Indulgence

Am not one for harping on about gourmet food! I just like good food..

OK! OK! I hear you loud and clear...perhaps a bit of indulgence as a rarity for a truly scrumptious and enriching Parisian experience (I insist I did walk it off by the time we made it into work). Well this was initiated by the cause for socialisation - a team outing at quite an unearthly hour on a cold winter's morning this week at a lil' patisserie under a gorgeous old fig tree in one of the prettiest corners of Brisbane where you can sneak a peak at the Storey bridge.


Since it was in the wee hours of the day and I am not much of a big breakie person, I decided to go for the almond croissant. The first bite had me smitten...was sheer bliss! Mmmm...(too bad I didn't get a chance to take a photo as we were all busily having our mmmm moments..) T'was a real conversation killer until we were done with our munching.

Got to snap a few pics of "Le Bon Choix" on leaving...hmmm...I think I need to go back to take a pic of that almond croissant ;) but le bon choix may cause me to try out the pastries this time though - an unexpected but totally logical choice! ;)

On munching chocolate at the end of a long day!!

Half-thought on munching chocolate at the end of a long day.......

While thinking of the much quoted quote "Life is like a box of chocolates...you never know what you're gonna get"......

... my half thought - and you never know when your gonna run out of chocolates!! Keep munching on I'd say till you can move on to another box full of your favourite which is yours to pick! :) chomp chomp chomp

A lot more than courage!!

Creativity takes courage goes the saying...

....but it takes a lot more to eat your hashed together spur of the moment creation - courage and one hungry tummy!!

Walk-not-about

Yes, I finally did it. Even if it took as good an excuse of making a dash with Gordan Ramsay on a winter evening to drop him off at the library before the Gods rained tears of joy for me!

With Nature as my coach, I finally decided to get on with that much needed, much thought after WALK which turned out to be more like a run with an impending shower (the sky was thinking of raining down on me) and with the setting sun hurrying me on my track.

(and me thinks as i log out "surely, surely, surely walks are only meant for summer...")

Stalked by an ankle biter??

My life is filled with adventures galore.......

Talk about starting the weekend off being stalked along the whole length of a street by a possible ankle biter on my way to the library. There was a whole lot of criss-crossing down the street till I eventually decided to walk the line with the tail gater at my heel. With the miniature terrier cross bulldog (hey, and am sure it so was!!!) at such close quarters to petrified me, it sure painted a pretty picture of me taking my lil doggie for a walk, what with passengers of cars driving past giving us the widest possible smiles and the "ohhhhh, how cuuuuute looks". Sheesh!!!


(Anyway, the dude I guess finally found the house he was looking for as he was missing in action on my way back!)

Hmmm so that proves it, I really do seem to have a knack for attracting stray animals - be it a possum swinging into my balcony , a cat literally landing up on my doorstep and refusing to budge and the latest one a terrier!!

Sudden realisation!!!!

Q. What do you do when you realise that your pet possum and your neighbour shared the same name?????

A. Don't ever look the neighbour in the eye after all those episodes of calling out to the possum on your balcony...."Richard Oh Richarddddddddd, where are youuuuuuuu???" or a "Morning Richhhhhard. How are you going mate?" or "I think I've had enough of you partying all night and I think it's high time you relocate!!")

(Now thinking back, I think it was a welcome relief that Richard tuned into Rickeesha (the possum I mean)!!!!!

Autumn ramblings

Another quiet curtain call of an autumn day
Hot chocolate in hand sipping away
Out of my window to the world a gazing
Reflections of the working day a blazing
Thoughts rush by as cars go skidding
Mind laid bare by cup emptying.

Apparently too many "ing' words, but with my head aloft in the clouds, surely I must drift away for now...zzzzzz

A fishy character!!

Thanks PS for enligtening me about Richard Parker today! Apparently my pet possum is NOT the only other Richard Parker around!!!! With no futher ado here goes....

