Cravings cravings cravings!!!!

OOOIIIIII........

Damn I feel pregnant! Its almost dinner time here in Sydney and I am feeling a bombardment of cravings coming on.

Mum's curry chicken!

Toa Payoh Lorong 5 Hawker Centre's Barbequed Chicken Wings !!!!

Bak Chor Mee (loosely translated to minced pork noodles)

Hokkien Mee (Stir fried noodles with prawns, calamari, pork belly and tonnes of pork fat)

Here's Mummy with Lamb and Chicken satay at Lorong 5 Hawker Centre!!!

Ice Kachang !!! (Shaved Ice with ARTIFICIALLY coloured syrup, cooked red beans, sago, palm fruit plus other unidentified stuff)

Chng Tng (Shaved ice with sago, agar, brown seaweedy stuff and palm fruit)

God, I think I'm gonna die soon!!!!!!!!!

Confessions of a trolley fetischist

.............Wheeeee!!!!!!!!

Anyone who knows me knows that I would not be where I am today without my shopping trolley. The shopping trolley is one of the best contraption ever ever invented by man. It is a vital tool for weekend grocery shopping and house moving. This is my story of all the trolleys that have gone through good and bad times with me on my life journey (cue : sad volin music)...

On 19 Feb 2005, my mother beckoned me to her room.

Mum : "Boy (Yes, she still calls me that!), I have this trolley you can use for your marketing over there, you wan or not?"

Me : "Yee, dun want, shopping trolley for what? So girly....."

Mum: "Its blak carler, where got girly. Its very useful, so you don't have to carry until so jiak lat from the market. Plus its foldable, so convenient. Take lah, you'll be thanking me when you go over!"

Me : " Ok lah, but I may not use it."

Forward to 25 Mar 2005, my heart was pounding with intrepidation as I held the foldable trolley in my hand. Today is the first day I will attempt to use the trolley. A million questions are running through my mind. Questions like "Will everything fit in there?", "Will it burst and I will have to chase rolling apples and oranges down George Street?", "Will old ladies at Chinatown point their fingers and hurl abuses like "Si-ssy! Si-ssy!!" at me?", "Will I still have friends?"

Ok, I will try it once and if I hate it, I will bandish the trolley to the eternal depths of my cupboard together with the rest of my amassed from the 80s. Getting to the market was easy enough, with the trolley folded and tucked under my hand. I bought my fruits and meats and veggies and stuffed everything in there. It was amazing, the bag felt like it was bottomless and it was so easy wheeling it around. I looked around the market and for once, I felt like I belonged. Trolleys of all different shapes and sizes surrounded me, twirling around me like a kalaidescope of ecstatic hummingbirds. It could have been a scene striaght out of Mary Poppins the musical, except the shouting of "Oranges! 2 dollars a kilo! Best in the market! Best in Sydney!" didn't seem to quite fit in. The trolley has passed the test. It will now be my faithful companion that will acompany me every Saturday to the markets. Who needs dogs? Can dogs carry your groceries? Goodbye plastic bag strangled fingers and hello Trolley Dan!

We had a great relationship, me and Dan. Saturday mornings were always special for us. I always decided what to cook for the week, and Dan always carried them for me, never uttering a word of complaint. I thought we would last forever, until 16 April 2006, while back from a trip with Polly and Harley to Narooma, we stopped at a little town called I Can't Remember and my roving eyes caught a shapely modern trolley called Shop and Go. It was truly a trolley in a class of its own...............

A commercial featuring zooming trolleys and breakbeat music immediately played out in my head.

The all new Shop & Go

It’s all systems go for the “espresso” among all shopping trolleys. After eight successful years of the S&G model series, its successor will take pole position amongst compact shopping trolleys. Featuring an improved outlook, the new Shop & Go is once again both a trolley and a fashion accessory.
Trolleys that truly captivate the senses are few and far between. The new Shop & Go is one. Its arrow-like body, striking nose and breathtaking lines never fail to inspire. And the powerful new Fluid Bearing wheels ensure it feels just as special as it looks. During the development of this new trolley, the emphasis was placed on increasing the dynamism and sportiness of the design, technology and equipment even further.

As a result, the Shop & Go impresses with ergonomic polycarbonate handles, 4 seperate zip compartments, lightweight but sturdy bag frame and wheels with direct steering for maximum agility. Whether the bag is full or empty, the compelling proportions of the exterior convey a sense of power and dynamism. The interior of the new Shop & Go is constructed with a high quality polymer and fibreglass blend material, ensuring maximum durability and resistance to organic spills and stains. The significantly wider range of optional extras includes a world first: COLDSTORE – a revolutionary cooling system which generates cold air from the wheeling motion to envelope the food and ensure maximum freshness. It’s all systems go for the new Shop & Go!

I was sold!!!! 2 hours later, Trolley S&G was sitting pretty in my laundy room while Trolley Dan started making friends with my clothes amassed from the 80s.

Trolley S&G remains my faithful Saturday companion up till today.

The Hills Are Alive....With The Sound of Hedwig......

Whazzzaaa..........

What a weekend!!!! Went up to the Blue Mountains with Matt last weekend and what a superb weekend it was. Blue Mountains has this event once a year called Christmas in July and we decided to go check it out. Because Sydney is so fricking cold during July, we decided there's nothing like going to a colder place to build up our resistance to cold. We were expecting snow on the streets, colourful chasing lights, snow sleighs and elves running around, and we might even get to harrass Santa for that bloody homeloan we were after.....

Boy, were we disappointed..........

