Take care

Long weekend is off to a good start at the new La Croix - who doesn't love fruit salad in a jar?

of yourselves!  As the long weekend begins there are always people to catch up with, things to do, errands to run - wanted to remind y'all to take some self-time out to rejuvenate and nourish yourselves with all good things.

Till Tuesday!

The Week in Five

This week in five is brought to you by a dear friend from university who has seen me through many crazy projects, late nights printing hearts on t-shirts and pioneered more baking adventures than I can count.  In her words "these are some of the little adventures that I have gone on this week in the search to try and spend my time hunting for things to add spark on my holidays":

1. So excited about turning this fresh batch of berries into little treats that I couldn't keep still for the shot.

2. Not my creation but a delight to eat and photograph

3. Art & About laneway artwork: A life-sized Isidro Blasco work.  The sprinkling rain kept people away which made this work all the more wondrous. 

4. I received this book of patterns from a close friend, with this page flagged as a starting point.

5. I am getting acquainted with this amazing object, only 5 more shots till I can get the film developed.

Here's to more berries, pandas and unfolding laneways over the long weekend!

Hello -

Kitty!

Bubble tea, come to me.

Just booked tickets to Japan for work - so excited to be continuing my asian adventures.

I've been to Japan a couple of times before and it is one of my all time favourite places to visit.  Every time I go I'm always blown away by the hospitality and kindness of the people there - not to mention their penchant for Hello Kitty and things with faces on them (two of my most loved things).

Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!

Old Joy

This week's flowers: paper daisies.

"Day by day, old joy comes back to me."

Stole this off my new favourite read here, what I love is that she took it from a song that she likes, had a poster made and this now sits on top of her bed.  This is commitment to words that speak to you!  I love all of it - down to the fact that she had it printed using a letterpress.

Peer pressure

I don't know if its because I actually like white space and big pictures, or because I'm just feeling a need to conform to other blogs I love (see here and here) - either way this little virtual space is getting whiter and brighter by the day.

I imagine my progressive layouts talking to each other like this artwork at AGNSW at the moment... I fuss about it so much, but at the end of the day it's just light grey talking to light grey talking to light grey haha.

The jury's still out on whether or not I'll keep it this way, but I do love seeing my pictures up large.

Around the world

So I was reading the Bangkok Post this weekend past, flicking through their lifestyle section I found this segment called 'Around the World' which "brings you interesting news, serious or trivial of women all over the world in the last week":

So much respecta for a newspaper that'll dedicate a page to women's news

Interestingly, the feature was on female pilots, and the arts section was promoting an exhibition on the gender divide.  I'm not informed enough on whether or not equality between sexes is an issue in Thailand, but I was impressed with the focus on this discussion from even just the lifestyle section of the paper.

This woman was the best - she kept laughing at me when I asked for spicy and then threw in a bunch of fresh herbs and cucumber for my 'cool off'.

Moreover, I noticed that there were just as many women workers as men too (be they hard-hatted construction workers, or suited up ladies).  And of course, they dominated the street chef scene.

Bangkok snapshot

Got little to no sleep on the flight over here this morning, then trundled straight off to work - so this is a just a small sample of my new favourite city in south east asia (except for any city in the Philippines which always trumps all, obviously).

Gotta love any part of the world where the cabs are hot pink.

I want one of these again - there is no way you can drink one of these without feeling like you're on holiday.

I met this little guy at the Chatuchak Weekend Market (for the record, he was in completely humane, air-conditioned coolness - I just happened to catch him mid-snooze against the side of his pen).

Okay, off to my own pen for a snooze - till tomorrow!

What's better than a dumpling?

A free dumpling.  Yeah, that's right.

I've written about my love for Din Tai Fung before (here) but had the first-time delight of getting a steaming set of complementary red bean dumplings from them last night - and boy were they tasty!  Not one to underachieve, I was making my return to the Paragon's DTF for their exclusive truffle dumplings (as I had promised to here).

We were sitting around in bloated ecstasy when one of the waiters came up with a steamer full of dumplings and told us they were on the house!  (We were one of the last patrons in there, my guess is that these little guys are made fresh every day so they had to steam and serve them or chuck them out).

See!  A whole steamer full!

