The 18th Biennale of Sydney

I visited Pier 2/3 a while back and I must admit that I was awed by the artworks ( there were only two there, but they were very large scale pieces). I contemplated the pieces and the host that night, PwC, had explained the concepts behind the art and escorted us through, but I didn't fully grasp it all until I came across an article on the inflight Jetstar article on my recent trip to Melbourne.

Artist Tiffany Singh's piece was the more colorful Piece in the space and it was called 'Knock on the sky listen to the sound' referring to a Buddhist proverb and this interview in the magazine reveals for me, Tiffany's take on the proverb. This metaphor for her work, is the way she perceives how the sky becomes an active part of the second part of this work which will be at Cockatoo Island. The full extent of it could not be fully appreciated housed at Pier2/3's site, because I realise now that component of the art is meant to be silent, to 'instigate the sound within your own mind in a longing to hear the sound of the chimes.'

In Asian culture, the sound of windchimes is haunting because that sound in the absence of natural elements reflect the presence of spirits. This ethereal existence, one that I once believed in, was thankfully absent on the night I visited. We were encouraged by the host to interact with the art and make the chimes sing to us by moving through it. The man-made sound is not quite the same as if the wind passes through it. Certainly I now perceive Tiffany means to show you how the chimes can be the voice of the sky when you remove the warehouse and place it on the island. Well, I haven't been to Cockatoo island so that's only my interpretation of what the interaction there will be.

The chimes need to travel from the pier to the island, and my understanding is that selected humans are to adopt a chime each, personalize it and record the process of the decorating before they return the work to the Bowing Crane on Cockatoo Island. That interaction with the community, I thought I got, but now that I wonder if there is an element of Buddhism behind it, I wonder if the purpose is to also capture the living spirits of these fabulous beings and contain it somehow in one place to represent the beautiful souls that Are in existence in our world right now. Again, my interpretation of the piece.

The article doesn't mention the other piece being housed at the Pier, and it is this one,

I was delighted at first to see the bottles of wine and bowls of real nuts and the thrill of free refreshments piqued my engagement levels. Very quickly though I was told that whilst that was the original intention of the artist, to get people to interact and feedback on the paper looms he had created, the sponsors have locked the very interactive bits with cable tie in order to preserve the art and that the public was encouraged to write on the pads on the clipboards instead. Bah Humbug. There was also rather strict traffic control that night to see the art, and I really wondered, something with such great potential and such noble intentions, was it really an oversight of the artist that his works might be so broken from the use he intended for it? I even got to thinking if the work was a woman, built to serve a purpose but then, sheltered so quickly. Did she even ask to be protected? Possibly not.

Anyhow, the exhibition lasts until the 16th of September so make your way around Sydney to observe the various pieces and engage with the ones the artists intended you to, for what is art if it doesn't speak to you?


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Play Melbourne

Am out and about Melbourne for work today. With my manager and I we are sort of covering our client base simultaneously.

The plan is for him to start at Federation Square and move across to Collins Street and Queens Bridge. I am starting from Bourke Street and moving south to Southbank. In the middle of the day we are having a business lunch at The Merchant restaurant by Guy Grossi and possibly end the day at a bar somewhere.

Phew, a tough day ahead. I hope I get to take pics of the rush, but if not... I leave you with the video Visit Victoria's campaign's put together, very aptly portraying what I am envisioning my day will be like.

Stacks Taverna - Darling Quarter

For one of Mr.HEA's farewells, we made a visit to the refurbished Darling Quarter. We don't get out much and so Mr.HEA was aptly impressed with the massive change the area has undertaken. Not enough for him to stay in Australia though, Dyamn...but jokes aside, the restaurant we picked was a friendly one with great atmosphere.

It had a cook your own steak if you so choose, and when we arrived, we saw two disgruntled mothers there cooking a whole family's meal. We chortled slightly at their expense thinking that it must suck thinking you are getting the day off by going out to eat, but then getting roped in to work anyhows.

The steak was cheaper that way however so I guess there is a hook. Many others joined them later anyhow, so the concept must appeal.

We had some other delectable dishes, washed down with a Sexy Time Cocktail jug (I dare you to order it in Borat's accent, preferably with a waitstaff of the opposite gender, #ChallengeAccepted). The Redskins infused vodka in the Redskins cocktail was a lot more popular however, with big chunks or strawberry and a much stronger flavour than the Sexy Time.

Not a bad place to consider if you have a large crowd to feed and not all of you are keen to spend heaps and still want to have a fun time.

