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.

-takes time out to browse-

Me (instinctively): “Have you eaten yet?”

Note that this was not at a major meal time. Perhaps a tea time. So, they had eaten.

Nevertheless, I felt some instinctual urge to feed them. They got fudge brownies, chocolate ice cream and homemade strawberry sauce.

It had Andy Lau in it, so I thought it would be decent. It was shot decently I guess. Overall, it…plodded. I don’t, however, fault the story on being senseless and meaningless because war during the Three Kingdoms era was often that way. I thought they could have done a bit more character development and cut out more action scenes. Mostly I just wanted to know more about the love interest (what happened to her?! Geez you’re left hanging), and the ‘rivalry’ between the lead and the guard from Changshan village felt very tacked on.

Verdict: Meh. Just go watch Red Cliff.
Wiki: here.

Dark City (1998)

Wonderfully shot film noir style, it had an engaging plot filled with these creepy bald dudes. Too bad it was made farcical by the overblown sfx final fight scene. I have some questions regarding the plot but they are unimportant.

Verdict: Worth watching, but beware the ridiculous final fight scene.
Wiki: Here.

Wanted (2008)

Quite suitable if you have a spare hour and a half of your life. It looked good, the action scenes were actiony, it was rather funny (not in a ha-ha way, more like in a Dilbert way) and Angelina Jolie sure does smirk a lot in lieu of actually talking. Just leave your brain at the door.

Verdict: Worth watching if only because Morgan Freeman is in it and he rocks in a black leather jacket.
Wiki: Here.

Conclusion

I’m not a movie person and view the whole movie thing as a waste of time and money. Nothing has convinced me otherwise. I would have been happier bike riding.