Each dumpling has exactly 18 folds.  C and I are fascinated by this and how they've been able to keep this consistent across their chain - we reckon those dumpling guys must be getting paid decently compared to other dumpling joints.  Doesn't it look perfect?

We didn't know what was going to be inside - red bean was a pleasant surprise!

My loyalty to Din Tai Fung has just been sealed forever.

Oh, hey Singapore

We love it how you close off the streets so we can eat stingray in the hot open air.

Burrrp!

Facequotes

I change the way I feel about Facebook every day, but love it or hate it there are few among us who can resist trolling around the photos and updates of our 'friends'.  If you're a regular visitor to this ol' blog you'd also know that I love a good quote, hence I thought I'd pull three out of different friends' statuses, that they also posted in different ways:

1. A dear friend posted this from Louie Schwartzberg, via a TED talk she'd just watched:

2. Another friend re-shared this from another Facequoter:

3. This was the beginning of a status update of a friend, who was just finishing up a European trip visiting family with her new daughter.  I just love that "Emotions are always new" - so great.

Hope your own News Feeds are just as enlightening this week!  Either that or it's at least full of really good mobile uploads.

I get by -

- with a little help from my friends. 

In my exhaustion post-race it occurred to me that so many things that I do are every day supported by people around me.  I can't take a photo of the intangible (and more significant) ways my ecosystem keeps me going, so here are some tangible pieces of help that got me through the last couple of days and kept me smiling while my calves were burning on a plane.

Half marathon done!  Ran the whole way without stopping, but literally wouldn't have gotten there in the first place were it not for a lift from a fellow runner's lovely husband.

Delicious restorative raw food treats, hand-balled by a friend and her sister - I think this was the goji and chai - so good!  The spirulina was my favourite but I shoved it in my mouth so fast and completely forgot a photo.

Coffee with my parents at the airport, again were it not for them volunteering to pick me up and drive me I'd probably be typing this from Sydney.

I hate packing for trips (must've picked that up from my mama) but the process is always made so much brighter with this travel wallet from C.  The labeled compartments are the reason I never forget my passport or local currency.

Mmm, gonna try with a little help from my friends.

The Week in Five

The third in my series of a Week in Five stars my very own mother, and also ushers her into the world of blogging (she is already an Angry Birds master, so this is the logical next step).  This is the last week gone by through her words, eyes and iPhone:

1. Sleepover at Mi's Sugardock flat, then off to DJ's via bus 443 to catch the last days of the David Jones flower show.  Hot pink orchids.

2. Looking up at the scoreboard to see how many pins I had to get win for our team - we won one game out of three.  Better than zero.

3. Feasting instead of fasting - extended birthday celebration for me at work - gorgeous bouquet just in time to replace dying lilies in vase at home.

4. Thank goodness for technology - automatic mahjong table makes for faster and efficient 'walling', and more games.

5. Getting (dis)organized to complete my week in 5.  But I am going mad, trying to pack everything I'll need for 25 days - limited to 16kg (bag = 4kg) & handcarry of 7kg - I will just have to do laundry when I can.  Re-use, wear n wear clothes.  Oh and pack perfume.

 Good luck with packing mama!  The rest of you - have a great week  :)

Feelin' hot hot hot

Lying around in the park today

Spring has well and truly sprung in Sydney - I actually broke a sweat walking around and wearing nothing more than shorts and t-shirt, and I can feel the nights getting balmier.  Half Marathon and flying out tomorrow - most productive Sunday of the year coming up!

Learn much? Say thank you!

"In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a days work.  It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years."

Came across this great project (running for 30 days only!) to thank any great teacher you've had in your life - thanksforteaching.us. 

The rolling stories on thanksforteaching.us

We've all had a class that you looked forward to more than others because of the great teaching, take a couple of minutes out to say Thank You!

Saying something

"Wise men talk because they have something to say, fools talk because they have to say something."

Oh Benjamin Franklin, ironic that I'm quoting this because I feel I have to post about something but in reality have nothing to say.  I like it regardless - but I'm going to assume this quote does not apply to blogs, especially on hump day.

Flights booked!

Dumplings, I am coming for you.

Have confirmed that I'll be going to see C over in Singapore next week - so excited to be in the same country as him and also take some time off for a long weekend in Asia (especially as this time last week I was really fading fast).  Places that I'll be making a return visit to:

1. Din Tai Fung
I know we have this in Australia, but it's a little known fact that the one in the Paragon, Singapore is one of the two places that offers their bespoke truffle dumplings which I am still dreaming about since my last visit.

