Month: October 2017

all about table|and labels

Breast Cancer, entertaining products, let's talk tables, on a personal note..., special events at home

I adore great homewares & accessories, yet I constantly see much of the same. So when I recently fell across a gorgeous homeware & accessories store, Ondine, in Double Bay, Sydney, it was hard not to get just a little bit excited.

Talking excitement | It wasn’t that long ago that my niece suggested that both my sister and I maybe had ADHD (so we already share a love of Ottolenghi and breast cancer, so seriously, what is one more thing)! You might well ask why I drop the big “BC” in from time to time…it is simple…to serve as a constant reminder to you all to stay on top of your mammograms and take excellent take care of yourself…which has always been and quite possibly continues to be the only true purpose behind my blogging, camouflaged as incessant food chatter.

“When it rains, look for RAINBOWS.  When it’s dark, look for STARS”. FionaChilds.com

At first, I wasn’t totally comfortable being handed yet another label. Still, then I didn’t much care because I know our niece loves us both equally, and it was never intended as a criticism, more an observation.  Regardless, I thought about what she had said and decided that if this is the label we get for being mindfully energetic, doing with our minds what our body is way less inclined to do, gymnastics, then so be it.  So my sister and I love creativity in any form. We are constantly looking for something new to challenge us. Rather than this being viewed as something positive, it can be considered unhealthy hyperactivity and labelled as some medical condition.

However, it makes me question why we are all so quick to try to hang labels on our behaviour!  I love shopping. I love homewares. I love clothes, so the love keeps on pouring out all over the shop…so does this mean I am a shopaholic or does it simply mean I am passionate about beautiful things?

Interestingly, I googled shopaholic the other day to see if I had any of the same traits.  Remarkably, I almost got a perfect score.  So now I have ADHD…and I am a shopaholic! So help me if I start reading up on people who need to hang all the same colours together in their wardrobes or store their spice jars in alphabetical order!

I love and adore my family and friends, and I can become equally obsessive when it comes to that, yet there doesn’t appear to be a medical label for excessive heart matters. Why is that?

I always hate to digress, but let’s digress anyway…after all, I am hyperactive. My sister and I recently undertook a spring cleaning of our mother’s bedroom. Something which could only have been done when your Mother is in hospital having a total hip replacement and incapable of moving (at 87, I am still so totally in awe of her having had her hip done).

We ruthlessly tossed away bottles of unopened perfumes and handbags (after all, surely you only need about 10 good bags, so the other 20 odd starts to become somewhat obsolete).

As the clean sweep progressed, so did my self-awareness, which somehow and sometimes I had morphed into my mother. I adore my mother, so maybe this is not such a bad thing.  Seriously, why do we think she has a problem? She stashed away 30 plus handbags (and the rest, but I am doing my best to be nice here). Does it really matter in the bigger scheme of things? Can’t we just be happy being and accept these little habits, obsessions, and delights? However, we want to describe them. Indeed they can simply be attributed to who we are as people.  It is these things that define us rather than label us! The way I see it is simple, if it makes you happy and feeds your soul or the soul of others, then embrace it. If it makes you feel somewhat anxious, you may just need to give it some kind of attention.

Now back to earth | another one of my obsessions, homewares. I adored the earthy heartiness of these Danish ceramics pictured below. I am a little frustrated that I did not purchase any and bring them home to add to our already heavily (maybe obsessive) range of plates and serving trays.  I am sure I can find a little more space…just might need to move the other half out!

Photo |Ondene Transvaal, Double Bay, New South Wales. A Nordic range by  K. H. Wurtz (an internationally sought-after Father and Son team of studio ceramics, located in Horsens, Denmark. Exclusively sold in Australia at Ondine.

Photo | Ondine carries another gorgeous range by Rina Menardi, Italy.
Photo | Another piece by Rina Menardi, Italy, available at Ondene, Sydney.


Photo | K. H. Wurtz Go see for yourself just how wonderful they are  | There is something fabulous about the tools, colours, and textures sitting so harmoniously together on their website.

Photo | taken from K.W.Kurtz website.  It reminds me of that utterly sexy scene from the movie “Ghost” with Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore getting down and dirty in clay. This was one of my best movie scenes and soundtrack of all time. Maybe I am getting old when I think potting is the new sexy!

My time to get down and dirty | So it is only to be expected that I now want desperately to do a ceramic class. When I told my sister, she said, “but you know you won’t be content making an ashtray…you will want to make a full dinner set”. I wasn’t sure what point she was trying to make because I wanted to make a complete dinner set (who smokes anyway)! I enrolled and started my first lesson today!  Stay posted; you never know what fabulous things I might come up with, or be warned, you might never know what you might get for your birthday.

