australian rozie

Far out! It’s half way through 2010. I tell you, the older you get the faster the year goes.
It’s the end of the financial year – hurrah. Do I need to give you a summary of how my finances went over the past 12 months? I don’t think so. The best thing about it was starting a permanent position: doing a job I enjoy, working with a really great team and not being stressed out all the time. The only thing that stresses me out is the long travel to and from work.
So this marks the end of a resolution to blog every day for a month. OK, so I cheated a few times with back dating, but in the future, all you will remember is that I managed to blog every day in June 2010! Can I stop now?
Thank you and goodnight.

It’s finally really cold, that means I can wear gloves in public! It is now, a good and proper Sydney winter*.

It’s also NAIDOC Week and my workplace has organised many activities to celebrate this year’s theme ‘Unsung Heroes – Closing the Gap by Leading Their Way’.

NAIDOC Week balloons at work

* That means, it’s not really that cold and includes sunshine.

Cheese Soufflé

Originally uploaded by Australian Rozie

I got this recipe out of a Family Circle recipe book I had at home. I was originally inspired to make an asparagus souffle that I saw on Poh’s Kitchen but really it was too complicated for a first attempt. Maybe next time.

Congratulations to Patrick & Yvette on their wedding in San Fran. When I first met Patrick HAF, he was already a famous underground DJ in the Sydney rave scene of the early 90s. Dave even treasured a few of his mix tapes, until they disintegrated. By the late 90s we had become friends and I was no longer a dj groupie I was sad when he moved to the states, but was very happy that he met Yvette in San Fran and fell in lurve I’m really sorry that we couldn’t attend the celebrations, but I just had to see Rob Hood

Robert Hood, Sydney, Australia

For our niche circle of Detroit techno fandom, it was great to see Robert Hood finally come to Sydney again after many years and a cancellation a couple of years ago. The last time he was here, was 1992 with legendary Underground Resistance at a rave called Flight 303 which I think was held at the former Graffiti Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, I missed that gig as I was busy promoting my own rave which was on the next night. I remember getting a call at Disco City records (who were selling our tickets) asking for all of Underground Resistance’s names on the door of my party! I don’t think they turned up. I wish I could find a decent link about Disco City record store in Sydney this is the only thing I could find that name checks Disco City Records. Anyway back to the gig, Disconnected Presents 002: Robert Hood. I am so out of the scene, I didn’t even know or care who the promoter was and/or who the supports were, I just wanted to see Rob Hood. At least we didn’t do the true trainspotter thing and turn up 5 minutes before his set. The “new” venue was the former Empire/Palladium/Les Girls in Kings Cross – we have been to many, many great parties there, but haven’t been in there for about 10 years! So what can I say about Robert Hood’s set… he played a solid, hard, techno set, just what I expected, wanted and got. After about 2 hours he started to drop some more melodic, funky tracks but by then my steam had run out. I think everyone had a good time, especially the guy in the open shirt who kept gyrating near Ames, Mel & I. We lasted until almost 4am which is a recent record for me! Ms Melody kindly gave us a lift home. Dave made me some toast while we watched the start of the USA vs Ghana World Cup match before crashing out until lunch time on Sunday. Am I/I am too old for this $hit???

Robert Hood Sat. 26th June @ Plantation, Kings Cross, Sydney 2010

We celebrated Honka Princess’ birthday at Sailors Thai at Ivy on Friday night. We had the $45 three course special menu which included a drink. The food was very nice, I walked on the wild side and sampled some spicy food, but I found it weird how the staff said that the dishes should be shared even though it was a set menu of which you had a choice of about 3 things. I chose a deep-fried prawn entree, duck for the main meal and black sticky rice dessert. Once again this month, I forgot my camera, so there’s not much documenting of this dinner. Maybe Honka Princess will upload some pics, but she hasn’t shared her photos from her European summer vacation from last year yet! The Ivy is really beautiful, I love the fit out, the furniture and design but I felt somewhat out of place there; not young, beautiful or rich enough perhaps. After traipsing around a couple of the jam-packed upstairs bars, we finally settled back on the street level at Ash St Cellar, where it was less crazy. On our way down the lift, I quipped that we should go back to Surry Hills where we belong They were playing some great music from 80s funk to Jay-Z at Ash Street Cellar. A staff member told me that that “the boss” chooses the music and there are many different music channels throughout the venue. Our group enjoyed some nice beverages such as port and mulled wine (yes, we’re getting old), while I had my regular make sure it’s soy hot chocolate

Josie in Ash St Cellar

I love watching Masterchef Australia, I’m not ashamed. I know it’s a one hour ad for food products, credit cards and hotels but as you know, I love my reality tv (but only when the contestants have skills). The best part about having a Myth Box is that it skips the actual ads, so you only have to watch the integrated ones during the show I think it’s great that a tv show has inspired Australians to cook (again), learn to cook and appreciate good food! It’s got to be better than going out and buying KFC, Pizza Hut or Mc’s every night. Oh, I think Marion should win.

UPDATE: I saw Adam in the supermarket on Saturday! Masterchefs really do shop at Coles!

Went to work… attempted to go home. Got stuck waiting for a Metro 20 bus for about 20 minutes at Central. One went past that was full grr. Dave called me to ask where I was as he was walking home; I was grumpy on Elizabeth Street. I made him buy me dinner. We first tried to go to Wafu, but they now have their special sustainable, environmental rules and a set menu with no meat (not even fish) tonight, so we gave it a miss. I just didn’t feel like being told what to eat and although I believe in their philosophy of not wanting food to be wasted, I just wasn’t in the mood. From their website:

# Please be mindful of the amount of food you order – consider ordering just the right amount, in harmony with your appetite!
# To find pleasure in our dishes is to finish the meal. Please don’t leave anything on your plate.
# Please consider sharing meals as you would at home, by eating together you will be reducing the amount of wasted food.

So we headed over to good old Komachi, where I ended up having a vegetarian ramen and agadeshi tofu (but it was my choice ok) and yes, I ate it all up and didn’t leave any leftovers.