All Entries Tagged With: "something"
30 Days Has September
Happy Spring everyone!
Goodbye long, dark winter of the soul … Hello swimming, thongs and cold beer!
To celebrate this VERY HAPPY DAY, I have decided to participate in something called 30 Days Has September.
For the next month, I have committed to doing something new every day. It can be as simple as walking home a different [...]
Sustainable lessons from 99 years ago
The Green Novice writes “Thinking of all that she would have experienced and learnt in her 99 years, I wondered what sort of life lessons (from a sustainable viewpoint) she could impart to my children & I.”
Travel Product Review: OLEA Olive Leaf
I am one of those crazy hippies who will try absolutely every alternative remedy before I will remit to hard core pharmaceuticals. Case in point: The kidney infection of 2001. I had a very sore lower back so I went to:
1. A floatation tank
2. A massage therapist
3. A chiropractor
And then…
4. Outpatients when I couldn’t handle the [...]
Review: Thai Pothong banquet
Last Saturday we attended a talk in the Buddhist centre by a teacher from Melbourne. The idea was to have dinner afterward in Thanh Binh, but it was fully booked. We went to the good old Thai Pothong instead. We were expecting to order from the a la ca…
Catcall – Swimming Pool (Julian Mendelsohn Extended Remix)
I love a really good extended remix, especially when it’s something so melodic as Swimming Pool by Catcall.Catcall, AKA Catherine Kelleher, is a 23 year old singer hailing from Sydney. She’s a music veteran, having performed with DIY punk group Kiosk b…
Introducing Rightcliq – your “electronic wallet”
It just keeps getting easier and easier. Online shopping, that is.
Visa has come up with an “electronic wallet” for online purchases. Competing directly with Paypal and Google Checkout, Visa has given Rightcliq some spanking new additional features of its own, ensuring it will never have an identity crisis.
As well being able to store your payment card numbers [...]
Review: Lao Village
Lateral Eating (Gaby) writes “A few Sundays ago, when my sister and I went to Tierras Latinas in Fairfield to buy Peruvian ingredients, we decided to have lunch in the area”
Do you dream?
Dreaming has come into the spotlight recently with the movie Inception looking at how dreams are manipulated in an alternative world. I have always been a big dreamer with a vivid imagination but lately, the number of dreams I have has increased dramatically.
It’s in the cards… e-gift cards, that is
Swapping, selling and buying plastic gift cards is nothing new but here’s something I haven’t seen before…
Not only is CardsUWant.com is a fabulous online marketplace for buying gift cards at up to 40% off and for converting your unwanted cards into instant cash, but they’ve also got a great range of merchants who sell e-gift cards.
Instead of [...]
Lisa’s Travel Deal of the Week: Barthelona!
Lisa’s Travel Deal of the week: Barthelona!
Of all the cities I’ve visited in Europe, Barcelona is the one I could picture myself living in. Admittedly that doesn’t require a huge stretch of the imagination given how damn captivating this city is, but there was just something about its combination of beachy, laidback vibe with a [...]
Where am I Wednesday?
This week’s Where am I Wednesday has been submitted by Peter Dockrill. Where was he when he took this chilling shot? First person to answer correctly wins something cold!
Save shipping: order online, pick-up in-store
Many American retailers now give you the option to order your goodies online (in your pyjamas) but to save on shipping costs by letting you pick it up at their (nearest) store.
This is great when you have to get something in time for an urgent gift occasion. Locally, I’m doing it on Wednesday when the [...]
The Green Novice – Inner West Lisa goes green
Inner West Blogger Lisa Hosking is “the Green Novice”, what she calls “a stumbling, bumbling experiment into living sustainably by an inner city mum”. An average mother in the Inner west, she has two kids (a baby & one in her first year of school), a husband, a mortgage and a fairly comfortable inner-city existence in Sydney. [...]
Sydney Vegan Happy Hour: Venue Suggestions Needed
Since launching vegaroo! in April I’ve been wanting to start up some vegan events in Sydney. The time has come! Through our partnership with Inner West Live, we are currently scouting a location for an upcoming Sydney Vegan Happy Hour! If you know of any venues (or especially if you have connections at any) that mightbe [...]
Eating in Stanmore
I’ve set myself a little mission. Eatability lists 16 cafes and restaurants in Stanmore itself. I’m not sure if they’re all still open or not. Over the last year and a half I’ve managed to visit a meagre 5 of those 16. So over the next few months I’m going to try and get round to [...]
Review: Badde Manors Cafe
Lateral Eating blogs about one of the most well known Cafe’s in the Inner West, Glebe’s “Badde Manors” Cafe.
