Saturday, April 26, 2014

Easter in Sydney

How was everyone's Easter? I just can't believe this crazy stretch of long weekends in a row is almost already over. No more public holidays until June and then October here in Sydney!

Anyway, Easter last week was beautiful weather and I made the most of it. Started with some lovely Thursday night drinks at Parke Davis which is below the well-known Cuban Place. I always loved hanging out at the Cuban Place because it was easy to get seats but Parke Davis has a cute cocktail menu and the novelty lights at the doorway are just my kind of thing! Please excuse all the terribly shot iphone photos ahead, I've become even lazier with photos lately.

Overall I was impressed - it wasn't overcrowded, the ambience was casual but fun and service snappy considering people were mostly ordering cocktails which are obviously labour intensive.

Over the long weekend I took the chance to go to the Easter Show which as usual was full of visiting cute as can be animals and stopping by the Country Women's Association Tea Room for some scones. Yum yum! Can you tell I love scones?

I always make a habit of seeing the cakes and crafts - some of the creativity is amazing and it's crazy to think how much time goes into all the various creations. 

I took a photo of this ginormous pumpkin because well, it's just massive at (apaprently) 366kg. Plus, the day before my visit the Royals took the time to specifically look at these giant pumpkins when they did their whirlwind 1 hour visit of the Show. How do you even grow something this big?

And my favourite part? I was a total kid and went and visited the 'pat a chick' stand where I got to play with a day old chick. So cute. So fluffy. I wanted to take one home!

I think I'll give the Easter Show a rest for a few years as it starts to get a little repetitive going year after year, but I was glad to enjoy a lovely day out to hold onto the last of the warmer weather!

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Life in Photos: March 2014

It's already April with Easter around the corner, and Summer officially over and I'm sitting at home on a dreary Sunday seeing the rain just literally fall all day long. But I love the guilt-free feeling of staying indoors when the weather is crapola and what better time to catch up with some reading and blogging!

So March was actually quiet for me, but I still managed to do some fun things to enjoy the last of the beautiful Sydney Summer.

I had one last beach trip - and the ice cream boat stopped by!

Have any other Sydneysiders noticed the beautiful colurful sunsets we've been getting lately? I took a walk after work a few weeks back and this was my view - I'm sad that daylight savings is over now because the days will start getting shorter and shorter!

Case in point - beautiful colourful sunset! Again, excuse my dodgy iPhone photos. I've been lazy to upload my actual photos recently!

Recently I went to Larder at Woolloomooloo - it's a pop-up as part of Otto restaurant and we got a 50% off deal which was amazing value. Not only that, the prices at Larder are actually really reasonable to begin with, especially given you get an amazing view over the water while you enjoy your meal. This was the prosciutto starter to share and it was fabulous!

Last weekend was beautiful. I went to see Alain de Botton speak at the Opera House which was really entertaining.

Our seats were side view but right by the stage so we were amazingly close, even though we coudln't see Alain front on. He's a really engaging speaker which made the time fly by!

And since the weather was so beautiful I couldn't help but head down to the Rocks to my favourite tea and scones place - The Tea Cosy. I love it there. Their scones are amazingly fluffy and their tea is also fabulous. The only downer was that one of my scones had hair in it - as in it was baked into the scone and I try as I might I just couldn't get the hair out. They apologetically rectified the situation and gave me a replacement plus one extra though others were expecting I should get my money back and a fresh scone. But I still love it there!

And this week I tried out the hard-to-get-a-reservation at Riley St Garage. The food was fab, the decor is amazing, and the menu is just so easy to order from. They have a set menu for $68 which had a huge selection of food and I definitely am keeping that on my agenda for any group/special occasion meals in the future. This is a blurry/badly shot photo of their miso salmon and truffle mash which were both hearty and flavourful.

What should I do now that it is Autumn and the days are getting shorter?