In one my best loved fishy tales of all time, Yann Martel goes to sea with quite an unlikely school of characters - Pi, a hyena, a zebra, uhmm oh and how can I forget OJ the orangutan and my personal favourite - introducing Richard Parker, a royal Bengal Tiger. :):) in "Life of Pi". If you haven't read the book you ought to read it - you'll fall in love with it as soon as you meet up with the three-toed sloth in the equatorial jungles of Brazil.

Let's get back to the fishy 450 pound weighing Richard Paker, who was accidently named so by a shipping clerk who mistook "Thirsty" for his captor. As the story ebbs on, Parker - the hunted turned hunter successfully finishes off the hyena and the blind French man on board before the Monsieur could cannebelise Pi.

Apparently in a story from over a century ago, "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket" written by Edgar Alan Poe, there featured the first of the ship wrecked Richard Parkers - a mutinous sailor who had set sail on a whaling ship whose brilliant idea literally got him in a stew when he was ship wrecked with three other surviors. Parker (the hunter turned hunted) fuelled his fate by suggesting that his fellow crew draw lots among themselves to decide on the victim of their next feast.

Weird but true, the novel comes to life in 1884, when Richard Parker (the second!!), the cabin boy of the Migninette et drifter at sea followed the course of Richard Parker the first and fell a victim to cannibalism.

(Talking of fishy tales and shipwrecks and novels resurfacing to reality - another is the novela Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan written byMorgan Robertson that was Titanic back to the future!!)

And that solves the mystery as to why my beloved Richard Parker ran away from the backyard - suspecting cannebelism around the corner me thinks ;) , as i ponder over what I could possibly write into the future.

Lost in a good book!!

Was so lost...that I landed up falling asleep no sooner than past page 5 (and having updated my gtalk status that I was "lost in a good book :):)"!!! Sigh...

But it IS GOOD......Just too good that I fell asleep!!!

Tooned Out or Tuned out!!!

The conversation with my friend today, something along the lines of...

Me : that reminds me need to get rid of "a box" lying under my bed!!!!

Mrs N: lol. why do u think i hang ard u? u r my own personal cartoon

Me: lol

Mrs N: and i lovveee cartoons. so there

Me: lol. am so not a toon

Mrs N: but they base their stories on u

Me: ha ha, like

Mrs N: anything involving tripping over, forgetting to take like this whole box under the bed

i bet there is a cartoon right there its certainly a cartoon in my head when i imagine ur face

So I've now come to the realisation that am my own toon character in the making...somewhere between calvin n hobbes and a bridget jones!!!!

And the converstation moves on talking to Mrs N in Mumbai minutes after the solar eclipse in India...

Mrs N: So could you see the eclipse?
(me replying, considering am stuck in the middle of nowhere far from the eclipse that caused me to catch the action online on NDTV!!!)

Me: yep, on ndtv and u?

Mrs N: me too

Me: u mean on ndtv. lazyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Mrs N: lol
Me: could have just stuck your head out of your window!!!

Now that's left me wondering who is more tuned/tooned out!!!!

Spared the fairy god mother a trip!!!

A friend of mine at work brought in this massive, huge, colossal pumpkin from his farm!!! Thanks Kermit! T'was home grown - so would be absolutely delicious so was well worth carting it all the way back home in the train despite people giving me strange looks (as it was nowhere close to haloween!!). However there was a slight problem besides the pumpkin ferrying -- uhhhmm, I've never quite cooked a pumpkin before!!

Was initially just banking on a fairy god mother to apparate and wave her magic wand about and turn it into something remotely edible as its my first time experiementing with one. The only other options were pumpkin soup, pumpkin scones, pumpkin pie but was just way too boring and long drawn out, however decided to be a bit adventurous instead and it turned out quite yummmm...(and spared the fairy god mother a trip!!)

Must try it next time with some shrimp !! (heard that it goes well with the flakey shrimp or prawn balichow)