Stop taking so much coke?
If you live anywhere in NSW, chances are you’ve run into drugs. It’s part of the growing up culture of the western world. Having been brought up on the central coast I got used to finding hose pipe pieces all over the school yard. It’s just something you get used to. For the legal peeps [...]
Should I stay or should I go?: Freedom vs security
Committing yourself to a life of adventure takes courage.
Intrepid travel is uncomfortable, risky and bloody hard work. Lost passports, stolen wallets, dodgy food, bed bug infested mattresses, frigid nights spent waiting for trains that never come and backpacks full of dirty clothes that you have been wearing for the past three weeks …
Sometimes it makes [...]
Yum Cha Hard 5.0 – Rockin at Annandale Pub Cha
Just when I thought I was beginning to make a dent in the local pub scene, I come across something that proves I’ve barely scratched the surface: Pub Cha. The only thing that surprises me more is that it has taken someone so long to come up with it! So when an RSVP date invited [...]
7 in 10 Christmas party-goers bring a hostess gift
Research from American Express in 2009 found that throughout the Christmas holiday season, 68% of party guests expected to buy a hostess gift to say “thanks for having me” while a naughty 26% expected to waltz on in, empty-handed. (Perhaps the other 6% weren’t sure if they were invited.)
Most guests intended to pay an average [...]
Where am I Wednesday?
This week’s Where am I Wednesday is brought to you by very talented photographer, Evan Williams.
Where was he when he took this shot? Post your answer at the bottom of this post and be specific for your chance to win something truly mysterious (a…
Travel Tech Review: Canon Powershot D10
I am really rough with cameras. Case in point: A couple of years ago, I went to an awards night and woke up with a cracking Champagne headache and crumpled blob of metal for a lens. All I remember is taking a pic of my friend Panda with Senator Stephen Conroy and kerchunk (that is [...]
Job interview advice….yeah, cause I’m such a guru
So many people I know absolutely dread job interviews, whereas I actually quite enjoy them…well maybe enjoy isn’t exactly the right word but I don’t mind them. I have been to a few in my time (being made redundant three times has to be some …
Going Bush
Witty Sam goes bush and finds herself in a pickle… she doesn’t like pickles but at least it’s better than finding yourself in a kerfuffle. Will she survive? Can someone send help…? Share this on Bebo Share this on Facebook Share this on FriendFeed Post on Google Buzz Share this on Plaxo Share this on [...]
Should I write a blog?
Someone mentioned to me the other day, that I should attempt to write a blog. So here I’m sitting and wondering what do I want to say? More importantly do I have anything that is worthy of saving? There are so many things that we as adults face in our day to day life. What would make [...]
Yum Cha Hard
Mother summed it up perfectly the first time I took her to Yum Cha. “This is a brilliant way to eat”. That still rings in my ears everytime we manage to bring together one or more friends for the Cha. So what’s the big deal? Well, we asked the public what they thought. It’s become part [...]
Mad Racket Marrickville – upcoming event. 12th June 2010
The Sticky Chicken blogs about the upcoming Mad Racket in Marrickville, a major outdoor music and everything festival in the home of the Inner West’s best Yum Cha (OK, one of the best)
Ship your shopping with one of these 7 mail forwarding companies
When you want to buy things in the US and ship them home to Australia, you may need a mail forwarding company as I mentioned in my previous post, 7 reasons you should ship around for your mail forwarding companies.
I’ve looked at seven different mail forwarding services in America, what they provide and their fees so [...]
Spot the gift clues in their wedding gift registry
There are times when you’re just not fast enough at selecting something from the wedding gift registry that has special relevance between your bride and groom and you. Perhaps only the less-palatable items (ie garbage bins) are left - and you don’t want to be associated with those! – or the really expensive (ie $200+) stuff remains, daring you to melt what [...]
Need of a laugh?
27b/6 If you have a spare 10 minutes or so and looking for a laugh, this website is for you. It takes something pretty ridiculously funny in print to make me laugh out loud but this website succeeded to do so.Until then xoUntil then xo
Holidays in Lima (April 19 2010)
On Monday I had a banana de seda* and a granadilla* before training, and a lúcuma** shake (with milk) after training, super tasty! That day I had lunch with my friend Christian from uni. We had lunch in a Japanese restaurant called Osaka, quite expensive but really good. We chose several dishes to share: sashimi [...]
To market, to market
No, you did not receive an iTunes $50 gift certificate
If you’re like the millions of people with an iPod, more recently an iPhone, and just perhaps, one of the lucky few with an iPad, you may have been surprised to receive an email telling you you’ve won a $50 gift certificate from iTunes.