IMG_0013Photo | This photo was taken today at my first pottery lesson (SO not sexy). When I asked Graham Hay, my instructor, where the potting wheel was located, he said, “we are a ghost-free studio”. Oh seriously…what have I let myself in for!

brunch|down and dirty on eggs

brunch, it's all about the food, Recipes

I’m nothing if not consistent. Food always stays high on my agenda, and it is all about eggs this time!

While in Sydney recently, we were constantly looking out for a great brunch; our favourite meal of the day and our favourite time was “guts up” (as we would say). This always came hard on the back of much walking, great exhaustion and a total food spill.

And…if they ever tell you that you cannot teach an old dog new tricks, so not true.  Walking through some gorgeous park in Lavender Hills, my eye bypassed the Sydney Harbour Bridge and made its way to some children’s party in the park (strange that), and I saw a sign which read “yay”.  I called out, a little overly excited, “so that is how you spell yay…not yah”. My son flashed me one of those looks…that look when he cannot quite believe I actually said that (whatever that is), and he added, “so that is what you meant all those times you texted me saying yah”?  “I just thought you were being an idiot”.  Seriously…after all the love and kindness we give our kids, this is what they give back. So for every yah I have written in the past, please now know (assuming, of course, you didn’t already) that it was meant to mean yay! I keep seeing “yay” as a deliberate reminder of my stupidity.

Let’s not stray from the point of my blog…and that is eggs! We are total egg snobs, and if you are going to have a brunch, honestly, you expect it to be an incredible egg!

Interestingly, an egg is a New Zealand slang word for someone acting like a dumbass, clown or idiot. Which really is a little fitting for the point of this story.

I love the quirkiness of those smaller, more intimate cafes which offer something just a little different.  The PCP  in Surry Hills offered a soft baked and crumbed poached egg (slightly running as it is meant to be).  How amazing does this look and something I am sure we can quickly whip up in the kitchen with a bit of effort and imagination? On the side, they had a dollop of peanut butter and Vegemite, blended together and while not entirely to my liking, interesting nonetheless for the Vegemite diehards.

IMG_9595Photo | PCP Sydney in Surry Hills, soft poached egg coated in a light batter and deep-fried! 

Photo | the Vegemite and peanut butter dollop! Doesn’t look great, does it?

IMG_9590Photo | the teapot and cups just make everything a little more interesting.

My favourite breakfast of all was at a place called  Fable in Darlinghurst.  The best breakfast I have ever had, and I am not joking!!! Simply bursting with flavours that merely tasted delicious!

IMG_9683Photo |Fable Coffee Sydney sumac free-range bacon bruschetta with roasted apple puree, heirloom beetroot, fresh avocado, fresh cherry tomato, tarragon infused Pepe Says creme fraiche, Hilltops organic poached eggs.  Seriously good and only $16.50!!!

IMG_9685Photo |Fable Coffee Sydney Hilltop organic poached eggs on toast with house-pickled radish, spring leaves and hand made almond dukkah.  

fullsizeoutput_1df8Photo | Breakfast rolls on the go from  Omeio Artisan Deli, a lovely delicatessen located in Paddington offering fresh bread and pastries and wholesome, yummy breakfast to go. Run by some charming young Greek guy. 

We grabbed a takeaway (egg on the go) on this gloriously sunny day. As we sat in the warmth of the park, a cute little dog made his way under my legs for some mother comfort (well, so I thought), then I heard my son’s laughter ring out in the park, and as he squeals with delight, he says “the dog just pissed on your shoes”(my new shoes, purchased a day earlier).  Good old Mum, still amusing her son in whatever cheap way she can!

My new and “pissed on” shoes aside, nothing beats a great burger, and this was a great burger perfect for that brunch bordering on lunch and well away from parks and dogs and sons lacking good manners.

IMG_9557Photo |Reubens Hills Cafe & Roastery in Surry Hills offered this amazing Dirty Bird Spiced Grilled Chicken, tomato salsa, manchego, pickled slaw and chipotle aioli. They also provided a “Really F*#king Great Fried Chicken” which was a little hilarious and totally in keeping with the venue.

IMG_9689Photo | A casual little Swedish Cafe, Fika Swedish Kitchen in Manly.  I loved these words as they say everything close to my heart.

When we weren’t eating, I was being dragged around the hilly streets of Sydney by my son and husband.  I cannot tell you how many photos I took of the two of them walking, almost as if they had forgotten me! It reminded me of the book I read to my son as a child, “Where’s Wally”, and the only thing missing was my red and white striped shirt! Boys…seriously, give me an incredible egg any day.

IMG_9709Photo | A day in my life of “Where’s Wally”, the only problem is you have to be looking, to find!