3 nights of note in Nippon

hell-oooo all you subarashii people :) i have recently been looking back on my time in Japan with fondness. Like, oh my god, like, when am I NOT!? so anyway I thought I would share a few stories with you guyzzz. You must realise my words are precious and like a gift wrapped in the finest silk known to man... so this is a reward for my "Followers" and a little something to entice my other blog stalkers to become followers... so i may see who you are. It's like this chant they used to have back in 'Nam: "Come out come out wherever you are..." yeah i dunno creepy... ANYWHO, what the fuck am i talking about...

STORY 1) MARCH 2008

So, Joshuella and I went to Japan Land for a wee holiday in March 2008. We realised after we booked that we would be there at the time of our 3 year anniversary. How convenient! So we flew Melbourne - Nagoya and stayed overnight then headed up into the Japanese Alps to stay in Nagano for a few days. (BEST PLACE EVERRRR!) Then it was on to good ole Tokyo for a bit of fun! The plan was to go out in Roppongi on the Eve of our Anniversary, then the next day travel from Tokyo - Kyoto on the bullet train and check in to out lovely romantic accommodation at : Yachio Ryokan.

So we were staying in the next "suburb" to Roppongi called Akasaka, and we set off to find some delicious dinner. Only 2 blocks away we found this cool restaurant called "Uoshin Restaurant" in Roppongi. It's part of a chain I think, but we were immediately drawn to it, as it was a really unique looking place - different to many of the places we had eaten already. It had a cool al fresco part to it which was undercover and people were laughing and drinking and loud punk music was playing. How could we resist, right? So we go in and the place is PACKED and there is fish hanging from the roof, and on ice and on grills and EVERYWHEREEEEEEE!! So they sit us at the bench so the chefs are right infront of us, then hand me this menu which is entirely in KANJI (like chinese characters) and i was like "uh... sorry babe, I'm not really sure what this says...". They noticed the horrified and slightly starving look in my eye and asked if i wanted an English menu. YES PLEASE! So everything was cheap and the drinks list was long and also cheap! We ordered what seemed like one of everything, and chowed down while watching the chefs at work. We noticed after a while that this punk music was playing that we had been hearing everywhere so far. We had heard it in a shoe shop in Nagano and I asked the guy what it was, so he wrote it down for me in Katakana alphabet: Makishimamu za horumon - yeah i had no idea what that meant, i just knew it was meant to be English. Turns out it's MAXIMUM THE HORMONE! and they are awesome. So we said to the chef we liked the music and she was like "yeah we love it too, we are in a tribute band..." i thought she was joking. No sir. The manager of that amazing establishment (pictured below with the headband) promptly came out from behind the grill and started playing videos of them rocking out in live venues. Incredible! The whole staff were in a tribute punk band.

The Manager recommended we drink this spirit called Shochu, and that we should have it on the rocks. I asked what it was, like if it was similar to Vodka or Sake or something, and he explained that it is similar to Sake and that apparently they used it in the War to disinfect wounds. Josh was hooked so we ordered 2 of those, and 2 more steins of Kirin Beer. That's about where things started to go downhill for me as we had already has a few steins each. The more i drank, the better my Japanese flowed, but they of course were trying to speak English so i didn't have to translate for Josh. We didn't have a camera on us, so Josh ran back to the hotel to get one so we could take some pictures.

While he was gone I got talking to the manager who was telling me his life story and said that it is his dream to go to Australia and go surfing. He then said he was a model, and got this magazine catalogue thing out which was all about chef supplies and uniforms, and he flicked through it showing me all the pictures of himself and his wife and baby daughter modelling clothes. Very cute!

Josh comes back with the camera and suddenly everyone wants to pose for us! It was sick. I really wish i stopped drinking but i had taught Josh how to say "2 more of the same please" in Japanese so he just kept ordering 2 more when we hadn't even finished our current drinks. We were having so much fun i guess i didn't realise how much i was drinking and didn't care that i was mixing beer with shochu and some lychee concoction that Josh kept ordering.

That is a picture of 2 of the chefs. They were sickkkk! The girl's name was Midori but Ican't remember the guys name as it was so long ago (oops). Holy shit i just realised she is holding a big 'thing' of OKONAMI sauce, my favourite. I don't think i had discovered okonamiyaki at that point. omg primate. Anyway, below is the Manager showing us how to play the traditional Japanese game Kendama. Basically Japanese Ball in a Cup.

He was fucking unbeleivable. Probably some sort of Kendama champion. So you let the ball dangle then you have to flick it up onto the cup it's on in the picture, then around onto the other side, then onto the cup on the base - near his wrist, then onto the spike! He did it deftly as a kendama ninja! I don't have access to youtube but if you look up kendama champion you will be shocked. Or maybe i was just drunk and easily impressed...? most likely...