I have received two in the past week.
If you’re new enough you [...]
Social networks: Do they really want to be integrated?
Like most people out there, I’m a social networking addict. Facebook on my mobile, Twitter updates every 20 minutes: you name it and I’ve done it. Social networking keeps me updated on news that is relevant to me. So you can understand my frustration when last week I was trying to integrate my Facebook and [...]
Mystery Bar II Revealed – Bloodwood
The mystery bar series kicked off the other week with Corridor, which lasted a respectable amount of time before being identified. Mystery Bar II continued the ‘door’ theme of the recent mystery photos (red and farm) and asked in which fine Newtown dri…
Pin Up Drawing Workshop
Sunday 16th May – Pin Up Drawing Workshop with Sarina del Fuego recreating poses and costumes of the 1940’s.
Barry Dean, artist and teacher will be demonstrating with Wacom. All welcome! There will be something for everybody, artists, digital artists, beginners and professionals. From 1:30pm to 4:30pm. Level 1, 77-83 William Street, [...]
Book project update #7
A friend this week congratulated me on my “spree”, a reference to Nick Hornby’s The Polysyllabic Spree, an entertaining collection of the “What I’ve been reading” columns he wrote for The Believer magazine in the early “noughties”.
Funnily enough I’d forgotten about Hornby’s series of columns/book when I started keeping this list but in fact it does share many similarities, even if my list has more vampires and less soccer…
This Body of death by Elizabeth George
I’ve always enjoyed George’s Inspector Lynley series but I can’t help wondering whether it’s time for her to move on to something else. This latest volume is good but not as good as it should be.
Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr
Who’d have thought fairies were such a dark and conniving bunch? This otherworldly tale isn’t exactly a work of great literature but it was the perfect anecdote to a mild hangover, which is better under the circumstances.
Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris
Thanks to the largesse of bookshelf-cleaning friends I literally have about 25 books in my things to read pile so why, on a lazy Sunday, do I find myself in a book store of all places? And why, once in that book store, do I find myself trotting to the counter, purse in one hand, book clutched possessively in the other? Oh yes, I’ve just found the elusive last Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood novel; that would be it.
Lunch in Paris by Elizabeth Bard
Who doesn’t dream of falling in love with a Frenchman, moving to Paris and dedicating oneself to becoming a writer and mastering the art of French cooking? Julia Child did (although her hubby was an American diplomat) and just think how celebrated her life has become. I’m not sure Elizabeth is in La Julia’s realm however this is a lovely book to daydream over. Oh, and it has recipes.
Genesis by Karin Slaughter
A good example of the nasty serial killer/troubled cops genre, if that’s your sort of thing.
Caffeine hit
There is something incredibly comforting about morning rituals. I walk to my local cafe each morning (via the local shop to pick up the papers) and order the same skim cappuccino. I usually have the same cheerful chat with the barista and waitress befo…
Gould-fingered
Just wandered into my local second-hand book store, Goulds, in King Street, Newtown, on the lookout for some vintage art books for my sister Wendy. Found some fabulous prints of Sisley and Turner (she’s into landscapes). If you’ve never been to Goulds,…
A refreshing drop from First Drop Wines
There’s a lot of “wankery” in the world of wine appreciation (yes, I know, who’d have thought it?), which is why is was so refreshing, no pun intended, to come across winemaker Matt Grant from First Drop Wines, a “virtual” winery based in South Australia’s Adelaide Hills, at a tasting last week.
Matt is no light weight when it comes to winemaking (he was Young Winemaker of the Year in ’04 and the inaugural Young Gun of the Year in ’07) but his approach to running a wine “masterclass” was light-hearted to say the least. In between tastings of some lovely wines from First Drop and other South Australian producers, tasters were invited to join in activities such as a blind “sniffing” to identify some common fruit and veggie “flavours” found in wine, complete with blindfold; a contest inspired by The Price is Right to identify the combined total of the wines tasted (for the record my guess was out by over $100 – I did not become a journalist because I’m good at maths!) and a wine spitting contest to see who could spit their red wine the furthest. While I’m not a fan of spitting under any circumstances – even into a spitoon at a wine tasting – the roars of laughter from guests during the last game suggested that not everyone is so squeamish.
At the end of the evening everyone walked away not only having learnt something (did you know, for example, that Michia is slang for both the male and female sex organs in some parts of Italy?), but having had some fun, and isn’t that what drinking wine should be about?