 

Chilli & Garlic Prawn Pappardelle $32.00

Tomato Pesto, Sunblushed Tomatoes, Wild Rocket & Chilli Oil

 

Souvlaki Chicken $18.00

Chicken Marinated In Lemon & Oregano With Spiced Garlic Yoghurt & Parsley

 

Byron Bay Pork Belly $29.00

With Sauce Soubise, Dirty Granny Cider & Roasted Apple

 

Pan Seared Kangaroo Loin $29.00

Creamed Celeriac, Balsamic Onions & Truffe Jus

Yellow and Orange

It was Daffodil Day today, a lovely Yellow burst of surprise walking out of the train station to see the yellow flower heads pop out from the buckets. I find Daffodils a very cheery flower and have been fascinated ever since seeing a picture of them in a book once as a kid.





The yellow and orange didn't stop at the lovely drops of sunshine brightening up our work places today. Taste of Orange! Was a nice surprise. I miss taking the bus to Martin Place and seeing firsthand the promotional activity that always revolved around there. This week, my colleague told me about the lunchtime free food and wine tastings of Orange and we were there in a jiffy. Bearing in mind I still had to come back to work, I did not go all out with visiting the stalls, picking out wines which attracted me to the label or logos only.

Wines tasted:
NB: My tasting notes are not professional. i was told many a time that I am entitled to form my own opinion about wines and not be influenced by the general reviews, so here is my take. I generally find Orange wines to have delicious and surprising undertones, I always find a different unexpected taste from that of the grape published. Like the Belgravia Gerwurtztraminer I served at my wedding, it had yummy Turkish delight notes to it. Yum yum. So the following is a list of the odd thing I found in each wine I tasted from the following estates.
Belgravia Reisling - Floral notes
Brangayne Pinot Grigio - Nutty Mineral taste
Logan Vintage 'M' Cuvee - Bitter Orange rind
De Salis Fume Blanc - Paddlepop aftertaste but what the website says: Lychee, passion fruit and lime on the nose, the palate is seamless tropical fruit with lime leading to a fine chalk textural dry finish.
Cooks Lot Late Harvest Botrytis Chardonnay - Liquid Honey with hints of candied pineapple

Delectable and rustic food savoured:
Goats cheese, Spinach and Nuts roll
Potato Frittata with Rocket Aioli
Pork Terrine with Apple





One day if I am ever lucky enough, I'd like to visit Orange, try the fine wines, the delicious produce and just escape the modern and fast-paced city of Sydney, but until then, I will just have be content with Orange coming to Sydney.

Current Wish list

Current Wish list by happy-e-after featuring a pea coat

Tory Burch pea coat / Pierre Hardy wedge booties, $810 / 3.1 Phillip Lim leather satchel / Burberry scarve, $395

Still thinking of the London trip in December even if the wild winter weather in Sydney is relenting slowly but surely.

When someone embarks upon a long distance relationship

Life has been tough working on the long distance. But in truth, it hasn't really begun yet because I haven't yet gotten to begin the Skype and Viber calls.
I keep missing the boy when he What's apps me and it really sucks. For a moment I begun to believe I really suck at this game. But first let me back track a little.

Day 1:
I probably struggled a little when I came back into the room after the airport and after saying goodnight to my in-laws, being all alone, shed some private tears.

Then I decided to nurse my heart with Modern Family episodes on the TV setup Mr.HEA left me with and I slept quite alright.

Getting up on Day 1 was tender, I was fragile. I wasn't sure what state I should be in, but the in-laws acted normal so I had no reason to act otherwise. Walking to work in the new neighbourhood and learning this new routine, I kept checking my thoughts, taking deep breaths before the tears rolled down my cheeks. And this was my revelation, I kept thinking like he was never coming back...or that I had lost him. But how odd is that when I really could fare worse, it could be like the Time Traveller's wife (I don't know why but this story relates best to me at the moment for solace) when her husband dies and she knows she only gets one more chance to see him in her future. I am luckier, I have Mr.HEA to Skype, Viber and What's app and email if I so fancy. The point is, he is away, but not gone.

So I straighten myself up and carry on.

An observation though, people tend to want to offer hugs and words of kindness and support. I feel touched, but I can't take them right now. The funny thing is, Mr.HEA's cousin's done the exact same thing as Mr.HEA and left her long-term partner behind. Sharing with him, he tells me he gets that too, but they also feed him cause they are possibly worried that no one is feeding him anymore. Funny.

Thanks everyone who have tried to get in contact to help me grieve/ tide over the period, but truly, your kindness makes me weak at the moment and I need strength more than anything.

And my solution is to focus on the other things that I can do without being reminded of Mr.HEA, and thank goodness there is plenty.

I work, and pour myself into my job. I catch up with my friends that are not mutual friends of ours, I talk to my mum and brother and have a good laugh. I watch comedies and organise things around the room to make life as normal and comfortable for myself as I possibly can instead of moping around. And I take the time to take care of myself, investing time in my beauty routine and getting more exercise and beauty sleep.