Anyway Josh was going nuts with obsession for it, and got the hang of it straight away. Everyone was cheering him on, it was great! So at some point we realised that the whole place was empty except for us and that they wanted to close up for the night! Awkwarddddd! So i went to the toilet and when i came back Josh had paid (I found out later he had used my money though haha) and we left promising to send them pictures and stuff. I don't really remember much of the rest of the night except that we stopped at a CONBINII (Convenience store) and got some Japanese Pringles and fried chicken - i only know this because i found it the next morning in our room :s

Fun fact about me: when I am drunk i cant sleep because i feel too ill. i toss and turn holding my stomach and cant "sleep it off" like many lucky chumps out there. So i had a broken sleep and got up at 7am to vomit. When i came back to bed i saw josh cuddling a bottle of water and the USB cord for the camera... haha, oh Josh! Yes so i spent pretty much the rest of the morning vomitting and not letting Josh in the bathroom. Actually i think i let him in once but i nervously paced outside the door as I was going to vomit AGAIN. probably the most after-grog bodily expulsion i have ever experienced. It was disgusting. So Josh was trying to hurry me up as we had to check out. Working in Hotels i know you dont have to check out RIGHT on time. There is a bit of leeway, especially if you are going to vomit all over the reception desk if you arent ready to come out of the bathroom. But he gave me a plastic bag to hold JUST IN CASE and we set off for the day. It was possibly the worst day of my life. Did i mention it was our anniversary? Yep.

We checked out and stumbled through CRAZY CROWDS to the local station and got a local train to the big Station, then had to try and organise tickets for the Bullet Train, and find what platform it was on etc. For anyone who has been hungover - Japan is the worst place to spend your hangover day. People and noise everywhere, and as your brain also got vomitted out, it's pretty hard to remember how to speak Japanese. My patience was so low for everything and everyone that I wanted to either kill myself or kill Josh each time he spoke. Poor Josh. Eventually we got to Kyoto and got another train to our accommodation and walked there and checked in, and just lay on the floor. We went out at 4pm to get some breakfast. haha. Josh wanted spaghetti bolognaise (i am not even joking) so we went to look for some and eventually found it and devoured it and felt slightly better. happy anniversaryyyyy........! oh well, it was at least memorable to stand the test of time and remain in my limited memory bank!


STORY 2) NOVEMBER 2008

So I went back to Japan again later that year - crazy now that I think about it. I think there were some mega cheap flights so I jumped on it. Yeah i got a flight $189 from Melbourne to Osaka! why wouldn't you...? So anyway, this time i went with 5 boys who are friends of josh and mine: Evan, Stevens, Trav, Nash & Corey. So pretty much everyone just wanted to drink heaps and party in Tokyo which is fair enough. So we went out to Shibuya to look for a good place, and atfer a few tries, eventually came across CLUB PURE! Basically guys and girls pay a different flat rate and you get a wristband and a cup. You can fill that cup with anything you want from the bar all night. I think entrance was like $50...? or a bit less. BUT as you can imagine, everyone just goes crazy! All the guys were trying to talk to Japanese girls but because of the language barrier, I was called in to translate. I think they were more interested in me to be honest, and they were telling me i was SUPER CUTE! Everyone likes to hear that :D

So after a few too many apple drinks Evan started to lose his shirt - quite literally....

And pretty soon he passed out at the table....

BUT Japan being the interesting place that it is, you are actually allowed to sleep in clubs and the security guards don't hassle you at all. So he was fine. We were just sitting around chatting to some Swedish people, and his head was drooping in the direction of my lap. I kept pushing him away as i didn't want him to vomit on my lap. I got up to go to the toilet eventually and on my way back i passed my friends dragging Evan to the toilets with vomit still dribbling from his mouth. PERFECT TIMING! I got back to the table and everyone was freaking out about having vomit on their clothes, it was hilarious - as i wasn't involved of course! When Ev came back he was sober again and started to drink again and party the night away. Meanwhile, here is a great photo of Myself, Corey and this Swedish guy who likes blue chewing gum...

Oh it was pretty funy, the next day we were confused because we could smell vomit everywhere we went then eventually we found the stain on someone's pants. I think it was Nash's pants. Dried up vom, yuckkk!

Story 3 ) ALSO NOVEMBER 2008

So after Evan, Stevens and Nash went home it was just me, Corey and Trav knockin about in Japan. When we were in Hiroshima, we decided to get a ferry across to Miyajima Island and go for a hike up Misen (the big mountain on the island) one afternoon. So we got a tram for almost an hour, then a ferry to the island, then went to look for the cable car to the summit...

great views from the cable car, great views!

once on the summit, we were surrounded by monkeys. The signs said to put your belongings in lockers otherwise the monkeys will maul you for food. Hmmm, no thanks!

