Lair of Flying Green Song Rabbits

The following article was something I had saved, but figured I'd share it with everyone here too so we can all enjoy some relaxation time!


A treat for your feet
Sit down, get comfy and arm yourself with some warm water, nail clippers, a foot file and a buffer for a professional quality pedicure at home.

Face fantastic
Facial masks are the ultimate in relaxation and if used a couple of times a week, they can drastically improve the quality of your complexion.

Salt soak
A simple soak in the tub can release the tension from aching muscles (or cure the pain of last weekend's cocktail bender) and will leave you feeling relaxed and refreshed. Fill your bath with warm water and add bath salts or essentials oils. If you're feeling adventurous, try a milk bath. Pick up a packet of milk powder from the grocery store and add two table spoons to warm water. The enzymes in the milk will activate on your skin and leave your body feeling super soft. Add some lavender oil for the ultimate relaxation.

Sweet as sugar
Smooth and glowing skin is easy to achieve using a homemade sugar scrub. Mix brown sugar with aloe vera and jojoba oil until it forms a smooth paste. Rub into the skin in a circular motion, and watch the dead skin cells literally wash away.

Treasured tresses
To spruce up your mane, opt for a DIY hair treatment. To counter dry, brittle or damaged hair, try mashed avocado, banana, cocoa butter, olive oil or honey. Massage a small amount of ingredient into damp, unwashed hair, making sure special attention is paid to the ends.

Nail it!
Start with removing dead skin from the nail with a cuticle stick. Then shorten and shape your nails with a good quality nail file, ensuring you file in the one direction to avoid nail damage. Massage cuticles with a few drops of cuticle oil and buff to give the nail a healthy base. Add a quality base coat and finish with a super-glossy nail lacquer.

Cucumber cure
Whether it is a constant dryness, fine lines or crow's feet, the eye area is considered the most complained-about area on the face. To make simply steep chamomile tea in boiling water, add one tablespoon of aloe vera gel, two teaspoons of peeled and seeded cucumber and half a teaspoon of honey and blend until smooth. Apply to the eye area and leave set for 30 minutes.


Article taken from http://www.30daysoffashionandbeauty.com.au/buzz/beautybulletin/7954536/top-home-pampering-treats

Also included waxing, but how is that relaxing as much as painful?

I'm in such a shopping mood it's really bad...

Incu hs a sale starting tomorrrow and I'm really anticipating what pieces from Marc by Marc jacobs, Lover, Alexander Wang and Acne they have (and many other labels I havent heard of!). Everything under $100 and most under $50! But today I saw such a beautiful dusky pink blazer and I really want that too and this dress with a tie back sash was so pretty =((

I was all good on shopping just a month ago and then this whole search for a birthday dress and shoes has sent me into a shopping frenzy....

This summer I'll be looking forward to wearing a lot of pastel and nude colour clothing. In anything sheer, backless, cut outs, silk or chiffon (all combined?). Still don't feel I've acquired enough florals and loose light blazers! Also I'll be wearing my lace bodysuit under anything sheer and omg can't wait to wear my maaxi dress.

On the other hand am also looking for leather shorts and perfectly loose blouses. Slouchy singlets and loose t shirts with gold bracelets pushed up into an armband and chunkier metalwear necklaces are also on my want list. Any jewellery from peter lang or Samantha Wills too!

Grrr I hate not having a job, needs income to buy what I want and need money to go out to wear what I buy... Don't wan't bf to always pay for me.... Jobs please be available....

It has been a long while since my last morbid, emo post.

But sometimes you just get one of those days where you physically want to slice your face off so that you don't have to look at it in the mirror.

It's just one of those days where nothing is right, you're stuck and you're ugly to boot.

As I sit here about to type out a post about a trip to The Athenian and uploading photos, I change my mind. Instead I'm going to talk about something that briefly entered my thoughts last week.

