Whose your Daddy?

Last Saturday night rock and roll royalty came to town, none other than Ross Wilson of Daddy Cool and Mondo Rock fame. He played at the Gibraltar Hotel here in Bowral. Which I must say has been an excellent addition to life here in the Highlands. We have now seen Glenn Shorrock and Richard Clapton here and there are many other musicians who have come or are coming soon to play here.

We had an early dinner before the show at what I think is one of the best places to eat here in the highlands (and there are a lot!) Cafe Rosso. Every time we have eaten there, the service has been flawless, the food fresh, tasty and seasonal and a great ambiance with Sebastian, mine host schmoozing with the diners. In fact last time we ate there we had a cannelini  bean bruschetta which was amazing in its simplicity but wonderful in taste and texture. Well the next day we ran into Sebastian at the local green grocers and I told him I was trying to recreate his dish at home that night, he gladly gave the recipe and some tips and tricks, I love that! 

anyway back to Ross Wilson....




He played a good mix of his old and new material and of course it was the famous  "Eagle Rock" that got the audience up and dancing ( even my significant other did a turn on the dance floor with me!)

Ross Wilson 

I can say that he still sounds as good as ever and was supported by an excellent ensemble of musicians. I downloaded Daddy Cool's greatest hits on the old i-phone and relived the concert on the way home!

Me, channeling my inner rock chick!

Spending time, losing time.

It's a sunny, but cold and windy day here at GG central. I am sitting here in the lounge room next to the fire, doing what I do best.....wasting time on the internet.

It all started today when the Significant Other went to a community meeting about our local hall. In many country towns around Australia there are school of Arts, or community halls that are falling into rack and ruin because of lack of funding to keep them going, ours is one of them.  So it looks like the local council will take over the responsibility for the on-going maintenance and insurance  of the hall and the local community will continue to fund raise to provide better facilities for us all.

Anyway, I got to thinking about how we could do some fundraising and then had the scathingly brilliant idea of having a 1920's/Great Gatsby ball next April. As our hall is officially known as the "Glenquarry Peace Memorial Hall" and was opened on April 29 1920 I think this theme would be entirely appropriate.

So I began searching on the internet for any references to our hall and then somehow I got onto this amazing site which is a treasure trove of all types of stuff, go on check it out.!

And so I found out a lot more about our hall, and the fun and merriment that used to go on there during the 1920's. Also a piece of trivia for you, our hall has a link to Don Bradman, can you guess how? (answer at the end of the post)


So now I find myself looking through back issues of the Women's Weekly 1966 editions (don't ask how I got there) but I found  this beauty  and remember when my friends and I would strike poses like this when pretending to be models!  What is it about the leg thrusting????  And of course  you should always wear a rain hat when wearing your swim suit (!)

Do you find yourself losing great chunks of your life while on the internet?

* Jessie Menzies family donated the piece of land upon which our Glenquarry Hall was built.!

I have been musing the last couple of days about things, really important things, like why do people (me, included) like to have Eiffel tower candle holders, diaries, phone covers ( in fact for me anything with an Eiffel tower is a given that I will purchase it)  pictures of the New York city skyline etc etc, you get my drift when we live in Australia?

There a number of shops here in Glenquarry Goddess land that survive on selling such paraphernalia and whole furniture stores devoted to recreating the whole french country home experience right here in the southern highlands. So I am not criticising, I just started to wonder if people in USA or Europe feel the need to have an essence of the Australian way of life as part of their home decor?

I imagined there were homes all over Europe and North American that had Opera House lampshades and Harbour Bridge coathangers 

Made from hard wearing Australian made polypropylene, these funky lamps add atmosphere to any room. They are easy to assemble and come in a variety of colours.
Product Number: 3409
Price: $89.95
(All prices are shown in Australian dollars)

or how about something really useful

or something a little retro..

a doily from the Powerhouse museum collection, 1941.

So on this Friday afternoon, I will leave you with those thoughts and perhaps any readers from outside Australia might like to share with us if they like a little bit of "down under" in their home decor.

It's mad mad world....

