taking this blog down a gear

So I've decided to slow this blog right down. And I hope no one's disappointed, but then again who really reads this blog anyway (besides myself) so I should be the only one who's disappointed - and I'm not! Because I'm moving myself full time over to my new blog thecattylife, which is far prettier and more exciting than this one!

While thecattylife is just a little bit about food, is it also about me because me and food, we like this (we tight. you know what I mean). So if you do read this blog, come see me at thecattylife instead, I'm sure you'll like it more!

introducing thecattylife.com

so last week, i blogged about contemplating a move off blogspot. it's actually a thought that's been incubating for the better part of the last few months, and it's not only been a thought about moving my entire blog, but what would i write about? just the same ol' happenings in my life? or should i focus on something, make it a blog with some real content?

i had some ideas in my head, and last week, after finding a home in bluehost and powered by the most fantastic wordpress (i can't believe there was life before wordpress, i'm half thinking of moving this entire blog to wordpress... if only i had the time!), i kick started my new foodie blog, and so thecattylife was born.

thecattylife, as you can see, is about my incessant obsession with food. some might wonder why it took me so damn long to start a food blog, seeing as everyone else noticed that my holiday photos are overrun by photos of food ~ and the thing is, I don't even post all the food pics! Panu, my boss, everyone who spends any time with me constantly comment about my eating habits, or rather, my constant eating and my excitement when a new cafe opens anywhere in my vicinity.

so to do them justice, and to give my foodie posts a true home of their own, I hope you'll check out thecattylife and support it as much as you've supported this blog. I will continue to keep blogspot open, as they are essentially quite different creatures so if food ain't your thang, stay here!

2.5 years

This coming weekend, Panu and I will have been going out 2.5 years. that's 30 months! i know this is barely a toddler of a relationship in some of your worlds, but for me, this is a record. i wouldn't exactly call myself a commitment phobe, but it appears that i have a tendency to freak out in perfectly good and normal relationships just after the two year mark (if i actually get that far) and more or less make a run for it.

I know some close friends were holding their breath when Panu and I hit two years... and watched closely for any signs of a complete meltdown for a month thereafter. But 6 months on, I think we're fairly safe. He still makes my heart skip a beat, and nothing, seriously nothing, speaks to my soul like a hug from him.

I'm going to sound like I'm preaching here, but there are two relationship myths that i think are true. One is that yes, you do need a few duds to appreciate what's good. and two? you absolutely need to find yourself, before you can find your other.

I'd been in a number of relationships before stumbling upon this one. And no matter how much I feel like I want to erase some memories, I eventually learnt that actually, those memories are what makes me me. Painful as some may be, the spectrum of experiences I've had has shaped who I am today, how I empathise with others, and more importantly helped me learn my own strengths and fragilities. I dont have to imagine how it feels; i know how it feels to fall in love, to fall out of love, to break the heart of someone who loves me, to have my own heart broken by someone i love, to rebound selfishly, to learn to live on my own, and to learn to love being me.

And the path to these lessons, while excruciating at times, i would not trade for anything else in this world. So after all of that, in 2006, Panu and I got together in the most scandalous of ways ~ hooking up at a work conference. *Hah*. It had to be done. And to say i haven't looked back since would be a lie.

The year I spent soul searching and learning to really love being myself was the best year I've ever had, and I will tell that to anyone who'll listen. I had my bachelorette pad in Newtown, Sydney, i was working hard and playing harder and really couldn't give a flying f*** what anyone else thought. It was a hard year to give up, and when Panu and I got together, I really wasn't ready to let it go. For the first few months, it did cross my mind to break it off and go back into the wonderland which i had created, but wow am I glad I didn't.

I can't even put it into words, but I am happy where I am. I'm not a romantic, nor am i an idealist, and I don't say "I love you" often enough, if at all. But as my boss (who is my friend and knows me better than a lot of other people) so insightfully put it: "well, you're living in London aren't you? If you didn't love him, I guarantee you wouldn't be here." Actually, it doesn't take a genius to figure that one out.