Currently in Biochemistry class we have been learning about different types of cancers and what causes them to occur + how to treat them. I have no idea why we're doing this in 3rd year of Nutrition (and why it is so god damn hard too...). Anyway one slide in the lecture particularly stood out to me. It was a family tree of a family who had familial cancer through five generations. The cancer were of several different types that struck over half of the males and females of the family. It is a particularly sad genetic disease called Li-Fraumeni syndrome which increases your susceptibility to cancer. At the time friends and I joked those people should not reproduce as everyone suffers with the grief of losing family/chance of getting cancer and financial and emotional burden. Do you guys think these people should reproduce?

I guess the lecture coincided with the same week I went to the doctors to get my blood test result back and found yet another thing wrong with me; I thought to myself god I shouldn't be allowed to reproduce either.

So apparently I have Vitamin D deficiency too now. WTF? I swear I get sun exposure but apparently my blood levels of vitamin D puts me at medium deficiency and I have to take vitamin D tablets now... I dont want oesteoporosis when I'm old =( And low Vit D levels have been implicated in cancers and loads of other diseases.

Also I'm so used to my blood test results now coming back littered with asteriks that it wasn't a suprise my haemoglobin levels are low due to my low iron stores. My doctor now classifies me as chronically low iron levels. CHRONIC?? He told me to get more iron tablets or face iron injections every month which I would really not like... I hate the iron tablets though as they give me terrible stomach pangs sometimes and as a side effect constipation due to the very high iron dose. Today however I decided to put my nutrition skills to use and bought myself a bottle of liquid iron solution that is lower in iron and hoping it will work (If it does, suck that doctor. Pfft injections, my nutrition skills beat yours! lol)

The good news though is that my pre-diabetes is under control and apparently I "no longer have it." The doctor said I was probably just on a diet that was too high in carbohydrates. I'm still going to try and watch what I eat though to make sure I'm not one step into the door again.

So to sum up. I have low iron levels, this is really important in pregnant women for reasons I can't remember wtf. Also since I've always had chronically low levels that don't seem to get better I could just have bad absorption... Also low vitamin D levels in a mother can cause bad bone development (Rickets) in babies as not enough transfer to baby. My pre-diabetes before could lead to gestational diabetes when I'm pregnant which may mean caesarean birth that's been related to many other problems in babies. As well as this I have the body of a 10 year old with not wide enough child bearing hips lol. And I'm a frail short asian =( Coupled with I don't have enough beauty or brains genes to pass on, I don't think I should ever have kids.

Lol I'm kidding I still like kids =). I am however planning to take control of my health. Nothing I have is life threatening but they do decrease quality of life. Constantly feeling tired is not something I'm very fond of especially as an already sleep deprived uni student. So I'm going to test out what Iron formulation work for me, get plenty of sun in spring/summer and eat healthily (with desserts...). I've transferred all my medical files and stuff from my parents to my own filing cabinent and I now go to the doctors myself with my own medicare card and pay myself (I feel so grown up at 20 and finally going to the doctors on my own lol). Wish me luck =)

Sorry for the self absorbed, pity myself post. Taking medicine makes me sad =(((. I'll post The Athenian pictures soon =)!

Those ads that have been popping up everywhere from YouTube to blogs about this special offer for a showboat cruise and cabaret show hooked me in. I mean, hey it'll save me $100 if I was to otherwise book on a different date right?

I chose to go on our anniversary (not really) and because I couldn't really decide on another date. It was free, but then again I booked really early. I believe the price has gone up due to demand so it is now $99 per person, but still not a bad price for what you get.

The showboat is a paddle boat and operates most nights, so if you're in Darling Harbour you'll most likely see it. I had seen it many times before and always wondered what it was about!

So, in the package you get a 3 course dinner, a 3 hour ride on the boat and a 1hr cabaret performance. Most drinks are covered for free, but they do have others which cost extra.

I'll get onto the pictures now.




