Tuesday 22 September 2009

Canary Wharf, blinkers on - will anyone discover my BookCrossing?!

Ooh, how exciting!  After a ridiculously long day at work, pain shooting through my back, I got a total blast out of doing my first BookCrossing wild release.

I've known about BookCrossing for years, but was finally inspired to get involved after reading one of Tattooed Mummy's tweets.  The idea behind BookCrossing, is you set books free to have adventures of their own, it's earth-friendly, allows a unique way to share books and clear shelves.  Released books have a code that finders can enter on the web so its journey can be tracked.

So, I dug out my copy of "He's Just Not That Into You" by Greg Behrendt & Liz Tuccillo, the same writers that bought us THAT scene in Sex and City, which was a complete eye opener to me!  Amusing, provocative and occasional just a little bit painful (when you see yourself reflected in the characters), it helped me to realise not to waste my time on men who aren't worth it - leaving me open to the possibility of meeting a good one... enter BoyWonder!

Canary Wharf seemed the perfect place as it's filled with lots of great single girls (I know a lot of them, and I was one of them!) who have dated lots of really crappy men.  So platform level on the Jubilee line, I left the book at the bottom of the escalators.  Before my train arrived I surreptitiously watched loads of people pass it by, so I'm wondering if anyone can get beyond the Canary Wharf blinkers to see it and pick it up. The gauntlet has been thrown! 

I've got a stack more books boxed in the attic, so will dig them out and look forward to having my books discovered, read, reviewed and hopefully travelling the world!

Cheers, KangaRue

Sunday 20 September 2009

Anyone for Bugs?

Bugs Bunny that is...

Lulu and Hermes are posh cats - they get fresh food: rabbit four ways as well as fish and chicken.  Rabbit is not something I've ever eaten before, but I was inspired by Browner's Hare Three Ways.  So when doing my last order of rabbit I decided to order some for BoyWonder and me to eat for a change.

Bagging up rabbit offal surprisingly didn't turn me off cooking dinner!  I'll spare you photos of that. ;)

I'm happy with the results, though I forgot to include both our home-grown shallots, and the yorkshire pudding - well, it is a Sunday roast after all.  But the home-grown potatoes were delicious.  I wrapped the rabbit in prosciutto to keep it moist after stuffing with garlic and basil.  Next time I might try thyme.  Corgettes (zucchini) and carrots finished off the meal which was well complemented with a South African pinotage.  I won't be swapping beef or lamb for rabbit in a hurry, but I'd definitely try it again.  Would you be game?!

Cheers, KangaRue

Friday 18 September 2009

Indulgence - what's your guilty pleasure?

It's funny what you miss when you're away from home... family and friends obviously, but the junk food that you can't get ahold of when you're living in a different country is somewhat more banal.  Besides a monthly desire for TimTams, what I really miss is Cheezels.  Sure, they're bad for me; have very little nutritional value; I've had better meals etc., etc... but they taste so good!
Reading Eatlikeagirl's blog on Guilty Pleasures I realise I'm not the only one.  So what's your guilty pleasure?  Perhaps BoyWonder & I will even host our own Guilty Pleasures dinner party with some of your suggestions.  Though I can pretty much guarantee there won't be any Cheezels left by then!

Cheers, KangaRue

PS. Thanks to Sue for utilising luggage space to supply me with both Cheezels & TimTams!

When Friends Do Awesome Things….

you should shout about it! Yay Jeffrey - here's hoping that your new role will lead to worldwide equality. Read the press release here: When Friends Do Awesome Things….

Cheers, KangaRue

Thursday 17 September 2009

Friendship and Food

I consider myself extremely fortunate to have a few friends that, no matter how long it's been, when I do eventually see them again we click; Sue is one of those friends. We met years ago through work; and though our lives have taken us to different companies, countries and directions, when we get together we have such a great connection. We laugh, commiserate, share tales and generally have a whale of a time.

On this occasion Sue was in London for only 24 hours... so after meeting her at the airport we shared news of the last 7 or 8 years over a bottle of wine into the wee small hours - she also met BoyWonder for the first time! The following day was planned for glamorous swanning around...

We started the day trying on jewellery, discovering some lovely handmade pieces by designer Andrew Geoghegan and then headed over to the 5th Floor Bar at Harvey Nic's for Champagne, then downstairs for make-overs. After a spot of shopping for Sue's girls (OK, I bought some "snow" for Christmas too), we headed to lunch.

Le Café Anglais is an elegant restaurant, with magnificent floor-to-ceiling windows and tables that are a discreet distance apart - I'll be sending my boss here in the future - and good for our catch-up without annoying nearby diners. I'd missed our long weekend lunches in Sydney where a few of the girls would get together for discussions and debates over the broadest range of topics - there were some pretty eye-opening exchanges!

One thing I learnt from this lunch is not to expect to do all this catching-up and actually remember to take pictures of the dishes or even what they were called... I do however remember the hors d'oeuvre that was recommended to me by Essex Eating, the Parmesan custard with anchovy toast was out of this world! I must mention that our waitress was lovely and knowledgeable about the menu - we wanted a Pinot Noir, and rather than pointing us to the "safe" and higher priced Bourgogne she recommended the lovely Nittnaus from Austria, not something I would have felt confident choosing.

Thankfully I did take a photo of the weekday lunch menu so I was able to check back on most of the other dishes we had. Our starters of the creamiest & buttery Burrata was a great combination with the smoky aubergine. Both my plaice with brown butter and Sue's choice of lamb were lovely, though I'd be interested in sampling the more adventurous a'la carte menu, which is where we headed for dessert.

This proved to be an exceedingly tough choice. I pondered having the chocolate soufflé, but wanted something a little more refreshing. I can't remember what it was called (nor for the life of me what Sue had!) but I went for this spectacular concoction of vanilla mousse encased in raspberry sponge roulade. We each enjoyed dessert with a glass of Monbazillac.



A mad dash through the rain ended our day of glamour somewhat unceremoniously, as did the epic traffic to Heathrow. And while in the future I may forget exactly what we'd eaten, it's the experience with my friend that I'll remember.


Cheers, KangaRue

Wednesday 16 September 2009

Lots of projects on the go


Well, I've been working on this cork table for months, and though it's a little bit further on from this photo, it's still not finished!  A lot of the wine we've had recently has been screw-topped which is not helping...  Once the top is covered I'm also going to go around the edge too.

I've also been working on decoupaging a pair of shoes and a canvas... I'm collecting vintage pin-up and burlesque pics, and I'm cutting around them, but waiting until I'm sure I've enough before I start glueing.

The two pairs leg-warmers and snoods I made from a couple of old jumpers have added to my holiday deeds.  Oh, and I joined http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/KangaRue-SL - so once I get the boxes down out of the attic I'll be leaving "deposits" all over town!

Cheers, KangaRue

Just a few of my favourite quotes

So many projects and so much to say (!) so will just start this off with a few of my favourite quotations:

"Learn how to live & you'll know how to die; learn how to die & you'll know how to live." ~ Morrie Schwartz

"Pain is weakness leaving the body!" ~ Roland, Outward Bound instructor

"The fact that men make the best cooks and hairdressers is a sign that women are meant to rule!" ~ Sidney Sheldon

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow." ~ Albert Einstein

"Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity." ~ Albert Einstein

"It's a fact that no woman has ever shot her husband while he was vaccuuming." ~ Kathy Lette

"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." ~ Oscar Wilde

I once heard that girls fall into one of four categories: shoes, handbags, underwear or bathroom products...  WHAT, you mean I have to choose?!!!