Day 2:

Today I am a lot stronger and didn't have to take as many deep breaths to collect myself. I did learn that my GM views my long distance relationship as a business risk though and I do not know if I should feel honoured that I am viewed to be that important, or if I should be upset that the business could be so unfeeling about my personal life. Anyhoo, I am not making a big deal out of this until they do.

I keep missing Mr.HEA's What's App msges. I guess using the iPhone 3 does make this What'sApp thing a lot harder with all the delayed responses. I am sad I haven't been getting to hear his voice, but I just have to keep patient and vigilant for the phone notifications and not let it get the better of us.

Also got a little distracted because I had ordered mum flowers online for her bday and got jipped because the delivery was two flowers short





and there was certainly was a lot more foliage than the picture showed!
What a rort?!!!

Sometimes a little retail fury is just what the doctor's ordered for some long distance strength. That and some gin.

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Day Zero: Celebrating the Mundane

Life seemed to be all about celebrating the mundane before Mr.HEA left. Holding hands, cuddling on the couch in front of a movie, eating dinner, brushing our teeth together. All things we just took for granted when we first moved in together after getting married.

It wasn't till we were moving out of our marital home thar we realised how important the opportunity to live with each other was and how we squandered it away.

Ten car loads later our house is now void of our personal stuff and it is on the market for rental. One suitcase and carry on bag is packed in his teenage bedroom in his parent's house, ready to be hoisted into the car this afternoon, airport-bound. And makeup, jewelry, bags, shoes and clothes abound have been crammed into the teenage boy's room as the parents now are left with a daughter-in -law who they have graciously accepted as their own.

Whilst I was hesitant to accept their generosity at first because I was resilient, stubborn and morose, I have come to realize that they are losing a son too and am hoping for me to fill that void. I must accept that they have offered me a home and that I should learn to make it mine and as seamlessly as possible, integrate into their lives so that I am no trouble to them.

Gosh this is going to be tough, but the spare time from not needing to run a household, the chance to hang out with all my girlfriends again,an opportunity to focus only on work, the shopping trips to Europe and the Game of thrones and Mad Men episodes I now get to watch in the evenings whilst not ironing clothes...all somehow makes me believe that there is method to this madness that we are about to embark upon. See you on the other side, a.k.a Day 1.

Stylethread purchase

Earlier this year I saw these rain boots on someone on the streets and mistook them to be Anya Hindmarch ankle boots, leading to a rather futile tweet and google search.




Randomly trying to pillage the bottom of the barrel sales on the end of season stock, I found out how wrong I was and how much I still wanted these.




Mel ankle rain boots were being advertised as the yummy bubblegum scented rain boots to have for the wet festival season ahead. I am just looking forward to having them to strut around in Cold wet London when I visit Mr.HEA in December.
Ordered the boots in black initially but Stylethread had run out of stock (gave me a voucher to apologize for the inconvenience which was unexpected but very welcome), so I ended up putting in an order for the Burgundy instead.




I am still shopping for winter clothing for London now that I have my tax return back in my account, but something tells me I am a little late to the party and perhaps I should just wait till I am there to shop.


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The Perfect Pork Crackling

I have done this recipe twice before and have failed terribly. Great Roast, no Crackling. So here's my latest attempt and it was a success!

This was I figured out. The skin needs to be dry! I always did the roast with the meat and because I marrinated the whole thing, the juice always got into the skin and made it difficult to crackle. So here's tips I followed:

+ Drying out the skin as much as possible will make for crunchier crackling. Place the pork, uncovered, on a wire rack in a tray in the fridge overnight. Pat dry with absorbent paper before roasting.

+ Scoring the skin at 1.5cm intervals exposes more surface area to heat so it will crisp up faster. Use a very sharp knife or utility knife to score the skin (note this is harder than you would beleive with a kitchen knife so cheat and get the butchers to do it for you).
+ Rub the skin with oil and salt to help the skin crisp up (a lot of salt helps reduce the moiture too).
+ Remove the skin from the rest of the roast and do it separately so that the juices don't get into the crackling.

+ Make sure your oven is nice and hot. Preheat it to 220°C to 250°C  for 20 minutes. This will crisp up the skin, then reduce the heat to 180°C for the remaining cooking time.

Now the roast: I actually winged it with this recipe. I mixed the juice of one orange, two tablespoons of Harissa, chopped up coriander and two bird's eye chillis, sesame oil, salt and pepper. (Previously I have used cumin seed and cinammon too and chopped up parsley and garlic and slot it into the scored slits and anywhere at all they would stay on the meat before drizzling the marinade over the leg).

I used 40-45min per kg of pork at 180°C First 30 minutes on 220°C to 250°C and then the rest of the time on 180°C. Here's the other trick to make it that much more yummy, for the last half an hour of cooking, I drizzled two tablespoons of honey all over the roast to glaze it, Didn't put it in too early because honey burns easily. It still did burn though as you can see from below, but it was so aromatic that it was worth its while.

