Elsja Down Under

Italian Kick May 4, 2010

I feel like I’ve been eating so much Italian lately. All my new restaurant reviews in recent weeks have been at Italian places. Last night I made homemade pizzas and this week I will be making homemade stuffed cannelloni. Yes, I’m on an Italian kick.   So here are two more restaurant reviews, Italian style.

Caesar’s Pizza Palace- Lane Cove

Andrew and I ventured out of our comfort zone the other night and ate dinner in Lane Cove. We stopped there on the way home from his dad’s house. We walked up and down the street looking for somewhere to eat. There was a Persian place that looked great but it was a $45 set menu so we quickly passed on that one. We ended up at a little Italian place called Caesar’s. Here’s what I thought about it:

Decor: 3- It was more like a takeaway place, so it wasn’t meant to be fancy- but they could have done a bit more with the place.  I’m not a fan of paper posters put into frames. Just buy some art or paint something.

Value: 7.5- We got a haloumi salad which was a little expensive at $12 but the pasta and pizza we got were a little cheaper than most places we’ve been lately.

Service: 8- I can’t really say anything bad about the service, but it wasn’t phenomenal either.

Taste: 5- My pizza was average. Not good, not horrible, just very average. The base was a bit dry and there was hardly enough sauce or toppings. I definitely make better pizza. The haloumi salad we got was so so. There was some weird lemony gunk on the cheese- it tasted good but we couldn’t figure out what it was. Andrew said his spaghetti and meatballs got better as he ate it.

Da Valentino – Crows Nest

Sunday night we met up with John and Kalee for a nice little dinner catch up. We met in Crows Nest and were debating on a few Italian places until we finally decided to try something new. We ended up at Da Valentino.

Decor: 6- We were outdoors, and the little area we were in was decent, but not the type of place I’d walk by and think “Aww that place is cute, let’s go there.” John so kindly pointed out the fumes from the buses that passed us by and that definitely took away from the ambiance. I didn’t see the inside so I can’t really speak for that decor.

Value: 8.5- Compared to other restaurants we’ve been to lately, I thought the portion sizes were really big for the price we paid.

Service: 6 – I asked if I could add chicken to my pasta and without even hesitating, the waiter said “No!” That’s all, not “I’m sorry, but we can’t do that,” which P.S.- why CAN’T they anyways? So yeah… that was annoying. Also I asked for chili flakes and he brought chili oil and just put it down in front of me with no explanation. I didn’t want oil, but whatever. Then later he came and stated that they don’t have flakes, but that the oil is much better. He then overcharged us for a salad that Andrew ordered, but was quick to fix it when that was pointed out. The waiter wasn’t very good. He was just sort of abrupt and not really friendly- but our food came quickly so it wasn’t too horrible.

Taste: 6 - The garlic bread was crap. Most normal people could make much better garlic bread at home. The 99 cent woolies garlic bread we buy is ten times better than the hard, dry rolls they gave us. My penne arrabiata was really good, the sauce had lots of texture and was very flavorful.  Andrew was impressed with how many prawns came in his chicken and prawn dish. John said his food was good, but he wouldn’t order it again. Honestly, this would have received a higher rating if they had better bread. I think an Italian place should offer decent garlic bread.

Overall… we probably won’t be back to either of these places. They were fine, but there are too many other Italian places around that are much better.

Africa Week- Swimming with Sharks April 5, 2010

When the suggestion was made that we go shark diving on our African holiday, I never once hesitated because of fear. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to spend the money, but I never felt afraid. Maybe watching Jaws in pre-school when I was 4 had some positive long term affect on me after all. I decided to give it a go and I was sure that once I was on that boat, fear would finally appear.

So while in Cape Town, Andrew, Stu, Mitchell, Sara and I headed out before sunrise to make it to Gansbaai (Shark Alley). We loaded up on a home cooked breakfast and then headed out to the boat. My shark fear still hadn’t appeared… to this point my biggest fear was not of the blood-thirsty, man-eating great whites, oh no- I was MUCH more afraid of the icy cold water (10-15c, 50-59f) I was about to jump into. I figured the shark fear would come once I was in the water.