So yes, it was raining and I suddenly regretted my eagerness to climb or descend a mountain. Corey led us to this path swearing it was to the summit, but we were going downhill. So yeah after about 10 mins he agreed that we were probably going the wrong way so we went back uphill and started towards the summit. I started to lose it, like i am convinced i was having an asthma attack but i have never been tested for asthma so don't know if it was, or even what it was. I took off my jacket and jumper and was just in a t-shirt in the rain and wintery weather. I was wheezing and kept asking the guys to stop. my face was like beetroot red and i couldn't catch my breath at all. I was so embarrassed as only Josh had seen me lose it like this before, and they didnt seem to even have broken a sweat. The thought of taking one more step made me want to cry so i took the room key and went allllllll the way back alone in the rain and impending darkness. In the cable car the only other people were this lesbian couple who were making out and feeling each other up, while i was shaking and coughing in the corner. I got back to the room frozen to the bone and had a hot shower and snuggled up on the futon mattress with the blankets and turned on Japanese TV for some company. I started to get really worried cos the guys were now running down a mountain in the darkness and the time was ticking by... but eventually they came back drenched and we had a nice little futon picnic of snacks and drinks and of course Corey's weird Korean concoction of Yakult and Soju shots. That was another memorable day.

Now that i think about it, I have so many more stories I would love to write about! Like Yoyogi Park in Harajuku! I'll save it for another day my friends!

the accidental vegie patch & anthony's song (movin' out)

kudos to those who got the BJ (billy joel) joke in the title. oh i am quite clever aren't i... wait you don't know what this post is about yet so it's hard to get the joke. fuck. ok whateverrrr

So Josh sursprised me with his return on Friday when i got home all hung over from the work xmas party. He was waiting in the bedroom after getting an overnight bus, train, and taxi home. I think he had a nap and i got home at around 3pm. He freaked me out cos i walked through the house into the kitchen and he eventually creaked open the bedroom door in the supposedly empty house and jumped out! aaah! good to have him back though! he is now i think obsessed with boats. He is talking about buying one. ah the boating life :)

so anyway he may or may not have accidentally deleted every single photo from my camera haha. he was showing me his pictures and tried to delete the very last picture and accidentally wiped everything. so yeah now we are trying to locate picture recovery software...

anyway i was hanging out bad to take pics of our accidental vegie patch! Basically i made a vegie patch area and planted my passionfruit there which didn't really take off... i guess you could use the word LAZY to describe me and my gardening, haha. i would love to be a great gardener and grow my own organis fruit and veg... but we just don't gel at the moment. Maybe when i am a bit older and more settled....?

anyway we used to chuck our kitchen scraps in the soil to keep lots of nutrients in there, and after a while we experienced this weird summer rain period and since then EVERYTHING in the garden that had been laying dormant sprang to life! We now have quite the vegie patch but we don't know what's actually growing....

below i think is perhaps some sort of bean or stone fruit...

and i have been told that this is a pumpkin... and there are about 4 plants like this in there :D

oh and yes here is the passionfruittttt

anyway Saturday we were helping some friends move out into a rental. Here is Josh and Stevens posing next to Evan's dad's new MG... awwww yeah. His dad Graeme (sp?) said that he WOULD take me for a drive in it but because of our age difference he would look like a pedo. nooooooo!

Here are a few shots of the day!

below is Stevens opening out housewarming present. Yes, fridge letters!!

All day we were discussing how he should buy cutlery but it never eventuated, then somehow we forgot about the whole cutlery thing when we ordered take away curry for dinner there. I have never used a salad server to eat curry before, and chances are i probably never will again. But it was pretty fun and i shall always remember it. yep.

Clockwise from Left:

Jade's Yummy Lamb Rogan Josh, Josh's demolished Potato/pea curry, Stevens' Veg korma.

Delicious.

domestic disturbance

so i went to my dad's place last night and was watching tv with my brothers. I kept hearing this loud banging noise and kept asking "What WAS that?!" and they were all *shrug* so i forgot about it. Then it happened again and again, then we heard some shouting above the TV. We pushed mute and peeked out the window to see the couple across the court having a FULL ON DOMESTIC on the front lawn. They both looked way feral, but the guy had a pole and was bashing the fuck out of his wheelie bin and she was crying and screaming. He then started bashing the trees and was threatening to hit her with the pole, then tossed the pole and was raising his fists and walking toward her. It was really scary. I saw their next door neighbour come out to his car, get something, and go back in... i thought "Why aren't you doing anything!?!?" but then i thought what would i do? Some alcoholic psycho is happy to beat up his wife in the street, imagine what he would do to me for getting in the way. It's so bad but.... whatever...

My brother called the cops and soon enough 2 cop cars came with 4 cops. The couple had already gone inside and i was freaking out imagining what was happening in there. The cops got her out of the house and were talking to her for like half an hour but the guy was still inside. I think they tried to talk to him but obviously it wasnt going well. I was freaking out that she would be like "oh yeah, everything's cool... thanks anyway" and then the REAL punishment would come. But one cop left and soon enough came back with a Divvy Van and another cop. So 5 cops went in with mace and were in there for a while then dragged him out and he was kicking and punching them so they tripped him, slammed him to the ground and cuffed him. Then off he went in the back of the divvy van. I got the sensation that every single neighbour in the court was peeping through the blinds just as we were. As he was being lead away, my brother did the clapping part to "you're going home in the back of a divvy van" really loud and i saw one of the cops look in our direction haha fuck.