So for now, at 2.5 years, I'm cruising along. I'm in no rush to get to the altar, although I'm so clucky I may as well be a chicken. But we'll see, time will tell many stories... and even I'm interested to see how they pan out.

hypochondriac?

this week has been a sniffly one for me. sniffly enough to give me a little pink nose, not quite enough to be declared a cold. and with swine flu fever still out and about courtesy of the media, here I sit at my desk, with my anti-bacterial hand gel (and second tube in my handbag, just in case), my anti-viral kleenex (which cost way too much but i found out too late), my multi-vitamins, my clarityn.. oh and junior mints, cos they always make me feel better.

slowly turning into a hypochondriac.

the cooking man

While I was in Oz for five weeks, Panu had an enlightening moment and realised that I did "everything" around the house. I'm guessing what he was really thinking was 'what? clothes/sheets/towels don't wash themselves? Meals need to be cooked? you need to buy the food to cook? and the floors don't clean themselves?? WHAT THE F***.'

I think he did the bare minimum laundry, changed the sheets literally the night before I got back, and I dont think he touched the floors, but in order to not die of starvation, he had to cook. And cook he did... and surprisingly, he loved it.

So one thing he's really taken to since I've been back is cooking. He's been cooking not once, not twice, but several times a week. And I tell you what, there is nothing sexier than a man who cooks *rrooowwwrrrr*

And it's so refreshing having someone else cook, and eating something different. I have to admit for the first couple of weeks, I didn't know what to do with myself. I'm used to the routine of coming home and cooking, or gymming and cooking. Now I have the extra time, I'm just wasting it watching Peter & Katie, but what the heck, it's me time.

Let's hope this isn't just a phase!

catty goes to america.. again!

we've just booked our trip to the west coast of the US of A tonight. i am so excited i'm beyond words cos guess what? guess where we're staying when we go to Vegas? *drum roll*

... THE Bellagio....


*squeals with excitement!*

times like this i thank the universe that hotels in Europe are massively over priced. Cos when you compare The Bellagio to an average 3 or 4 star hotel in Europe? well, let's put it this way, it came out cheaper than our hotel for Rome this weekend.

this is going to be the big trip of the year. We're also going to LA (Hollywood!) and San Fran to see my friend Anh, who I've promised and promised and never came... but here I come! And I cannot wait to see her, her two kids and her two dogs! Oh, and Johnny, her hubby :)

oh, and this trip is also sorta in celebration for me turning the big three-oh in September. gotta celebrate in style, right?

much a'fuss about twitter

So it seems that in the past month, twitter has gone from big-ish to really big, to an application of gargantuan proportions. I’ve been proud a twitterer since 2007, maybe i’m ahead of the curve, maybe i’m a social networking freak, but this my friends is the future of the internet. I mean guys, Oprah signed up last week. If that isn’t a sign of big things to come, I really don’t know what is.

This is the thing: once upon a time we talked about the Internet. Then we talked about broadband, email, www. Now? We are talking instant updates, instant search, the power of utilising every person on the web as a feed. News gets on twitter faster than it gets to the journalists. This is the power of instant social networks.

I mean, I use my twitter for just talking shite really, but hey, at least I’m using it *grin*

still here

apologies for lack of blogging over the last week. it's been a hectic week to say the least. been working a couple of nights to meet a deadline and been in a workshop for most of today. i promise i'll be back to tell you all about our wonderfully relaxing, albeit grey and dreary Easter weekend last week!

