Books for the coffee table should have more pictures and less words. Recent purchases.

Some recent books I purchased for my coffee table. I love Amazon.com

I got "Postcard from the Boys" by Ringo Starr (another Beatles book. I am a huge fan. Well...obsessed actually) and "The Sartorialist" by photographer Scott Schuman (the photographs are from his awesome blog: http://www.thesartorialist.blogspot.com)/ I love his blog but having his work compiled in a book is brilliant.

The front has a hologram and when you move the book up and down it "magically" could morph into Ringo's face or an old picture of Paul, George and John.

Ringo was a brilliant drummer but "technically" not good (I know that sounded reduntant). What I meant was that being a left handed drummer playing on a right handed kit made it difficult for him to do all the fancy things like drum rolls (he couldn't do them). But he is arguably one of the greatest and most influential drummers in history. Because Paul was a perfectionist (and sort of bossy), there were many Beatles songs where he played the drums and not Ringo. When Ringo quit for awhile, the boys wanted him back and sent him flowers and telegrams. Paul sent this postcard (I love the postcard pic on the left) which said, "You are the greatest drummer in the world. Really."

I've had a crush on Paul McCartney since I was in the first grade but didn't know he was such a prima donna until I watched Anthology. This was his attempt at an apology for causing some arguments. I actually saw a clip of him and George having a little tiff. Paul was very disagreeable.

This postcard was written by John right before the court case against Paul for the disolution of the Beatles. It says; "Who'd have thought it would come to this.... Love John and Yoko". How sad that it ended but what I found fantastic was that even after they broke up, they still sent each other postcards. I love The Beatles.

There were other postcards from around the world which were great but the above 3 are the ones I find interesting. Absolutely one of my favourite book purchases.

 

I picked this up at Borders (and then got it at Amazon.com because it was 70% cheaper) and it was great with a coffee and a muffin. I am not fashionista and I wish I could throw together the most incredible fashion ensemble like the people in the photographs. Scott Schuman finds really fashionable (and random) people from cities like Milano, New York and Paris and takes photographs of them on the street. He captures the most wonderful shots and below are just some random pages from the book. His blog is famous and is always updated: http://www.thesartorialist.blogspot.com/

The above picture is the photographer Scott Schuman. He is so handsome....

I think that I was Lebanese in another life.

Had to end my days of freedom with a Big Bang (of food) seeing that I have to go back to work tommorrow. I ended my school year of 2010 at Jasmin 1 five weeks ago and this is how I begin another stressful year.

A little sad but we we love Lebanese cuisine!

You start by eating the pickled stuff. I love pickles.

This is called Kebbeh Nayeh: Ground lamb (Raw) with cracked wheat, some spices and drizzled with olive oil.. You grab some Lebanese bread and pinch some meat inside and eat. It's delicious.

Fried Kebbeh: Ground lamb with pinenuts on the inside of these meat bullet-looking shells. This is AWESOME!! But my friend Rania does it better. YUM!!!!

Mixed plate: Lebanese sausage, lamb shish, grilled chicken, kebbeh, falafel, baba ghanoush, hummous and tabouli (sorry for the spelling mistakes). Absolutely incredible.

Grilled chicken with garlic sauce- seriously good food.

Ok...Eric and I are piggies and we were so full!

But there was still room for more: Dessert hahaha.

There was a Lebanese sweet shop next door called "Sweet City". I think I know what heaven must smell like because that shop was absolutely imcredible. The best baklava I have ever eaten comes from this shop.

I love Lebanese food.

Happy Australia Day!

I am so blessed to have grown up in a country that has provided me and my family all the opportunities in life.

Yesterday, I decided to suprise Eric at work on a beautiful summer day in Sydney. The sky was blue and the Royal  Botanic Garden was magnificent. It was a relaxing day walking around the gardens. Sometimes we take for granted the beauty that is just in our backyard.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge with the beautiful Australian blue sky in the background.

It was pretty hot that day so on my way to the Opera House and the Botanic gardens, I had to stop by my favourite icecream place. And while the icecream company itself is American (which isn't consistent with the Australian theme of this entry haha) I've been craving this all holiday.

My favourite icecream from Baskin Robbins: Chocolate mousse royale on top of cookies and cream. I've been wanting to eat this for a long time and I savoured every moment licking this. I had to eat fast because it was hot and the icecream was melting. But it was perfect for the long walk ahead in the sweltering heat (thank goodness for the cool breeze though).

The Sydney Opera House:  I am always amazed by the beauty of this landmark. Didn't have time to climb the stairs though. I wanted to walk through the Royal Botanic Gardens and relax for a bit.