Some thoughts on the ethics of blogging…
There’s been a lot of discussion in recent months amongst food bloggers and in the mainstream media about the ethics of bloggers accepting free meals from restaurants, the argument being that freebies make the recipient beholden to the host and less likely to be objective in their review. Commentators go on to state that regular reviewers (that is, those from the major newspapers) book and dine anonymously, paying for their own meals.
Well, yes, some do but a lot of the smaller (budget-restricted) publications including community newpapers and food magazines do accept hospitality from restaurants, cooking schools and the like.
Does accepting a free meal mean you have to give a positive review? I guess that depends on how you handle it. On the occasions in the past where, working for consumer food magazines, I’ve accepted something for nothing, I’ve always made it clear that any review or feature was at my discretion (or my editor’s) and there were no guarantees of a positive write-up. If worst came to worst and we couldn’t say anything nice at all then we wouldn’t say anything at all.
I think for bloggers, like all journalists, the key lies in disclosure. If a restaurant hosts a blogger for a meal they shouldn’t be afraid to say so – readers will draw their own conclusion, for good or for bad, but at least the blogger can feel confident that they’re not deceiving anyone.
It would be naive to think that restaurants don’t realise the potential of bloggers as a “marketing tool”. At a food industry “tweet-up” last week at the MuMu Grill in Sydney chef Craig Macindoe, speaking about his online media and marketing strategy, revealed that hosting bloggers such as Not Quite Nigella has had a positive and measurable impact on his business.
From a blogger’s perspective there are some invitations that are just too good to pass up, as became clear today when Melbourne blogger Tomatom tweeted about an invite he’d received to a bloggers’ dinner at Tetsuya’s. “Oooh, yes, please” was the general response in the twittersphere.
For the record I haven’t been invited to the Tetsuya’s dinner but you know what? I don’t mind. I’ve been to Tetsuya’s three times now and each time it has been for work. Tetsuya’s is an amazing culinary experience but at four plus hours for the degustation menu it’s what I call “endurance dining” – you really have to enjoy the company of the people you’re there with. Next time I go to Tetsuya’s, and I hope there is a next time if only for the sublime Ocean Trout Confit, I’d like to share the experience with the people I enjoy sharing much humbler meals with – my friends and family.
Book project 2010: update #3
For those who’ve missed my earlier posts on Book Project 2010, here, here and here , I’ve decided to be a more conscious reader and keep a list of all the books I read in 2010 in the hope of gaining some insights into my reading habits. While I’ve been trying to every “commercial” book with a more “literary” pick, several days in bed with a nasty lergie and an early obsession with the Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood novels and vampire fiction in general, has skewed the list a little lower than I’d hoped! Here’s what I’ve read in the last two weeks.
Living Oprah by Robyn Okrant
Based on her blog of the same name, Okrant set out in 2008 to do everything that talk show host and cultural phenomenon Oprah recommends for a year. I’ve already talked about this book in an earlier post but I’ve got to say I’m impressed with anyone who’s prepared to turn their life so completely upside down for a project. As much as I love blogging I don’t think I would be prepared to do anything drastic!
Hourglass by Claudia Gray
I was asked to proofread the Australian edition of this young adult novel about six months ago and as a result was sent the first two books in the series by the publisher. Aimed fair and square at the Twilight demographic, this gothic-horror series deals with teenage romance, vampires, vampire hunters and icy wraiths. For one reason or another I didn’t end up working on this book, so I came at this volume fresh on Australia Day. Great fun!
A song in the daylight by Paullina Simons
Whatever happened to quality over quantity? This book is an exasperating 767 pages long. Somewhere around page 350 I questioned if it was worth finishing, and yet, at the same time, I’d come so far… I didn’t predict the ending but then, I didn’t really care by that stage. Use it as a doorstop instead.
Transgressions by Sarah Dunant
This disturbing novel about a single, 30-something freelancer being stalked made this single, 30-something freelancer want to deadbolt the front door. Scary.
Out of the silence by Wendy James
I mostly picked up this novel about three Australian women from different social situations in early 1900s Victoria because I needed something relatively brainless to read on the train to work (sad but true) but I’m finding it surprisingly engrossing.
Review: digi.kaf
174 St Johns Rd,GlebeM-F: 7-4Sa: 8-4Su: 9-3digi.kaf is a bit of an old favourite with Squeak and I. Sometimes amongst the monotony of many Sydney cafes it is refreshing to come acrosss a place that serves interesting breakfast options. Don’t get …
Art On The Street: Week one
I’ve been enjoying the fruits of 2042: Art of the Street very much indeed.It’s up in the sky:It’s right down low: It’s silly: And beautiful:And where you least expect it:There is so much of it that I’m even beginning to see art where it isn’t. Like in …
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