Last Friday night we hosted here at GG central a dinner party for 6 of our friends with a theme of "Mad Men". Mad Men is one of my all time favourite TV shows, I love the era, the clothes, the music and the drinking and smoking (at work no less!).

I decided about 2 months ago this was to be my theme and I set about to orchestrate my dinner party with the right mix of people, food, wine and of course dressing up!

First of all, in the mad men days dinner parties would have been a rather formal affair,  so in true GG style a formal invitation was sent out, ( my concession to modern times was that it was via e-mail rather than snail mail), here it is

Personal information is redacted for security purposes.
Hello, NSA! :-)

I googled images of Don, Betty et al, to create my invite, also searched for old (read here sexist) advertisements which I then put together  and laminated to make placemats,  here they are below , and the best thing I have them for the future  (or available for hire, at the right price! :-)

I love setting the table to look special, so I worked out how to fold my lovely white linen Nanna napkins (from my op shop scouting) to make them look like a man's white shirt, then I used a thin black velvet ribbon to make it look like a man's tie, and I was rather thrilled with the result.

My effort is on the left, in case you could not tell!

Some funky orange and hot pink coloured dahlias in a vase set the scene perfectly.

Ready and waiting for the guests to arrive, the Parker furniture is rocking this theme!

Now the menu...
this had to be authentic to the era, so I went through my cookbooks, internet and my own (repressed) memories and came up with this menu, and then added a touch of my own sub-editing to it and then, folded them in thirds to create a place card for the table.

My Beef Wellington! Thermomix making a guest appearance

so I had the invites, table decoration and menu sorted, what else was left but my apparel. 

Luckily for me,  one of the Junior Glenquarry Goddesses is a very skilled needlewoman, and a couple of years ago she made for me a skirt based on a design that Grace Kelly wore in Rear Window, here is the original

and here is GG herself in her interpretation of "being Grace Kelly"

Now some pics of our fabulous friends, and see if you can spot the photo(s) taken later in the night.....

there is no prize for guessing correctly!  And they all were great and got into the spirit of the evening and made an effort dressing up. I must say it is so much fun to be a little bit special and dress for dinner, why don't we do that anymore?  ( I think I might have another post on that topic).

My  chocolate mousse with pistachio Persian Fairy Floss! 

My very dear friend, the Pyrenees Princess, we went to school together , not with the dog of course! It was a Ladies College after all! 

Well, this has been a long post with lots of photos, I hope you enjoy reading about my dinner party and I am now thinking about my next "themed" dinner party, any suggestions?

BTW I have to hold another Mad Men dinner for the rest of the family and offspring who were not able to attend this one, so stay tuned.

Badges of Honour

Today is the last day of the Sydney Monorail winding its way around Darling Harbour and the city. From what I have been hearing in the media, it won't be missed a lot,  but it reminded me that I had a piece of history related to the monorail.

Here it is

a badge from the original protest against the monorail. I have managed to keep it all these years in a box where I keep old coins and badges. 

As I was looking for it I came across a couple more vintage badges from the late 1970's,  from the time when Gough Whitlam had been sacked as Prime Minister and Malcolm Fraser installed.  One even managed to combine 2 political protest movements, the sacking of Gough and the exporting of uranium as shown below..

I think that is meant to be the opposite of a good day!

My favourite, and don't you love the caricature?

It got me to thinking as I am wont to do, we don't seem to do or wear badges like we used to. I had quite a collection over the years, some hilarious, some philosophical and some downright silly. However they were a good way to convey what you were thinking, a bit like wearing your heart on your sleeve, you wore your badge on your lapel. Here are a couple of other oldies but goodies.

Mothers Day circa 1989 or 1990, Mothers got free rides at Luna Park on Mothers Day, and I sure got my mother's day worth!

Need I say more??

I have been known to wear this one to work on occasions!

A good message for all of us

Remember the "flat cat" craze of the mid 1990's, I loved them, this one especially appealed to me.

A funny story about one of my most favourite badges. I bought this particular  one in Leichhardt around 1980 on a Saturday morning after a big Friday night, it read "I used to feel young". 