How it works is they basically attach a cage to the side of the boat and it floats at the top of the water (as you can see in the photo). We suit up in thick wetsuits and hoods and then up to 6 people can jump in the cage at one time.  On our boat we had 2 groups of 5 so we had a bit more space. You just simply float at the top until the guides spot a shark and then they’ll yell at you to go down. You hold your breath and pull yourself under the water to watch the sharks swim by.

The other group (the Swedes) went first and we were SO glad they did. They spent about 30 minutes in the freezing cold water with hardly as much as a fish swimming by. The sharks finally started to appear and that’s when the guides had them switch and our group jumped in to the water.

My fear of sharks still never materialized.

We saw a few great whites swim around our cage but nothing too exciting happened at first. After awhile some of us got out of the water because we were getting cold and a few of the other group jumped back in. Still nothing dramatic happened. Finally, that group all got too cold and Stu and I decided we wanted to jump back in. It was just the two of us but that is when the action started!! Finally some sharks started attacking the bait! I tried to get video but it was a bit hard to concentrate on my camera when there was a huge death machine swimming inches away from my face. I think you can get the point from the videos below though. I’ve chosen not to embed them in the blog because they are too small when you do that and you really need to watch these in a bigger window. Notice how close my hands are to the outside of the cage in the first video.

Sharks Video 1

Please excuse my foul mouth in the next video. Evidently when a great white is swimming directly at me, profanities just come spilling out.

Sharks Video 2

After seeing all the action that was occurring (you could watch it all from above on the top of the boat which is why you can hear cheering and screaming in the 2nd video) a few others jumped back in the cage so most all of us were exposed to the thrill and exhilaration of getting up-close and personal with these massive creatures.

I still won’t say I was scared of the sharks. The experience definitely got my adrenaline pumping but I wouldn’t call it fear. Honestly, it was probably one of the coolest things I did while in Africa. More cool things will be posted about soon!

Africa Week- Climbing Mountains, Part 1 April 3, 2010

One of the things I hate doing most in life is climbing up hills and mountains. I’ve only really come to discover this after moving to Sydney where I have been forced to walk up hills to get anywhere. Orange County is SO flat in comparison. Africa was the perfect place to challenge myself in the hill department!

The first few days in Cape Town were written off as relaxation days filled with lunch near the beach, dinners, BBQs and short drives around town. Jet lag hit me pretty hard and I felt pretty crap for about 2-3 days so I’m REALLY glad we didn’t have anything too strenuous planned at the beginning of our trip. Once I was feeling better and we were trying to figure out what to do for the day, I suggested that we climb Lion’s Head.

I really don’t know why I suggested this, seeing as how I hate climbing things- but I knew it would be great once we were up at the top. Little did I know that this would be only the beginning of a trip full of LOTS and LOTS of climbing.

It took us about 45 minutes to get to the top and another hour to get back down. I know you can make it up there much quicker than that- but I’m a bit of a wuss so we had to take a few breaks for me to catch my breath. In the end, it was really tough but I made it. I’m proud I did it and the view from the top was amazing- but I can’t say I’d like to do it again.

You can just tell how much fun I had climbing to the top…

Silver Linings March 9, 2010

I’ve been in a funk lately. I think if you’ve read my posts (or noticed the lack thereof), that fact is pretty clear. I have many reasons for the funk, but most of those reasons will not be going away any time soon so maybe it’s time for me to suck it up and just accept all the annoyances and frustrations in life. Andrew says I need to be more positive. My mom says I need to be more positive. I’m noticing a trend.

Tonight I read a thread in a forum and it was all about silver linings. Basically the whole point of the thread was for people to post one positive thing for the day. Something good that happened, something nice they enjoyed, etc. So since I don’t have much to post about lately and since everyone is on the “be positive” bandwagon, I’ll at least make a point to try and mention one “silver lining” of my day for each day that I have nothing else to blog about. Maybe if I feel really crazy, I’ll post more than one.

So lets see… here are my silver linings for today:

1. My friend Katie stopped by and we had some nice girl talk

2. Jen and I started looking into details for my bachelorette party

3. Gossip girl is finally back on! (please don’t judge me)

See, I stared off with three whole things! That’s a good first step, right?

So Boring I Don’t Even Have a Good Title March 4, 2010

How can one feel so overwhelmed, yet so bored at the same time? I have so much going on in my brain, yet nothing to write about. No cool stories to share, no interesting experiences. None, zip, nada. I’m really going to struggle to pull ANYTHING out of my hat to try to keep my few readers around… but I suppose I’ll try.

