A Day of French Indulgence

What do you do when you have a day off work and your son is in daycare? You take yourself to see a French film of course. And then you follow it up with an indulgent lunch at a favourite restaurant.

So off I went to the cinema to take in Haute Cuisine. The film tells the story of Daniele Delpeuch a cook who worked for French PM Mitterand at the Palais del Elysee. I mean how am I not going to love a film set in Paris about magnificent food?

So after sitting in a cinema for a couple of hours watching the protagonist prepare dish after dish brimming with full flavoured, hearty and generous French food it's safe to say I was feeling a little peckish.

So, given this was a (self declared) day of indulgence I took myself to lunch. At one of my favourite restaurants: Bistro Moncur.  BM serves classic simple French food including my all time favourite dish, the cheese souffle. It's a seriously great meal. So incredibly tasty and delicious. And to cut through all that cheesy richness I ordered a crisp green salad.

And in order to provide myself with some entertainment whilst dining alone on my souffle and salad, I read a magazine and savored a travel story on one of my favourite places, Naples. No not Paris, should have been about Paris but Naples provided just as much, if not more inspiration.

I highly recommend booking yourself in for a day of sheer indulgence. Completely reinvigorating.

The Imperial. In Sydney town Round Paddo Way

Just a quick note to let you know that tonight I enjoyed a crisp glass of Pinot Gris at my newly renovated local for the very non-princely sum of $6. SIX DOLLARS.

When was the last time you unearthed a local gem serving good wine, at a great price which also happens to be a mere hop, skip and a jump from your abode? And then to make it all the more amazing, there's a very interesting little bar menu there to fill your tum too. And seemingly helpful staff. Who actually seemed to care about what you like to drink!

Sheer brilliance I say. Jog don't crawl friends.

Enjoy the PGs.

Workin' 9-5

As the great Dolly Parton says, what a way to make a living, and the only way until my husband makes us rich. So to this end I am officially BACK in the workforce working 5 days a week. Hence the deafening silence you've experienced from this blog of late.

So far it's going well.  A nice team, a fun culture and lots of challenging work to do, just the way I like it. There's plenty of restructuring going on, so I'm not going to get too comfortable just yet, but for now it's good and I am happy.

I'll keep you posted!

Sophie

Happy Easter Show!!!

It's not Easter in Sydney in my opinion, without a visit to the Royal Easter Show. So today despite the driving rain, we packed up the boys and headed west for our annual dose of animals, wacky rides, devonshire tea and show bags.

Orsie feeding a chicken.
First up it was a ride on the tea-cups which I must say, made me far more nauseous than any of the scarier rides I've been on. Nausea not improved by Trent's calls from the side of vom-inducing "warm, fish milkshakes," seeing my growing queasiness... Orsie wasn't mad on it either.

Riley, Orsie and I on the Teacup ride. Blahhh.

Then it was a wander through the cattle displays, the baby animal farmyard (Orsie was much keener on this) and a good look at various goats, piggies and bulls. Just the smell of all the horse manure make me want to whack on the Drizabone and Akubra with genuine feelings of wanting to be a country gal, even if just for an hour or so.

Orsie patting a sheep.

and a goat...

Onto the CWA cafe for wonderful home-made scones with jam and cream. Delicious. So good. And just so ideal on a wet day at the show.

Orsie eating some sweet corn for lunch.

Then it was a quick look at the cake decoration and craft displays, a wild ride for Trudes and I on the Taipan roller coaster (so much fun, see below) and then my one and only sideshow alley game for the day. It was one where you stand behind the line and throw darts at balloons in order to reveal a prize behind once they pop. Never was great at darts...

Trudes and I on the mighty Taipan!

Finally, a blitz of the show bag pavilion yielded strong results with Orsie on debut with the Diego and Sesame St bags, Riley taking home the Man United, Lego and Cadbury bags and Trent and I opting for a bit of Cadbury and Freddo action - old school but still good.

Good fun, worth doing but kind of also glad it's done for another year.

Polo Anyone?

Yesterday we hopped in the car and travelled an hour north west out of Sydney to the Windsor Polo club to watch Australia play New Zealand in the polo. I am proud to announce that Australia won and the Kiwis were put firmly in their place.
As is always the case at the polo, there were plenty of stylish people to look at and then of course the beautiful ponies, who despite my love of stylish people watching, always manage to steal the show. Here are some pics.

Kathryn from Mediacom and Sarah from LVMH.

Two rather smart looking gents working the hat.

Sev, Clare and Tania from the(sydney)magazine.

A suave looking couple. White jeans are always popular on the boys at the polo.

Good pair of pins are never out of style...

This lady worked some great accessories.

Very chic pair.

Understated chic.

More good pins...

The New Zealand ponies.

A Day at the Zoo

God I love Taronga. For the uninitiated, Taronga Zoo is Sydney's zoo and it's such a great place to go and hang out. Positioned beautifully on the harbour this massive expanse of beautiful jungle, trees, and of course gorgeous animals is soo worth a look. I hadn't been for years but it's as good as ever.

It was Orsie's first trip to the zoo, or any zoo for that matter but Riley is practically a tour guide there so he was great at telling us where everything was.

Favorites? Always the seal show. LOVE it.

I ♥ Pocket Bar

I got out and about last night and hit the streets in search of a little fun with the gorgeous Nicola. We checked out Pocket Bar (cnr. Burton & Crown Sts East Sydney) and impressed we were. Entering through an aluminum roller door, this place smacks of coolness. Pop art graffiti walls, mis matched pre-loved furniture, soft and well worn sofas, exposed brick walls and a very funky soundtrack which included everything from the Beach Boys to Usher.

The friendly, casual and young staff were attentive and offered table service (we love that) and the food list was a little different - they specialise in savoury crepes. But for us, it was all about the french fries. Perfectly crispy, golden brown and soft and potatoey on the inside and served with a slightly garlicky mayo - not quite an aioli but more zingy than your standard mayo. REALLY good. We also sampled the dip plate and the olives (sicilian). Beware they're crazy admission policy. They are only licensed to hold 80 people so even though it doesn't feel full, they'll cut off all new entrants and do the old "one in one out" thing... so if you go, get there earlyish on busy nights.

We had a lovely catch up shooting the breeze about work, digital media, families, babies and most excitingly, I got the full itinerary on Nic's upcoming holiday to Africa. Fabulous, it starts in Nairobi, heads to Kilimanjaro (yes, they're climbing it) and then to safari, then down to Johannesburg and Nic continues on to London to see her family. Sounds lovely doesn't it?

So the Pocket Bar is really fun, it's definitely worth a squiz, in fact there's a little cluster of fab little bars in that strip well worth a look.