I kept it and wore it occasionally and then on my first trip to Paris I had it on my backpack. At this point the badge was 22 years old, so it really DID mean what it said.   

Well,  while visiting Napoleon's tomb, it fell off my bag and down into the crypt where he was buried  and then bounced along the marble floor. If any of you know it you know it's all very quiet and solemn so the noise of the badge running along the floor made so much noise, that I got spooked and picked up my bag and slunk out, hoping not to get arrested!

Here is a pic of the inside, I was up the top and it fell down from there.

However,  I  do think of that badge from time to time, and if anyone ever found it down there near Napoleon's tomb and wonder how it got there, and how apt it was,  saying;

"I used to feel young" indeed you did Emperor!

What about you, did you ever "get into" badges, or do you think they should make a comeback??

Jet Setting, part 1

My sister is going to Amsterdam on Saturday for work and going Emirates Business Class and it got me to thinking about packing for an overseas trip. I have been to Amsterdam about 4 times and I love the city, it is really lovely and the people very friendly and welcoming and they speak absolutely perfect English which certainly lessens the angst of travelling.

I cannot confirm or deny if I have had any "special" cafe treats while there, but I think I might have inhaled some passive smoke (if you get my drift!)  I actually have a funny story about a space cake but you'll have to come back for that one!

I like to think that over the years I have got packing for a trip down to a fine art. I can do a 3 week trip to the US with just carry on luggage! One year for work I did 7 international trips and earned my stripes for packing!


So I thought I would share with you some of my packing essentials.

Do you remember the old American Express traveller cheques TV ad?  Mr Wong said never leave home without it? Well I never leave home with my....

 

My Qantas Club Card! If you fly enough you can get complimentary membership, and I have in the past, however I still pay for my own membership it makes international flying a great deal more pleasant. Lounge access and champers before flying, showers and refreshments during stopovers and extra luggage, dedicated check in and seat preferences. After all I am worth it! :-)

 A good travel wallet, to keep all your documents, itineraries, hotel and airline cards etc (always have your tickets and bookings in a printed copy as well as e copy)

 A small travelling umbrella so you are ready for whatever the weather throws at you. I love this one as it has the kangaroos on it and it does draw people to ask you if you are from Australia, a good conversation starter.

Shoe and lingerie bags,  (a BIG thank you to Ms Karen "Pats" Brown for these gorgeous gifts) I have a collection of them, not all quite as swish as these.

 Something comfortable to  relax/sleep in . I have a collection of these Morrissey Qantas PJ's from my days of international business class jet setting, but tracky dacks and a warm T shirt will do, as I find that planes can get quite cold during a long flight. Also your clothes won't get crushed and you will look a lot fresher when you get off.

 A good eye mask, ear plugs and lip balm. The eye masks you get in economy are crap, so I have a collection of classy comfortable business class ones, but if you don't have them, go out and invest in some. Ear plugs at a minimum, noise cancelling headphones are great if you have them,  or if you are in the pointy end you'll get them anyway.  As we all know air planes are a very drying  environment so I always use a liberal amount of moisturisers, lip creams and eye drops to reduce the red dry eyes.

  Do not get on an international flight without this! I have used it for years. It does a number of things, keeps you nose moist so you don't dry out,  it also has eucalyptus added so it has a natural protective effect on all those bugs on the plane, and I am pleased to say have never had an "plane cold" since using it.

Compression stockings, I am not sure if they help much with Deep Vein Thrombosis  (but hey they can't do any harm) but they do stop your feet from swelling so much so that you can wear your shoes at the other end!

A Pashmina for a number of reasons. Extra warmth and you can wrap it around yourself as you exit the aircraft and look a million dollars. Have you noticed all the superstar jet setters always have one on them when photographed in airports?














A power-board and electrical plugs for your destination. Given that we have so many electrical  appliances these days this makes it easy, plenty of slots to keep everything charged and you only need 1 adapter!

Happy Packing Travellers, I'll do another post in the next few days on packing for your trip!