I got a new $370 suitcase for free. That probably translates to $100 US in value but who cares. Qantas dropped my bag when I flew back in November and broke one of the wheels. Since no parts were available to fix it, they just handed over a brand new bag. Pretty sweet I suppose although it doesn’t have the chrome rims on the wheels. I’ll miss my chrome wheels. A million people have red bags, but I rarely ever see shiny silver wheels rolling down the luggage belt.

I finished our wedding website. WOOHOO.

We’re going to Africa next week. I guess that’s pretty interesting but since we haven’t been yet I don’t have any stories to share. I’ll get back to you on that topic when we return in April.

I’m not really sick anymore. I still have a tiny bit of a cough but my stubbornness and refusal to go to the doctor paid off… the illness went away on its own without the assistance of antibiotics.

I think I want to try to enjoy green tea as much as I enjoy wine. I seriously doubt that will ever happen, but I do think both beverages might have assisted in the eventual recovery from my nasty bug.

Only 177 days to go until the big day! It still seems so far away but I know it will come quickly.

I crossed off another item from my 101 list!  #2- Get a skin check is now complete. My skin is nice and healthy and evidently not as damaged as the skin of  Australians my age. Sweet.

Yeah- that’s all. I told you my life was pretty boring lately.

Sick In Sydney February 25, 2010

Back in Sydney, feeling miserable.

My trip to the US was great. I got SO much accomplished for the wedding and now there’s not much more I can do until August. That’s exciting and sad at the same time. The lower stress levels are beneficial, but the fun of planning will be missed. I suppose there are still a few things I can do from Australia, but a majority of it will all come in the last few weeks. Only 6 months to go now!!

My trip to Georgia was awesome as well. I had so much fun spending the weekend in beautiful Roswell with all my friends. It’s rare that we all get together now that we live in 4 different places, so it seems that weddings are the only things that ever bring us all together.

Amanda’s wedding was beautiful! The Clermont lounge was not beautiful. Let me paint a picture for you. The Clermont lounge is where a group of 16 or so of us went on Thursday night. Try to visualize this…a small dive bar, horrible rock band, thick layers of smoke (seriously, get with the times Georgia, why can you still smoke indoors?) and to top it all off… 60 year old strippers! WHAT? Yes, you read that right. There was a complete assortment of strippers from a super skinny tatooed girl to significantly overweight middle-aged girls wearing heinous outfits to a cute little old lady wearing a little red riding hood costume. Weirdest place I’ve ever been. The rest of the weekend was far less weird. The rehearsal cocktail party and wedding were full of much more taste and class (and less smoke), thank GOD!

The only thing that really sucks is that there must have been some funk going around in Atlanta because Shannon, Jen, Alison and I all caught a nasty bug. I haven’t been this sick since well before I met Andrew. I never get sick anymore and I honestly feel like I don’t even know how to respond to this. I feel like the biggest wuss. Will someone please send an un-packing fairy to take care of my luggage that has made it’s home on our living room floor?

Wedding Update January 24, 2010

With just over 7 months to go, I think we are in pretty good shape with the wedding planning. In all reality, I think I’m way ahead of where some people would be at this stage, but I still feel like there is so much to do. Some things I have NO idea about… like transportation, men’s tuxes and how to do my hair but at least I have most of the big stuff under control. Here’s a little recap on all that we’ve (i.e. I’ve) done to date.

Set the date.    Bought the dress.    Picked the venue.    Booked the caterer and rentals.    Booked the DJ.    Booked the photographers.    Bought the bridesmaid dresses.   Started purchasing accessories.  Reserved a florist.    Nearly finished with the invitation design.    Partially completed our wedding website.    Figured out what we’re doing for favors.    Set up a cake tasting appointment.   Nearly finalized the guest list.    Started looking into blocking hotel rooms for out of town guests.   Got the guest book all sorted out.    Designed the centerpieces.    Picked some of the music.   Wrote out a tentative schedule of  the day.

I still am not sick of it all. I still am not stressed.

I want to plan our wedding forever and ever.

Happy Things January 20, 2010

Because I have nothing else to write about, I’m writing about things that make me happy this week.

