May 18 - Delightful Dinner

  Not much on this morning.  I got my laundry in and put on another load.  It's getting to that chilly time of year where it's not enough to dry under cover; I had to re-hang the dry laundry up inside on the clothes horse to warm up before laying it away.  I chatted away with Mr Smart online while I waited for my next load of laundry to be ready for hanging out.  When it was ready I rugged up and headed outside to hang it up.  By the time I was finished my fingers were almost completely numb.  Damned socks!  I should've just bought more of them.

  Time marched on and eventually it was time to head off to dinner with Mr Smart.  I headed over to his place and from there we journeyed in to Fitzoy to our old favourite, Cafe 58.  There was a bit of a wait before we could get seated, it was a bit funny really, they had just watered the large pot plant at the top of the row of seating and water had leaked along the grouting in the floor tiles and soaked the floor.  Van and his staff ran around like Keystone Kops looking for a cloth or a mop to wipe the floor dry.  Eventually the deed was done and we were seated and perused the menu.


  The menu at Cafe 58 is full of old friends and it's always very tempting just to stick with the same delicious choices but the last time Mr Smart and I ate there, with Mum as I recall, I had noticed something that I wanted to try.  For once it was a lot easier for me to choose!  While I waited for Mr Smart to make his choices I munched away on the prawn crackers.  They are an evil snack, and I probably should have had the waiter take them away sooner especially since Mr Smart doesn't help because they are too chip-like.
  For entree Mr Smart and I shared a serve of curry puffs with sweet chilli dipping sauce, one and a half puffs each to be precise, along with some of the bed of little puffy noodle pieces.  For main course I ordered coconut prawns.  A hot pot of prawns, mushrooms and snow peas in a creamy coconut sauce topped with shredded fresh coconut and strips of red capsicum, served with rice.  It was delicious!  I shared a little of it with Mr Smart in exchange for a taste of his sweet and sour pork.

  After finishing a delicious meal in good company, Mr Smart suggested that perhaps it was early enough in the evening to catch dessert at the nearby cafe Shocolate.  I wish I could remember the name of this thing because I forgot to take a picture of the menu and it's not available on their website unfortunately.  It was very impressive though, and extremely delicous.
  I remember that it was a dark shiny sticky dome filled with a dark chocolate orange mousse on a thick yummy brownie base, and the curl of chocolate on top of it had gold leaf on it, and the chocolate sauce on the plate was covered in edible raspberry coloured sparkles.  Poor Mr Smart had to be content with just his coffee.
  Jess

May 17 - Knowledge Sharing

  Today was a fun day at work.  A colleague from Head Office, SwimDad, was coming in to do cross-training with me for the day (no, not the exercise type of cross-training, rather cross-departmental training).  SwimDad works in our Financial Accounting team and as an Office Administrator I produce quite a few documents that end up in that teams' hands.  His team know what they do with those documents, so today was all about seeing how they were produced at centre level.
  Of course it was also a good excuse to catch up with someone I've worked with for the entire seven years I've been with the company so we included grabbing lunch from Roll'd together in there as well.  SwimDad even joined the team for drinkies and was our honorary Quizmaster for the evening since he admitted he reads the quizzes during the week.
  After work I headed off to unwind for the week, it was my turn to impress TwoWrongs with my favourite Japanese restaurant, Asakusa in Malvern East.  Happily, my opinion (that Asakusa produce amazing and delicious food) was upheld as TwoWrongs ecstatically consumed mouthful after mouthful of dishes of my choosing.
  It was a lovey meal and afterwards we talked for a long while about this and that, and music.  We listened to some bits of an old comedy radio show we both like called I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again, in particular, some of Bill Oddie's silly songs.  I made a Barenaked Ladies convert of TwoWrongs.  Most people write them off as a silly happy-go-lucky kind of band thanks to their one huge world-wide hit 'One Week', but even that, when you listen to it more carefully, is full of their particular brand of melacholy, surly sentimentality.  They really are quite nasty boys at times.  And we listened to a bit of Cathal Coughlan, a Golden Palominos album (which was sad but beautiful) and finally some Shpongle before it was definitely time I was getting home.

  Friday's food was:

• Breakfast was a 45g Carman's apricot and almond muesli bar and a 35g Carman's dark choc, blueberry and almond muesli bar.
• Morning snack was two squares of chocolate marshmallow slice made by SwimDad's lovely wife.  It was delicious and he was asked to provide the recipe.
• Lunch was a peach iced tea, mini seafood spring rolls with dipping sauce and a classic pork bánh mì from Roll'd.
• Drinkies was two glasses of Schweppes Orange & Mango mineral water and handfuls of Red Rock honey soy chicken chips. 
• Dinner was at Asakusa Japanese Restaurant and comprised:

• Vegetarian roll and unagi (eel) roll.
• Asparagus tempura with ponsu sauce (I forgot to photograph this).
• Crispy salmon skin roll (my utter favourite starter)
• Miso ramen soup (I forgot to photograph until I was halfway through)
• Green tea, black sesame and red bean ice creams.
• Lots of Japanese green tea and a few sips of warm sake.

  It was a good day and a good night.
  Jess

May 16 - Happy Birthday Teddy

A HUGE (admittedly now belated) Happy Birthday, To Teddy!

  Two years and three months ago, an Aussie and a Yank met in a British chatroom, and a friendship blossomed.  Pope Teddy Dog the First and Cardinal Jesster, Troggs united against the world.  As friends we've been through three birthdays apiece now and written tomes of emails and shared a lot of music and laughs.  I've even visited America to meet him.  All that time I spent in chatrooms, the better part of a year, people would berate me to go out and meet 'real' people, but as Teddy once brilliantly put it, "if our relationship isn't real then reality itself is far more tenuous than I ever suspected".  So here's to you Teddy, to many more years of a bizarre but loving friendship.  I promise there is a present coming but I had to wait to get paid!

