Back in autumn Ray and I visited Poachers Pantry. If it checked out, it would be our wedding venue.

It was really pretty. We wanted our wedding to be comfortable and intimate. The rustic setting will give us the country wedding we wanted

And the food’s great too! Ray had grilled chicken with baked mushrooms on puy lentils and I had this beaaaaaautifully cooked risotto – smoked salmon with prawns and baked asparagus with a balsamic vinegar reduction. It was perfectly al dente. The smokiness of salmon also set off the sweetness of the balsamic vinegar reduction perfectly. We were wandering around before we sat down and overheard the chef talking about the daily specials (of which this risotto was one of) with the waitstaff. They were super enthusiastic about it; they were really passionate about their food! I had to order the risotto after all that. Did not regret it one bit!

P.S. And of course we are getting married there, at PP, but in spring!
P.P.S. Did you see the little guy coming in for a landing on the right? So cute!

I love the outfit this guy is sporting. It’s gone straight into my lookbook inspirations folder.

I have always been fascinated by men’s styles on women.

I’ve done the tie thing, the cufflink thing and the bow tie thing. I love wearing ties!

The main problem is though, with my pants/skirt on my true waist, my trunk is too short and no matter how I tie that tie, it’s always too long! I’ve tried dealing with it by tucking it into my pants and then disguising that by wearing a knit jumper or a vest over the top. Clearly, I’m going to have to try the military tie tuck next!

When doing research for this post I discovered these awesome sites:

• Short Shrifted, a clothing and style resource for short men
• 2 tie a tie, a really comprehensive site by three brothers, kids. If they can do it so can we, definitely.
• How a tie is made, not awesome awesome, but just interesting to see how it is done.

- Photo from The Satorialist

I thought this shoulder chain was pretty intriguing. The chains are a bit too yellow gold for my liking but I’ve never even thought of having adornments for the shoulder – it’s so unusual. Totally bling too.

Alix, the Cherry Blossom Girl, models the ‘Military‘ from Chains of Love on her blog entry here.

Chains of love have some other simpler shoulder jewelry and body chains here.

I’m quite taken by the idea of having a chain headpiece. A bit Romanesque, should look nice with my wedding dress I think.

Cheesecake is my mum’s favourite cake so we researched a few recipes and combined the ones we liked best (the one on the Philly cream cheese box and the one from King Arthur Flour).
We wanted something that was easy and fool-proof. Here’s the result.

CRUST

200g (half a box, or about 13 biscuits) McVitie’s digestive biscuits, crushed.
65g butter, melted.

FILLING

375g (one and a half 250g blocks) cream cheese, softened.
3 large eggs
9/10 cup castor sugar
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract (very optional)

TOPPING
Anything you want! For example:

• 1 can of blueberries, drained.
• 300g frozen berries, defrosted. If using raspberries, sweeten with 2-3 tbs of sugar. If using fresh raspberries, top with a shower of icing sugar.
• Can also be topped with drizzles of melted dark chocolate or sprigs of mint

1. Combine biscuit crumbs with butter then press into a 9″ flan pan (I used a Pyrex flan pan, great for serving in) or tin. Chill.

2. Beat the cream cheese with the sugar till smooth, then add eggs. Pour into prepared base and bake at 170 degrees for 40 minutes.

3. Top with fruit, pushing it slightly into the still hot cheesecake. Cool and serve. Alternatively, you could top the filling with the fruit before baking to cook the fruit through.

- 2009 Walkley Award Print finalist, Cartoon category. Cathy Wilcox, The Sydney Morning Herald, “Two Clouds”.

Also, WP 2.9.1′s edit images within write post screen thingo is pretty awesome.

I’ve always liked the classic combination of shirt + v neck knit sweater. It works great on both men and women.

And here it is with a new twist – a deep V with a halfway unbuttoned shirt! Very sexy, great look on a man.

Wonder if it would work on me. Hrm.

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Photo from The Sartorialist.

So, so, awesome.
I want a twin now.

I also want to join No Pants Day. There has to be an event for Melbourne, right?! I mean, they even did one in Adelaide!

–
From Improv Everywhere.

