Glastonbury 2013

I just needed to post in excitement because some friends and I just secured our deposit tickets to GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL 2013!

Tickets were insanely difficult to get this year apparently (because there wasn't a 2012 festival) and I can't believe we managed to get through and literally minutes later, this note came up on the website:

And on twitter I see they sold out in a record 1 hour and 40 minutes!!

So excited! Now I just have to find a way to definitely make it to the UK in June 2013!!!

Here and there

For my Sydney readers, how amazing was the weather this week? Thursday night was soo beautiful and warm though unfortunately I spent it at home. Wednesday and Friday nights were my two outing nights and it was a pity the weather didn't quite hold out but it was still nice to feel the warmth for a bit!

I started my weekend early this week finishing up the working week by going for drinks from about 4pm. We sat out in the sun drinking cocktails which was awesome! Wish I took some photos but for now here are some random photos from the last week or so.

 I went to the newish Sydney Nitro ice cream place, N2, this week with some friends after some quick Thai food. We tried the Mango and Caramel something or other  ice cream with the mango being a clear winner. It wasn't amazing, but it tasted exactly like eating the fruit itself so that's always a win in my books! I'm not sure that I'll be back anytime soon or regularly but its always a great option! Look at the colourful KitchenAids in the piccie above!

Mmm Mango!

Liquid nitrogen spilling over everywhere

With it being the start of October (already, I know!), we can welcome Sydney's Crave food festival. In recent years its been a bit lacklustre but Sugar Hit is always what I try to go to because I love dessert and its easy to fit in a dessert anyday after 9pm when you're having a random girly dinner or night out.

Hilton's Glass Brasserie never disappoints so we thought we would try that out after some Jap food earlier. It was an iranian fig and chocolate dessert which was of course beautifully presented and equally tasty. Of course its not as spectacular as some of their main menu desserts (if you're ever there, the Bombe Alaska is pretty good!) but the Brown Brothers moscato that came with it was amazing! I love anything Brown Brothers that is sweet and this went down smoothly and was just what I needed for a bit of a mid week pick me up!

Sugar Hit at Hilton's Glass brasserie

 And for a random one - I was meant to be getting complimentary tickets to go to Iconic Race day on the long weekend last week but my tickets didn't arrive in the mail in time :( Actually, they were express mailed to me and did arrive in time but the mailing system at my work didn't get them to me in time so they were sitting there waiting for me when I returned from the long weekend! Sadface. I love the races too, so it was a bit disappointing!

And finally this week I had an impetuous moment and decided to cut my hair short. Everyone at work tells me they like it so I'm hoping they aren't just saying it, but here's one of the pic I brought to my hairdresser as inspiration:

I love me a Minogue bob - not as harsh as a Pob but still cute for Summer I think!

Cleaning silver jewellery

I wear a lot of sterling silver jewellery and recently my cleaning cloth just wasn't doing the trick to get my jewellery back to as-new sparkling form. It wasn't just the hard to reach places (e.g between chain links) which was looking dirty, but even the flat surfaces didn't have the same shine that new jewellery has.

So anyway, I went about doing a home concoction cleaning spree of my jewellery! I wish I had taken 'before' shots, not just 'after' shots, but I still have some stuff to clean so maybe next time I'll show the difference.

I used the old bicarb/baking soda trick:
- Take a small bowl and line with aluminium fol
- Add hot water and a tablespoon of baking soda and stir (I used the hotest tap water I could get, but if you want super fast and strong you can boil water in a kettle)
- Place silver jewellery in the solution (on top of the foil) for about one minute
- Rinse clean and let air dry

So as you can see from the shot below - the chain on my bracelet is now sparkling clean! Prior to cleaning, the insides of the chain connections were all tarnished and blackish. When I placed my jewellery in the bowl, I swirled it around a bit to make sure the chemical reactions were cleaning all edges as much as possible and as I did that I could see the black grimey bits swirling around and rising to the surface.

Here's a pic of the bowl after cleaning quite a few different things (necklaces, rings, bracelets). Can you see the black dots?

Actually here's one I do have a before and after shot of. This shot below was taken a few weeks prior to cleaning my jewels.

And then after cleaning - so the lighting isn't quite the same etc but can you see how sparkly they are! Especially the bottom band.

There are also suggestions on websites that if you have a build up of dirt in hard to reach places, just soak your jewellery overnight in a bowl of water with dishwashing liquid but I've never tried this and never really thought it would be anymore effective.

Have you tried either technique with success?

Iconic order!

I made my first order on Aussie online store Iconic a while back when they had a rare further 25% off all items (including sale items!)

