I'm living in the 70's ( well almost!)

Not taking my own advice, ( see previous blog) and having a drink in the Qantas Club before I fly off to the USA! Very excited as we got our requested upgrade ( thanks Qantas!) but that is not the topic under discussion today, I will save my travel exploits for another blog.

We have been frantically trying to get our house clean, tidy and bathroom renovated in the space of the last month, and those of you who have seen the chaos I have been residing in can realise what a mammoth undertaking this has been.


Well,


I am proud to announce that WE did it! The bathroom is done, bar painting, but very functional, the crap
 (read here really useful things we keep but not sure why) are in the shed in the backyard and we now have something resembling a lounge and dining room furnished with my finds on e-bay ( hence the 70's theme).

 I wanted to pay homage to the era the house was built in and it is funny that the 70's furniture is really the right size for the house, modern furniture seems to overcrowd it, but old  and lovely parker furniture fits just right!

take a look at my rooms!

Anyway I am going to fit in another champers before my flight is called, so will blog from sunny ( well sunnier than Sydney at present!) LA!

Don't drink and Blog, or email or text!

I am in the midst of getting ready for our trip to New York for Christmas, YES I am having a WHITE Christmas, miracle on 34th St, every New York Christmas cliche you can think of, I am up for it!

Just got back from the cinema I went with my movie buddy ML and we saw New Years Eve, which is set in NYC.  newyearsevemovie.warnerbros.com

It was great and a wonderful way to get into holiday mode, and dear followers, do not fret, I will faithfully blog from the big apple as my significant other (aka the Big Banana) has provided a Mac Book Pro for me to use while I am away.

But as usual I digress.......

My lovely mother in law gave me a little gift yesterday it is called the "My little Paris": the best kept Parisian secrets, http://www.mylittle.fr/mylittleparis/en/the-best-kept-parisian-secrets.html

and those of you who know me will know if it has en eiffel tower on it, I am there!

Anyway there is a little note on a service you can get on google mail to protect you if you like a drink or three or four and don't want to embarrass yourself !

I thought this was very topical given that I have come home from the movie, had a couple of sad blanks (that is spell check for sav blanc !!)   and started working on this blog.

so with out any more ado this is what you can do! 

Available on any gmail setting in English, 

https://www.google.com/accounts/ManageAccount

Bon Soir, off my to my bed chamber!
adieu.

It's a Dog's Life!

One of the driving reasons we wanted to move out of the city and onto a property was to have some dogs. We got a dog when we first started going out and she lived for 17 years. After Pavlova (that was her name) died we just stuck to cats, but hey, they are not dogs are they?

When our daughter Meaghan got her own Pug dog the whole family were quick to adopt her, and the term "Pug Napping" was coined which was the adjective  ( pug napped the verb) for taking the Pug to your place for a visit or sleepover! She was sooo tiny when she was small I used to put her in my handbag a la Paris Hilton and take her to Norton St shopping! We used to take her to the Dog Park at Haberfield and order puppicinos for her, and pretend she was our!  Anyway I digress..

so we moved to the country and got a dog, but not a proper farm working dog but a little yappy dog ( Australian silky terrier) called Mr Bazil or Baz as he is know or BAZIL ( imagine here Sybil Fawlty calling!)   Here is a pic of him when we first got him,  the most notable thing is how white the lounge is ( we had to change the covers, white lounge + dog does not add up! 

Because we were both away a lot during the day we decided to get him a companion so luckily the breeder still had his sister so we got her, she was already named Scarlett so I just add the "Miz" so she is known as Miz Scarlett ( like in gone with the wind) or as our daughter Verity calls her "Scar"!

Anyway our children now come down and visit us, check out the fridge and see all the little special delights in the fridge and ask who are they for, when I say "the puppies" I get told that the dogs get better looked after than they ! ( a bit of exaggeration there, me thinks).

But maybe not just our dogs are spoiled? Yesterday I made an appointment with my hairdresser to have my usual hair maintenance next week, no problem. When I need to got the dogs washed and trimmed it is a minimum 4 week ahead booking, no joke! sometimes you can get an emergency appointment if someones dog dies or something, but around here it is more competitive that getting your child into a private school !

so after booking them in over a month ago Mr Bazil and Miz Scarlett will have their doggy day spa ( no joke it is really like that!) next Wednesday, so I will put some pics up then of their new look!

Finally here is a lovely picture of our dogs + puggy asleep on our lounge all together, pls note the non-white more practical lounge!

What's this thing about 7?

I have recently been thinking about how often the number 7 is cited as the definitive list number.
Yes I have a lot of time to ponder life's questions like this while I am  growing old waiting for Godot (I mean Dr's) to see me in the operating suite! today's record was only 5 hours!!