Waiting at the dock. Dress warmly!




As N and I were boarding the ship, we suddenly realised sheepishly that we were probably the youngest people here. We were pretty much surrounded by middle aged couples or adults attended an engagement party/hen's night.

Unlike people our own age who would otherwise be partying hard and drinking, we're going on a romantic dinner cruise on the harbour. God we are old lol.

Upon arriving at our seats, which was very close to the stage (yay!), there was already a platter of cold entrees waiting. By this time I was starving since I didn't eat before coming so I quickly snapped a few shots and dug in.




Smoked salmon wrapped tomato and red onion salad, Moroccan spiced chicken ribs, vegetable frittata and Thai red roo salad with tatsoi.


Oooohhh how delightful sounding!

OM NOM NOM NOM.




Some wines are free, so I stupidly order a white wine. I ended up asking for a large pitcher of orange juice in which ti dilute the wine and San Pellegrino.

Ok no flash sucks, but it still look delicious.








The boat trudging along out of the dock and into the harbour. It's basically a very slow circuit passing the Harbour Bridge every so often, but after awhile N said he felt slightly nauseated!! I think it was just hunger pains since it went away.






No flash again. I'm one of those people who feel awkward taking photos of food.



Oven roasted ocean trout on a bed of potatoes, roma tomato salsa and rocket, pink grapefruit and roasted cashew salad.


Unfortunately, the main dish was not spectacular. The skin on the ocean trout was leathery and could not be eaten at all. Huge letdown! I was looking for a lovely crispy skin! The trout was quite flavourless - you could taste ocean trout and if you have an appreciation for the pure taste of fish you will enjoy it, but I like mine with more salt. If I had to nitpick at anything it would be the lack of flavour, otherwise the fish was cooked very well and the flesh was soft and smooth.

The salsa was quite tasty and the salad just alright. I did enjoy the chunks of grapefruit and the crunchy cashews.

You can choose what main you want from a selection of 4. Unfortunately N ordered the same thing (this is a huge pet peeve of mine).

If anybody is thinking of getting a dish, they might want to try the chicken in creamy shiitake sauce or the veal cutlet. There is also a vegetarian option.




A break in between meals and a pic of the paddles!

I totally forgot to take a photo of the dessert platter, but there was a really good pavlova, Belgium chocolate mud slice, berry and vanilla pannacotta and tiramisu.

The pavlova was better than I thought and now I have a good impression of pavlovas (after several disaster ones that taste like crap). The chocolate cake was exactly that, pannacotta wasn't as smooth and creamy as Gary Mehigan's and had a more jelly-like texture rather than cream, and the tiramisu was moist with just a hint of coffee.




Sydney skyline.




If you look closely, there are actually seagulls! Seagulls were flying round and round the boat, probably able to smell the food wafting around it.




Here's a better shot of one!





After taking in the cold, sea breeze and exploring the decks it was time for the cabaret. At this point I was told I couldn't take photos so I only have a few from the performance :(




The lovely singer. She was pretty and I love her hair :O

WARNING: The below pictures are rated PG13. Discretion is advised and this is certainly NSFW!










More skyline, the Opera House and a bit of the Harbour Bridge as well. The photos don't turn out as nice as it really is.




Luna Park of course.

Then the performance was all over and we slowly made our way back to King St Wharf. Shame.







Eh by this time we were still hungry and needed to buy some macarons from Lindt Cafe. Oh yes my little pretties look at all those delectable macarons! *swoooooon*



Bought about 15 of them hehehehehe! Check out all the salted caramel ones!!!!!!

And KFC. Told you we were still hungry, but not hungry enough for full meals. This was more like a snack.




If they continue to have sales, I might just go again. I had a very enjoyable night and why not, it's got food, singing, dancing and you're on a boat on Sydney Harbour.

