Quiet Days

After a big week of work last week I've managed to come down with a rotten cold. As a result, I spent most of my weekend inside, except for a brief breakfast outing with Ben yesterday morning. I'm never too sick for breakfast.

Here are a couple of snaps from around the apartment. Our chilli plant is thriving which I'm quite excited about, seeing as though we managed to kill all our other plants. I found a new place to hang my bunting (and also left my bed unmade for a whole week). I dug up some of my instax photos, including this favourite shot of Ben and I. I also loved the bokkeh effect the sunlight through the leaves was making on our balcony. But apart from that, I've spent most of my time between bed and my couch, keeping up the fluids, popping cold and flu tablets, eating toast and watching back to back episodes of Parks and Recreation. Let's hope I can shake this thing soon. The next few weeks (months, years?) are going to be busy!

Surfers Paradise

This week I spent two nights at the Surfers Paradise Marriott Hotel on the Gold Coast, Queensland. The company that I work for runs a lot of educational events for not-for-profits. This week we had one of our major two-day conferences which was specifically for CEOs of not-for-profit associations and charities. Being able to travel interstate quite regularly is a definite perk of my job. It's not always as glamorous as it sounds but I have to say that this trip was one that really made me step back and appreciate the opportunities work has given me. I also found being able to sit in on a lot of the sessions really interesting and beneficial for my own professional development. It's kinda cool to be able to learn so much about issues concerning those in high level management positions when I'm just in the very early stages of my career.

While I wasn't directly involved in organising this conference, there was still a lot of running about, mingling with CEOs and long hours. As a result, I'm pretty exhausted now and have managed to come down with a cold. Nonetheless, staying at the Marriott was fabulous and we managed to squeeze in a bit of time by the pool in our short breaks. Oh and our manager got upgraded to the Presidential Suite (pictured above) which was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. It was probably twice the size of my apartment and lavishly decorated. It didn't even have a number on the door, that's how fancy it was. I commented to my other colleagues, who were just as excited as me, that I'm glad I got to experience something like that once in my life time, even though it wasn't actually my room. These photos don't even begin to do it justice.

Book Club: Part Two

1. Women of Letters curated by Marieke Hardy and Michaela McGuire. I'm a huge fan of anything Marieke Hardy does. I might have a slight girl crush on her. I was also fortunate enough to meet her a couple of years ago during the country music festival in Tamworth. It was unexpected, that's for sure. The Women of Letters book stems from a series of live shows where a bunch of different creative folk are asked to write a letter on a certain theme and read it on stage. I haven't had a chance to make it to one of the shows yet but it's on my bucket list for 2013. The book is a collection of most of the letters written and presented so far. They also introduced a couple of 'Men of Letters' shows last year and some kind men-folk have submitted their letters to the book as well. If you want to read heart-felt and often hilarious letters from well-known Australian artists, musicians, media personalities and other creatives, then this book is for you.

2. The Memory Keeper's Daughter. I borrowed this book upon recommendation from my BFF. If you're reading this, remind me to give it back! It's quite a sad story set in the 1960s about a Doctor who gives away his newborn baby because she has downs syndrome. He also keeps this from his wife for a very long time. As horrible as it sounds, I ended up really feeling for the man because he honestly thought he was doing the right thing. It's an interesting read, but a sad one at that.

3. Gaysia by Benjamin Law. I've briefly touched on this book in another recent blog post but wanted to tell you a bit more about it. In the same way that I'm obsessed with Marieke Hardy, I cannot fault anything that Benjamin Law does. Since I discovered him in Frankie magazine, I've also read his other novel, The Family Law. I also recently listed him as one of my favourite people to follow on Twitter. A gay man himself, Ben says he feels pretty lucky to live in Australia where he can speak up about gay rights and hold his boyfriend's hand in public. In order to write Gaysia, he traveled around parts of Asia including Bali, Thailand, China, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar and India to find out what it's like being gay in these parts of the world. From a ladyboy pageant to gay sex workers, he spares no details. It's confronting and sometimes shocking but there's also plenty of funny moments. It's the relationships Ben forms with the various people he meets along the way that really got me in. This man knows how to tell a story and I can definitely say I learnt a lot. 

I've been trying to read a lot more of the classic novels lately and I'm currently onto The Great Gatsby, which I will tell you about once I've finished. In the next few weeks or so, Bec from My Bloggable Day and I will be sharing our reviews of Wuthering Heights, as we both happened to be reading it at the same time. If you're interested in being a part of this book club, please feel free to email me and we can choose a book to read and review together.

Who Are Nellie and Oliver?

If you don't know me personally then you may be wondering why I decided to call this blog of mine 'Nellie and Oliver'. Well, Nellie and Oliver were my two childhood puppy dogs who I loved with all of my heart. They are both no longer with us and my whole family misses them dearly. 

I still remember the day we went to pick up Nellie (black and white Cavalier King Charles Spaniel) from a farm near Armidale, NSW. Our Dad must have had the day off work and I think it was during school holidays because I remember my brother, sister and I went with him while Mum was at work. I vaguely remember all these gorgeous little puppies running around the farm and us choosing little Nellie to take home. We were all eagerly waiting for Mum to get home and I remember us all sitting on the front step with Nellie as she drove up the driveway. Nellie was a very loyal and loving dog. She was also a little bit crazy. And by crazy I mean she would lick the screen door for hours on end and had some other obsessive tendencies. We loved her very much and hope she's having fun licking the screen door in puppy heaven.