Katoomba looked like....well, Katoomba. Packed with tourist buses, strange faces and K-Mart. The only thing that made it look like there was a major Christmas festival on was the poorly painted plain banner that read "Yulefest" hanging on top of the Carrington hotel.

We tried our best to contain our disappointment. This was how our conversation went.

Matt : "Hmmm...its not that cold"

Me : "Oh, not really, it is slightly chilly"

Matt : "Now which way do we go....."

Me: "Let's get out of the station first, I feel lightheaded, not much oxygen on high land"

Matt: "Ok"

Me : "Doesn't feel very Christmassy does it?"

Matt: "Maybe there's more decorations outside"

Me : "Wah lah, look at that beautiful banner on top of the hotel"

Matt : "Yeee...is that it?"

Me: "Can we go find the hotel, I need to go, I think"

Matt : "Ok"

Me : " Its not that bad"

Matt : "No, its not, maybe it gets better at night"

Me : " I meant my need to go, its not that bad"

Matt : " Oh, ok..."

And we trodded off to find the Clarendon. When we got there, the room wasn't ready, so we left our bags and decided to explore the main street. Had lunch at this 1940s milk bar called the Paragon which made its own chocolate. Would have bought some if the prices weren't so touristy. But we had a good lunch there. Except of course we forgot to ask them not to put beetroot into our burger. I know what they say about beetroot being good for ya, but I cannot envision myself ever eating a muddy tasting vegetable that resembles a piece of flesh dripping with blood ripped off from some serial killer's victim's inner thigh. Not a fan of olives too (rat droppings).

Ok, then we went to K-Mart....I know, what kind of a holiday is this??!!!! But we were looking at LCD TVs, some going 102 cm going for $2999, will get that one day, when Powerball beckons.

Next, it was off to Liqorland to get some grog. Being the cheapos that we were (remember, we are afterall the purveyors of fine box wine), we got 2 bottles of New, longnecks of course, and skipped back to our hotel. Strange we only drank 1 bottle, and it was a struggle too. I thought maybe we aren't really in a party mood, and probably wouldn't drink much that night......how wrong were we.....A nice Christmassy dinner and 3 bottles later, I was slurring like a homeless Abo in Redfern (ok, I know this is not a very politically statement, but I'm not racist....really....I just hate every race equally [line borrowed from Matt])

Then there was the show.

I must admit I have never cried so much at a musical before, let alone one that I haven't heard much about. I was contemplating renting the movie to see what the fuss was all about, but decided against it. Matt loved the movie, he last saw it in San Fran, so he was naturally quite hyped about it. Me, I was like, "ok, we'll go watch it...."

I was blown away, its not a typical big budget musical, not much of a set. But it was brilliant! A great mix of comedy and drama, all played through a series of great rock songs and poignant storytelling. I was crying buckets in the last few scenes (and my friends can atest that I am not usually a drama queen), and Matt was happy to see me cry (now you know he's a bit sadist). I felt the character and the struggles she went through. And the songs were GREAT! Not a fan of heavy rock, but this I highly recommend. Its coming to @Newtown in Sydney, check it out if you can. And I go on my kneels and worship iOTA in the lead role. You could tell from the fact that he was so emotionally drained by the end of the performance that he put his heart and soul into it. And its his first foray into musicals too! I hope he at least gets a Helpmann nomination. And Yitzak rocks too! And I'm gonna check out iOTA's albums now. http://www.iota.com.au/

Our experience was heightened with us sitting in the front seat, next to the lovely couple Louise and Tony. At first we were quite quiet, you know, me and Matt trying to act shy and all that. But we warmed up soon enough, and found out that Louise is an expert orgasmic wine taster (and no, she didn't do a Meg Ryan at our table) and Tony is a British Lite Beer Guzzler...perfectly complementing the 2 box wine experts, although we were quite posh that night and only drink bottled wine. All I can say was were glad we were not sitting at the long table in the middle of the room with some mature aged people (I say again I am not age-ist). They mustn't have known what they gotten themselves into. The room could have been a casino that night with their poker faces all round. We overheard them at breakfast the next morning saying "we should really find out what we are walking into next time." Hahahah...nope, this is not a musical about carpentry or gardening.....(ok, I think I'm being rude here now, I will stop)

All I can say is, go see it!

http://www.hedwig.com.au/

Eating With The Stars

Phewww...................

What a busy week! We have had 2 guests coming through our place. First, beryl Hamilton Palmer of Sons and daughters dropped in because she had a course to attend in the city. She stayed with us for about 2 nights and I decided to cook her an Asian dinner because I don't think she has ever tasted my cooking but she's seen heaps of it when she was working with Matt (Matt brings leftovers to lunch).

It wasn't anything elaborate. We had seafood fried rice for our main course, char siew chicken wings and satay for starters. Keith, of course, wanted chicken and corn soup so I gave him an extra big bowl.

Notice the glasses of wine on the table? Thats what makes the difference between a dinner and a dinner party. Even better when your wine comes from a 4 litre box which gives you 21.33 glasses. At $0.7923 per glass. Now thats a classy dinner party................

Keith didn't like the white bleached rubber bands (aka calamari rings) in his fried rice so I had to eat them for him. No complaints from our celebrity guest and resident food critic.

As you can tell, beryl was pretty excited about being Matt's prawn star.

Very nice of beryl (her nickname is Rhonda) and Ray to bring me some lamb chops. Apparently, there is this secret hideout they go to somewhere in Wollongong where you can buy pirated lamb chops for about $7.99 per kg. Think I might cook a curry with that, or something else, will decide later.

Thats all for now. Tell you guys more about the 2nd guest tomorrow.