  I felt on top of things today, for the first time in a long time.  There is still heaps to do, and no doubt it will feel out of control again very soon, but today at least it seemed more achievable.  I had a lovely lunch out with the boss today.  We got to catch up in a more social setting by heading downstairs to EcPot and dining in.  It made me remember all over again that I was sad she was leaving.  It's so nice having someone easy to talk to at work that you feel you can trust.
  I left a little early today, clawing back some of the extra time earlier in the week, and suffered through rush hour traffic past two accidents to get home to the waiting Mr Smart and a delicious home-cooked meal.  The slow cooker and he had collaborated very well and I was presented with yummy tender lamb shanks with mashed sweet potato.  As we served up, I noticed that he had even done my dishes!  A girl could get used to coming home to a man like that.
  After eating we watching this week's episode of Game of Thrones, another ending that came too soon!  Mr Smart remarked as well, that the credits always seem to roll leaving you desparately asking 'But what happens next!?'  We then started watching Hudson Hawk while I blogged, and he studied, but after a while he packed up and announced he was going to bed to read, so I hurried to finish up Sunday's blog and go and join him.


  Thursday's food was:

• Breakfast was a 45g Carman's Classic fruit and nut muesli bar and a 35g Carman's dark choc, cranberry and almond muesli bar.
• Lunch was an entree serve of spicy salt and pepper calamari, a lemon iced tea and Hainanese chicken and rice at EcPot.  It was very delicious and the chicken was boneless so I'd definitely have it again as it's one of my favourite Asian dishes.
• Afternoon snack was an Imperial mandarin.

• Dinner was mashed sweet potato with two Moroccon lamb shanks, cooked and served with tomato, chickpeas, carrot and zucchini.  Definitely could have fed four people, rather than two, but it was so delicious.
• Dessert was a small glass of Frangelico with two almond biscotti.

  I wish I had gotten to some of my book tonight.  I started a new one the other day, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu, which I bought when I was up in Brisbane recently.  It's captivating so far, but alas, talking until the wee hours of the morning prevented such relaxing pursuits.  Not that I'm complaining, talking is good too.
  Jess

May 15 - A Drizzly Day In Melbourne

  Today at work I sorted out some supplier issues, all part of the second pass in supplier reconciliations.  It involves a lot of emailing requests for copies and apologising for anything that's overdue and promises to get it sorted out expeditiously.
  I had a welcome visit early in the day.  Due to his plan to spend two nights, Mr Smart (who is not a light packer) brought around his overnight bag including our much loved Pengi, before heading off to uni for the day.  It was nice to get to have a morning cuddle and with Pengi's help I managed to get my desk tidied up a bit during the day.  It was a good day's work, though I can't remember much of what was done specifically.  I had a fun day playing with Pengi, and though it was a very dark and drizzly day in Melbourne we both eagerly awaited the evening's return of Mr Smart.
  When Mr Smart did arrive, we headed off down Elizabeth Street to Schnitz for dinner.  The Melbourne Central one is closer but we'd noticed the one in Elizabeth Street the other day when we passed it on our way to Huxtaburger.  As we walked, Mr Smart held his umbrella over the two of us and we chatted away about upcoming movies we wanted to see together.  The walk didn't talk long and soon we were seated at the bar at the window eating our Schnitz wraps while we talked of marketing ethics dilemmas and genre fiction gender biases and watched the beautiful dampness of a Melbourne evening as the world passed us by.

  After dinner we headed home, stopping at Coles on the way home for essentials and we decided to also grab stuff for dinner tomorrow night.  I had a Masterfoods slow cooker Moroccan lamb shanks recipe base at home and have a slow cooker yet to be tested!  We tried to think of and grab, what all the necessary ingredients might be.  Lamb shanks obviously, a zucchini, a carrot.. When we got home we discovered that we were missing one key ingredient, a 400g tin of tomatoes, and that none of the vegetables were required (though we decided to add them anyway).  I've no idea how I could run out of such a staple as 400g tins of tomatoes.  Mr Smart pointed out that I did have one tin of tomatoes but it's a 2.5kg tin so I wasn't about to open that just yet!  He laughed and said he'd walk to Coles in the morning for the missing ingredient and assemble it all during the day while I was at work.

  Wednesday's food was:

• Breakfast was a 45g Carman's Original fruit-free muesli bar and a 35g Carman's yoghurt, apricot and almond muesli bar.
• Morning snack was a green nashi pear, cored and sliced.
• Lunch was a 300g chunky vegetables with fire-roasted capsicum and quinoa skinny soup with a toasted wholemeal English muffin spread with 17.5g of The Laughing Cow cheese spread.
• Afternoon snack was a 30g serve of fruit and nut sesame snaps and an Imperial mandarin.
• Dinner was a Schnitz Hawaii Five-O wrap.  A chicken schnitzel with pineapple, cheese and yummy barbecue sauce.  It maybe had something else on it but their menu pdf seems to be malfunctioning at the moment so I can't check right now.

  Before we watched a movie and went to bed, Mr Smart and I spent some time setting up the slow cooker and checking over the recipe and ingredients needed for tomorrow night's dinner.  I'm really looking forward to beginning to see how versatile the slow cooker is.  It has a pressure cooke function too, and a steam function!  I was very excited too, that Mr Smart was insisting that he would take care of preparing dinner tomorrow.  There is nothing quite as nice as coming home to a home-cooked meal and a pair of loving arms.
  Jess

May 14 - I Love My Work, They Give Me Money!!

  Today the Commonwealth bank handed out a significant reward to all employees, big and small, including all wholly owned subsidiaries like the one I work for.  It was so significant in fact that it made the Australian Financial Review! Every employee was rewarded with a $250 prepaid Mastercard.  Woohoo!  Click here to read a bit more about it if you feel inclined.  I have no idea yet what I'm going to spend mine on.  Special dinner, night away, part payment on a ridiculously expensive but oh so gorgeous corset?  Who knows!  But it is certainly fun thinking about it.  I'm much better at thinking spending out these days.  Money doesn't burn quite as brightly in my pockets now that deep thought is the insulation.


  I had a good catch up with my outgoing boss today.  I say outgoing as she is temporarily replacing a person on maternity leave who has now announced that they are coming back early.  I'm going to miss her a lot.  We have a lot in common and she's very supportive and very easy to talk to.  It's been good to have a friend at work to help me through my adjustment to the new shopping centre.  I hope she's going to be happy wherever she goes next.  Anyway, the catch up was good and she offered up some assistance and ways I could get help which I hadn't considered but seemed to be good ideas.  I just hope the person coming back is as supportive and helpful.
  I worked late again tonight, just two more hours, which I will claw back later in the week by leaving an hour early on Wednesday and Friday.  Tonight I was doing my first pass of supplier statement reconciliations.  What's that? I hear you cry, on the edge of your seats for what is no doubt a fascinating process.  Supplier reconciliations are when a supplier sends you a statement listing all the invoices for purchases you've made up to a certain point in time (usually the end of every month) and you check them off against the system to see if everything has been paid or not.  This is all I do on the first pass and I went right through from A to Z.  The second pass I shall do some of tomorrow but it involves chasing up everything you haven't paid.  Thrilling, I know.
  As thrilling as that particular task is, by the end of it my desk was cleaner and I felt like I was moving in the right direction, even if it's never fast enough.  As soon as I was finished work I headed home to work on the blogs missing from last week!
  