Ciao.

ps. got a replacement phone - life is swoit again!

pps. watched Twilight again last night (oh don't act so surprised). Got Mags into loving Edward too!

lost

on Wednesday, i was massively punished for being lazy.

i left work a smidgin early (act of lazy #1) to pick up a wee little birthday 'magic' cake for Panu from Konditor & Cook; it's just up the road from my office.. possibly a 15 minute walk at the most. But being a little bit rushed (and lazy), i jumped on the bus to go up the road three whole stops (act of lazy #2). On the bus, I checked some emails on my phone which I didn't get a chance to check before I left the office. I typed away, replied to a few and put my phone in my jacket pocket. This may not have been obvious to innocent bystanders, but I had just committed act of lazy #3. Everything, and I mean everything falls out of my pocket. I never, ever, put anything in my pocket and I knew this, as I was putting my phone in my pocket, that it would probably fall out. But at that point in time, it seemed all too hard to undo a clasp on my bag, slip the phone in the pouch and clasp it back up. Heck, i didn't even have to clasp it back up, the phone would still have been way safer.

Anyway, in the pocket. Three stops down I hop off and dash quickly to the cake shop, which was recommended to me earlier in the day by a friend. I reached for my phone to text her, to say oh my god the cakes are definitely the most adorable things in the world! but oh F*&%, where is my phone?!?!?! WHERE IS IT? i squeezed and scrunched my pocket in a million different ways, i check my bag two million ways in case somehow, i hoped dearly, that my subconscious had sneakily won the earlier battle and i had slipped my phone into my bag.

But it was not to be. I borrowed the shop's phone and call myself over and over, hoping someone would pick up. Because I know it's exciting and all to find a shiny new gadget on the bus, but I would have paid the potential thief £300 (retail price of my phone) just to give it back. they could have gone and bought an even shinier new one! But after ringing out a number of times (and wow do I really sound like that on my voicemail?), someone turned the phone off, and i knew it was gone. Gone.

The thing with this phone is that... up until late last year I had a regular yee-olde mobile phone which made and received calls and sent and received text messages. I didnt even have picture messaging! But then I was given this great smart phone by my work and slowly but surely, it wriggled its way into my life as my oncall Personal Assistant. it knows my diary, it has my notes, it has my emails, my photos, my spreadsheets, my (and yes, please kindly kick my ass for this one) passwords!!! I hyperventilate now as I think about my passwords floating around in the great abyss that is London.

I've come to rely so much on my phone that not only is it lost, I am lost without it... *sigh* work is getting me another one.. but it's just not the same - half my life was on the lost phone.

time flies

On the final day of my work stint in Sydney, i have a meeting from 4pm-5pm. i know, that sucks. this trip has completely fried my brain, yes, even this normally workaholic brain and I am itching to head back to London.

Five weeks has passed so quickly. it seemed like only yesterday that I was pondering whether my little heart could stand being apart from its mate for so long. but look at this, it's been five weeks and I didnt even have time to count sleeps!

bubbas. everywhere.

as i sit in the airport in Sydney, waaaay too early for my flight to Brisbane, i am confronted with the vicious beast that has been rearing its ugly head at me since i was all but twelve years old. this beast lays dormant most of the time, but occasionally, spurred on by the sweet smell of newborn babies, it surfaces and side swipes me into a blubbering quivering clucky mess of a person.

and my goodness has the beast been well fed since my arrival back in Sydneytown. Not only did I have six brand spankin' new babies to meet, cuddle and drown with kisses, there was also Milo, who is now a toddler (not so much a baby) but still my special, my favourite.

to quickly introduce them, there was Jude, Sarah & Mitch's brand new five-week-old wonder (and little brother of Milo); Keira, Gene & SK's little Korean princess; Linden, Ivan & Monica's chinese buddha of a baby; Alana, Ian & Stef's happy little chicken; and last but very certainly not least there was Lachlan, Babs & Brett's amazing boy... and somewhat the closest thing I have to a nephew. Lachie I just met today, and boy did I not want to let him go. Absolutely devine.





















and I still have chubba bubba Ashleigh to meet!

home is where the heart is

End of week 1.