My parents used to always take us here as kids and I remember coming here for school excursions and feeding the ducks and eels. As I was walking on the paths a jogger would pass. It made me feel so unfit hahaha. But it was nice to take a leisurely stroll and stop to look at the ponds and the ducks. I often forget that beautiful places exist in Sydney.

Dorothy and Robert

Soulmates Forever

I decided to rest on this bench in the shade and observe what was around me. I love the incription: "Soulmates Forever". It made me wonder: Who were Dorothy and Robert? Are they still alive? Did Dorothy die and then Robert in his grief decided to donate this bench? Or was it the other way around?  Either way, they must have loved each other very much.

I then reached the part of the gardens where I had the view of the Harbour Bridge right behind the Opera House. It must have been an amazing view during the New Year fireworks.

I am thankful that I live in Australia. And although I have had a love/hate relationship with the country, it is home, it is beautiful, it is safe and warm. I have grown up in a place where I have had the freedom to express myself. I have achieved all of my life's goals because this country has provided me the opportunities that I may not have had, had I lived in the Philippines. I speak with my Aussie (well...bogan according to some haha) accent with pride. And while Australia may not be perfect (nothing is), it is pretty close in comparison to most places in the world.

Happy Australia Day to all Australians here and abroad. While some countries boast that theirs is the best in the world, I say with as much patriotism as I can muster (without being too corny or lame...both of which I am haha) ;  'Cheers to the best freakn' country in the world!'.



A random conversation with a handsome stranger.

My friend and I were the only people in a coffee place at Rouse Hill when a man walked in and sat across from the both of us on my left. As we were conversing on anything and everything (as friends do) in my peripheral vision I could see that we were being observed by the stranger across from us. I could sense that he wanted to particpate in our conversation. I had to shake the feeling that someone was eavesdropping. While pretending to read the paper he noticed that the both of us were laughing. All of a sudden, this young man approached us and asked,

"Excuse me ladies, I was wondering if you were both Indonesian?"

I laughed and told him that we were Filipino and without hesitation, he grabbed his chair and without even asking if he could join us, sat himself  between my friend and I.

"I thought you could have been Filipino" he said looking at me. He then looked over to my friend on his left and said, "but I definitely thought you were Indonesian".

With a bright smile he started talking to us about his trip to Indonesia the year before. He had lived in the southern part for 3 months and he loved the people and the culture. He sighed and said, "I wish I were younger though, I'd travel to more places in South East Asia. Vietnam will be my next stop". He asked what the Philippines was like and I told him the best places to vist and what to watch out for in a country infused with various cultures. It was interesting that he actually knew a lot about South East Asia. I asked him why he was so keen on South East Asia and with a smile he said,

"Because it's the complete opposite to Australia. I have lived in Windsor all of my life and grew up in a predominantly 'Anglo- Australian' town. I never really got to mix with any other race except for Australians or Lebanese since I'm a mixture of both. I love that they built this new complex, I see so many different people from different cultures it's great. I know that Sydney is multicultural but I never got to really experience it till now."

I still find it funny that pockets of suburbs in Sydney are not multicultural. Just like me, this stranger had observed that while Australia promotes itself as being a multicultural country, it was very much far from the truth. While Sydney and Melbourne (2 of the largest cities in Australia) are quite multicultural, most of Australia isn't.  I grew up in the inner suburbs near the city and then moved to the western suburbs so I grew up in a multicultural environment. But this is not experienced by most Australians (like this stranger who grew up in a small Sydney suburb).

So this very handsome man spoke to us for an hour discussing his travels and we debated about politics and our perceptions of other cultures. He told us about his life and his work and his relationships. My friend and I had been in the coffee shop for longer than we had anticipated and I had instinctively grabbed my keys from my bag. Sensing that we had to leave, the man smiled and stood up. He nodded and with sincerity he said,

"Thank you for the lovely chat, I really hope to bump into you here again sometime."

We stood up, said our goodbyes and went our seperate ways.

As my friend and I chatted about what had happened in the coffee shop, I stopped and realised that we had not introduced ourselves. We didn't know his name and he didn't know ours.

In the end I thought that it was really nice to talk to someone new. It was nice that we didn't know his name and that he didn't know ours. It was interesting that we knew a lot about a person whose name we didn't know. I don't think I could ever have the confidence to seat myself between two complete strangers and talk about anything. Eric always makes fun of the fact that I am so terrible at small talk.

And while I enjoyed spending time with my lovely friend, it was wonderful to have a random conversation with a handsome stranger.

Weirdness...