Tuesday's food was:

• Breakfast was a 35g Carman's dark choc, blueberry and almond muesli bar and a 45g Carman's apricot and almond muesli bar.
• Morning snack was a dried pear half, a dried peach half and a 40g packet of Grain Waves sour cream and chive chips.
• Lunch was a 300g red Thai chicken soup with a toasted wholemeal English muffin spread with 17.5g of The Laughing Cow cheese spread.
• Dinner was a 200g pumpkin and parmesan mini quiche heated up in the microwave and an Imperial mandarin.

  No more extra time at work for me this week!  Mr Smart is going to stay over tomorrow and Thursday nights so I'm finishing on time, if not slightly early the next couple of nights.
  Jess

May 13 - Work Work Work

  It's official, Mr Smart is psychic.  Last night as he crawled into bed, Liverpool and Fulham were at one all and he casually announced that Liverpool would win 3-1.  I woke up this morning to find him gleefully pulling up the highlights for Liverpool's 3-1 victory.  If only he'd been psychic enough to lay money on it!
  Pizza Cat has been very good when I've been over lately.  She's been allowed to stay in the bedroom but she's maybe now better off being referred to as Paper Cat, since Mr Smart and I are no longer having takeaway pizza so there are no pizza boxes left for her to sit on.  She seems to like the paper box at any rate and looks super sweet curled up on it.
  I left late, just before 9am, and had a nice drive in to work.  I really enjoy having a flexible start time.  I hate being late so I've found that making sure I have work flexibility is a great way to relieve that stress.  As long as I'm there between 7am and 10am, I'm on time.
  Today was a very busy day at work, the billing deadline, so that is pretty much all I did all day.  I knew there were other things I had to be getting done though, so I did a couple of hours of extra time to get invoices moving along for a particular supplier.  I really hate paying people late, but when I get snowed under sometimes there are delays in process the more difficult invoices.
  I left work just before 9pm, which some might say is a fraction too late but to me that's only two hours extra.  See I started just before 10am, which means my official finish time would be 6:30pm.  If I stay late I take a half hour dinner break at my official finish time before going on, so it's not really that much extra work if you think about it that way, plus, it's very productive working when there is no one else around to interrupt you.  It does have the drawback though that there is no one to ask questions of if you get stuck!

Monday's food was:

• Breakfast was Uncle Tobys berry-flavoured instant oats and a Nespresso Dulsão do Brasil pod coffee.
• Morning snack was a 30g serve of fruit and nut sesame snaps and one dried peach half.
• Lunch was a 300g creamy pumpkin soup with a toasted wholemeal English muffin spread with 17.5g of The Laughing Cow cheese spread.
• Dinner was Breadtop!  Clockwise from the top-left, a pineapple coconut bun, a barbecue pork bun, a spicy chicken bun and a sausage bun.

  I am of course, still a little bit behind on the blog (seeing as it is now Sunday!) but I'm doing my best to catch up.  Life seems to be getting busier and busier!  I am definitely looking forward to my upcoming holiday but it's still eight weeks away!  I will just have to content myself with all the lovely time in lieu I will have accrued by the time I get through end of financial year...
  Jess

May 12 - A Quiet Autumn Day

  A pretty lazy day today.  I got up at lunch time, had a long shower and got on with chores and some blogging.  In between taking laundry in and laundry out I paused to take some photos of the autumn splendour on my back lawn.

  I didn't eat much during the day and was wondering what I might have for dinner while I chatted to Mr Smart online.  He suggested that perhaps I might like to cpme and keep him company while he studied, and perhaps I might like to pick up Lamb's for dinner on my way.  It wasn't planned and it meant packing an overnight bag unexpectedly but it was nice to get to see Mr Smart for an extra night.
  I got to Lamb's and thought their lamb is very good, and very tempting, for the second time in a row it was the moussaka I was craving.  Mr Smart and I ate dinner with an episode of Community and then went on to study and blog until quite late.

Sunday's food was:

• Breakfast at lunch time was Uncle Tobys creamy honey flavoured oats and a navel orange.
• Dinner was moussaka, pita bread with a little gyros lamb, tzatziki and salad.
• Dessert was a lady finger.

  Well I blogged and I blogged and I blogged but I still only made it up to Wednesday in the back log.  And now this one is being written on Thursday!  I'm catching up, but very slowly!
  Jess

May 11 - More Trekkie Time

  I awoke on Saturday morning, to the ramifications of a lack of planning the night before.  I still had my period but owing to a complete lack of luggage, I was unprepared for the realities of the new day.  Luckily, stepping into serious boyfriend territory was the ever supportive Mr Smart, who went down to the shops and bought a supply of the required items that I could keep at his place.  When he got back, he also suggested a few more items I might like to have there to save carting them back and forth since I'm staying there a bit more regularly these days.
  Mr Smart's plan for the day saw a lot of study getting done but when I indicated that I could just catch the train home again, he made a suggestion that I could work on my blogs on his laptop while he studied and then we'd be able to do something together in the evening.  I had nothing else on the agenda beyond boring old housework, but that can always wait.  So that was that.  Mr Smart flicked on the first of the Star Trek reboot movies, which I hadn't yet seen, and I pretended to blog while watching it intently.  It was a rather good story and I was impressed with the casting.
  We paused our various activities at lunch for a very yummy home cooked meal.  Mr Smart is a big fan of pork spare ribs, and armed with the knowledge that no matter what happens he is not capable of making the worst ribs in Australia, he has been experimenting with cooking them himself.  Today's experiment, I'm pleased to say, was really delicious.  He still wasn't completely happy though, he won't be until the meat is so tender it falls from the bone.  All I can do of course is be supportive and offer to taste every batch he makes to assist in the development process!
  After lunch we returned to blogging and study, Pizza Cat joining on and off in search of pats and scratches.  Mr Smart put on Star Trek III: The Search For Spock, one of the original movies that I also hadn't seen. As the day went on we wondered about what we might do in the evening, Mr Smart mooted the idea of going to see Star Trek: Into Darkness at the movies.  I can't help but think that perhaps that was his plan all along!  At any rate, it sounded like a fun idea to me and I started looking online for where and when.
  Coincidentally, I mentioned our plans to TwoWrongs while playing a game of Words With Friends and it turned out he was thinking of seeing it as well, so we invited him along to enjoy it with us.  We all agreed to meet at Victoria Gardens and I organised the tickets online so that we would be sure of getting the best possible seats (middle row of the back section of seating, middle of the aisle).