I landed in Sydney on Sunday evening around 9pm, the perpetual 21 degree air conditioning in the airport disguised what awaited me outside. I flew through immigrations (ah, bless. Caught a flight full of Other passport holders), collected my bag and headed for the door. i dived headfirst into the muggy Sydney evening, and having come from crisp cold London, this was like... I don’t even know how to describe it. It was a little like walking through something solid, wading my way through goo, or maybe like Patrick Swayze in Ghost, where he could walk through something solid, but with a little effort.

In about two tenths of a second, I was drenched from head to toe in sweat, and it didn’t help that i had been on a 22 hour flight, with no showers in between. The BO meter was off the charts. I took deep, wet breaths and trudged on. By the time I got to the cab, I felt like I’d been dunked in the BO ocean, retrieved, and not wrung out very well.

BUT. This isn’t a cranky story. It could have been, had I just landed anywhere else in the world. But I was home. In Sydney. And i could smell it in the air. I AM HOME.

It’s been a week people, and I have fallen back in mad crazy love with the city which in truth, I had never stopped loving anyway. It’s like we’ve renewed our vows. I had the first two days off to play tourist and tour guide, and I wonder, why did I ever leave? This city is perfect in so many ways.

Lazing in the sun at Circular Quay, the ferry to Manly, the beach, the sun, the people, the food, the smells, the freshness of everything.












And lastly, on Wednesday night, a reunion of my pals in Surry Hills...


It actually feels like I never left. I'm even loving being back in the office, seeing everyone, and feeling right at home.

And Ying, if you’re reading this, I’m not even counting sleeps. Are you proud of me?

beta blogger is the devil

Yesterday afternoon i was tinkering around with my blogger template and reading about beta blogger and its supposed benefits. I was just reading i swear, but i inadvertently clicked on something, perhaps it was the ‘switch to beta blogger’ button and suddenly my blog went ballistic.

Its complexion suddenly looked sickly spotty, kind of like measles and i knew, i knew, i had done something stupid. Beta blogger had wiped out all of my customisations and replaced them with ye-standard-olde-template. The dots template, no less. FUCK FUCK FUCK.

I know it may not look like much, but i tinker with the HTML on this blog now and then, and am actually quite proud of what i’ve done! But beta blogger, all high and mighty with its Layout Page, where you can lazily drag and drop page layouts, came and Wiped. Me. Out. It boasts that the new layout ability would save bloggers time... and you know I’m not opposed to saving time, but the depth of what you can do with the layout page is so ridiculously limited.

I gave it a go, since I thought my blog was all but ruined *RUINED! GAH!!!* anyway, i may as well try out beta blogger. but I couldn’t do anything that i wanted. The xhtml was crippling, coding everything to the widget. So painfully stifling, even for a basic html’er like myself.

I was so frustrated. I knew it was salvageable – if i was prepared to start a template from scratch again. But i wasn't. and I wanted to cry. And yell (scratch), i mean email nasty obscenities to blogger, but not surprisingly it’s one of those services where the powers that be are hidden behind a cloak of cyber jumble, letters and numbers continuously dripping like the matrix, to protect these mother f*ckers who only provide FAQs, but no real avenue to vent our frustrations.

anyway, i seethed. And after a few deep breaths and a moment of clarity, turned to my very most trusted advisor, Google. It seemed I wasn’t the first to be conned by beta blogger. One click of a search button provided me with instructions on reverting to classic blogger, and with my fingers and toes crossed... i executed the command.

i closed my eyes...

... and refreshed my blog.

and opened my eyes.

Thank the almighty God of Google. My blog is back, just as it always was.

morning routine

this might cause some of you to puke, so beware.

every morning, panu gets up before me, and he heads into the kitchen to make himself breakfast (i eat mine at work, squeezing as much sleeping minutes into my morning as humanly possible). then a few, or ten or 30 minutes later, i wiggle myself out of bed, and with my eyes mostly closed, i trudge my way into the kitchen.

