My Bloggable Day

DIY terrarium

Posted on November 20, 2013 by Bec

On Sunday I made a terrarium. I’ve wanted to ever since seeing some very impressive ones at the Finders Keepers Market in Melbourne in October (was that really only last month?!). The ones there had adorable little figurine animals and people. One of them had a tiny table and chairs that looked as though tiny people had just vacated after having a tiny garden party. I like tiny things. As a child I was obsessed with the miniature Tudor Village at the Fitzroy Gardens. We always used to walk through the Fitzroy Gardens on the way to and from watching Carlton play at the MCG…. Anyway.

I bought the jars from a discount store, everything else is from Bunnings Warehouse.

First you add a layer of stones or gravel, I couldn’t find the small stones I know we used to have lying around the house so I had to use big ones which kind of spoils the look (the soil comes up too high) but whatever.

Next you add a layer of charcoal, then soil and then the plants.

For more comprehensive instructions go see Don Burke of Burke’s Backyard. He’s the expert. Also, I recommend not using potting mix on the dining room table.

As you can see I’m yet to add a creature, I’m thinking a dinosaur might be cute. It’s now Wednesday and the big jar with the lid is nice and condensation-y like a little greenhouse. The smaller jar I have watered.

Not quite a green thumb yet but I like them.

Op shop success

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Bec

It had been ages since I’d been op shopping so last week I headed to Good Sammy’s for a rummage. Blatantly ignoring one of my own op shop tips (never go thrift shopping when tired) I fluked a couple of excellent dresses in time for the party season (which honestly, is all year long and not confined to a three month period).

I bought this black Sacha Drake dress with gold rose sequins and wore it to a cocktail party on Saturday night:

$12. I’d never heard of Sacha Drake until my friend Lauren, who appears to buy her dresses as frequently as I buy toothpaste, introduced me. Lauren also happened to win a Sacha Drake spring racing fashion competition last week, by submitting this photo:

Not sure who your devilishly handsome gal pal is Lauren but I like her style 😉 Also that is a fabulous tangerine dress. Well done!

Moving right along. I also got this ASOS dress:

I told you I was tired! Despite looking slightly deranged, very haggard and standing in what appears to be a complete and utter mess ( I swear it wasn’t, it’s the basket of stripey clothes that ruins the room) I quite like this dress. It was also $12.

I also bought a silk skirt that is probably too tight. Stupid and a breach of yet another of my op shop rules (buying ill fitting clothes) but I guess you can’t win them all. Luckily it was $4.

I’m planning a big wardrobe cull this week (actually it was meant to be on the weekend but you know, procrastination) so I will actually have room for my new purchases. Wish me luck.

Posted in Fashion | Tagged Clothes, Dresses, Fashion, Op Shopping, Thrift Store | Leave a comment

Why you should NEVER borrow your boss’ car

Posted on November 18, 2013 by Bec

It turns out there was a final twist in the ‘hitting the kangaroo on the way back from Perth after seeing Beyonce’ saga.

After hitting the roo and slamming on the breaks caused everything in the backseat (including my un-zipped overnight bag) to fall onto the floor, it seems I left a rogue pair of underwear in the car. And they were found. By my boyfriend’s boss.

#AWKWARD

To be fair they were a black pair and it was dark when I took my things out of the car. Still, I don’t think I’ll be attending the office Christmas party this year. What is your most embarrassing boss related story? I hope it’s worse than this.

Posted in Misc | Tagged Awkward, Awkward Moments, Embarrassing | Leave a comment

Beaches, trenches and being pirates

Posted on November 13, 2013 by Bec

You know when you go on a trip and you swear to yourself you will remember every single detail? Every restaurant, every lane way, every local you smiled at? You will have a diary-esque memory of what you did every day.

Yeahhh well, I got back from Samoa just over a month ago and already some of the days are starting to blur into one another. Thankfully I take photos of just about everything so by looking back at them it’s easier to remember. I’m going to be an old eccentric lady who does nothing but flick through photo albums…

Anyway, on the middle weekend I was in Samoa my sister Sarah and her boyfriend Nick and I picked up their friend Sean from the airport early on Saturday morning before beginning our circumnavigation of the main island.

We went to a beach called Matareva.

It had eerie remnants of an abandoned resort:

The others fell asleep on the beach while I explored the spiky coral.

And found a pretty shell.

