back to reality

"This is why once you've traveled for the first time all you want to do is leave again. They call it the travel bug, but really it's the effort to return to a place where you are surrounded by people who speak the same language as you. Not English or Spanish or Mandarin or Portuguese, but that language where others know what it's like to leave, to go home again and feel more lost in your hometown than you did in the most foreign place you visited."

xx

tres bien, merci

T R A V E L   S O L O

T A K E   A   P A T I S S E R I E   C O U R S E   I N   P A R I S

M A K E   A   W I S H   I N   T H E   F O N T A N A   D E   T R E V I

L E A R N   T O   C O O K   I N   T U S C A N Y

I don't like the term 'Bucket List'. Instead, I feel that such a list is more of a long-term To Do List. And these four items are just a sample of a list I wrote several years ago when I was trying to figure out 'what happens next'; When I was trying to convince myself that I could survive my very own New Beginning.

Now, these are all things I plan on doing in the next three weeks.

I am off to Europe (Paris and Italy) on my very own adventure.

xx

Life Happens

Today I had some time to reflect on the last 4 weeks.

In summary I :

Went to Queensland; Survived a mass restructure at work; Had a hot Valentine's Date with my cousin Katie; Spent some time in the ER; Revisited my naturopath; Celebrated Emmy's 5th (!) Birthday; Had my sister come to visit (twice); Laughed at Josh Thomas at his Fringe Show; Went to Clipsal 500 (twice); Celebrated an engagement; Visited LukaMish at the Lollipop Markets; Became seriously addicted to buying things on Gumtree; Explored the Wayville Farmers Markets; Shopped; Had an Endota facial (pure bliss); oh.. and quit sugar.

It's been a busy time...

Let's have a look at that in photos :

Sunny Queensland (I heart you)

Flinders ER (Thanks for everything Mum xoxo)

Happy Birthday to my little fur baby

Clipsal 500 - Quality sister time xx
[Photo stolen from Bree :) ]

Stimulating the Economy one shopping spree at a time..

I Quit Sugar by Sarah Wilson
Yup - more on this later.

Experimental Baking - Sugar Free; Gluten Free

As for this weekend?? Well I've got a few things on my To-Do List. Op-Shopping included. 

Wish me luck.

xx

Disney Dreams

I use this blog to randomly write about my goals all. the. time.. 

And today I want to share my latest daydream. At first, I questioned whether I should share it, because it seems childish. Kind of simple. Definitely not particularly challenging or cultural. And honestly? It's come out of nowhere.

Today I my dream is to indulge my inner six year old.

I want to go to Disneyland.

And eat Mickey Mouse shaped food.

Like Pretzels

And waffles

And icecream.

Yep - Today (like many days) my dreams are food related.

But I think that's OK??

xx

Fly Away To Paris

Oh Paris, how I wish we could meet.

Fly away to Paris by aburchell 

xx

Bali Break

Back from a last minute trip to Bali. Feeling refreshed.

OK... that last part's a lie.

I'm actually horribly sunburnt and tired from spending too much time in various airports in the last 24 hours (thanks Jetstar for cancelling our flight home).

Nonetheless, I am thankful that I was able to spend a week lying by a pool drinking cocktails and soaking up (a little too much) sun.

I am even more thankful that I'm home now and back in my own bed.

xx

Day Dream Believer

The first day back at work after a long weekend is always tough, but today my motivation seems to be at an all time low.

Rather than focussing on work that needs to be done I'm finding myself trawling through beautiful images on Pinterest and dreaming of being anywhere but here.

My day dreams see me travelling all over the world, but honestly I would even be happy relaxing on a porch with a cup of tea in hand... Surely that's not too much to ask!?

Images all pinned here

xx

Cupcake Travels

After yesterday's post about fairy tales and the next chapters in my story, I thought I would begin a series of posts about all the possibilities ahead of me.

Remember how I blogged about this book here ??

Well, as expected, when the book arrived in the post I fell in   L - O - V - E

In recent weeks I have been dreaming of travelling and have wistful thoughts of Pastries in Paris and Tastings in Tuscany.

I always thought Europe was my destination of choice...
But now I'm strongly considering a trip to the US of A.

Mostly so that I can visit this store in San Francisco :

Images courtesy of Bakerella

It would all be in the name of research.

One day, I will open my own cupcake shop. Just ask Jodie! (I'm glad someone believes in me!)

Until then, I will dream of travels in search of the sweetest treats and the tastiest temptations.

xx

Just a Spoon Full of Sugar...

Last  weekend (yep, a whole week ago, but it's taken me this long to blog about it) I went to Sydney to catch up with my gorgeous sister and to see Mary Poppins!

The show was fabulous. Matt Lee (one of the judges from So You Think You Can Dance) totally stole the show as the Chimney Sweep and his dancing to Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious was incredible.

Tempting as it was to buy a Mary Poppins umbrella, we didn't buy any merchandise, but we did succumb to cocktails in these light up glasses - How could we resist ?!

It was an amazing weekend, although not nearly long enough time for shopping and hang out by the Harbour.

We did however, pop into the Lindt store and sample some of their macaroons and chocolates..

Which went well with a glass of champagne and orange (at this point, Bree and I could not bring ourselves to drink the champagne by itself..)

And, despite the weather forcast predicting rain for the weekend, we were lucky enough that the rain held off and we even got to enjoy a little sunshine.

Had to throw this pic in too - We ventured into the Christian Louboutin store.... OMG - the shoes are stunning.

This particular shoe Bree's holding is worth $2,772.50 

($5,545 A PAIR - eeekkk!)

Two days is definately not long enough...

We're already planning our next Girl's Weekend.

xx

BTW - Sorry about some of the terrible iPhone photography...

L'Homme Parfait

I have already posted about my Bali holiday here.

But admittedly it was more 'Eat' than 'Eat Pray Love'... So I thought I would share some photos that had me convinced that I'd found the perfect man.

In a supermarket.

He has lived in Bali for 8 years and worked at Carrefour (the supermarket) for four. He is french. And he makes the most amazing pastries. [Thought I had a photo of him, but it must be on mum's camera.. Watch this space]

So anyway, tucked in the corner of this massive store where you can shop for groceries or a BBQ and blow-up pool, we found a bakery section in which you could easily get lost and never be seen again.

There was sweet and there was savoury. But as you can imagine, I was drawn to the desserts like a moth to a flame.

Rows and rows of amazing cakes and tarts and eclairs and mousse.

It was pastry heaven.

I was very restrained and chose just one lucky dessert to come home with me.

Berry Cheesecake with Chocolate Biscuit Base

Except, we didn't make it much further than the exit...

Now that I have you all drooling - Here are a few other pics I snapped of my food adventure in Bali.

Spring rolls

Grilled Prawns with Garlic Butter

Chicken Satays
By the way - Look how these were presented, on a little stand with coal in the bottom, so they stayed warm.

Atlantic Salmon

Tiramisu
The man in the restaurant gave this to us on the house. We were trying to speak to him in Indonesian/Balinese and may have said something hugely inappropriate...

And of course we had a few of these too... Cheers!

xx

'L'Homme Parfait' means 'The Perfect Man' (or so I'm told..)