The whole time my litte brother was taking pictures of the whole thing with his massive zoom lense. so bad.... but yeah if i can get a photo i will totally put it on here... and maybe i'll blur the face just in case.

So yeah looks like my dad lives in the ghetto after all. apparently this crazy guy was screaming at his wife the night before and said he would slit her throat. what the fuck!?! i shudder to think whats going to happen when he gets let out of the lockup. people are fucked. seriously.

twiddle dee-tuesday

Day 2 without a camera. Eyes adjusting to life outside the lense... urge to photograph strangers dissipating... will to live - almost gone. nah not really, i havent seen anything that made me want to take a picture yet. BUT my beach themed work xmas party is in 2 days and i wish i could have a camera for that. I will just make sure to squeeze into everyone elses photos so i can pinch them off facebook haha. Or i will hijack one of the cameras at the party and take a billion photos, so the next day they are hungover going through the pics and wondering why there are like 50 blurred photos of my head from an above angle. haha.

anyway where was i...? i have nothing to report except that josh and his dad were mega sea-sick all day yesterday. Not sure how they are going today, i will have to wait until they dock somewhere tonight and i'll find out. i feel bad for them. i bet vomitting all day long is not fun.

i just bought some tan in a can for the xmas party costume. I was going to go as spongebob but scrapped the idea cos i'm too lazy to get all the bits i'm missing. so instead i'm going as a cute sailor girl - should be fun!

on another, funny, note... i ran into my friend's mum on the weekend and had a brief chat to her. Then she went home and said to my friend how well spoken and polite i am. haha. it's such a nice and lovely thing to say, but it has to be the weirdest compliment i have ever received. sweeeet. i must not hear the way i talk, cos people think i sound british or south african or something. really odd.

anyway i'm boring, BYE

ooh la la

yo yo yo! well it's Monday morning again, and despite being so well rested and having a relaxing weekend i still feel like i am asleep and a little bit dead. how i wish i could post up cool pics of things i have been doing in my life lately, how i wish it so. I have in fact PARTED with my beloved camera for the next week, as Josh has gone on a sailing trip and wanted to document it. Part of me is glad that my camera (not yet named) can now travel to waters unchartered by myself and see lots of new things, which I can then see when they (josh and my camera) get back. The other part of me feels like i have just handed over my child to a crack head for a weeks babysitting. What happens now if i cook something that looks amazing, or see a funny looking person on the street...? Shall i whip out my notepad and sketch it!? Fuck.

Anyway I have a feeling that this week while Josh is away I will be mostly jealous. This is the story... Josh's uncle is a race caller here in Victoria, and apparently is very highly regarded by that racing circle. He has been doing it for like 25-30 years and he actually calls the Melbourne cup every single year! Pretty cool. In fact about 2 minutes ago I went into Google Images and typed "Greg Miles" and was taken aback by all of the pictures and articles on him. I only know him from family parties and Christmases. Weiiiiird. ANYWAY. He lives in Williamstown in this big beautiful house and recently bought a big 40ft yacht - the type with bedrooms and kitchen and stuff! The only thing is that it was in sunny Queensland and they had to bring it down.

So the plan was for him and his son and some skipper guy to fly to QLD and bring it to Sydney where Josh and his dad would join them and then all bring it back to Williamstown. The QLD crew got held up by the weather for about a week in total, so Josh was anxiously sitting around waiting to get the call that they were approaching Sydney so that he could fly up in time. He and his dad almost decided not to go as they would run out of annual leave, and possibly get a little too close to xmas. BUT then all of a sudden i was driving them to the airport yesterday morning, and i just got a message now saying they have set sail. SO JEALOUS! The only consolation is that they went out to King's Cross last night and got plastered, so they are all hungover and sitting on a rocking boat. LOL. Anyway Josh said he will do a guest post on here with all of his pics and a story. Should be OREsome. haha.

Anyway as i can't take pictures, here is what i have on my mind at the moment....

if i could somehow cut and paste these ideas into my new house, all would be well. I have been looking at Brabourne Farm blog, and my god... i am killing myself. Not only am i despreately broke at the moment (I blame Christmas) I am making it worse by RUBBING MONETARY SALT INTO MY OPEN WOUNDS! i want a blue bedroom though, seriously. But by the time May rolls around and i move in, i will probably want a japanese stlye room. haha. fickle as a pickle.

Also i have found a cool blog that details how to whitewash/shabby chic up old furniture. I am totally keen to do this on all the furniture. haha. not even joking. but for now i just have to focus on getting Christmas presents organised, my xmas party costume ready, my new years eve costume ready, and yeah just stay cool - like it's hard, pffffft.