Picnics by the beach with Andrew on Sunny Sundays.

Wedding planning- how can you NOT like picking colors and music and flowers and all that wonderful stuff?

Farmville on Facebook… yes, I know, I’m pathetic.

Walking down to the park by the ferry and reading a book in the afternoon sun. Summer is wonderful.

Planning to see my family and friends in CA in less than 2 weeks.

Planning to see Kimbo, Stu and lots of wild animals in Africa this March.

Lots of people having babies- as long as they aren’t mine, they make me happy.

Reading endless wedding blogs and hoping that maybe our wedding will be fabulous enough to be displayed on some random blog out there.

Andrew huggles.

Going to bed. Right now. That makes me happy.

Two Years September 26, 2009

Two years ago today I arrived in Australia for good. I packed up, shed a few tears and got on that plane so I could head over the ocean to be with the boy that I love so dearly. TWO WHOLE YEARS! It really has flown by.

So what better way to celebrate my 2 year anniversary than to partake in a popular Aussie tradition… I headed to the races. I’ve always wanted to go to the races but in 2 years, I still had never been. I must say a BIG BIG THANK YOU to Audra who was fabulous enough to make it possible for me to attend. What girl doesn’t love getting dressed up and spending the day in the sun drinking champagne? Ok, I’m sure plenty of girls don’t- but I do! I even put one of those fancy schmancy fascinators in my hair- although it took me awhile to figure out how I was even supposed to put it on.

Yeah… so anyways… I’ve never gambled on horses. And guess what happend today when I did?

I WON!

AHHHH I WON SO MUCH MONEY!

I bet $3 and won $960!! Yes, that’s nearly A THOUSAND dollars from a $3 buck bet!! WOOHHOO

HAHAHAHAH YAYAYAYAY

Today was the best day EVER! 

Happy 2 year anniversary to me! YAY!

Red Sky in the Morning, Sailors Take Warning September 23, 2009

When Andrew and I went to bed last night, we had a conversation about how early the sun has been rising lately. We both discussed how bright it was at 6:30 am yesterday and how it felt like the sun had been up for hours by that point.

So when I woke today at 6:30am to pee and the bathroom was glowing a dark orange, I knew something wasn’t right- but I was too tired to really care too much. After my half-asleep, dazed bathroom break I started to walk back into the bedroom. When I saw how orange the bedroom was- I decided maybe this was strange enough for me to investigate. I headed to the living room and walked towards the balcony. I’ve never seen anything like it! The sky was bright orange! I ALMOST took a picture and I ALMOST woke Andrew up to check it out… but at 6:30 I just couldn’t bring myself to do anything other than to think “huh… weird” and go back to bed.

By 7:30- when I woke up for real, it had faded to a nasty, dirty yellow color so unfortunately I don’t have any of my own cool pictures to share. So here are some from www.smh.com.au. And remember- the sun rose at 5:43 am- so by the time these pictures were taken- it should have been very light out.

Previously and now… how the Sydney Harbour usually looks like (left) and during the dust storm (right). Photo: Luke Johnston- smh.com.au reader

 

(Top) A shot of Neutral Bay on a normal day, and (bottom) during the dust storm. Photo: Lauren Jarrott, smh.com.au reader

 

So what was all this caused from?  A massive sand and dust storm from over 900 miles away, that’s what!. Here’s what www.smh.com.au had to say:

 

 

Oh… and I take it back- I do have one photo to share with you. Here is the cloth I used to dust our apartment today. I dusted on Monday… that’s less than 48 hours ago… and here’s what I picked up today. No wonder I have a headache!

P.S. did I mention that my retardo fiance decided to play tennis today? Highest polution level ON RECORD and he decides to go play outdoor sports. Smart guy.

Another Quiet Night at Home August 28, 2009

Andrew went out with his friends tonight- I chose to stay home. Last week he went out with friends twice and I chose to stay home. I’m not sure what it is- but I just have no desire to go out and spend lots of money on alcohol these days. Staying up until 1 or 2 just sounds exhausting! Plus, ever since we went snowboarding I’ve had minor health annoyances that keep flaring up. I have this recurring bullshit problem called gastritis and  alcohol increases the problem so I’m on a drinking hiatus. Usually I get bummed if I can’t have wine with dinner every now and then, but this week I really couldn’t care less. I just want to feel better! I’ve also minimized all soda, tea (any caffeine really) and spicy food since they are also culprits in my annoying issue. Soooo… back to my point… I’m staying home.