After a few hours we were joined by a group of kids from New Zealand, I remember it felt strange to share the beach with so many people after the empty beaches on Savai’i.

By this point I was starving as we headed off for lunch at Seabreeze Resort Restaurant (or so Google tells me, I had forgotten). The view was ok.

Pineapple daiquiri anyone?

Delicious ribs.

After lunch we went to a big sinkhole in the ground called Tosua Ocean Trench.

The 20 metre climb down a ladder into the trench was petrifying, not to mention treacherous and slippery.

But it was totally worth it to swim in the salty water and let the tide slowly drift you back and forth inside the trench. We played a really grown-up game called ‘get the rock in the hole’ which involved trying to land a rock into a little cave inside the trench wall. It took Sean about 20 goes but he finally got it.

After the trench we drove to our accommodation at Lalomanu. Lalomanu was really badly hit by the 2009 tsunami and a number of people were killed. It just happened that we were there the night before the anniversary. Unfortunately we had plans for the next day so we couldn’t go to the memorial.

The next day we set off to Aggie Grey’s beach resort to get jump aboard a charter boat as a late celebration for Sarah’s birthday.

I had carried hats and swords (and Elly’s wench costume which unfortunately went unworn) all the way from Kalgoorlie to Melbourne to Auckland to Samoa for the occasion, so it was good to finally use them.

AHOY! Nick looked very Castaway with his beard.

This is the best shot I got of Sarah jumping off the boat:

Sarah’s housemate made a delicious skull and crossbones cake:

Occasionally Sarah and I get told that we sort of look alike, what do you think?

We had a ridiculous amount of delicious food and drink that we couldn’t get through. It was really nice to meet all of Sarah and Nick’s mates who are mostly also doing Australian Aid assignments. The weather turned at the end of the day and it begun to pour with rain so we went back to the house, ordered a pizza and played a couple of rounds of Banana Grams.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Samoa, Samoa Travel Blog, Travel | 3 Comments

Beyonce, Ikea and a dead kangaroo

Posted on November 11, 2013 by Bec

The weekend got off to a smashing start. I went to a VIP night at a local cosmetics store/salon. I’m a sucker for any sales situation in which they hand out free booze. Gets me every time. At least I managed to walk away with only an eyeliner and a bag full of freebies.

After a few sparkling wines and half an overcooked mini-quiche I hit up a buffet in Boulder with my boyfriend and was in bed (love that alliteration!) nursing indigestion by 9:30pm.

The next morning the pain of spending 6 hours driving to Perth was completely numbed by the fact that I was off to see Beyonce that night.

The drive was unremarkable except for the giant plague of locusts we drove through near Merredin which reminded me of watching a mid 1990s Windows screensaver.

Not far from Perth we did something I have wanted to do for nigh on two years and stopped at the Bakers Hill pie shop.

It was kind of strange to get a pie that wasn’t this pie, which I spent far too long obsessing over.

I had beef and mushroom and it was over far too quickly.

That evening I met friends at Bivouac for dinner before Beyonce. After champagne, tapas and two ‘herbaceous’ cocktails I had chocolate & rum marquise (kind of a thick mousse) with banana ginger cream and honeycomb:

When it came out I did the whole “this is HUGE, how ever will I finish it?!” and then devoured the whole thing. Because women lie about food. Constantly.

Do you think row V constitutes the nose bleed section?! Either way it totally didn’t matter.

Halfway through the show Beyonce flew from the main stage to a second stage:

Fancy. I don’t really have much to say about the concert. It was great! The End.

The next day we caught up with friends for breakfast for some much needed sustenance before heading to where peaceful weekend afternoons go to die:

Ikea. That desk ^ is the only piece of Ikea furniture that has eluded perfect construction under my bizarrely excellent furniture assembling skills. Over the years I have put together a bed, bedside tables, a couple of desks and at least 3 bookshelves with the skill and expertise of a Swedish national. But that crappy $20 ‘Laiva’ desk is the one that got away. It belonged to my friend Sophie and we lugged the desk from Ikea in Vienna back to her apartment where I proceeded to lose the battle with the Allen key. As you can tell I’ve never really gotten over it. One day Laiva, one day.

