretty good!! Even Vivi said so... after my not-so-informative answers to all her questions during the movie. There were some pretty funny bits!

 After that, had to take Cherry back to her car. After Donna stopped to pick up a cool (not cold) iced Viet coffee from Miss Chu Tuck Shop. Intense Coffee. Not enough ice. Five whole dollars.

 Dropped Cherry off and the rest of us impulsively decide to go to Messina for gelato. Always end up getting Hazelnut and we tried Salted Coconut and Mango. Pretty unique, a little bit too sweet. Had a D&M in the park across the road and watched kids on swings and one toddler fall off the slide (do I sound creepy saying this?). And little dogs run up to us. I am beginning to love this area (as I should, may be my neighbourhood in the not-so-distant-future!)

Donna and I decided to go to this pretty awesome ramen place in Eastwood on the way to dropped her off home (oh yeah and I left Vivi on the road somewhere in Broadway XD). Ichiraku. Had ramen and soft-shell crab salad. The ramen was really really good, especially my egg.

And cause one can froyo any time, we went across to the other side of the station for Yogoberry. It's different in that you can DIY everything but definitely not as good as Moochi or Noggi.

It was about time to call it a day then so drove to Donna's place where we went through old photos. And lol lol lol... enough said. Although loved seeing the ones when Val was still in Sydney. Hahaha so much awesomeness and epicness. Memory lane sometimes not so bad!

I would post photos but that's D's job! Probs FB.

Home cooked meal, wine, movies, macarons and black forest.

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started out as a pretty well planned day which turned random but epicly awesome.

mandy's little get together for her birthday at bicentennial park today followed by randon 3 car tag along to surry hills for cocktails, meatballs and kurtosh.

will post details after i get some shut eye.

so much to plan for the upcoming months!

Corporate team dinner on Friday. Tapas and Ivy!!!

It was a good night. I even survived the day with Nick winding me up all day about my exams results... i was more and more anxious by the hour. and he thought it was so funny...... results sent to me via sms just before dinner. All good!! YAY!!!!!!! more drinks!

we had wine and sangria (white wine sangria... best thing ever) to start and we headed on to the Ivy afterwards. it ended a bit premature due to a couple of things but still had a good time. shots and vodka. yum yum yum!! and the best thing is i didn't even spend any money. i guess that means its my turn next time!

and we are going to back it up this friday with our EOFY function. WOOOT!!!

ended up bumping into stephen from target on the train back. good to catch up. he's in a mid-tier firm so good to hear what's been going on with people life after target. and great to see so many people making the most of it.

Saturday... i got up so early considering. like 7. couldn't go back to sleep. slightly hungover. wanted to go run it off..... and it was raining?! so did some early shopping for a housewarming gift before going for a short gym session.

then went to kingsgrove for family friends housewarming. yummy authentic vietnamese food!!!

and that's when jan and donna called to say they were heading to my hood. best impromptu saturday arvo/evening ever!

- watched Prometheus. (don't bother, it was a waste of time, cringe-worthy)
- hung out at Michelle's place waiting for people to arrive
- waited outside Manmaruya Hurstville for like an hour to get a table for 8. during this time, we saw these street spots become available. so we hatched this not-so-elaborate plan to get the cars from the station to the street. LOL hilarious. first had to direct Donna in the lil VW (after watching an asian lady reverse into the pole at the carpark) and then i had to get out and direct Hui in her gigantic soccer mum car. HEHEHEHEE all the time whilst donna's lil red car hogged up in full asian style two spots!! excellent team effort!!! and by then, it was perfect timing cause table was available.
- had some pretty good japanese (i don't usually go to manmaruya if i had a choice. prefer kazuki on forest road) but it was good tonight. EXCELLENT SASHIMI and soft shell crab salad was really good too.
- and then... we headed on to brighton for Bay Vista. Didn't have to wait too long for a table. and oh... were our choices epic. gigantic ice cream, profiteroles and crepes drowned in maple syrup (i think there were berries at one stage). but the highlights? Tab's 'swiss hot chocolate' that solidified and Donna's peanut butter concrete. whoa. epic. like melted peanut butter ice cream..... in a tall glass.
- then we went back to michelles place and froze on the street whilst everyone said their goodbyes. :)

and then came home and had this massive heart 2 heart with my sister. <3

which meant that i woke up around 11 today. went for a 4k run... put no effort into it at all....

watched some netball. took nessie out. and a lil fat pug followed us home. so we played with it for a while...

and now winding down for another week!!!

this is not looking good for next week. it is supposed to be warm and sunny with beautiful rays of sunshine on the weekends so that we can go to floraide and/or palm beach!!! what's happening to the weather?? why so nice on the weekdays, make those of us in an office envious, and then bring out the wind, rain and cold on the two days that are WEEKENDS!?!?

so in other not-so-exciting news, we bought a new coffee machine. i'm in love with it and i am seriously contemplating inviting guests over just so they can experience its awesomeness. i don't even need to buy coffee in the mornings anymore. and it is so ironic, that there is literally a new espresso bar around the corner from me (completely random location, don't know how they are going to survive) - and i don't even really want to try it out! yikes!

had a lovely little catch-up dinner with the old girls last sunday night at the hard rock cafe. they really do know how to differentiate their services - not so much their products (as i would categorise this in the Hog's Breath, Blackbird or even Tony Roma's category) but their waiters and waitresses certainly do stand out. accent and all. but it made for some good times. my only wish was that it wasn't on a sunday night but oh wells.

i also have been doing a little baking in between, made some yummy cupcakes. please go to wynwyns place to check it out ;)

it was a lovely monday. chucked a sickie and spent it with val ;)

darling harbour for a turkish breakfast, followed by a slow walk to the fish markets for yummy seafood.

we had a feast.. sashimi, prawns and oysters. until a naughty and very scary seagull came and just ate all our tuna sashimi!!! he freaking went for the expensive shit!! damn him!!! argh!!!

donna was like "NO!!!"

lol. it was crazy. happened in like 2 seconds. gone. just like that.

and then there were the chinese tourists. it makes us so sad to see how they litter, and disobey our rules and regulations... that is the reason why the seagull ate our sashimi!!!

then we trekked it to glebe where we had coffee and organic pancakes. the lil cafe was pretty cool and we got there just in time to avoid the sudden onpour of rain. :)

then since we had no other plans, we decided to bus it to the quay to hop on a ferry to manly for ben and jerry's and some relaxing time on the cold sand. it felt really really good.

and thennnnnn we were going to mamak's for rotti but the line was outrageously long... so we decided to head to korean via a kebab stop on the way. the kebab was really good (from the one bite that i got). like it was super crispy but the bbq sauce was really sweet and tangy. but it was still really good. mmmmm yummm.

and then we had korean. bbq, rice cakes, the usual fantastic stuff. this was where cherry and carl joined us. carl.. he was on something. such an entertaining guy. loved it. lol

and after dinner, we went to azuma for a matcha latte. nice way to finish the night :)

all this in 14 hours. not bad!!! one of the best sickies EVER!!!