Tofu Burgers: little golden nuggets

lol, i accidentally wrote niggets. not that it's a bad word but it makes me think of bad words.

anywayz, i have been meaning to make tofu burgers for a long long time! I have actually been exeprimenting a little with vegie burgers and even vegan burgers for years. I haven't been totally focused but i want to be at the level where vegetarian and vegan friends go "oh man, i hope jade makes some of those awesome (x) burgers soon, i love them more than my life!"... and i think i am getting there my friends...

So as you should know I am in love with a Vegan Restaurant in Adelaide called "Vego n Lovin It" which I have written about but which i am admittedly too lazy to link you to. Seriously, go back to the start and swim through a sensual sea of all my posts until you find it. You will not be disappointed. Anyway, this place does the best burgers. The patties are so big and they are as solid as a meat patty. BUT HOW?!?! This is the question i ask myself every time i make a batch of vego burgers. I put them on a bun with all the trimmings then bite into it and watch the pattie compress into a thin pancake and ooze out the sides of the bun. It is depressing. I obviously dont care TOO much otherwise i would do some research but i wanted to make some tofu burgers like the man in Adelaide. This recipe i found online and changed it around. It seems like i do that alot, perhaps so i can call it my own... but no that's not it. i just didnt have a few of the ingredients and added extra. lol. i am an alchemist in the kitchen. nyessss.

omg i am off track. Anyway somehow after Josh's huge bday party on Saturday, and only 5 hours sleep including a post-clean up nap on the couch while watching the Labrynth i somehow had the energy and enthusiasm to make tofu burgers and marinated vegie skewers for a BBQ dinner at Nash's. So i went to Coles and picked up a few essentials and came home to get cracking! This is how they turned out, and the recipe follows:


Ingredients:

1 cup bulgur
2 cups water
Optional: a few jalapeño pepper slices
1 block firm tofu, roughly chopped
1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 – 2 eggs
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs or quick cooking oats or a mixture of both
1 Tbsp fresh rosemary, minced
Optional: handful of baby spinach leaves
salt & pepper to taste
Splash of lime juice
1 tsp canola oil
1-2 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
1-2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Optional: Chili Sauce
fine cornmeal / polenta
salt & pepper to taste

Method:

In saucepan, add water, bulgur and some salt. Bring to boil. Lower to simmer until soft and fluffy. When done, set aside.
In small fry pan, sauté onions and garlic in oil until soft. Set aside.

In bowl of food processor add everything except cornmeal. Whir until a small crumb forms and everything is mixed properly.

Form into patties of the size you want (smaller is better here for handling purposes).
Pour cornmeal/polenta and some salt & pepper onto small plate. Coat patties and transfer to hot pan with a little oil in the bottom.

------------------

Wow. Yummmm! Let's see, to judge if it is good or not you have to get people to test them. So me, Josh, Evan, Boucher and Jess all said they were really nice. I believe the word DELICIOUS was even thrown in there! That's good enough for me :)

But seriously at our party on Saturday night...shit got real man. We have these neighbours behind and over one house who ALWAYS party. Mid-week... weekend... it makes no difference to the party house! So my friends all laughed when they rocked up to see that the party over the back was in full swing yet again and in direct competition with our party. That's right... we were competing for BEST PARTY awards of the neighbourhood.

So around 3am when most people had gone home there were a few of us inside and a few outside, when Simon comes in going "Jade theres a guy in your backyard, he just jumped the fence!" and i got pretty freaked out as you can imagine. I went out and it was this Canadian dude called Tony and he was mega drunk, and they sent him over as sentinal to see whats going on over here. Anyway he started telling us that we should get to know our neighbours and jump the fence sometime or host a BBQ or SOMETHING. Then he told me that my neighbours next door were at the party house RIGHT NOW partying with their back neighbours. what the fuck, how do they even strike up a relationship...? so now i feel like a black sheep. like unfriendly. But it's awkward. Until now the nighbours have made no indication of wanting a friendship so i wasn't going to force one in case they just plain DONT WANT ONE. But obviously now the ball is in our court. the giant awkward ball.

Now i have to wait until they are having a party before i can go over there... i cant just jump the fence in the day time and knock on their door, cos i would freak out if that happened to me. Actually when i was in Year 7 we moved to Williamstown and the kids from next door jumped the fence and stood at our sliding glass door waiting for us to open it. We were still carrying furniture in. Freaks. I dont even know if i WANT to go over there and meet them, but i feel pressured now. They have kids and stuff so who knows if we even have anything to talk about. That's so closed minded of me huh? whatever. conundrum 5000.

Lunchtime Adventure Challege. Destination: Rue Bebelons

If you don't recall, myself and my cousin Bec in Adelaide and my friend Daragh in Perth sometimes have lunchtime adventures and share the experience with eachother as it is often amusing and interesting to see other cities and vicariously dine out through eah other.