Anyway, apart from running into my old nemesis Laiva the trip went ridiculously well. We dodged and weaved through families on the brink of meltdown to the market hall and went straight to pick up my new Svelnik bed (I learnt that you can’t fix a bed with glue). I knew exactly where to head because Ikea online has this helpful function:

Amazing. We were in and out in 30 minutes and the giant boxes fitted easily into the ute we had driven. My only regret is that I didn’t have room for meatballs or a $1 hotdog.

This speedy trip left us plenty of time to head down to Scarborough beach for an hour or so, along with everyone else in the greater Perth area.

Before long we were back on the long, uneventful road to Kalgoorlie. Our trip was mostly locust free and after picking up Subway in Merredin (I forewent my meatball sub for a healthier option and only regretted it a little) thought we were on the home straight.

Unfortunately a kangaroo with a death wish that was very promptly granted bounced out in front of the car in the last 30 minutes of the trip. All I saw was its little head in front of the car bonnet before a loud BANG and a slamming of the breaks. We went back to check it wasn’t still moving, which it wasn’t thank goodness, I really didn’t fancy adding ‘so then we spent 10 minutes trying to bludgeon the poor thing to death with a small rock’ to this story.

We were very fortunate that only very minor damage was done to the front of the car and no damage was done to us. We pulled back into town and the last half hour of the weekend was spent washing locusts and roo blood from the front of the car. Deeeeelightful.

I do feel like a proper country person now though. How was your weekend? Got a roadkill story to share?

Posted in Misc | 4 Comments

Experimental baking: rainbow cake

Posted on November 10, 2013 by Bec

This blog post is kind of a testament to my tendency to not follow through all all tasks at hand. Don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty good at finishing things… Except for cleaning my bedroom, cleaning my car, my desk or my wardrobe… Wow I think I just had what’s known as a ‘breakthrough’. So while I did manage to finish this cake, I didn’t get a photo of the end result…

Anyway, last weekend I had a go at making a rainbow cake. I didn’t feel the need to find a recipe or look up any sort of instructions. Because I’m a trailblazer, that’s why. Oh, and I used packet mixes HA!

So I whipped up two packet vanilla cakes, then divided the mixture into 5 bowls.

Now the fun part begins…

I somehow ended up with red food dye all over my hands.

The best part was mixing the colours. Blue + Yellow = Green.

SWWWIIIIRLLLLLLL!

(Anyone watch Orange is the New Black? Chocolate and vaniiiiilla SWWWIIIRRRLLLLL! Crazy Eyes? Get it? Get it?!)

Red + Blue = a very ugly purple

Then I baked each layer for 10 minutes.

I stuck the layers together with cream cheese frosting (out of tub, lazy).

You may notice a slight difference in the next photo, compared to the last two. In the interest of full disclosure, there was a brewery tasting session in between the third and fourth layers….

Smoosh! Doesn’t that look delightful?! To be fair, the cake looked fine (if not a little lop sided) when it was fully frosted. I wish I had taken a photo of a perfect slice of rainbow cake in all its layered glory, but I took the cake to a party, put it in the kitchen and then forgot all about it! FAIL.

So I can’t show you the finished product. Or even tell you what it tasted like (packet vanilla cake mix most likely). Or if it was well received. But I’m sure if I hadn’t been so absent minded it would have been delicious, everyone would have loved it and you would be drooling at my photo.

Your drool free keyboard is thanking me.

I will make it again one day! Properly. And take photos.

Posted in Food | Tagged Baking, Rainbow Cake, Recipe | Leave a comment

What I’ve been doing lately: a series of YAYs and NAYs

Posted on November 8, 2013 by Bec

I went to Perth a few weekends ago and on the Sunday actually saw the sun shine for a few hours, YAY.
But it poured and poured the day before for the wedding that had warranted the trip to Perth in the first place… NAY.

It took a 12 hour round trip to get to Perth, NAY.
But I had excellent company and we got to drive into an excellent sunset, YAY.
Also, we forgot to organise music for the trip and had to listen to a 120 track MP3 belonging to someone else. Someone with highly questionable taste in music. Think heavy metal Swan Lake and weird country music. NAY.

Our littlest housemate Elly, moved on to bigger and better things, NAY x 100,000.
But we went out for dinner, had three bottles of wine at a classy establishment with chandeliers on a school night and Bec and I sung Say My Name by Destiny’s Child at karaoke. YAY. I bet we sounded amazing too.

We also had a farewell party for Elly, YAY.
It was a costume party, YAY YAY YAY.