And for Gravy, I used the pan juices, put into a saucepan and whisked flour into the juices when it simmers. The Harissa in this makes for a lovely spicy gravy which my friends loved immensely with yorkshire pudding.

Hope you try it out too and let me know if you have an awesome Pork roast success of your own to share.

Lucky

It has been a lucky weekend. On the way driving to the Cinema to watch Ted and we mentioned having the whole cinema to ourselves and what a treat it would be. We got there and look at this! Just us plopped right in the middle of it all. Except that as soon as the ads were finishing, more people came in so the treat was very short lived.

We also went to a Karaoke sesh, one where they rate your performance and Mr.HEA and I scored a perfect 100 for belting out Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillat's Lucky . Yay!

But that wasn't where the luck ended for being married to my best friend. I took off my wedder and slipped it into my jacket pocket whilst gardening with Mr.HEA and whilst bending over, it fell out into the mulch. I spent over an hour combing the laid in mulch and was very close to tears when my Superman husband with his x-ray vision finds it after I had given up. Hurrah!

Also tried my luck at making the perfect pork crackling and third time lucky, here's the evidence. Makes for awesome beer food take my word for it.

Last but not least, we had been very frustrated with our bank and was livid with a phone call they made to us on Friday night. So much so we almost broke up with them and trust me, we ran through all the paperwork to switch over the weekend. But just as we were preparing it all to go into the envelope to mail off, I asked Mr.HEA a question about whether we would be slapped with penalty rates for exiting the loan and upon looking it up, we caught on that we would have been slapped with a $5k penalty rate/ clawback, whatever you would call it. Aiks! Close Shave.

Hugging Mr.HEA last night, reassuring him that we had saved ourselves albeit having spent all the last month investigating this refinance option, I really thanked God that we were able to listen to each other through frustrating times and that we have been able to think through these adult decisions together as we find our feet through married life.

If you still aren't convinced it's lucky being married to your best friend, then what is? :)

French breakfast anyone? Montparnasse in Randwick the Spot

Waking up to a nice brunch where you read the paper in the sunshine, have your coffee and food brought to you and great conversations and laughs catching up with old friends are always a treat, so this Sunday if you are up for it, head on down to The Montparnasse cafe in Randwick if you'd like a homemade french baguette.

We went there too early and so the baguette dough was still rising and wasn't quite ready for us. but the coffee and our breakfasts didn't disappoint.

Clockwise: Crepes, The Bacon omelette, Muesli and the Tour De France Stage breakfast with scrambled eggs.

Have a lovely weekend ahead brunching and lazing around folks!

New Shanghai in Chatswood Chase

For a feel of eating a rustic hawker style Shanghainese fare, we ventured out to Chatswood Chase's New Shanghai.

New Shanghai Xiao Long Bao - Steamed mini pork bun 

Nobody goes for Shanghainese and passes on Xiao Long Bao. Nobody. These ones are awesome. I cheat. I am wimp for a burnt mouth and so I bite a tiny hole under the dumpling and test the temperature of the soup inside first, suck it out if it is cool enough or let it drip onto my hovering spoon before sipping at the delicious stock and then polishing off the dumpling. These ones were the right temperature and a had a good skin that was strong enough to hold the filling, but delicately translucent, yet firm to the bite.

Pan fried pork dumpling
Shallot pancake

These other two are firm Taiwanese/Shanghainese favourites too and we delighted in the crispiness of the fried parts and the well seasoned flavours.

Drunken chicken - Chicken soaked in Chinese wine with herb & spice
Deep fried pastry filled with shallot & ham, & coated with sesame

These dishes are stranger to stomach. A cold chicken dish, marinated in wine and Chinese herbs. I loved it, but it wasn't quite a crowd pleaser if you're squirmish to cold chicken. The pastry dish was odd too for our palate as the ham filling was almost like a sandwich filling, but the fried pastry was an asian texture. Married together, our Asian instincts tell us this could be a fusion dish for Anglo-saxon palates.

Si Chuan style sauce stir fried with pork mince served with dry-noodle
Stir fried Chinese rice cake with Shepherd's purse & shredded pork

Cha Jiang Mian is the first noodle dish on the top. It wasn't spicy at all, and some what bland, attributable to the fact that it is very difficult to evenly toss the udon-like noodle in the oily sauce and even more difficult to ensure you scoop enough of the pork mince sauce into each bite of noodle.
At least the Rice Cake dish was a better distribution of flavour, but it was a delicate dish with subtle flavours, reminding me that the Eastern Chinese provinces are far less generous with spices as the Southern counterparts where we hail from.

I have never been to Shanghai before and so whilst this place was believable in its authencity, I really am no authority on this subject. What we all agreed on however was that the place was really good value for spend and the food, whilst lacking in presentation, was good for its taste. Do go if you are ever in the vicinity.