"hey stompy," he always says, because apparently I stomp in. He eats his breakfast sitting on a bar stool, and i waddle over and he gives me the best hug ever. It's the best because it's first thing in the morning, and we're both soft and warm. I nuzzle in his neck and I can smell fresh tea and toast and nuts and all the good stuff he's eating. and I damn near always fall asleep again.

at some stage, i pry myself away and trudge back to the shower... and the day begins.

how can i live without this for five weeks??

incidentally, i told him yesterday that i'd figured out why i'm so sad about going back to Sydney, when all rational reasoning points to the fact that i should be ecstatic. you wanna hear my theory?

it's because i like him more than i like Sydney. And we all know how much i loooooove Sydney. and i dont want to be there, if i can't have him there with me. soppy, right?

you puke yet?

homeward bound

so. i am homeward bound in a few days, homeward bound the to warm open arms of Australia, for five whole weeks. shouldn't i be completed elated? i should. i know i should. but somehow, i'm not. And if you think it's because i've sprouted a sudden connection with London, please go take your daily meds, i'm not quite that insane yet.

i'm feeling a certain breathless emptiness because... i'm embarrassed to even say this, but because i can't bear to be away from Panu for 5 entire weeks. Do you remember when we were in Sydney and he went away for one week? i died. well, almost. I counted days, hours and minutes and my heart skipped a beat whenever my phone rang... and now, i have to endure this for five times over.

but i do get to see my old friends again. and meet quite a number of new babies (they all seemed to pop into this world in the past 12 months). and two of my close friends from Melbourne are making special trips up just to see me... so I feel blessed... i do. I just have to get over my soppiness. and I will, I promise.

and a certain someone I am dying to see is my little mel, who turned the big three-oh today. Happy birthday, my lovely and I'm sorry I missed it by a mere handful of days. I will see you very soon.

our new home

two weeks ago, panu and i moved into our new place, our second flat in ye olde Londontown. the days leading up to the move were possibly the most infuriating of the days in my little life, and i did vaguely make reference to this. However, like all kinds of pains, time healed the wounds.

Having said that, 'twas lucky we are alive to enjoy the healing process. The morning of the move, we were greeted by our removalist, a cranky South African fella who was rather non-chalant about his drinking the previous night. Actually, slash. Make that his drinking until 6am on the day he drove us, with all of our precious belongings, from our old place to the new place. To say he reeked of alcohol so much that I was a little tipsy from the fumes would be like casually mentioning that "oh that Brad Pitt guy? yeh, he's just ok looking." Lucky the new place is literally a 5 minute drive down the street.

So we arrived, cleaned, unpacked and settled. The place is great, but not without the usual hiccups. The oven wasn't working, nor was the garbage disposal, and the tv antenna points still aren't. I've missed weeks of 90210 and Janice Dickson's Modelling Agency, god knows how ill-informed I must be now.

But all in all it's been a god-send. The recession has resulted in rental prices dropping significantly and we are renting this place for effectively £10 less a week. What a steal, considering the old place was a shoebox of a mold-infested hole, including Freddie Kruger living in the garage basement, free of charge. It was creepy.

Anyway, having been nagged for photos by the usual suspects, here are a few to squiz at. Don't be alarmed, you folk who live in gloriously big houses with expanse space and gardens. This is still a shoebox yes, but it's all we can afford living in the middle of Londontown.

all tech'd up!

Wow it's been 5 days since my last post? This week has passed in tedium, but at least it has flown. I can't believe it's Friday, but surely not unappreciating the fact. It's been one of those weeks where one day blurs into the next effortlessly, which again, is appreciated.

I know though that I've spent way more than my allocated weekly allowance this week. My week's shopping list looked a little like...

1. Bose iPod Dock ~ the music quality of our little apartment just improved by about two billion times (i exaggerate you not!). Assisted by the natural acoustics of being in the basement, with wood flooring throughout, i cannot even begin to express how awesome this system is.