Books to read (and re-attempt) before I die:

The House of the Spirits - Isabel Allende
Animal Farm - George Orwell
The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
The Notebook - Nicholas Sparks
Paula - Isabel Allende
Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
Divine Comedy - Dante Alighieri
Lord of the Flies – William Golding
Cloudstreet - Tim Winton
1984 - George Orwell
The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
The 5 People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
Catch-22 – Joseph Heller
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

The Good Food & Wine Show was held in July this year from 16-18th. This would be my first time attending because every year I don't hear about it until AFTER, which sucks!!

I managed to get tickets, but not for any of the classes like wine tasting or cheese tasting. Those classes fill up really fast...

I went with N and was shocked at how much wine there was. I mean, it's good FOOD, THEN wine. Nevertheless, I might have gotten a bit happy-chappy from all the wine tasting hahaha.

AND I HAD THE WORLD'S BEST PANNACOTTA. See below for more details.




I did manage to score seats at the Gary and George show, so I saw the judges from Masterchef in real life! A little exciting and a little star struck, I must admit.

Unfortunately, this guy:



Kept talking on and on and on and I was like, hurry up and show Gary and George!!

Then they showed a short video clip summing up their beliefs, values and ideas on cooking and food.





It was a while before the actual hosts came out to much applause and the MC trying to get crowd to cheer. You know, "Everybody on the left, GARY!!!" "GARYYY!!!" "Everybody on the right, GEORGE!" "GEEEOOOORRRRGGGGEEEEE!!!"

Yeah.

I think they took it a little far there. I just want to see the food.

Gary and George posing.






The show overall was just okay. The food was simple (short timeframe after all), I didn't get chosen to sit and try it though :(

I was so close to winning a frying pan too! I knew the answer but in that moment blanked out. I was so upset :(((

After the show we wandered around more, tasting wines, eating tea and salsa samples before we decided that those nibblets weren't very satisfying and that we should actually buy something to eat.

Some of the chefs putting on shows for the duration of the event had set up stands selling their dishes. They're not really their, it's just other people prepping their recipes. We decided to try some of George and Gary's stuff as we'd just come from their show; gotta see for ourselves what the hype is about.



Gary's vanilla bean pannacotta with honeyed roasted apricots, $6

This is the best pannacotta I've ever had, though admittedly I've only have a couple. I guess it pays to use actual gelatin rather than powdered?

The pannacotta was rich and creamy, but not sickeningly so. It was milky, definitely taste the vanilla and just SUPER SUPER CREAMY OMG SO HEAVENLY. I ended up eating most of it and not giving Mr. N much at all ohoho. The apricots were alright, I thought it would be fresh apricots marinated in honey but they were actually dry. Not what I was expecting, but the pannacotta saved it.



George's braised chicken with celeriac.

I don't remember much of this dish except that it was crap. Really crap. George, I thought better of you. This dish was so bad and wasn't even very warm that I had to buy another dish to put this one out of my mind. That was how bad it was.

The chicken was flavourless, the celeriac limp with hardly any crunch (like cooked lettuce, I HATE cooked lettuce). A tiny sprig of dill didn't do much to flavour it.

The most disappointing thing I ever ate at $24 a pop. All dishes come with either a wine or French beer, however.

I ran back out to buy another, more satisfying main (all mains are $24).



Tobie Puttock's gnocchi with marjoram, prosciutto and tallegio cheese, $24.

Sorry, kinda dug into it coz we were so hungry by then (and disappointed in George, who is N's favourite judge).

This was a little better. The gnocchi was quite soft, very buttery and the prosciutto added good saltiness. And with cheese, it was just what I needed to wash away the disaster before it.




Wtf N is so greedy, his hand keeps coming up in pictures, the idiot.

We chose white and red wine. I'm no wine connoisseur (yet!) but I didn't like the reds. There was too much acidity (and possibly tannins that I'm tasting in there) coming through.

Abrupt end!

Because I'm too lazy to go through everything we did on the day, here is some photo porn for you!