Oliver, or 'Ollie', was a gift to our family from my Aunty. He was a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel cross Poodle, or 'Cavoodle' as they are technically known. I also remember the day that Aunty Kim brought Ollie over to our place. He was a little yellow fluff ball and I remember him running around his new home with Nellie not quite sure what was going on or who this new strange friend was. Ollie was an extremely gentle pet. He never barked and he slept a lot, especially in his old age. We talked to him like he was a human. He was such a huge part of our family and when he passed away last year we were completely devastated. I'm sure him and Nellie are having great fun together now.

Now days, we have a puppy by the name of Chester in our family. My brother adopted him from the pound and he lives with my family in Tamworth. I've only met him once so far as I live five hours away, but I'm enjoying seeing regular Instagram photos from my brother as this little pup grows into a big pup. 

So there you have it - the story behind the name. 

Photos by my brother and me.

Neighbourhood Favourite: Sweetness the Patisserie

I cannot begin to describe how excited I was to discover a gorgeous patisserie in my very own suburb. Sweetness the Patisserie was founded by Gena Karpf. While studying for her Diplome de Patisserie (Honours) at Le Cordon Bleu in Sydney, she opened her store in Epping as a place to sell her delicate handmade sweets.

She specialises in handmade confectionary including honeycomb, coconut ice, marshmallows, nougat, fudge and gummy lollies as well as baked goods like slices, tarts, biscuits, macarons and more.

I popped by last weekend to treat myself to some goodies and asked if I could take a couple of photos for the blog. I had a lot of trouble deciding what to buy but I ended up taking home some mini chocolate swirl shortbread biscuits which I enjoyed over a cup of Green Rose tea on my balcony. 

You can also find Sweetness at many of Sydney's food and produce markets. Click here for all locations. They also cater for special events and parties. 

Book Club: Part One

Over Christmas and my birthday I received so many new books that I've run out of shelves, hence the 'book chair' pictured above. I wanted to start a new regular feature on this here blog of mine, highlighting some of my recent reads. This is the first instalment, stay tuned for more in the coming weeks. 

1. Desert Dawn by Waris Dirie. I borrowed this book from a friend quite a while ago and only got around to reading it at the end of last year. Waris Dirie is a a model and human rights activist of Somali origin. Her book is an autobiographic tale recounting her childhood as a nomad in the Somali desert from which she ran away at a young age. Nineteen years later, she is living in New York but decides on a whim to return home and find her family. I found this book to be very emotional and confronting in parts, particularly as Waris discusses the truths of female genital mutilation as is custom in her culture. At the same time, it's very heartwarming and honest and helped me understand a culture I had little knowledge of before.

2. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. I was given this book by my Mum and Dad a couple of Christmases ago and again, only made time to read it a few months back. Little did they realise but they had actually purchased the 'Young Readers Edition' which meant all throughout the book there were certain words highlighted to show that their definitions could be found in the glossary at the back. I know big words, Mum and Dad, really, I do! We all had a chuckle. Needless to say, it made for a very quick read! Three Cups of Tea recounts the journey of an American man, Greg Mortenson, who attempts to climb K2, the second highest mountain in the world, located in Pakistan. He actually did not make it on his first attempt, and on his way down seeking refuge, he ends up in a very poor Pakistani village where he becomes friends with the locals. The people of this village have a passion for education and the children are desperate to learn, but they have no schools or resources. Greg embarks on a mission to build a school in this village which soon escalates and he ends up building schools all over Pakistan and Afghanistan. Again, this was a heartwarming read and opened my eyes to many truths about the challenges of humanitarian work like this.

3. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. I'm a huge fan of Safran Foer having read two of his other books, Everything is Illuminated and his non-fiction work Eating Animals. This was one of those situations where I had seen the movie before reading the book. I loved the movie but enjoyed the book a lot more. It was much more detailed and Safran Foer's writing style is fascinating. Each chapter presented a different voice or style and the book was littered with interesting images relating to certain parts of the story. I was so into this book and it felt like I was following Oskar all over New York on his expedition to find the missing lock to a key he had discovered in his father's wardrobe, not long after his father was killed in the September 11 attacks. I highly recommend both the movie and the book. 

4. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. This beautiful story about a young Shepherd's journey to the Egyptian Pyramids taught me so many lessons along the lines of finding life's purpose. Sounds deep, huh? Many people have described it as more of 'self-help' book than fiction. I don't really like the term 'self-help' but can certainly see why some may say this. It felt like there was so many little metaphors underneath the story itself along the theme of creating your own destiny. It was a quick and easy book to read if you feel like a little pick-me-up. I'm sensing a theme here, are you?

What have you read lately? Would you recommend it?

Neighbourhood Favourite: Pablo & Rusty's

After an accomplished morning of housework and homework (for the course I'm doing), I took myself on a date to another of my favourite local cafes, Pablo & Rusty's.

Pablo & Rusty's has been bringing speciality coffee to Sydney's north shore since they were founded in 2004. They began by supplying beans to a number of cafes but it wasn't long before they established their flagship store in Gordon. They now have additional cafes in Epping, Lane Cove and Sydney Olympic Park, as well as their headquarters and testing facilities in Ryde.

My local, Epping, has recently launched a new cafe menu with lunch items as well as an all day breakfast selection featuring simple yet flavoursome food. Today I was in the mood for some carbs so I ordered the smashed avocado and tomato on sourdough with salsa verde. Such a simple light meal but the addition of the salsa verde gave it a bit of tang and I didn't feel so guilty for ordering something I could have easily made myself. I was also tempted by the poached eggs on sourdough with quinoa and smashed peas. Next time!

If you're ever around any of the locations listed above, I would highly recommend a visit to Pablo & Rusty's for an excellent coffee or light meal.

P.S I only just noticed that it appears they're using old jalapeno jars for their sugar (pictured above). Bec from My Bloggable Day and I are keen collectors of these jars. Don't be jealous but I now have nine of them!

All photos taken by me on my iphone and edited with the Afterglow app.