I’d been looking for a leather jacket for quite a while now but every jacket I liked was either way too expensive or wasn’t my size. So you could imagine the look of sheer joy on my face when I found this leather jacket at Vinnies. It’s a real motorcycle jacket, 100% leather, in good condition (and doesn’t smell like op-shop), and it’s made in Australia. I looked up the brand and found the same jacket on sale for $299.

How much did I pay? 50 bucks! What a bargain!

Gotta love op-shopping.

What a feast- Soup, veggies, eggplant hot pot, deep-fried sweet ‘n’ sour fish AND mud crab with transparent noodles!

Now you’re probably thinking that meal would feed 5 or 6 people? Guess again. 3 of us absolutely demolished it! We probably should have stopped half way through our feed and gotten a doggy bag but it was that point where you think ‘Yeah we can do this’. Bad move. I was so full could hardly breathe!

Btw the entire meal was just 67 bucks. What a bargain! Love Auburn Soccer Club, best budget food ever!

I thought we had to travel far to get to Brendan’s birthday all the way in the Shire, but that’s nothing compared to the lengths his girlfriend went to. Nat flew half way round the world just for his birthday, now that’s impressive! Nat, I think we’re all expecting surprise appearances later in the year okay?

The venue was The Como Hotel. It’s a pretty cool pub, even though it’s in the middle of nowhere. And just a note, don’t go there in the afternoon on an empty stomach, especially on a day when the chip machine so happened to be broken! I was absolutely starving and had to wait till 6pm for a feed. On the flip side my feed was ginormous!

It was the biggest plate of Marinara I’ve ever seen and I can proudly (or embarrassingly) say I almost finished it. The chips are awesome too!

Dessert was pretty good, but I thought the Toblerone ice cream tower tasted a bit like medicine. Strange…

Happy Birthday Brenda!

My work place won the NSW Telstra Business Awards in the micro business sector so on Friday we all headed to the finals dinner. We didn’t win the finals but it was a fun night anyway.

The nights entertainment was Glenn Shorrock… Who’s that? Yeah even I had to ask. The only song I recognised was Help is on its way.

Nevertheless, it was the food that I was excited about (as usual), at the NSW awards dinner the food was amazing so I had high hopes for the finals dinner. My entree, ocean trout on a bed of smashed pumpkin – delish! It would have been even nice if it was hot… or even warm, but still at room temperature it was great.

After a great (room temperature) entree I was really excited about my main but unfortunately I was severely let down. It was wagyu beef with mash potato and a red wine reduction. How can you stuff that up!

I was hoping dessert would save the night, but again I was let down. The panna cotta had an odd minty taste to it. I guess the only saviour was the fruit, but then again how can you stuff up fruit.

Decided to take part in the Big Sleep Survey – just for fun. My favourite radio host, Zan Rowe, was talking about it with Dr Karl so I thought I’d sign up. You don’t get paid for your input (though you can win an ipad), I signed up because I thought it would be cool to contribute to the great world of science. I think I’m a bit of a science geek, which probably explains why I love the Big Bang Theory so much.

All you have to do is fill out a short questionnaire and keep a 7-day sleep diary. Strange thing is, I usually have no problems going to sleep but ever since signing up for the survey I’ve become insomniac. Maybe I should go back to 1 cup of coffee a day.

Whenever Maree and Chris are in town we always head to yum cha. There aren’t any yum cha places around Ballina, well there’s one in Byron but it’s apparently really expensive (and not that great). I should so move there, hire my family to cook, and open a yum cha. We’d be rich!

Because we got there quite late they’d run out of sui mai (dim sums), but instead of telling us they were out they kept telling us “It’s in the kitchen” or “it will come out later”… But it never came. While we were waiting for sui mai we ended up ordering three plates of mango pancake between the four of us. I’m not complaining because I love mango pancake, but I’m still hanging out for some sui mai

Splendour, Splendour, Splendour… I’ve been sitting on this blog post for a couple of days now trying to figure out how to do it justice. I figured, I can’t. It was one of those things where you had to be there to get it. Words can’t begin to describe how amazing it was, and unfortunately my photos fail to capture the wonder that was Splendour in the Grass 2010.

We went to Splendour with no expectation and left totally blown away. Seriously best festival ever! I thought BDO was awesome but it really doesn’t compare to Splendour.

The Splendour experience actually started off terribly.

While waiting to enter the camping grounds one of our cars broke down. And we weren’t the only ones with car problems, along the way we counted about 4 other broken down cars. It’s not surprising considering it took us 5 hours to get it. We joined the line at about 9pm and finally set up camp at 2am. Longest wait ever!

And this is why it took so long: 23,000 campers setting up camp on the same day. (This shot only shows like 1/8th of the amount of campers)

This was our little set up, a Jucy Crib and a Bundy blowup couch.

The festival highlight by far was Florence and the machine. We made sure we got there nice and early to secure a good spot, luckily we did because it got so packed out they had to stop people from entering. If I missed out on Florence I would have cried. She really is the best live act I’ve ever seen. She wore a long white dress and was dancing, running and spinning all around the stage. She even had a harp on stage! I’m hoping Splendour will release a DVD of the festival because I’m keen to see Florence on stage again.

Another highlight was when two of my festival favourites The Temper Trap and Mumford and Sons were on stage together. Mumford join the Temper Trap to perform ‘Down River’ – sheer gold! When I listen to the live recording of that song on Triple J it seriously brings a tear to my eye.

I heart Mumford.

The thing about Splendour is each and every act put their all into their performances. They gave it their all AND they hit the notes. Top acts were The Temper Trap, Ben Harper, Passion Pit, Hot Chip, Band of Horses, Mumford and Sons, Wolfmother and of course, Florence.

After living in the splendour bubble for 3 days and 4 nights it was hard to come back to reality. You’d think I’d be sick of G and Anna after living with them in the tiny camper but come Friday night we were keen to meet up to reminisce, I think we were suffering from Splendour withdrawal. If I never go to another festival again, I’d be sweet. I don’t think any other festival can top Splendour in the Grass 2010. The line up was amazing, the weather was perfect, the acts killed it and the venue (Woodford) was fantastic! Splendour 2010 really was the best festival experience ever.

Check out the photos on the Splendour Flickr page or the Triple J page. They did a much better job at taking photos that I did. Most of my photos are just a hazy blur.

On the way to Splendour we swung by Chris and Maree’s to meet their little bundle of joy – Lily. She so adorable, and the quietest baby I’ve ever met. All she does is sleep (top left), stare (top right) and eat (not pictured, for obvious reasons).

Nice work Maree and Chris, you guys make one good looking baby.