oh holiday

some kind of egg-y thing at sotto on west

It's Christmas! Or the school holidays at least, since last Thursday, but Christmas is happening soon too. That time of year were everyone talks about festivity and presents. Time gets a bit weird too. Minutes past very slowly, but days often blur into each other.

Two of my good friends are spending it overseas this year and they've just left, one of them flying over the pacific ocean right this moment. These holidays in particular are a bit of a weird groggy time. There is so much work to do, but also a lot of time to do it in. I have a few chapters of maths homework, a rather large number of essays to write and three major works to get well under way. Nothing I've started on yet but I have relative faith that I'll get it all done. fingers crossed.

The graduating class of '14 got their atars a few days ago, the numerical value of thirteen years of education has been assessed. Phwoar. That is certainly a lot to feel whether good or bad and it's almost unbelievable to think that I'll be getting the same thing in a year's time.

This is a pretty intense period of time, possibly the hardest months that I've gone through so far, but I'm still alive and kicking after the first exam block, and we'll see how this goes. Now that's it is the holidays, I'm going to try and enjoy myself at least a little and who knows, maybe post more than once in a blue moon. 

french toast and frankenstein

I was kinda bored in the afternoon the other day, and slightly peckish, so I was scrolling through the interwebs for the easiest possible thing to cook and eat, that would still actually taste ok. And I foudn Liv's recipe for french toast. I always through french toast was super hard and that only badasses who were fully self-actualised and always had actual, SUFFICIENT time in the morning for fulfilling and joyous breakfast-times everyday were capable of making it successfully, but apparently I'm wrong. It's actually shockingly not that difficult! You just beat a glug of milk, an egg, some cinnamon, a teaspoon of vanilla extract and sugar to taste in a bowl, drop in a piece to bread and poke it around to make sure it absorbs everything, and then plop it in a pan, and then wait around for a few minutes. Not that hard! I was amazed at my own ability to not mess it up that I ate lots and was then so bloated for the rest of the day I didn't even have enough stomach space to shovel in some dinner. Until about 10pm right before bed when I got the goddarn nibbles again and ate a kinda weird tasting cranberry and nut bar (I never trust dried bits of fruit in otherwise perfectly good food items).

I also picked up the penguin classics edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, but since being swamped with chemistry coursework, I'm only about 1/3 of the way through, and I'll refrain from casting any judgements until I reach the end.  

getting cultured

 

Su Ning doing her lazy/moody all black erry-thang

Our little state gallery is quite an impressive, grand affair isn't it? There's something about big 'ol marble columns that really floats my boat, and it's a shame I don't visit more often!

I did today, and it was quite bloody fantastic. 

NSW's state collection is probably rather small in the scheme of things, but it's rather cosy and endearingly curated. Glossy oil-on-canvas Australian and European 16th, 19th and 20th century works were dominant pieces and with things like paintings, there's a real difference in effect seeing them in person. 

I'm a bit of a history geek, and it's fascinating (at least for me) to see paintings of Sydney way back when; before the CBD, before the industrial revolution, before all the towering office blocks and shopping extravaganzas. 

It's always important to know or at least be aware of the past, and I went away today just that bit more informed and/or 'cultured'. ^^

Me being me though, quickly became more than a little peckish and didn't quite make it to the more comtemporary side of the place, before having to rush off for food before fainting away from hunger. 

(not pictured: 2 foot-long subway sandwiches rapidly gobbled up in haste) 

And then, since we oh-so-conveniently happened to be in town anyway, why not try that nitrogen ice-cream place that's all hip and trendy right now. The concept is that basically, instead of using ice, or refrigerators or whatnot, the gelato is made on the spot with liquid nitrogen!

I had M&Ms cheesecake, and I have to say, there's nothing extraordinarily amazing about this particular 'type' of frozen diary dessert. But it WAS icecream and it was quite delicious, and was consumer quickly and gleefully. 

bit gimmicky but how novel!

summertime fruit

As much as I do love the wintertime so very much, there is one thing I always miss, which is of the the juicy berries, mangos and figs that only make their appearance for an unfortunately short amount of time in the summer. I was reminded of just how much I'm craving the sweet, juicy suckers just then as I was scrolling through my memory disk backlog.