  We headed off at about 6pm to grab some dinner before the movie.  On the way down I saw a sight I'd not seen in years, the friendly neon of the Skipping Girl Vinegar sign.  Mr Smart told me that it used to be a very regular feature in his life when he had lived in the area.  Being from the other side of town, the regular neon icon in my life was the Nylex clock which seems to have been broken for an age now, or maybe I'm just never facing it at night.
  We got to Victoria Gardens in plenty of time and headed in to see what the dining options were.  What they were, was limited.  McDonalds and KFC - nope and nope, and the only other option was a place called Cafe Krifi and TwoWrongs was waiting out the front.
  I introduced the boys and we went inside and got seated at a nice comfy table under low fired heat lamps.  Sometimes you get stung by eateries that have a captive customer base, but this place was actually pretty nice.  A little on the pricier side maybe, but good food served pretty promptly.  I definitely enjoyed my burger and eggplant chips!  It normally comes with potato chips, but as I've said in the last few days, chips are just becoming a problem again, so I switched them out for the eggplant chips instead.  Yummy!
  There was good conversation and laughs throughout dinner, though I felt a bit out of it at times.  The trouble with putting two techies in a small space is that they have a tendency to speak an entirely different language at times.  It's the price I pay for free tech support I suppose (teeheehee, they will no doubt find ways of punishing me for that comment).
  After dinner we headed up to the cinema where a giant minion statue heralded the coming of Despicable Me 2 in July this year.  I'm really looking forward to that one!  Having just eaten Mr Smart and I didn't grab any snacks, but TwoWrongs had to go and grab a choc top.  Then we were in and seated and off the movie went!
  I don't want to give too much of a critique as it seems that Star Trek has become very popular this incarnation and I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, but needless to say, people who've seen the original movies will experience the movie slightly differently from people who haven't.  I definitely enjoyed myself but I did like the first of the reboots better.  I'll leave it at that.
  After the movie Mr Smart left to head home, ready for more study and essay writing in the morning, and TwoWrongs drove me home and we decided to watch another movie from my list.  I have owned Withnail & I on DVD for about ten years, but had never watched it.  I love Richard E Grant, I think he's a brilliant actor, which is why I bought it originally, but it's definitely a film for a particular audience.  Luckily for me TwoWrongs was already a huge fan of the movie so we grabbed cups of tea and the remainder of a block of chocolate and enjoyed the film.

  Saturday's food was:

• Delicious home-made slow-cooked pork spare ribs with barbecue sauce and salad.
• The Cafe Krifi original deli burger: A prime meat pattie, tasty cheese, beetroot, tomato, lettuce, caramelised onions and tomato relish, served with eggplant chips and minted yoghurt.
• Dessert was a cup of black tea, Ceylon orange pekoe, with five squares of Haigh's dark chocolate with cardamom.

  It was a good day all up, relaxing and I crossed four new movies off my list!  That's definitely an achievement of some sort.
  Jess

May 10 - Life & Love

  I got the end of financial year deadlines at work today, and promptly panicked.  My financial year ends four weeks from tomorrow.  I have four weeks to fix everything I can find and enter everything currently on or that crosses my desk.  I put all the deadlines in my Outlook calendar with appropriate reminder times and on my wall calendar highlighted in pink.  Normally the pink highlights are spread out across the A2 sheet.. in this case, the 7th and 11th of June are just huge scary pink blobs!
  In the afternoon, the horn sounded for drinkies, and I wandered down to join in the quizzes.  I was surprised to find people amazed that I knew what hydroponics was, I thought everyone knew that.  What surprised me was that most people seemed to know from sci-fi!  I did years of Agriculture/Horticulture in high school, it was my 'relax' class and I loved it.  We used to grow veggies hydroponically (and I'm pretty sure some of my class mates grew things at home hydroponically too).  I also surprised myself by knowing that François Mitterrand was the French Prime Minister succeeded by Jacques Chirac.  I was glad when work finished.  I had other things on my mind.  Something came up in the morning that begged immediate discussion with Mr Smart so without thinking about the practicalities of it I arranged to go to his place after work.  I didn't really stop thinking about it all day.  Anyway, I hadn't brought my car, or any sleepover things, but over I went all the same and we had a good long discussion and sorted out a few more things.  When we both felt talked out and comfortable with everything, we acknowledged hunger and headed out in search of food.
  We went to Noodle Kingdom and had a pleasant enough meal.  We even had a little entertainment in the form of two funny ladies about our age that sat at the table next to us.  You'd think they'd never eaten Chinese food before!  There was pointing and exclamations of "Oo, what's that?" and then they fussed with their order and got the wrong thing.  Their whole performance was pure comedy.  When the one seated next to me caught sight of our preserved egg I felt sure that another excited 'What's that!?' was heading my way, but she managed to contain herself.
  After an enjoyable dinner, we walked further on down High Street, and around the corner to the home of the Masterchefs.  Mr Masterchef was home alone with the kids so we joined him there to watch Game of Thrones, as I'd missed out on it on Wednesday!  After that we watched A Place Among The Pines which was without a doubt the crappiest slowest piece of shit film it's ever been my displeasure to watch.  I thought Drive was bad enough, but apparently Ryan Gosling is now type-cast as the quiet-moody-badass, kind of makes me want to vomit just a little.
  The Masterchef herself came home at the end and was showing me some cool Star Wars themed party items she was planning on making for the littlest Minichefs birthday party.  I like the Storm Trooper cupcakes particularly, and the Death Star piñata.  Not long after that though, it was time for Mr Smart and I to walk home, curl up and go to sleep.