2. Samsung NC10 netbook ~ oh yes people, netbook, not notebook. for those who aren't in the know, netbooks are the product of what would happen if two small notebooks got together and fornicated. these are baby tiny little laptops, mine's 10.2" and weighing in at only 1.3kgs. My new toy!

3. Sennheiser earphones ~ because my toxic ear sweat continuously destroys any ear phone that I have, I thought i'd invest in a good sturdy sports pair. Enter, Sennheiser. This purchase was a bummer though because my ears are so miniscule, they don't fit properly and fall off when I run. Back to the drawing board.

4. Pressies ~ pressies for friends and babies back home in Oz. This I can't elaborate on, because they read this exact blog... so... i can say that i am proud of the pressies though, gee I did a good job!

In other news, I am still morbidly in love with Edward Cullen (I know, even I'm getting sick of this obsession), and am reading New Moon. I dont want to ruin it for anyone else about to read it, but ok, there is just too much Jacob and not enough Edward! Come on!

Incidentally, I watched a few youtube clips of interviews with Robert Pattinson, who plays Edward Cullen in the movie. He does nothing for me at all. I really mean at all. In fact I found him somewhat irritating. He giggles! Edward broods. Give me the brooding vampire any day.

Guess that confirms that I should just head back to my early adolecense then and continue having a schoolgirl crush on a completely fictional character.

happy love day

Valentine’s day, a Hallmark day to rival any other. Rather, to stampede on all others. I was once told that florists make more money on Valentine’s day, just this one day, than on every other day of the year combined. I mean, is that just insane? For a completely made up day?

While I’m not a frothing-at-the-mouth anti-Vday lunatic, I do believe that the day was created to take advantage of those blindly in love, laying duty in men’s hearts and desire in women’s, so that gifts are given that day, plus flowers, plus chocolates, plus a prerequisite card. The blindness of love is a Godsend on this day, because without it, you would see that Hallmark had just yanked the biggest leg of all, pocketing billions upon billions, on this one day.

Having said all that, Valentine’s day does bring happiness to a significant number of people in this world, and no one will question that. Couples are loved up, and singles party on, on what is probably the easiest day of the year to spot fellow singles. So I don’t hate, not at all.

In fact I had a good ol’ time on the big V-day. Starting the day with a run at the gym (the nutter that I am), we spent the afternoon wandering around Borough Markets, nibbling on various exotic and organic goodies. Dinner was prime Argentinian steak, courtesy of Gaucho, and we spent the evening, romantically with 20,000 other Londoners at the O2, watching my absolute hands-down favourite, Russell Peters. I laughed til i was in pain... loving, loving not being at an overpriced candle-lit dinner, but instead being with my baby, both streaming tears of laughter.

I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day, whatever you did. To each his own, and to each, much love.

today...

Today is one of those days where I have a billion thoughts running through my head. Arbitrary, disconnected feelings, but all with enough intensity to propel me from of elated highs to muddled lows. Randomly...

• I finished a brief at work, completed exactly to the tee by the stakeholder’s requirements... and of course once presented, turns out it isn’t what they wanted at all.
  
• On the flip side, completed another brief, which was absolutely perfect.
  
• We managed to get discounted last minute tickets to Quidam, which I am ecstatic about.
  
• I’m battling my own formidable feelings of double-standardness.
  
• I’m not as trusting as I always thought I was. Jealousy rears its ugly head.
  
• I’m madly in love with Edward Cullen (as is every other female I’d imagine).
  
• .... and starting to feel sad about being away for a month (I know, I’m a softie).

it’s one of those days where I could open the floodgates and deep-and-meaningful anyone’s ear off. Philosophical, intense and lofty thoughts, all whisked up like fairy floss in my mind.

it may be war...

we've just moved apartments today... and because it takes up to 10 working days to shift our broadband over, Panu and I are using a wireless dongle in the mean time. One wireless dongle. We have to share the internet.

Brace yourselves...