Jamie and Stephen recently got engaged and to celebrate they threw a huge winter steam-boat party. I’ve never seen so many steam boats set up before so props to the parents. Actually there was so much food I think I was a bit of a stunned mullet not knowing where to start.

Dessert was really impressive too, the cake and cupcakes were made by Jamie’s cousins. If you’re wondering what’s on top of the cake they’re turtles, Jamie’s got a thing for turtles and I think Stephen plays basketball.

Congrats Jamie and Stephen!

Charles‘ birthday last year was pretty crazy with a whole bunch of alcohol fuelled boys daring each other to eat a combination of Jap foods and condiments. This year, maybe because we’re all getting older, was a lot more tame. We headed to Koh-ya for all-you-can eat Jap BBQ and we pretty much took over half of the restaurant. Because we only had a 90 minute seating we made sure we stuffed ourselves fast, and silly. At times we were just ordering anything and everything.

One of the random items we ordered was sardines. I’ve never eaten Sardines unless they’ve come out of a can so it was a huge surprise to discover that these had so many eggs in them. Actually it was pretty much all egg and no meat.

Seriously, is that normal?

Now Charles’ birthday wouldn’t be complete unless there was some sort of food dare involved. This was the pot at it’s half way mark, so far there was orange peel, garlic, an assortment of meats and greens, and sardines in the cup.

Whatever entered the cup after our table is unknown to me, and I’m quite happy not knowing because whatever it was, it stunk! Poor Zi couldn’t keep it down.

Because Zi didn’t keep it down (partly due to the spew noises all the boys were making) he didn’t get the money. I don’t think anyone could have kept that monster of a cup down, I feel sick just looking at it.

There’s like a billion Thai restaurants in Sydney. It’s starting to get ridiculous. At Kirribilli alone there’s 4 within 100 metres – that’s just stupid! Now you’d think with so many Thai places at Kirribilli you’d be able to get cheap Thai food. Nope, unfortunately that’s not the case.

My chicken Pad See Eew was $14. What a rip! I could get 2 of these at Bondi for that price. Anyway, according to Masterchef “it all comes down to taste” right? How did it go? I’d say a 6/10. Chicken was perfectly cooked, but I wasn’t too impressed with the amount of salt that was in it. Seriously think my blood pressure went sky rocketing after eating that.

I love apple, but sometimes they do stupid things that really annoy me. Like with the apple mouse; it’s a good looking mouse with great functionality but give it a couple of months and it will start to give you the sh#ts. Stupid scroll wheel fails after a couple of months.

After burning through 4 apple mice I figured it’s time to start looking for an alternative. Yes, it took me 4 mice to realise I shouldn’t buy them anymore. Bit slow, I know.

My beloved Macbook, which has served me well for the past 5 years, is slowly falling apart (literally, bits of it are breaking off) so I thought it was time for an upgrade. Although I was a bit reluctant at first because I love my not-so-white-anymore Macbook, my new 15-inch Macbook Pro is way awesome. Bring on the speed baby!

When Lisa came back from the UK a couple of months ago she got me this totally awesome (and giant) beer pint. It’s huge and I was pretty impressed that she carried it all the way back to Oz for me. Oh and she also got us a cute leaning shot glass from Pisa. Thanks Lisa, you must think I’m an alcoholic or something; shot glass and a pint. Hm..

Anna and Marc recently went to Hawaii and before leaving they asked if I wanted anything. I jokingly told Marc to bring be back a hot Hawaiian surfer dude and boy did he deliver.

Also the Hershey’s kisses that Anna got me are fantastic. They’re not going to last very long so hopefully they go back to Hawaii again soon.

Thanks guys!

The phrase “practice makes perfect” makes total sense in most case and one would think that it apples to making desserts too, but for some reason it doesn’t apply to me when making portuguese tarts. I’ve made them a couple of times now and each time they taste worse and worse. The first time I made them, fumbling and guessing along the way, turned out the best and with each subsequent try I seem to take one step back. It’s very annoying. Might take a break from making them and try another dessert.

My pups is the biggest scaredy cat; she’s scared of the vacuum cleaner, thunder, other dogs, and she’s scared of the cold. In winter you’ll often find her snoozing next to the heater, lounging in spots of sunlight or snoring under the doona (which is very annoying!).

To keep her nice and toasty this winter I got her a new jumper which came with a bonus “pet parent scarf”. I’m either going to be the coolest kid on the block or the biggest dork. I’m thinking it’s the later.

I attended a facebook event presented by the the CEO of Facebook Australasia, very cool guy. His email address is [firstname]@facebook.com (Obviously I’m not going to publish his email address online, don’t think he’d appreciate that). But how cool is his email address!

Before his presentation he had a few t-shirts to give away to those who could answer some facebook pop quiz questions. Being an early breakfast meeting (and before I had a chance to grab a coffee) I was pretty out of it. So he asks the first question and a bunch of people yell out the answer. Somehow he thought I had answered the question so he hands me tee. Sweet! Just scored a free facebook tee from the CEO of facebook Australasia. Being the geek that I am, I was a bit star stunned.

It’s a shame the tee’s so big, I’d totally wear it.