Daragh had the idea that we could pick a place on Google Maps for eachother to go to, and to see what it is like. So I was first up to try out this new adventure challenge. The challenge was extended by Daragh yesterday who did a search of all the coffee places within a 5min radius of my work in Melbourne CBD. He chose Rue Bebelons for... i'm assuming the fruity name much akin to his own fruity nature.

The name Rue Bebelons APPARENTLY literally translates as Little Lonsdale street - luckily it is located on little lonsdale street, or things could get a little confusing...

I originally planned to go there alone, but as i will explain, I am really glad my work mate came with me... as hung over as she was... it wouls have been massive awkward if i went alone!

So.. we were walking along Little Lonsdale Street, when out of a door like 2cm in front of us came these two girls:


we neaarly walked into them!! i was like "haha that's funny....." then kept walking... then OMG WHY ARENT I TAKING A PICTURE OF THIS?!?!?! So yeah unfortunately i didn't get a frontal picture, the hat is meant to look like Jack Pumpkinhead (from the Nightmare before Christmas) wearing a santa hat. You can kinda see his face...

Anyone ever heard the theme song for "the odd couple"? well for some reason that started playing in my head as i watched those two friends.

We found Rue Bebelons soon after we saw those girls:

We thought it was closed actually as it was empty and the door was closed and it was dark. MY work mate said "actually i think it is open" so we went inside to settle our tormenting internal debate.

It was deserted except for one foreign bartender, haha awkwardddd. Not at all what i expected from reading online reviews about a bustling night spot where you are lucky to get a drink! The first thing i noticed, apart from the feeling that i had just walked in on a conversation about "how crap jade is. oh shh shh here she is...." was all the cool nick nacks and posters and cute table cloths.

After the bartender stared at us for a while not prompting us to follow any etiquette like "order at the bar" or "here are some menus" or anything we ended up sitting by the window and i went to ask him if he had a menu. He pointed at a sign and said "only sandwiches". And i said "ok i'll have a sandwich and a cappucino"...

i accidentally got a salad only roll as i thought that the meat came as standard hehe. But here is what i ate....

the roll was delicious as you can see above. The bread was delicious but pretty hard, but the fact that there was avocado spread, fresh tomato, humungo cucumber, lettuce, cheese, cracked pepper and honey mustard mayo WELL AND TRULY made up for it. Also you can see me enjoying the roll below:

Points to note in the above picture:

- my hair, while re-growthy and faded, is pretty much camoflaged into the wall

- on my left arm (non-ring) i have scar tissue from a viscious Corella (sp) attack. My mums bf has a dumb giant angry corella that hates me.

- i have those cool shadows cast by my glasses up my eyebrows that always reminds me of Billy from Power Rangers, slumped over a computer using his amazing brain skills, or of michael keaton for some reason. I think he had the same shadow effect in a movie.... batman...? yes i think so...

- i am wearing 2 new tops purchased only yesterday from Valley Girl - $9.95 each. Singlet and mini cardigan thing. both amazing.

- Cleavage. don't act like you didn't see it straight away.

Here is my work mate doing the only responsible thing when you have a hangover at work. Drink beer on your lunch break. haha. i shall lead by example tomorrow and come to work after lunch plastered :)

While we were at the window seat we had a great opportunity to do some people watching - my favourite sport. I saw 3 AMAZING moustaches but wasnt quick enough with the camera. We watched these people holding a mannequin across the road for a while. for some reason they amputated everything and were trying to stash her in a car. I have photo evidence of this crime, and will turn it in to the cops if they do not meet my demands! muahhaaaa

Then a man came in and got a roll to go:

Oh i totally forgot to mention the coolest thing about the place! They had shelves and shelves of records and had the record player hooked up to the sound sytem and there were some awesome reggae tunes playing, then some jazz flute number. It was sick! i wanted to take some pics but the bartender was creepy and he was standing in the way of it haha. It would be cool as a night bar - which is what it is usually :) I think the other bar tender was dealing coke or something. He was nervously holding his phone while sitting on a bar stool with his foot tapping rapidly, then when he would get a message he would jump up and run outside for a few minutes, then come back in. He did this about 5 times in the short time we were there. fishhhy. nah i'm sure he's legit :S

Anyway, this is the view from the window - melbourne central spire :) ah melbourne.... xooxxo

my work mate wasn't happy with the beer and decided she needed some nandos chips on the way back to work haha....

Challenge executed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, Daragh did a really funny one the other day to "Adam's Brunchbox". I will try to get him to put it on his blog so i can link to it instead of me putting it on mine. Also Bec is sending pics of her one today, and daragh is doing another one today. He works in an industrial area in Perth so there are all these dodgy take away shacks and stuff. ahaha. gold.

chester the hippy cat

Ok, so if you know me, or if you have been looking at my blog... you should also know my cat Chester. I have already written about his life story thus far. So now, not only is Chedda friends with fish:

and birds:

if that's not strange enough he now has 9 new friends that are dogs. Our neighbours 2 doors up breed these dogs. I think they are miniature collies or something... not sure. Anyway they have 3 adult dogs who are all prize winning show dogs, and recently their female dog had a litter of 6 puppies! She is the "only American bitch in Australia" apparently and the father is the South Australian grand champion or something. Haha it's so funny.. i have no idea but to them it is so prestigious...