2. KU DE TA
So touristy but also so necessary with any visit to Singapore.  Singapore Slings by an infinity pool on the 57th floor?  Yes please!

3. Cereal Prawn
Okay so this is not a destination, but you can find it at any of their lively outdoor food courts that unfold onto the streets come dinner time.  Who knew prawns fried up with a breakfast food could taste so good?

Carbo-loading

I'm pretty awesome at it, here it is three ways:

1. Potato and oregano pizza from Infinity - I got two slices for the price of one as they were stuck together!  Ahh cheap thrills.

2. Refreshing cold soba salad at Ichiban Boshi, complete with little crispy batter balls.

3. DIY pasta fest to accompany bad TV and recovering from an epic run.

Oh Half Marathon, you are my excuse for me to eat as I always do!

Great people

An ever expanding piece by Isidro Blasco at the Dominik Mersch Gallery from last weekend.

"Great people make you feel that you, too, can become great."

From the great Mark Twain.  Someone at work shared this quote with me the other day and it's been on my mind since - greatness is necessarily an expanding characteristic.

Here's to a great week!

Aesop and the White Rabbit

I've been a long time fan of both Aesop and the White Rabbit Gallery so when I received an invitation to their first ever collaboration I was only too excited to RSVP.

The event was a beautifully paced evening which started with drinks in their teahouse before a guided tour of their latest exhibition Beyond the Frame which, typical of the White Rabbit, was intelligently curated and a refreshing cross-section of truly contemporary Chinese art (the gallery focusses solely on works produced after 2000).  I thoroughly recommend a visit - take a lift to the top floor, work your way down and then round up your visit in their teahouse.

I will never get tired of the birdcages that hang in their teahouse.

We were welcomed by a gorgeous spread of moreish little foods (I especially loved them serving ripe grape tomatoes as part of the mix).

Dong Yuan's paintings of views from her Beijing apartment building were a highlight - a segment of the work was featured in the invite but the real power of the piece was in seeing the 42 separate paintings together.

If you take a visit, do make sure you pause by this artwork - it's worth the stop.

I'm such a sucker for any piece thick with shiny paint that I just want to touch.  This painting by Xie Molin was made with hand-maneuvered machine plotter, I love the idea that it was a mutual effort of man and machine.

To top it all off we got a beautiful little bag of Aesop goodies as we left the gallery (we couldn't help ourselves and opened ours up as soon as we were around the corner).

A wonderful evening had from two of my favourite companies.

Bandaids to burnout

There is a point that we all get to sometimes when we are on the verge of burnout - I think from there the only sensible decision to come to is to plan for some time off / away from whatever is burning you out, but in the interim the bandaid solution of getting together with friends always helps.  With the week just gone being so busy that's exactly what I did tonight; and while the bandaid was helpful I do look forward to a proper time of rest and rejuvenation.

Sharing a bottle of good white with a good friend

Being at Grandma's we also had jaffles (one chicken, one vego - and then we swapped half and half).

While largely insignificant in the scheme of things, great nails are always so lovely to look down at as I type away on the keyboard, and are something that I've treated myself to in light of the last couple of weeks.  In this case I DIY'd a manicure with Mecca's Regan and Sephora's Only Gold for Me top coat.

Bandaids are essential, will keep y'all posted on a good and proper antidote to the burnout!

Sometimes,

You just need to say yes to dessert.

I took three brownies, so I had to mutually up the ice-cream intake.

Tea always finishes off everything perfectly.

Here's to a new week!

The Week in Five

I'm so excited to usher in the second installment of 'The Week in Five' and my first guest blogger in the form of a colleague who would easily make it into my list of awesome things, and is a super talented photographer.  I'm going to let her quietly beautiful photos and ever-so-thoughtful captions speak for themselves.

1. "You're in it right now aren't you?" (Garden State, 2004)

2. It's all about the random acts of kindness

3. On my way home, Spring taps me on the shoulder

4. Some days you just need a pick-me-up

5. Saw Bon Iver's 'Holocene', booked tickets to Europe on a whim

Enjoy your weekends everyone!  And hey, maybe book some tickets to Europe  :)