If it's warm and sunny where you live, please do eat an extra one for yours truly! Now I've got to get back to hunting for a not-too-decrepit Antiquity 1 textbook on gumtree.

x Joyce 

sweaty limbs and happy hearts

travellers from all the way on the other side of the world ! 

look at that right maniacal loon

"wave and look popular or something !!" - Su Ning

Sometimes you just gotta take full advantage of those 'sunday funday' tickets and go on a mad little traipse round town. Cityrail has an annoying little habit of letting you down every so often, but that's partially redeemed by kindly allowing you to madly abuse all forms of transportation for a whole day for a measly $2.50, so it all evens out. Drag along a semi-willing friend and you have yourself a beaut of a day. 

Ferry-rides, potato stacks and gelato optional. 

x Joyce 

Eat, waste time, study, sleep, repeat

Title says it all really. All my life consists of right now is taking about two-three naps every day, wasting time on irrelevant wikipedia articles, studying a teeny-tiny amount, eating to reward self for aforementioned tiny about of productive-ness and then napping. I still have little to no idea of how to write essays. Help. 

p.s.

how glorious is the cross section of that burger? praise the deities. 

birthday

It's my birthday today !!

I'm turning sixteen this year, my first real 'growing-up' milestone birthday and it feels strange and exciting, a sort of tingly good weird. I worked out a lot of things about myself in the last year, who I want to be, what I want to do, and other little life epiphanies. I refocused, and set my sights on what I wanted, after figuring out what it was I actually wanted first, and now I'm working my way towards that. And it feels good. Really good. Especially since the year before, I've been listlessly, aimlessly just floating passing the time. The next two years are going to be pretty intense, with the hsc coming up (a sort of university extrance exam where I live) and I'm going to try my best to get to where I want to be. 

Alright, enough with the heavy stuff; so how did I spend my very first day of being sweet sixteen? I woke up this morning to my mum carrying a beautiful sight indeed, a little minty blue drawstring bag (have you guessed what it is yet?) that's right ! A tiffany's bag. Man oh man. I'm a lucky girl. Inside this lovely little package was a silver tiffany bean necklace. I blearily opened one eye (having stayed up late reading another amazing gift, Mindy Kaling's hilarious 'Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? and other concerns') but just about leapt out of bed when I saw the reason I was getting awoken. I prompted clasped it around my neck and am never-ever-ever taking it off. 

The rest of the day was spent (as birthdays should be) eating yummy food (the house dip at three williams is seriously good), and exploring the myriad of colourful organic produce and fresh flowers at Eveleigh Markets. I FOUND KALE Y'ALL!! They taste somewhat like seaweed! (in baked chip form anyway). 

As I'm typing this out, full of chocolate mousse cake and love, I'm feeling pretty darn grateful. Going to bed now, mum's high school friend from France is visiting tomorrow! 

x

looking slightly dazed from smiling into the sun

 

Saint Valentine

Happy valentine's day everyone! As holidays go, it's certainly not the most inclusive one, but I always celebrate it, for an entirely different reason.

My friend Lucy and I have valentine's day sandwiched in between our two birthdays. Her's is on the 13th and mine the 15th, which basically means, on the 14th, we exchange gifts and eat cake for lunch. SO much better than any old flowers or chocolate don't you say?

Lucy if you're reading this, valentines for life ! :) 

Beetroot Salad and Beef Sausages

salaaaaaaad

sausages sizzling nicely in the pan

Tonight it was my night to cook dinner and I thought, hey why not share it with you guys? I'm far from an accomplished cook, but I can fumble my way through the basics. Cooking is pretty fun, especially since you get a tasty reward at the end. ;) I also spend a fair bit of my spare time drooling over foodie blogs, and I love learning new (preferably really really easy) recipes I can make and eat at home. This one took about 20 minutes altogether, waiting around time included! Enough rambling, let's get on with the recipe;

SALAD

Ingredients- beetroot, feta cheese and a bag of mixed leaf lettuce

I like to make the salad putting a layer of greens, beetroot + feta, layer of greens etc, that way, you get an even mix of everything throughout

SAUSAGES

Pretty self-explanatory. Make sure you get some decent ones though, organic or grass-fed is best and then just pop them in the pan with a little oil. Wait for about 10 minutes, flip them, another 5 and voila! 

Dinner is served..

If you enjoyed reading this, I might do more of these kinds of posts in the future, leave a comment a tell me what you think! What are your favourite quick go-to meals.

the finished product- YUM!

an extra little close-up I'm sure you're all thankful for