Eg:

7 Deadly sins
7 Year Itch
7 Dwarfs
7 Wonders of the world
7 Habits of highly effective (read bloody annoying!) people
7 Brides for 7 Brothers
7 Samurai
The Jesuits saying about giving them a boy before he is 7 and they will show you the man!
James Bond 007 ( that still counts)
The Jewish 7 days of mourning
God creating the world in 7 days
7 days in a week

you get my drift?

I did some research and it is hypothesised that 7 is the spirit of perfection in the bible,
so that must explain why marketing gurus have decided that we have
7 signs of AGEING  *  and even worse
7 SIGNS OF A DRY SCALP!

* I seem to recall  the 7 signs used to be only 5, then they obviously found 2 more. I am so glad to know that skin care and hair shampoo companies are spending their days finding these things out for us, God forbid if we only looked for the 5 signs we might grow old without even being aware of it!

I hope you can sense that my tongue is firmly planted in my cheek. :-)

Anyway if you have any  another answers to this 7 conspiracy feel free to let me know, I am now off to check how many signs of a dry scalp I have, always very competitive,  I want to be first to get to 7!


did you notice I had 7 paragraphs in that blog, it's spooky! ( not counting this one of course)

Play Dough for grown-ups!

I love cooking, no, make that  I adore cooking! It's the most relaxing thing I can do. After having a family of 4 children I still find it a challenge to cook for only 2 of us, luckily my mother in law and sister in law are grateful recipients of my over catering!

Anyway while my hubby is busy getting ready for his final week of his diploma  study, I have had plenty of free time to while away in the kitchen. So I thought I would share with you my way of making gnocchi.

I must confess up front that I am not that fussed about measuring ingredients, I work more on the look and feel of things.

Ingredients: This will serve about 4 - 6 people.

6- 8 Sebago potato's
2 eggs
Plain flour
pinch of salt

I like to boil the potato's the day before with their skin on and then let them cool and the next day you can just peel off the skin really easily. After they are peeled I put them through a mouli or food mill. DON'T USE A FOOD PROCESSOR ( JUST TRUST ME ON THIS ONE!) I find it better to sift the flour and put some on the bench before the potato, and then as the pile of potato builds up I just add more sifted flour until all the potato's are gone.

Then make a well and add 2 eggs ( best to have them at room temperature) and then mix with your hands, add a pinch of salt and more flour as you need to:  the goal is for the mixture to  become like a dough.

Now the fun bit :-) you get to play with the dough just like in kindergarten. Take a handful at a time of dough and roll out into a long sausage shape ( see, I told you it was fun!)
when you  have it rolled out I pinch a portion of the dough and cut it with a sharp knife. You can make the gnocchi as big or little as you wish. Then place on a floured surface.

 

Here's how much I made today: 2 trays this size.

then in a large saucepan boil the water and when boiling place the gnocchi a handful at a time ( not too many or they may stick together) they will rise to the surface and sit there when they are cooked

I like to baste them after they are all done in a little EVOO and butter to add some extra flavour and then you can serve with any type of sauce you like, my favourites are: a simple tomato, basil and garlic home made sauce, burnt butter and sage and quattro formaggi! Ah Delicious!

Well I don't know about you but this looks too good to just leave sitting there so bon appetit!

"I know how she does it!"

I went with a friend to see the movie "I don't know how she does it" last weekend. I was looking forward to seeing SJP in this role as I had loved the book., and as a SATC tragic any excuse to see "Carrie" I'm there!

I did not expect an academy award winning movie, but was pleasantly surprised overall at the movie but it got me to thinking (see a little bit of "Carrie" there) in interviews SJP talks about how difficult it is to be a working mum,  Give me a break!

I know how THEY do it, they have a number of things on their side:

1. ample financial resources ( well, a lot more than most)
2. a retinue of nannies, cooks, personal assistants, personal trainers, stylists and other hangers on telling them how fabulous they are!
3. they are "too busy" to have their own babies so they have someone else to do that for them ( see point 1).

Maybe I am just jealous of them, ( maybe a bit) but I would love to see SJP live the life of a real mum with out the assorted said retinue and see how "difficult" she find it.

So before we start glorifying these "supermums" have a look around at yourselves and your friends and remember we are the 99%.

thanks for reading!       http://howshedoesitmovie.com/

I'm a geek girl!

I am so exicted that I have worked out how to download and put a new template on my blog, do you like it?  I have also updated my i-phone to OS5 and only managed to lose my songs, well, not quite I have all my songs on i-tunes but cannot get them back on my i-phone ( anyone got any ideas??)

I have been working at home today (hence the work on my blog!) and the weather has been lovely and then we get these thunderstorms which frighten the animals. I had to go around to my friend's and put her dog in the house for her as she was in sydney.

Talk about the country life, we had an echidna here last week, the dogs were barking like carzy ( and not at each other which is the usual case) so I went out and found this little echidna sheltering against the house. I bought the dogs inside and it wandered off to wherever it had to be.

Have been collecting ideas for future blogs, so stay tuned, and thanks for reading!