I am not really looking forward to going back to work in a couple of weeks. The holidays have been fantastic and I have taken advantage of the time off with a well deserved rest before the stress of the new school year. Living so far from the school that I work has had its definite advantages. One being that I never see any of my students. It's a very rare occurence when I actually bump into one. So today, after having a late lunch with Eric I saw a student with his girlfriend (I also happen to be his year adviser). I always pretend to never see them. I find it awkward. So I just walked pass and pretended that I didn't see him. If they come up and say hi it's another thing but I don't ever really want to initiate a conversation. There are definite boundaries being a teacher. The boys take so much out of me at school that outside of school I really don't want anything to do with them. School is a major part of my life but it isn't my whole life. And don't get me wrong. I do care about what happens to my students outside of school but on a social level? No way Jose. I remember after the graduation of my first group of Year 12 students, one of my students asked to join him and some mates for a beer at the pub. I couldn't help but laugh and politely declined. His response was, "But Miss, you're no longer our teacher, we can be mates now."  My response was that I could never ever see any of the boys as "mates" but always as my students.  Throughout my teaching career I have bumped into many students (one time during my sister's hen's night when I bumped into 2 students who I taught in the 9th grade) and I always find it weird and awkward. But I have a life and they have to get over it too. Sometimes students tend to forget that teachers are not just teachers but they're people with lives and their own set of problems etc. But it can be pleasant too seeing ex students and how much they've grown up and to find out what they are doing in their life and careers. One week to go and then I am back in the classroom. Not looking forward to programming or marking....... but at least there's never a dull moment at work.

Post Christmas stuff... some of my favourite purchases from the many I bought.

I think that I did a little too much shopping this holiday. It was rather tempting right after Christmas when everything was so cheap. So I'm going to post my favourite purchases.

I love accessories. In particular, jewellery. I am always buying accessories when I can and I have a bad habit of losing whatever I buy eventually. I have an excess amount of it and it drives Eric nuts because I put them anywhere and everywhere in the house. I bought myself these weird cat earrings. I am not a cat person. I don't hate cats or anything like that. I just like dogs better. I got these earrings for $5. I just thought the shape was really pretty and I liked the fact that the cat didn't look corny or cartoon-y.

It went well with the pretty printed top that I got from Mango in the city which was 50% off (I bought 3 tops and was going to get a dress but didn't have time). I like the frill because it just makes the top look so girly. I also love the print. How pretty is the face on the shirt? I'm not really into printed tees but I like this one. PS: My fly is not undone haha.

I needed a strong leather bag to use at work and because my black Guess wallet was falling  apart, I needed a new leather wallet. Preferably black for both. So there was an awesome sale at Oroton in Birkenhead Point.

Really pretty and a huge markdown. I got this wallet for less than a hundred dollars.

Really nice, simple black leather Satchel which I will use for work. I got this for $200. Original price was $500.

I also bought many more tops and shirts, a lot of pants and shorts, some shoes and sandles and more dressy jewellery. I also purchased some books that I found interesting to put under the coffee table. I love post christmas sales. Everything is so cheap but it leads to one thing: Bankruptcy hahaha. And on a teacher's salary it isn't very wise to overspend. But, I thought I needed treat myself which I do every once in awhile. I could post more 'stuff' but the ones above are my favourite because of the HUGE markdown and because I think they're pretty.

First blog post- Happy 2011 all!

I decided to start this year fresh with a new blog (seeing that I have not written in my previous 3 blogs in a long time) which will be personal and at times superficial (much like myself hahah).

I spent the eve of the new year in Sydney and for the first time I decided to suck it up and brave the 2 million people who gathered in Sydney Harbour and watch the fireworks live. Sydney is reputed to have the best in the world. It was definitely packed and the crowds irritated me a little but overall it was a great night to celebrate a new beginning.

My wonderful husband and I decided to eat first before heading to the harbour where his cousin, sisters and niece were waiting for us. So we stopped by a litte cafe in Wynard Station called "Wynstop" which was completely empty probably because people were trying to find a spot near the harbour.

Eric bought a chicken and bacon burger and I bought a chicken foccacia.

We picked up Eric's mum and went to the spot where his cousin and sisters were waiting and we were confronted by a huge crowd. It was incredibly difficult to find his family.

The spot we got was fantastic but the problem was this guy's butt was in my face and I was really praying and hoping that he wouldn't fart.



We had the Sydney Harbour Bridge right in front of us and a brilliant view of the Sydney Opera House on the other side. It was great being close to all of the action but I think the best view would have been at the Botanical Gardens where you could see it all at the same time. We couldn't see what was happening in the Opera House if we were focused on what was happening on the bridge so we had to do a lot of head turning. It was awesome being close nonetheless.

Sydney totally lived up to its reputation as being the best in the world

The crowds were overexcited and drunk and it took forever to get to Eric's cousin's apartment which was only 8 minutes away. I'm glad I did this but I don't think I will do it again anytime soon. All in all a great beginning to the new year.