This is Chester and Bob. In the background i think is the mum (Bonnie?) and some of the puppies. I can only remember one of the puppies names: Backstreet Boy. Yep, i know. Basically Chester hears the puppies barking and wants outside. Once outside he lays on the ground and rolls around while they all surround him sniffing and licking him. One time there were 2 adult dogs and 3 puppies surrounding him and he was in heaven. He is so weird. My neighbour calls him a tart, which is probably true. They don't actually "play" or anything they just walk around together or lay on the grass together. I have to admit it is really really cute to watch. But if you go out there you have to listen to the lady talking about the dogs and once she made me feel a puppies testicles. She said it is very important in preparation for their first show. When i hesitated she said "come on love, it's just a dog!!" and i thought "you know.. you're right! what are my hangups??" but then now when i think about it, puppies usually pee everywhere then walk in it and sit in it. Oh well, you live and you learn hey...

Well until Chester makes friends with a mouse, this is another strange tale of Chester complete :)

sneak peek at my projects...

I got bizzay on the weekend with my DIY projects! Bizzaay, bizzay (reminds me of on superbad when the cop played by Bill Hader is going "you're a fucking puss-ay, puss-aaay"...) um anyway...

So here is a sneak peek of the re-stained and re-upholstered $5 chair....

Haha this is by far the neatest corner. Re-upholstery is hard man... I have seriously fucked it up in 2 places. I have managed to dodgily cover up one bit, but the other is proving to be quite tricky. I won't be finishing it for a while cos i need a sewing machine to make a cushion cover and also some little furniture tacks for the back. I thought I could get away without them but yeahh... i need them. But it already looks a million times better than it did. Josh called it a "classy chair that he would like to sit in" which is a strange yet rave review.

Ok and my other project is the dressing screen! Here is a crap picture of it:

Yeah so I got the 6 bits of wood and gave them an undercoat of green paint just incase the wood absorbed it, i didnt want to waste the blackboard paint. So I let those dry and then got lazy and watched the godfather instead. On Sunday I did a coat of blackboard paint but the brush is really shit so there are huge streak marks in it. So yeah now I want to get a paint roller and tray so the second coat is nice and even. It has to have 16 hours beween the 1st and 2nd coats anyway :S looks like i will need to duck into bunnings tonight or tomorrow.... *shrug*

Well there you go, I am slooooowly getting there. But seriously i have had that dressing screen for like a million years so this is a huge step!

cheese, onion and herb scones

This weekend I felt the overwhelming urge to chill the fuck out at home - and that i did. I seriously went from bed to couch to hammock. I watched movies, did beauty treatments, did some gardening, read home decoration mags, and read my book THE SECRET HISTORY (OMGGGGGG SO GOOD) and yes basically loved every second :D Oh yes, I also got started on my 2 projects which i will put in a seperate post :)

Sunday I was feeling in the mood to bake so I decided to make some scones! These were really easy and only used a few ingredients! Let me show you! Also one tip that i learnt AFTER making them was that the less you knead the dough, the fluffier and puffier your scones will be. Thanks for telling me when it was TOO LATE, RECIPE BOOK!!!!

Ingredients:

- 2 Cups Self Raising Flour, sifted
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 Cup milk
- 1/2 Cup water
- 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
- 1 small onion, finely diced
- small amount of rosemary and thyme

Method:

Preheat the oven to 210 degrees cencius (fan forced).

Cook the onion in a little bit of butter in a frypan until soft and translucent. Add some rosemary and thyme and stir in until fragrant.

Sift the flour into a bowl, then add the cheese and salt and stir to combine. Make a well in the centre then add the onions and MOST of the milk and water. Use a flat bladed knife to slowly bring all of the ingredients together as shown...

Lightly flour the bench and tip the dough out. VERY LIGHTLY knead and flatten to about 2cm thickness. Use a floured cookie cutter to cut out the scones...

Place them on an oven tray lined with baking paper. * Optional* Lightly (VERY LIGHTLY) sprinkle them with Cayenne Pepper.

Pop inthe oven and bake for 10 mins or until a bit golden on top.

Yummy yummy in my tummy blah blah blah...

Daftly DIY a-brewin

Welll I have been ultra slack again this past week. I haven't felt like blogging - probably because it has been hot and sticky and too uncomfortable to do much of anything blog-worthy. I did go back to the Mill Markets again and bought a cool pot rack for $29 and a soap dish. Wiiiew!