  Friday's food was:

• Breakfast was a 45g Carman's Classic fruit and nut muesli bar and a 35g Carman's dark choc cranberry and almond muesli bar.
• Morning snack was an Imperial mandarin.
• Lunch was a 300g homestyle lamb and barley soup with a toasted wholemeal English muffin spread with 17.5g of The Laughing Cow cheese spread.
• Afternoon snack was a green nashi pear, cored and sliced.

• Dinner was at Noodle Kingdom in Preston and comprised of an entree of six chicken and prawn pan-fried dumplings and half a preserved egg and a main course of spicy salt and pepper squid and sizzling seafood.
• Dessert was a splash of McWilliam's Hanwood Estate Amontillado.

  It was a long and draining day, but it ended up ok so it was worth the extra efforts needed.  The important things in life are always worth putting a bit more hard work into.
  Jess

May 9 - Menstrual As Anything

  I hate having my period.  I really hate it.  Hate it, hate it, hate it.  It's the one part of being a woman that I could really live without.  I feel bloated, headachey, fart-ridden, extra-stressed, paranoid about everything, and just want to curl up in a ball and suck on chocolate biscuits and hot tea.  I did manage to at least skip the chocolate biscuits.  I didn't sleep well last night either, too much lying awake thinking, not enough movement, though at least Pizza Cat didn't jump all over me.  I had Feel The Pain by Dinosaur Jr on a loop on the drive to work, it seemed to fit my mood.
  The highlight of my work day was a special lunch at work as we had a bigwig visiting.  He was quite a nice chap, down to earth and open about himself, and very involved in the company's charitable works too.  It was nice just to be able to feel a part of something bigger in the office.  I can get to feeling a little bit isolated when I'm glued to the screen all day and having lunch in the office up the back without leaving to stretch my legs in the square.  I don't remember much else from work that day, just another blur of activity.
  I went home and started half-heartedly blogging, but everything just felt crap so I mostly wasted time on the internet.  Mr Smart and HotCakes both posted links to a particular blog today, entitled A Daddy’s Letter to His Little Girl (About Her Future Husband) which was posted on a site called The Good Men Project which seems a really interesting site.  I'm very curious to know what people think about it.  To me it seems most definitely, from father to daughter, but it does encourage the idea that people shouldn't change themselves to 'keep someone interested', which I think is mostly healthy as ideas go.  Not sure how applicable it is to a long-term relationship though, it seems to glaze over some of the realities of that.

  Thursday's food was:

• Breakfast was a 35g Carman's dark choc blueberry and almond muesli bar followed by a 45g Carman's apricot and almond muesli bar.
• Morning snack was a green nashi pear, cored and sliced.
• Lunch was pork belly, rice, chicken in betal leaf, prawn noodle salad, a small pie with sauce, salmon salad, chicken cucumber and nigella seed salad, another piece of pork belly and a small sausage roll.  It was all really yummy.
• Afternoon snack was an Imperial mandarin and a green tea custard bun from Breadtop.
• Dinner was two chicken in betal leaves, leftover prawn noodle salad, two small sausage rolls and five fruit mentos lollies.
• Comforting hot drinks were a strong cup of lapsang souchong tea (rather like drinking a sweet campfire) and a cup of green tea with lemon.

  I struggled through the evening in the iron-sucking grip of Aunt Flo, comforted only by online chatter and cups of hot liquid.  Suffice it to say, I was pleased to see the back of Thursday, though looking back on it now (Monday 13th), I'm impressed at how little I went overboard with the eating.
  Jess

May 8 - Dinner At Tuahine's

  This morning as I packed up my things tonight, Pengi stowed away in my overnight bag.  Apparently he misses Mr Smart as much as I do.
  Once more, work is a blur, not that it matters.  By and large, I figure that although I find my work interesting and challenging, it is probably pretty boring to others and of course confidentiality agreements prevent me from over-sharing anyway.  Mr Smart met me after work and we headed off to dinner at Tuahine's place (Mr Smart's sister's... I finally found a nickname that I felt suited).
  We were greeted by a very cheerful little nephew and had a glass of red poured for us each by Tuahine.  Mr Smart had brought four Little Golden Books for his nephew: Iron Man, Thor, The Incredible Hulk and my favourite, The Tawny Scrawny Lion.  I was immediately seconded to the sofa and instructed to read Thor, followed by Iron Man.  Mr Smart, who had been outside getting the fire going, was up next with The Incredible Hulk and The Tawny Scrawny Lion never got a look in!
  It was another lovely warmish autumn evening so we sat outside.  Mr Smart's nephew brought out his own plate and one for me, one of his very own.  I was very touched so I kept using it, even after the adult plates were brought out.  He's such a bright little happy kid.
  At one point during dinner and conversation Mr Smart's nephew started a little game with me.  He climbed down from his chair and tapped my knee then started crawling away towards the safety of his uncle's feet.  My part in the game was to try to tap him back before he got away.  I succeeded, and the game continued, with escalating squeals of delight.  I like that 'auntie' duties include getting kids riled up right before bedtime.  But bedtime came, and after he'd been put back into bed about three times, his door was closed and the adults were left with conversation.
  Movies came up, as they invariably do, and I started a list of movies I want to watch but haven't seen yet.  It rapidly ran out to several dozen long and it just keeps growing!  We decided to keep it from getting one bigger though, and we tidied up the table and went inside to watch 50/50 which is a Joseph Gordon-Levitt film about a young man who gets cancer.  It was mostly good, a few plot holes here and there, but moving, saddening, thought-provoking, funny and charming.  It made me wonder how I would go coping if someone close to me had such a serious illness.
  After the movie Mr Smart and I headed back to his place for the evening.  It was a somewhat complex evening after that.  I have been having trouble resettling into things after the issues Mr Smart and I had in early April so we ended up having a fairly productive chat brought on by my feelings of paranoia.  Fortunately, talking things out always makes me feel better, so no sleep was lost.