Here are a few reasons that I’m glad to be having a quiet night at home:

1. I am not going to feel like crap all day tomorrow

2. Andrew just texted  and said 3 long Island Iced Teas are $48 bucks! That would only be about $24 in California!  Staying home prevents me from having to even be annoyed about that. I’ll make my own tropical refreshing iced tea for about 50 cents if I want to. Except I don’t, because I can’t drink tea for awhile.

3. I can sit around in my comfy pjs and Uggs rather than wearing some tight jeans and high heels

4. When I get too tired… I can just walk in the other room and go to bed rather than standing in some bar yawning and wishing we could leave

5. I can enjoy my new favorite hobby… browsing The Knot

6. I don’t have to talk to anyone. For some people this would be horrible, but I had my fix of social chatting earlier when some friends were over- now I can just sit and enjoy the silence

7. I can read more of my book that is taking me FOREVER to finish

8. I can get caught up on some work that I have to do this weekend. Ok… that’s not really a benefit of staying home- but I guess I’m going to have to do it at some point so I might as well start tonight

9. I can write this blog. See, now aren’t YOU all happy I stayed home as well?

Wine Snobs? July 23, 2009

You’ve all heard the term “wine snobs” before right? You know… the people who are SUPER picky about their wine and will only drink from a particular year, brand or region? Well I am definitely NOT a wine snob. I like most any type of wine and of course have my favorites as well as a few that I’ll stay away from simply because I do not like the taste. I’m more likely to choose a wine based on how cool the label looks as opposed to the description on the back of the bottle.  Clearly I’m not picky.

Well I learned a lesson the other day… animals in nature can be pretty snobby too.

Like our birds.

Our birds came back to us even after we deserted them for 3 weeks while we were away. I was so happy to see them but I wasn’t prepared for their return. I thought for sure they would never be back after we were gone for so long. Since I had no food for them I just had to ignore them and sadly, they flew away hungry. That day I went to the store and bought some grapes- their cuisine of choice. They LOVE grapes! Red grapes were way cheaper than the green ones on this particular day so I bought the red variety. Grapes are grapes. I paid for my little bunch of grapes and was very happy that I could now feed the birdies the next time they returned.

So they came back and I was all excited and I grabbed 4 or 5 grapes and went out and placed them on their plate (yes they have their own plate that sits on our balcony).

Well they just looked at the plate  like it was displaying poison and wouldn’t go near it!! WTF?

I was so confused… they LOVE grapes! So I tried hand feeding them. They did make a minor attempt to act interested but as soon as their little beaks simply touched the outer skin they backed off. I thought hmm… maybe they don’t like the skin. SO i actually bit one in half and tried to feed them the inside of the grape.

Nah… they weren’t having it. They refused to eat the red grapes.

The birds are TOTALLY grape snobs! Spoiled spoiled snobby birds. Today they feasted on green grapes and they were happy.

Yumdiddly – #3 Strawberry Pocket Pies

This is the ONLY kind of broken heart I ever want in life…

For edition 3 of my Yumdiddly series I am going to tell you about my sweet little pies.

I made these strawberry pocket pies with great success on the weekend! I didn’t think they were going to be a great success at first because the dough kept sticking to the wonderful Williams-Sonoma Pocket Pie mold. Then I had an “A-ha” moment when I realized I should flour the outside of the dough to prevent it from sticking to the mold but keep the insides clean so they stick to each other… duh.

I even went all out and made my own strawberry filling instead of getting some boring pre-made pie filling in a can (shh… don’t tell… but the only reason I made my own filling is because I couldn’t FIND pie filling in a can)!