Mehehhehe……….oh man can’t wait.

Another one from the twitterverse.

Check out the rest of Christoph Niemann’s post on getting a good night’s sleep over at the New York Times here (it’s really very funny!).

The concept behind this app (putting the ‘prod’ in productivity) is enormously useful. It kills writer’s block, forcing you to write a defined amount of words and destroys procrastination in the process.

I came across the Write or Die web app from the twitterverse. I have a book review to write (Stillwater Creek by Alison Booth) so I will definitely be giving it a whirl then.

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In the process of updating the firmware on my Bebook to the latest version of Open Inkpot. It’s still still at release candidate stage but I have high hopes for it. Unless it bricks my Bebook. It is in fact taking a verrrrrry long time. Should I restart it? Give it another hour? Argh!

Yes, it is offensive. But hot dangnabbit is it funny.

What is even more awesome is the novelty of the local flavour. Safran hails from ‘Jewtown’ Carlisle St, Melbourne. I am more amused than I should be over the fact that yes, I have trammed down Carlisle St (on a Saturday, no less), no, it is not an exaggeration to call it ‘Jewtown’ (Safran’s words not mine!!), and yes, it was so quaint and I loved it soooo much.

Additionally, I love the fact that one can watch ABC TV at one’s leisure online. Much SBS content can also be watched online. Even commercial telly have programming online for a limited time. I don’t think I will miss not having a physical TV after all.

I never really noticed before, because I had always assumed TVs were essential to a living room (much like a sink is to a kitchen) but take away the TV, the media equipment, those miles of hated wires, and it is so much easier to style a living room. Plus, one whole wall is now freed up!

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Check out the website for John Safran’s Race Relations here (it is quite amusing especially if you are familiar with ABC/TripleJ/Aust personalities). You can watch it there, too.

USD18, TopatoCo.

Cute ><

Get the chicken diaper from My Pet Chicken.

I wonder if it is possible to still keep chickens on a ground floor apartment with a large courtyard…

Like with a double story chicken coop like Beth and Craig’s:

Which, incidentally, matches their Craftsman house. Et voilà!

Totally identify with this card btw XD

I live in Zone Two and it’s a big deal getting from my place to the city, or anywhere else for that matter.

This is part of Able and Game‘s Melbourne series of cards. Buy it on Etsy here.

The question is, how do I properly tag tracks where the album title, artist name or song title are solely in lower case? Do I regard the sole usage of lower case as merely a stylistic decision? Do I then capitalize the first letter in the first word of the track title/album title/artist name? Or does every single word have their first letters capitalized?

The obvious answer would be to go with whatever iTunes says it should be. Which I do, but how about when album information is not available?

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I will probably sell off all my CDs, and destroy the ahem…others. It is shaping up to be a biggish stack. Some very decent albums in there too, if I may say so.

As for the Asian albums – I’ll never be able to offload them. They’ll go to my local library.

After all the culling I have done, I will soon be able to eliminate my overspill of possessions outside my room.

Did you know the ancient Romans used fish sauce too? It’s called garrum. They put it on everything, even dessert. Salut.

The exhibition is open till 25 October and costs $20 for adults. It also includes entry to the rest of the Museum exhibits. I spent pretty much the whole day there and definitely got my money’s worth. I also got to see plasticized body parts in person for the first time!*

I had a polenta cake with spicy capsicum relish and salad for lunch at the Museum Cafe. It was really quite good and at $9.50, not bad for value. The prices there are very reasonable and not a total ripoff like I expected.

My only complaint is that it was waaay too crowded! Note to self: never go to special exhibits during the school holidays.

* NB: There is so much fat in and around human organs. It makes me feel like going on a diet. It also reminds me of roast duck, and how I have to scrape off large chunks of fat when I eat it.

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Up!

Watched Up! today. It was a very heart-warming story. It was very cute, looked great, and had a good ‘moral of the story’ (Tan Ah Tek‘s voice is in my head now).

Verdict: Watch it.

P.S. I want an Up! house!
P.P.S. The whole moving house thing reminds me of Howl’s Moving Castle, except that this movie is better.