The order came pretty promptly considering I ordered at 2am on a Friday and was wrapped pretty nicely too. My only complaint is that the Aus Post delivery people just left it at my doorstep when I had specifically requested it to be left at the post office instead (you can specify when you make the order on Iconic). The great thing with Iconic is that their stuff can be returned within 100 days. Great for people like me who often do not have the time to return straight away, even though it will sit there unworn and ready to be returned at any point.

I ordered two items - a House of Harlow starburst ring which my sister already has in black. It was further reduced to $55, with 25% off again so that was a pretty good deal! Plus it was the last one left so I just had to buy it. It's one size too big but I can just wear it on different fingers instead.

And because I was ordering anyway (free shipping!), I ordered this hearts cardigan from a random brand because I thought it looked cute for quite a small sum of money. Turns out the size 6 is far too big for me and more fitting for a size 8-10, so this is going back. Apologies for the bad photo for this one - I took this photo late one night when I got home and realised my order had arrived!

So far the returns process has been pretty easy (though a bit confusing with the instructions being quite long) but will see how long it takes to get my money back!

Weekend out and about!

A few random pics from my weekend/week:

The weather on Friday was AH-MAZING in Sydney, and so as I headed to dinner I walked along George St and these vintage buses from the Sydney Bus Museum were shuttling people around as part of Art and About which kicked off on Friday.

Aren't they so cool?

Then I was at the Rocks and there was an outdoor pop-up dinner type thing. It's not quite October so I don't think its part of Crave but I was just thinking to myself what perfect weather for an outdoor dinner. Beautiful!

And this one is a bit random, but during the week I visited one of my clients for work and they decided they would feed us (only 4 of us) some pastry treats! This was after some were already consumed actually so no we didn't finish them. Trying to be good, you see :) Yum I love me a good pastry!

Actually this is from the weekend before, but I did a spot of shopping (will post about my buys when I get round to it!) and stopped by at Danks Street Depot to refuel.

I ordered the pulled pork + corn toasted sandwich. It was tasty, if a bit dry, but not amazing. It definitely needed some relish or a light sauce to counteract the dryness.

iPhone 5!

I pre-ordered my iPhone 5 last week and it arrived promptly on Friday morning, the first day of release yay!

I have to say, I don't think the new features are hugely different to the old one (I currently have a iPhone 4) and the increased length wasn't something I was so keen on, but my old phone is getting old and my contract needs renewing anyway so figured I might as well get one!

I take photos of everything so here's some first looks:

The box...same as always really.

And iPhone 4 v iPhone 5 - not a huge difference in size but definitely a little thinner. Look how scuffed up my old case is, but I love it. I picked one awesome case and used it for the entire 2 years I had my 4. Now I'm on the lookout for cases for the 5, but no one is stocking any yet or they're only allowing preorder and most of them aren't to my liking. I want thin, light weight, brightly coloured without being tacky as well as made from a great material. If anyone sees any meeting my very specific requirements, please let me know!

And these are the new much anticipated headphones - the storage container is pretty neat hey?

I'm going through the laborious backup process at the moment - see I'm downsizing from a 32GB to a 16GB and so this is taking longer than it already takes with all my apps and downloads!

Have you got the new iphone, and how do you like it?

Uniqlo coming to Australia!

The last 12 months has brought the announcement of a tonne of overseas retailers announcing their arrival to Australia which has been a great coup to the Australian consumers.

Well, to add to the list is today's announcement that Japanese superstore Uniqlo is slated to open in Australia in August 2014.

The huge boom of Australians purchasing online has definitely caught the attention of overseas retailers because I feel like every month I'm hearing about new arrivals (Topshop soon, H&M in the future, and rumours of Sephora - I'm planning a post about that soon!). It definitely makes sense, and is definitely starting to put Sydney on the map, so who's going to say no to that?

Uniqlo sells some really awesome stuff for uber cheap which given the quality is great, though personally I don't buy a huge amount from there when overseas. But nevertheless, excited to see what they will be doing! I think the announcement this early for an estimated opening almost 2 years away is a bit rich, but many are cheering already!

Meanwhile, I'm a little late on this story, but one store I'm insanely excited about is homewares giant Williams Sonoma opening in Sydney (in Bondi too!) by the end of the year!!! I cannot contain my excitement because I used to regularly visit WS when I was in the US because I loved their offerrings so much. Plus it's not just them, it's their associated brands Pottery Barn and Elm Street also!

Photo I took at WS - one of my favourite aisles!

Great wins for Sydneysiders!