The theme was ‘the year that was’ and we had to dress as big local, national or global news from the last year. I went as the brunette from the Blurred Lines video (the one with clothes- this is important) and Claire went as Miley Cyrus at the VMAs.

Bec and her boyfriend went as Essendon football players circa the peptides scandal. Controversh.

Robin Thicke and I.

Bye Elly 😦

The next day required some serious medicinal fried chicken, NAY. But we ran into our friends in the drive thru, YAY hilarious.

When Elly left I inherited her purple pansy top, YAY!

Which matches the jacaranda trees, which are all in spectacular bloom at the moment. YAY.

Bec and I thought it would be entirely appropriate to buy a 12 pack of cinnamon donuts from the supermarket across the road for work for $2.

They were delicious (YAY) but seriously guilt inducing (NAYYYY).

It was our new housemate Jordan’s birthday the day before Halloween and Bec bought him a pumpkin cake, YAY:

We went out for Jordan’s birthday for a night that would later be known to me as the ‘nose-less night’ thanks to the overzealous flash on my phone. Bec and I wore our Taylor Swift inspired cat ear headbands YAY!

I got my nails done to match the jacaranda trees YAY:

And that’s pretty much every single YAY and NAY I can think of up until this very moment that sees me sitting at the kitchen table before work typing this out:

Behind me is the fish tank. I regret to inform you that Paddington, who has been unwell, succumbed to his fishy illness yesterday. He was named after a local mine. Hopefully his demise will not be a reflection of what’s to come for the local resources sector.

Thanks to Jordan for disposing of Paddington, for Bec is scarred from the deaths of our other fish: Princess Sparkles, Ghost and the one with the racing stripe whose name I do not recall.

I’m on the 10am-6pm roster this week but I still got up at 5am to get to the gym this morning (you saw the donuts and cake right?) and so I’m ready really early. I’ve completely lost track of how many YAYs and NAYs there have been. I’m going to assume the YAYs have it.

Tomorrow I’m off to Perth to see BEYONCE. I think we’ll catch up for lunch, then maybe hit the shops? In two weeks I’m headed to Bali for a girls trip! Yeeehaw. Have a great weekend.

Posted in Misc | Tagged lately, Misc, Update | Leave a comment

Places I’ve been and hated

Posted on November 5, 2013 by Bec

‘Hate’ is a strong word isn’t it? But ‘Places I’ve been but found underwhelming, no offence, I know I’m lucky to have travelled at all’ is not a very sexy headline. Far too wordy.

I truly believe that travelling is a privilege and it is very First World Problem-y of me to let rip on foreign cities I’ve been fortunate enough to visit. But who doesn’t love a bad travel story?! And really, I haven’t been many places that I haven’t enjoyed. In fact I couldn’t even think of more than three, so here they are:

1. Los Angeles

I think my expression here really says it all. LA was underwhelming and a few weeks later once I’d visited NYC I couldn’t fathom how there could be any competition between the two cities whatsoever. NYC wins. On a bad day. On every bad day. I just didn’t and still can’t understand what everyone loves about this place. The smog? The traffic? The tackiness? Sure Venice Beach and Santa Barbara are preeeeety good. But nothing mind blowing. I think it doesn’t help that I found the Californian coast to be much like most of Australia’s coast, so there was no ‘wow factor’ for me. Sorry LA, I don’t believe you got more bounce than anywhere else.

2. Philadelphia

I need to preface this by saying that I take full responsibility for not liking Philly and I really believe that under better circumstances, I would love the place.

Basically my travel companion Kate and I drove in Philly and thanks to the failings of the GPS system in Shelby, our hire car, spent a good hour or two getting off and on the motorway. For some time we drove behind a car being towed that was letting off sparks:

Cue this facial expression:

We eventually found our hostel which was out in the sticks and should really have been the set for Hitchcock’s Psycho. We went for a drive and ended up in a really bad neighbourhood where we didn’t feel safe stopping at red lights. AND I didn’t even get to try Philly cheese steak in Philadelphia. Disaster.

We did however find a very reasonable wedding banquet room rate, as long as the bridal party doesn’t mind schlepping in through a gas station. Book-marking this one for later.

