D's hens party

A few weeks back I got dressed up and headed to the city for my friend D’s hens party. D’s sister and bridesmaids organised the night and it was amazing. Full of activities and full of fun. I didn’t have a hens night, so I was living vicariously through D.

 

The party started in the hotel room the other girls had gotten at The Grace hotel. Wine and nibbles = a winning combination and a great start to the evening.

 

The first activity planned was a cocktail making class at La Cita, Darling Harbour. I’d just gotten back from Bali and was desperately missing my daily cocktail, so this class was a goodie. We learnt how to make a cosmopolitan and a mojito (my fav!). Cocktails actually aren’t that hard to make, especially mojitos. The cocktail making (and drinking) was a great starter to lead us in to the next class of the evening – a latin dance class.

Look, I am unco-ordinated. I can’t dance and I had an injured knee, so I couldn’t even do everything the guy told us to. By this time of the night, everyone had a few drinks under their belts, so everyone was right in to it and it was great fun. The group before us took it really seriously which didn’t look like fun. Take yourselves less seriously and everyone is laughing. I can’t follow dancing directions to save myself so I was definitely laughing at myself!

 

Dancing was followed up with dinner in the restaurant part of La Cita. The food far exceeded my expectations. I didn’t get pics, but I had a steak, mash and veg for my main and the steak was cooked to perfection. This coming from someone who rarely eats steak! I shared a jug of delicious sangria with another of the guests at dinner, because you just can’t go past sangria!

 

We finished the night at the Retro nightclub. I haven’t been there since I was about 18, but it was good to go back especially since I used to only go with the hen. They played all the old favourite songs.

Spring Lovin'

I never knew I was a warm weather person until I went to Bali. Something about beaches, beanbags and mojitos firmly engrained in my mind that the beach and warm weather is where I need to be. So with the arrival of the warm weather (and then cold and then warm), I've been loving being outside. I'm not sure about you, but every time it warms up all I want to eat is salad. Refreshing, refreshing salads. A new favourite of mine, which can be eaten hot or cold is charred corn. This is probably not new to you, but if it is then all you need to do is put some corn on your open gas flame on the stove and cook the corn on all sides until it starts to cook. You'll know when, because it will look burnt. As per a recommendation on twitter, I top mine with coriander, parmesan cheese, salt, paprika and a bit of sour cream. Divine! 

I thought I used to love layering and wearing warm jackets and boots until the warm weather came along. Give me a pair of shorts, a tee shirt and sandals over layers any day. Seriously, how easy is it to dress in less clothing. For maximum laziness, I choose to also wear a hat to cover the hair I haven't done yet. Easy. 

Too bad the beaches in Sydney don't have bean bags and mojitos otherwise I would be at the beach every weekend. Unfortunately for me, sitting in my backyard with a book will have to suffice because another thing about Sydney beaches is the horrendous traffic and who's got time for that? Not me. 

Back to food, I'm trying to eat a little healthier after I ate whatever I wanted for a couple of weeks and over the weekend I threw together these pancakes. Not sure where I found the recipe previously, but I have tweaked it a little. It's just 2 bananas, 2 eggs, a bit of oat bran and a bit of almond meal. Mix or whizz it together and then cook them. So delicious and so easy to make. I topped mine with fresh blueberries, greek yogurt, almond meal and a bit of honey. The mug is my Husbands...he loves spreadsheets.

What do you love about Spring and the warmer weather?

Bowls

Sunday afternoon we went and played bowls with our neighbour and a handful of her friends.. cheap bowls and cheap good cider.. A perfect Sunday afternoon!

I love silhouette photos!

Date night - Shark Beach, Vaucluse

Last week, S and I went on a date in search of a 'hidden' beach in Vaucluse. I had studied google maps and was sure I knew where it was but when we got to the end of the bush track that we walked down there were only rocks...no beach! Rather than wander around trying to find the hidden beach, we took the bush nature walk to Shark Beach because it was getting dark and we didn't fancy getting lost.

 Trying to get silhouette photos

 Our bush walk

 Sydney skyline

 Spot S!

 Shark Beach, Vaucluse

 Homemade Banana Bread..mmm