  Wednesday's food was:

• Breakfast was a 45g Carman's Original fruit-free muesli bar and a 35g Carman's yoghurt apricot and almond muesli bar.
• Morning snack was a green nashi pear.
• Lunch was a 300g tomato, lentil and bacon skinny soup with a toasted wholemeal English muffin spread with one portion of The Laughing Cow cheese spread (17.5g).
• Afternoon snack was an Imperial mandarin.
• Dinner began with a glass of shiraz accompanied by some blue vein, quince paste and pumpernickel bread.  The small hand you see in the photo is a big fan of the pumpernickel bread, he was less enthused when he decided to try the cheese.
• Next course (not pictured) was about four or five barbecued marinated chicken wingettes.  Very succulent and tasty.
• And finally, the delicious main course, tasty barbecued steaks with a cajun spice rub, broccoli with flaked almonds and chilli and barbecued corn.

  I may have to leave it there for tonight.  It's getting late on Sunday 12th as I write this and I do have to remember that I have work in the morning!  More blogs tomorrow!
  Jess

May 7 - Trekkie Time

  As I write this blog of Tuesday on Sunday 12th, I am left wondering.. just what the fuck did I do today?  I have only vague memories of work, I know I did stuff and I know it was relatively productive, but beyond that I cannot recall.  I do remember what I did in the evening.  Star Trek.
  TwoWrongs had a need for company, so I finished up at work and went around to provide said company and indulge in some Star Trek TNG on Bluray.  We watched two episodes, slowly sipping on our cups of tea, Lonely Among Us and Justice.  Those episodes were from series 1, written and filmed while all the actors and writers were still finding their feet.
  Personally, despite all the digital remastering and improved special effects, I don't think I would notice the difference between the Bluray and original editions unless I watched them side by side, an outrageous statement that will doubtless inflame the techie senses of Mr Smart and TwoWrongs alike and may well result in my being forced to do just that.  The thing is, Star Trek TNG was always about the stories, and those remain excellent and unchanged by any tweaking of the technology.
  It was good to be there for a friend and to get to watch Star Trek and laugh and unwind, but it did put me yet another day behind on the blog.  I wouldn't have traded it though, life's too short to take things like this overly seriously.  Live life first, then write about it when you have time.

Tuesday's food was:

• Breakfast was a 45g Carman's Classic fruit and nut muesli bar followed by a 35g Carman's Dark Choc cranberry and almond muesli bar.
• Morning snack was two dried peach halves and 10g Lindt 85% Cocoa dark chocolate.
• Lunch was a 300g red Thai chicken soup with a toasted wholemeal English muffin spread with one portion of The Laughing Cow cheese spread (17.5g).
• Afternoon snack was a green nashi pear, cored and sliced.
• Dinner was a 500g mushoom and bacon risotto (still more like a savoury rice pudding, but satisfying enough for a quick fix dinner).
• Dessert was a nice strong cup of black tea with a splash of milk.

Jess

May 6 - Too Much Food!

  It's a nice change, heading in to work from Mr Smart's place, and it was a beautiful morning.  I went down St George's Road to Alexandra Parade, then down Lygon Street which takes me all the way to the car park entrance on Russell Street.  It's a very easy, quite scenic drive (though it does expose me to far too much extra knowledge of restaurants in the area).  Just at the very bottom of St Georges Road, where it veers to the left and turns into Brunswick Street, there is a beautiful mural on the frontage of number 639.  I have always liked it and today the traffic was stopped enough for me to grab a quick photo as I crawled past it.

  Work passed quickly today.  The reconciliation that was brought to me on late Friday did take me the better part of today.  It was all relatively easy problems to solve, so several journals and emails later it's now under control and should remain so going forwards.  It did result in 'finding' a bit more money at the centre too, so I'm rather popular at the moment.
  My roomie wasn't in the office today so I had my music on and was chugging along through things and by the afternoon I had a little time leftover so I started the mind-numbing task of watching the boring but necessary online training modules.  They are mandatory and I had to have them finished by Friday.  I got through four today and had three more to go tomorrow.
  I finished up around 6pm and headed to the steps of the State Library to meet my predecessor for dinner.  We walked down Swanston and about three blocks up Little Bourke Street to Mrs Parma's.  There will be no prizes for guessing what I had for dinner!  It was a nice enough place, the parma I had was nice, certainly very big, but at the upper limit of it's value for money.  I think I still prefer The Earl of Aberdeen for schnitzels but admittedly that's a bit more of a drive.  It was nice to have a catch up though and a nice quiet venue for the task (well it was a Monday night and it is tucked away in the dark on the upper end of Little Bourke Street).
  I contemplated dessert, but I just feel like I've eaten too damn much lately, especially hot potato chips!  I seem to be eating them an awful lot lately and only one lot has been notably good (the ones from Miss M's moving day).  I think I may need to start saying no to chips in the way of Mr Smart, even with burgers!  I can always enjoy salad or veggies instead, most places seem to offer at least one of those as alternatives.

  Monday's food was:

• Breakfast was a Nespresso Dulsão do Brasil pod coffee and Uncle Tobys creamy honey flavoured Oats.
• Morning snack was a 14.5g Milky Bar and two dried peach halves.
• Lunch was a 300g creamy pumpkin soup with a toasted wholemeal English muffin spread with one portion of The Laughing Cow cheese spread (17.5g).
• Dinner was a Mexican parma, which was a weiner schnitzel topped with napoli sauce and cheese, tomato salsa, guacamole, sour cream and jalapenos, served with chips and salad.  I also tried my predecessor's schnitzel which was chicken with pumpkin and feta.

  That's it for Monday.  On with the rest of my blog catching up!
  Jess

May 5 - Derby Day

  Bit of a lazy morning, though my intention was to get through housework.  Mr Smart settled on the couch to study and I was left to my own devices.  I was well on the way to wasting the day on the internet when I got hungry in the mid-morning and went off to Waverley Gardens to grab something for our lunch.  My only directive from Mr Smart 'something salady', so I grabbed 'salady things' and a little breakfast Savoury Bite from Baker's Delight and headed back home to prepare lunch.
  I made two very nice homemade Caesar salads with parmesan, bacon, poached eggs, and homemade crunchy croutons.  Mr Smart grinned as he ate and said, "This may very well put paid to the rumour that you don't make friends with salad".  It's always nice when something you've made yourself is well received.
 