2. Bratislava

Oh Bratislava. What can I say about you? You are about as exciting as you are attractive. At least your drinks are cheap. And you came in handy when EasyJet grounded all its flights out of Vienna pre Christmas 2010, but trusty Ryan Air chose to flout international aviation safety requirements and I was able to get to London via your airport. Thanks for that.

Where have you been and hated?

Posted in Travel | Tagged Bratislava, LA, Philadelphia, Travel | 4 Comments

‘I was here’ and other things on YouTube that make me cry

Posted on October 25, 2013 by Bec

I was here, and not at the Beyonce concert in Melbourne when my Facebook and Instagram feeds were clogging hard with fabulous photos from the Mrs Carter Show. I don’t go to many concerts, not because I don’t enjoy joining thousands of sweaty strangers clutching overpriced drinks on a tennis court, but because I’m terrible at thinking ahead and purchasing tickets for a show months away. I like instant gratification and can’t fathom spending $150 on something I won’t enjoy soon.

Anyway, as jealousy and sadness crept through my veins I found this YouTube video of Beyonce singing ‘I was here’ at the UN World Humanitarian Day last year. I watched it once, and cried (I do cry very easily, thanks Mum). And then I watched it about 30 more times. Then I made other people watch it. One cried, one got goosebumps, one welled up on a tram.

I’m listening to it as I type this. Just watch it.

Beyonce has to be the most talented woman that is living and has ever lived. As the saying goes: always be yourself, unless you can be Beyonce, then always be Beyonce. Also, I feel suddenly compelled to seek out a job at the UN after watching this.

Anyway, other videos sure to spring a tear from my eye include The Best Surprise Military Homecomings: PART ONE. I’ve never made it to part two. Dogs welcoming their owners home from deployment is even higher on the onion scale for inducing tears. Partings and reunions kill me. I couldn’t watch the trailer for The Impossible without crying, so obviously I’ve never attempted to watch the movie.

Today my coworker Daisy sent me this video of kids at the Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock singing Roar by Katy Perry, UGH. Emotions. Thank god I keep tissues at my desk.

And finally, the ultimate tear extractor has to be this. Who would have thought the words “he can’t see without his glasses” could cause so many red eyes and splotchy faces.

And on that happy note, have a great weekend!

Posted in Misc | Tagged Beyonce, Cry, Sad, YouTube | Leave a comment

You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone

Posted on October 17, 2013 by Bec

I am referring, of course, to the hearing in my right ear which since disappearing a week ago, is showing no signs of clocking back in for duty. Lazy.

Tonight I was at a committee meeting for my local theatre club (yes I’m on the committee, because it’s cool that’s why) and I was sitting next to SJ who coincidentally can’t hear from her right ear as well, so she could hear me from her left ear, but I couldn’t hear her responses. It was like the most frustrating game of Chinese whispers ever.

So long story short I’ve been doing a lot of meaningless smiling and nodding of late. Not being able to hear and working in radio is about as good a combination as cous cous and sultanas (ie confusing and generally disgusting).

In other news, check out my delicious breakfast from this morning:

Frozen berries, fresh strawberries and natural Greek yoghurt. The food of Gods. Speaking of Godly consumables:

Last night Bec and I farewelled our friend Bros who is off to Europe for a month. Needless to say we are insanely jealous. So we popped a cork or two and danced to our songs which go off at Gold Bar at 2am on a Sunday morning but are slightly less hilarious/awesome at 6:30pm on a Wednesday night. But we made it work, I have the Snap Chat to prove it (or I did have it, before it self destructed, as is the nature of Snap Chats).

Bec wore her new riding helmet (we were polishing off a bottle of Grandin leftover from Race Round, so I guess it was theme appropriate):

After drinks Bros went home to pack, Bec went to mixed netball (hello short straw) and I went out for dinner at Danny’s Italian. Unlike most overpriced, disappointing eateries in this town, Danny’s was amazing! I had bruschetta, gnocchi and half a slice of cheesecake. And I didn’t feel at all guilty about it.

I am positively revelling in the spare time I have at the moment by not going to the gym in the evenings. It is such a delight to get home and not move. I’m only doing this because I’m not yet feeling 100% and a full day at work really knocks the wind out of me. But I suspect I’ll be back to it next week. Lame. I have another beach holiday coming up in November (hello Bali!) and really don’t need to be the sluggiest slug by the pool.

Happy Friday everyone!

Posted in Misc | Tagged Misc, Update | 2 Comments