Lately I have been pretty pre-occupied with money which is why I have not been doing much of anything that involves casshhhh. The house i bought settled almost a month ago, so I am still getting the hang of it all. I have already made 3 or 4 mortgage repayments (AH) and have collected 1 months worth of rent (as the house is still tenanted until May at which time I MOVE IN YAAAAY!!). So I am slowly trying to work out my weekly budget and also do Christmas shopping and am trying to put money aside for a few things i will need to do to the house. Plus as usual with all this going on we got 2 bills in the mail so it's fair to say I have been quite broke and boring for the last 2 weeks :S

But on the plus-side, last weekend I became inspired to work on some of my dormant DIY projects around the house, and I made a little trip to Bunnings to get some supplies!

I am focusing on 2 projects at the moment: My $5 chair from Camberwell Market and my dressing screen. Let's start with the chair..


I saw this chair at Camberwell Market and was like "oh that's nice, i wonder how much it is...?" then i went over and saw a big orange sticker on it saying $5-. I asked the guy if it was correct and he insisted he wanted to get rid of all his stuff and I should definately take the chair. So i did.

Anyway it is pretty old and pretty ratty but, hey.... FIVE BUCKS! how can you go wrong?? So I bought some sandpaper, varnish and fabric in the hopes to transform this old chair into a nice new looking chair! So far i have sanded it back and applied 3 coats of varnish, and I hope to start re-upholstering tomorrow.

My other project is my dressing screen. I don't have a picture, but basically it is a 3 door screen with hinges. Each door has 2 panels which are hollow. This is the closest i could find...



I bought this maybe 4 or 5 years ago from a salvage yard... i don't know it could have been longer. Anyway, but it was bright purple and for ages i didn't know what to do with it, and how to fill in the panels. I painted it cream, and then for a while i was thinking of somehow putting material or lace or something in it, but I had a brain wave recently involving BLACKBOARD! I want a blackboard pretty badly and have been keeping my eyes peeled for a while for a good one. Then i thought i should get some blackboard cut to size and insert it into the recess at the back.

Nobody seemed to think you could get big sheets of blackboard and i was frankly too lazy to search so instead I bought some thin wood and blackboard paint. The wood is being cut to size today for the six panels and hopefully I can start on this tomorrow as well. I am so happy that these old half-finished things will not be laying around in the garage or spare room any more! Plus it keeps me from spending moneyz hehe! In regards to the old fashioned writers desk.... i still have NFI what to do with it :P one day... one day.... lol that was my first DIY project on the blog and i fear i shall never actually finish it. But it is so pretty... sigh

stick bowls, bento lunches, and nutcrackers

I have been quite the slack schmack lately and haven't blogged much at all. So last week i brought to work a rather un-japanese bento lunch consisting of leftover comfort food (mashed potato with mashed vegies through it) and some tuna, rice and seaweed. it was actually so delicious, and i had to eat it over two days cos there was a bit too much food for one girl. The mashed vegies comfort food was *like* my favourite thing ever as a kid. I would
mash all my vegies together on my dinner plate and then squirt some dead horse (tomato sauce) all over it. Whenever i am down or sick i love a bit o' mashed veg. Takes me back to the womb days pretty much. I imagine my womb days were very chillaxed as my mum didn't drink (although now she enjoys a drop or two) or smoke or do drugs so i was sittin' pretty. I wonder if a hillbilly baby is still safe in the womb or if the alcohol and drugs transform into little laser ships that shoot it in the soft head. it's kinda freaky how babies heads are so soft even after they are born. Josh's nephew was born with a massive cone head due to the suction cup thing and i worried that it would stay that way but luckily he is a normal, nay adorable, kid now with a nice round head. what the hell am i talking about... here is my bento:

then on the weekend i decided i was going to get crafty and finally make my stick bowl. i can't think of a better name. Basically in apollo bay i saw this cool bowl made of sticks painted white and thought "i could totally make that...." and so i did. I transformed this pile of sticks:

into this strange looking white nest. The shadows aren't really adding to its attractiveness. it actually looks kinda alright. I hot glued a whole bunch of sticks together while watching Pineapple Express and was shocked to see that it looks a little bit like a kindergarden art project. oh well. i haven't figured out what to put in the bowl yet. I suggested i would lay my baby jesus in it but it has these bits that jut out and would probably pierce his holy kidneys. oh well i'm sure i can think of something else to put in it.

oh and yesterday we did grocery shopping at ALDI and i got this awwweeeesome nutcracker man for a christmas decoration:

He is awesome and pretty big. Josh doesn't really like him because he has no lips and he says he looks too much like a zombie. preeeeetty fair call, but still c'mon he is cool. christmas decoration # 3 is on display. I am getting there slowly. I don't know why but i am super excited about this christmas! wwwwwweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

my first home-made bento lunch

I made Japanese a few nights ago and used the left overs to make myself a lovely summer lunch for work! I picked up this red bento box in Japan last November and this is sadly the first time i have used it. BUT i do plan to use it more often. I just have to cook more Japanese first :P

I had salmon and avocado sushi, with Japanese potato salad and teriyaki chicken! mmmm. i wish i had this today :(