 
  In the remainder of the afternoon I got through laundry and dishes and a few other housework bits and pieces, but generally wasted a lot time on the internet and left Mr Smart to his studies.  I get annoyed at myself when I 'waste' time on the internet, but I have to remind myself how tired and stressed I am lately and remember that it's something I do to unwind and give myself a break already.
  In the afternoon I made us cups of tea and had a couple of pieces of almond biscotti with mine.  Almond biscotti dipped in tea is very nice, but it's not an ideal dunking biscuit because it absorbs the tea too fast and has no oil content to keep the hot liquid from disintegrating it.  One dunk, that's all you get with biscotti unless you want it crumbing up the tea.
  It was a nice quiet day, but of course it was all just waiting for the evening!  Tonight was the night of the Liverpool vs. Everton derby match which kicked off at 10:30pm!
  We headed off to collect Miss M from her new abode at about 7:30pm, planning to have dinner beforehand.  Of course, as occasionally happens, I had a glitch with my sense of direction and mental mapping (Mr Smart referred to it as a 'brain-fart') and forgot that I needed to take the Bolte Bride/Airport turn off, so Mr Smart and I took the scenic route, over the Westgate Bridge and back again.  Of course he couldn't resist telling Miss M about it the second we arrived.  Her house is already looking like a home, and the unpacking was already nearing completion!
  Our original plan had been to go to The Celtic Club to watch the game.  It's the Arsenal fans' home club so for Liverpool vs. Everton it would have a pretty even match of fans of both clubs and therefore an exciting atmosphere.  A convivial mix of rivalries, but with fans cheering no matter what outcome.  Unfortunately though, The Celtic Club was playing the match but they were closing before it ended (which seemed a little stupid).  It was lucky I rang and checked.  In the end, we plumped for The Imperial, which unfortunately for the Everton fan, Miss M, is the Liverpool home club.

The Reds assembling before kick off.

  We couldn't decide on the myriad of culinary options available to us in the city so we just went with The Imperial itself.  I had a couple of lemon, lime & bitters while we perused the menu and then ordered.  A pub meal is sometimes a nice affair, and Mr Smart's parma, and Miss M's gnocchi both looked lovely, my lemon pepper calamari however was extremely lacklustre.  It had a nice enough flavour but if you pay $20 for "Lemon Pepper Calamari" quite frankly you expect more than six pissy pieces of calamari on a mountain of chips and salad.

  There was quite a big crowd in the place by kick off.  A big red crowd with banners, uniforms and good cheer.  What a pity it turned out to be the most utterly boring soccer match ever.  It was a nil-all draw, with three yellow cards.  There was a fair bit of on-field thuggery from both sides (I'm looking at you Carragher and Fellaini) but the referee was pretty permissive which meant there wasn't a lot of stoppage time.  Poor Miss M couldn't cheer and jeer because she was the one blue Toffee (dressed in black so as to be incognito) in a sea of Reds.
  The funniest thing all night was a chap from the Hillsborough Justice Campaign who was walking around selling cupcakes from a suitcase.  A gold coin donation got you a cupcake topped with a set of lolly teeth, a 'Luis Suarez' cupcake.  A reference to the Liverpool player's earlier ban for biting another player a couple of weeks ago.
  It was a very tiring night overall and we all headed home unsatisfied with the result, and the match as a whole.  We dropped Miss M home, and huge thanks to her for the lend of a singlet for work in the morning because I had forgotten to pack one.  We got back to Mr Smart's place and promptly curled up in bed and went to sleep.
  Jess

May 4 - Moving Miss M

  Getting up early after a late night watching movies is rather taxing, but I left by 9am and headed out to Coburg because today was moving day.  Miss M was stepping on up in the world to a nicer place but not very far away.  When I arrived, everything had already been packed up into boxes, it was just a case of helping back everything into the removal truck and the boot and back seat of my little car and heading off to the new location.
  One of Miss M's travelling buddies works for a removal company, and a few weeks earlier, he says in an intoxicated state, he was convinced to offer up his services.  He was a lovely chap, and it was super helpful having someone who was indisputably "in-charge" of moving day (apart from Miss M herself obviously).  Tell you what though, I wouldn't want to play two-person Tetris against this guy, he would just scoff at the zig-zag pieces!
  We carried out furniture and boxes of various shapes and sizes as bidden.  The contents of Miss M's wardrobe ended up on their hangars in the back seat of my car along with some more delicate baskets of odds and sods.  It took a few hours, but with the aid of a professional it took a lot less time than I'd expected.  It was fun chatting about moving days in general.  I've not really moved much myself as I've been in the one house for twelve years now.  I was informed that Mr Smart, who arrived not long after me this morning, has helped Miss M and the Masterchefs move a collective total of about eight times.  That's certainly brownie points in the bank for the next time he has to move!
  When the trucks and cars were loaded up, we all headed off first to the new location.  Mr Smart and I arrived first, and we found that although it's very close to the freeway, the driveway seemed peaceful and you couldn't really hear the traffic noise, certainly no worse than at my place.  Everyone else arrived shortly after and the unloading commenced.  It was amazing how much faster it was to unload and we were soon being directed where to take what and opening boxes.  Once everything was off the truck and unpacking was underway, thoughts turned to a late lunch.
  Pizza and ribs had been the suggested lunch earlier in the day, but disaster!  The ribs place was closed leaving poor Mr Smart feeling ever so slightly betrayed.  In the end though, we had some really lovely fish and chips.  Damn good batter on the flake too.  After lunch, Mr Smart and I headed back to my place and studied and read and watched TV until we got peckish again.
  Of course.. having been disappointed earlier, Mr Smart had ribs on the brain, so after a few calls we managed to get a booking at Squires Loft Tooronga.  It was fortunately a late booking so we had time to feel hungry again after lunch.  I'd only been to the Albert Park Squires Loft previously, but I knew vaguely that the Tooronga one must be in the new shopping complex on Toorak Road which proved to be correct, but my method of finding the right spot to park still had me do at least one u-turn.
  We were seated and served very quickly, a by-product of going in knowing exactly what you want.  A 500g serve of pork ribs and a whopping 1kg serve for Mr Smart.. of course there are bones in that weight.  They didn't offer the beef ribs at this location though.  I quite enjoyed the beef ones last time, though the pork ones were very enjoyable tonight.  I did enjoy my green peppercorn sauce, but it was nice to also occasionally steal a little of Mr Smart's creamy garlic sauce too.