I bought layers of shortcrust pastry (pie dough) from the shop and just cut the hearts out with the mold. Then I had all these leftover dough scraps that were too small for hearts. Bummer. But then I had another brilliant idea and I got some cookie cutters and made my very own little flower shaped pocket pies as well. They turned out just lovely. See… 

So if you would like to make these delectable little pies for yourself- here is what you do…

1. Go to Williams Sonoma and buy the mold. Or, if you have cookie cutters that are big enough you could just use those.
2. Buy some dough or make it yourself… I bought mine so I can’t help you if you need to make your own
3. Use the mold or cutter to cut shapes
4. Make your strawberry filling

For the filling, follow this recipe:

• 2 cups finely chopped strawberries
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbsp white sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp corn starch

1. Mix it all up and it will get kinda goopey.
2. Then put about 2 teaspoons to 1 tablespoon of filling into the center of the dough depending on the size of your shape.
3. If you have the mold, read the instructions on the box. If you cut your own dough, put a 2nd shape on top of the first and gently press down the edges of the dough so it seals around the filling. If you put too much filling in, this will be difficult.
4. Once it’s sealed, poke a few little holes in the top.
5. Brush some egg yolk over the top of the pies or if you don’t have egg, you could use some milk.
6. Bake for about 15 minutes until the dough is golden brown and the filling is probably starting to ooze out.

I had enough to make about 3 decent heart shaped pies, 1 hideous wonky heart shaped pie (first attempt), 2 flower pies and then I took the leftover dough, smashed it into a small baking dish, filled it with the rest of the strawberries and made a cute little mini pie open faced pie out of that.

Scrumptious!

Random Thoughts July 7, 2009

After seeing the preview for “My Sister’s Keeper,” I decided to read the book, so I bought it and could barely put it down. I finished it in a few days and then waited patiently for the movie to come out. I went and saw the movie with my mom and sister and it sucked. Well, I shouldn’t say it sucked- it wasn’t a bad movie, it was just terribly depressing and totally different from the book. People bitched about Twilight being different from the book- but that was a heck of a lot closer than this movie was!! I’m glad I read the book but sad the movie did not live up to it AT ALL.  So… after seeing the preview for “Time Traveler’s Wife” I’m hoping it will be a bit better in it’s movie form. Upon seeing the preview, I ran out and bought this book as well and I’m looking forward to reading it after finishing the one I’m currently reading.

I was watching “60 Minutes” the other night with Andrew. There was a special on about kids with Autism and animal therapy. We watched for about 20 minutes and it had this reoccurring background song that played throughout the whole story. Do you know what that song was? It was Bella’s Lullaby from the Twilight soundtrack. Random right? Andrew thought it was pretty strange that I even recognized it, but it’s a really nice song so how would I NOT recognize it?? I didn’t even really want to watch the special that was on, but I couldn’t change the station because the beautiful song hypnotized me

I haven’t gone to bed later than 8:30pm since I got home. With that said, I also haven’t woken up earlier than 8am. That means I’ve averaged about 11-11.5 hours of sleep the last two nights. How am I still tired? I’m guessing it has something to do with the fact that I’ve woken up each night at 1:30, 3:30, 4:30 and 5:30 to pee and stare at the ceiling for 10 minutes. Luckily I have a great ability to fall back asleep when I wake at odd hours of the night!!

My favorite song of the moment is “Sometime Around Midnight” by The Airborne Toxic Event. I had heard the song a bunch of times but finally decided to actually listen to the words one day and it’s really sad!!  I went and downloaded some other songs by the band and they’re pretty good- but I do have to say that I like their slower/deeper stuff more than the fun happy sounding stuff. Maybe that’s just the type of mood I’m in lately.

I don’t like it when it is 48 degrees outside. It is much too cold. Currently it’s 53 degrees and raining and my nose is frozen. Not fun.

I DO like my new Ugg boots. I totally see why people wear them everywhere even though they look retarded. They are super comfy and warm and when I have to leave the house and put on actual real shoes I get kinda sad that my feet have to be cold for a few moments and I have to go through the effort of putting on socks and tying laces. So today I decided to walk all the way to the bank in my Uggs. I’m sure I looked dreadful but my feet were happy.

Ok… those are my random thoughts for the night- now time to take off my Uggs so I can go sit in a hot bath in hopes of defrosting my nose while reading another book that might be a lot better than the movie (The Kite Runner). I’ll get out just in time to hit the sack at 8:30 on the dot.

More to Come May 24, 2009

3 movies and 1 new restaurant this weekend mean that I actually have some stuff to blog about… but not tonight. Bed is calling more than my computer at the moment!

So stay tuned for my super professional and reliable reviews as well as a wonderful tale of Andrew’s revenge on me for rubbing my foamy toothbrush on his face.