Saturday's food was:

• Breakfast was a 45g Carman's Classic fruit muesli bar and a 45g Carman's apricot and almond muesli bar.
• Late morning snack was about 16 Arnott's Barbecue Shapes.
• Lunch was a piece of flake with a little tartare sauce, two potato cakes, chips and four steamed dim sims with two glasses of Coke Zero (because who needs extra calories on top of fish and chips...)
• Dinner was at Squires Loft Tooronga.  I started with the complimentary slice of bread (it said I looked fabulous) with half of one of those little butter tubs, then moved on to the 500g serve of pork ribs with green peppercorn sauce and chargrilled vegetables.
• Dessert was a relatively nice sticky date pudding (Mum's is much nicer) with a cheap and nasty vanilla ice-cream which kind of spoiled it.  I regretted dessert.

  After all that physical labour moving a household, such a big meal, and a reasonably longish drive home, it was off to bed for the both of us, resting up to face a day of study and housekeeping in the morning.
  Jess

May 3 - Mmm Japanese

  Thank god it's Friday.  A long day, made slightly longer at the end by the arrival of another large 'to do' item - a reconciliation of an expense that it seems has been being allocated slightly incorrectly at our head office.  I dreaded it for a few seconds but a cursory investigation showed it would be pretty easy to fix up going forwards, it's a job left for Monday at this stage.
  Friday quiz night at work was fun but a bit short.  There were lots of laughs and rambling conversation and then all of a sudden I was the last one in the office!  Luckily for me, rescue was at hand so I went down to the square to meet TwoWrongs for dinner.
  We weren't quite hungry yet so we decided to do a spot of window shopping first.  I found a really cool pop-up Liverpool card for Mr Smart and an equally cool pop-up Everton card for Miss M.  It was an awesome coincidence because on Sunday we're going to watch the Liverpool vs Everton derby match!  After that, TwoWrongs remembered a cool off-beat clothing boutique and we went off to have a quite look around.
  Antons, as it turns out, could be quite a temptation for me.  They sell divine and somewhat quirky clothes, skirting the realms of goth but far too colourful to properly qualify, and along with their dapper beelzebub mannequin I can see why TwoWrongs was keen on it as a store.  I only made one mistake.. and that was going far enough in to spot the rack of seriously gorgeous corsetry.
  Since losing all the weight, my previous corset definitely no longer fits, even laced to its tightest fitting.  I like corsets.  They look good, they feel good and they are damn sexy.  I've been talking about getting a new one now for a little while now and it seemed like there was no time like the present to start looking in earnest.
  Ana, the lovely very helpful (and I expect very effective) sales girl, took my measurement as being now 39 inches at rest, so she loosened the lacing on a 34 inch and a 32 inch corset for me to try on.  She also tied me in and took photos for me to show Mr Smart.  Now that is what I call customer service!  She did also try to talk me into a layby but I am not ready to pick between the first two I see and like.
  After discussing the matter with Mr Smart, I've decide to post the pictures so you can see the two I tried on.  They are both European imports, pure silk, sprung steel boning.  The purple one is embroidered with flowers and butterflies and is the 34 inch, and ties up with black ribbon, the red one is plain, 32 inches and ties with dark red cord.  And of course they are both expensive.. the purple one is $650 and the red one is $420.  Ana was very quick to point out that they offer extended layby on a pay 'something' once a fortnight basis.

  Not that I am necessarily going to pick between these two, I do know which one I prefer, and I know which on Mr Smart prefers, but I am very curious to hear your thoughts too.  Which one do you prefer?  Anyway, after all that fashion and debating how much cash I was truly willing to part with in the pursuit of looking fabulous, as my tummy returned to it's normal non-restricted state, I decided I was now hungry so we headed back to QV for dinner.  Big thanks to Ana for being so lovely and helpful and to TwoWrongs for patiently browsing while I tried things on.
  We went to Meshiya Japanese Restaurant on Lonsdale Street and it was bloody good.  We had to sit outside in the slightly breezy Constance Stone Lane, but it was actually warmer after dark than it hard been during the day, and with my coat on it was fine.  Meshiya is TwoWrongs favourite Japanese so I did what I felt would work best.  I closed the menu and said "I will eat whatever you order".

  Not many people feel confident ordering for others, or likewise placing themselves culinarily-speaking, in someone else's hands, but I'm not a picky or fussy eater, a gourmand rather that a gourmet.  I find it can be a very exciting adventure letting someone else do the choosing.  I certainly wasn't disappointed.

  Friday's food was:

• Breakfast was a 45g Carman's Classic fruit muesli bar and a 45g Carman's Original fruit-free muesli bar.
• Morning snack was a pluot.
• Lunch was a 300g mild Indian masala dhal soup with a toasted English muffin spread with one portion of The Laughing Cow cheese spread (17.5g).
• Afternoon snack was a green nashi pear, cored and sliced.
• Dinner was at Meshiya Japanese Restaurant at QV and comprised:

• Miso soup and a big bowl of edamame.  Edamame are fresh soy beans steamed and salted.  You pop the beans out to eat and discard the pods.
• Spicy avocado sashimi - cubes of assorted raw fish sitting atop half an avocado dressed with a spicy mayonnaise.  The flavour of this is amazing and vaguely reminiscent of rollmops.
• A 375ml Calpis Water, a Japanese soft drink.

• Nasu dengaku - fried eggplant with a sticky sweet warm miso dressing.
• Unagi avocado maki - broiled eel with a sticky glaze atop avocado filled sushi roll.  Extremely yummy but very filling so I'm glad this was shared!

• Dessert was 15ml of Laphroaig Quarter Cask Islay single malt Scotch whisky (that was all I could take) and about 15 squares of Haigh's dark chocolate with cardamom.

  After dinner we headed back to my place for dessert and movies.  Dessert comprised yummy chocolate and a very good quality whisky.  Drinking whisky was a new experience for me.  While I'm glad that I've now had that experience, I'm sure TwoWrongs wasn't devastated to find that I would not be guzzling away large quantities of his favourite whisky.  It was a bit like drinking a campfire while someone strangles you.  It was hot, firey, smokey, amazing and vile all at the same time.
  Our viewing pleasures this evening were the slightly strange and off-kilter choices of Mystery Science Theatres 3000: The Movie and Meet The Robinsons (another underrated Disney animated feature) followed by two episodes of first series Saturday Night Live hosted by Rob Reiner and Candice Bergen respectively.
  That's all for Friday, now on with the blogs for the rest of the weekend.  Thanks for your patience guys but lately I just seem to be a teensy bit of a social butterfly!
  Jess