Helen – Page 50 – helenthura.com

November 13, 2008November 13, 2008

A new baby

Tonight, my favourite store in Brisbane had it’s once yearly 20% off sale for newsletter subscribers. Since Taste open a few years ago, I have often popped in when driving past for a quick browse.

I arrived shortly before 1730 and managed to pop into the shop for about a minute before the closed the doors, myself and another lady had just enough time to confirm what colour KitchenAids were in stock and how many they had (seven and only one of each colour). When we were back outside we quickly formed a little posse at the door with two other ladies who were also in the KitchenAid quest. They were number 1 and 2 in the line, I was number 3 and the other lady was number 4. We started discussing colours and it turned out that lady number 1 and I both wanted Apple Green and number 2 and number 4 both wanted the Imperial Gray. Very democratically I decided that I would get the Ice Blue as that was my 2nd colour pref from what they had in stock (I had wanted Gloss Cinnamon, Tangerine or Yellow but there was none in stock). Number 4 decided she would get Empire Red. Once that was settled we then roped into our posse two other ladies, one who had bought her KitchenAid (Almond) a few months ago and the other who was also in the quest, her first preference was the Empire Red but she quickly settled on the Willow Blue as that would match her Le Creuset.

When they opened the doors, the five of us quickly made our way over to the table where the holy grail was and grabbed our new babies. We then made our way over to the counter where Jodie (the lovely owner) commented on how it was great to see that we had worked as a little team to get what we wanted. As we were walking through the shop some of the other Taste employees made comments as well about our little team forming to get our common goal.

The 20% off made the price very attractive! Taste retails them at $699 and you can get them from the online site round the $630 mark. The 20% off took it to just under $560.

Here is my baby (well my second baby as my first baby is my 5D)

My other purchase was a Le Creuset Multifunction Set in Cobalt Blue. I remember the first time I saw the multifunction mentioned on a blog, I thought “that is a very cool idea” over the last year or so I have danced my fingers over them as I have seen them at various places. Tonight I picked up my own 🙂 I had been tossing up between getting a 20cm Le Creuset French Oven as there are times when I find my 24cm too big but since the multifunction set is about the same size and it gives me a saucepan and frypan that works as a lid, I decided that this year that was a better buy. ‘

I’m so excited! I can’t wait to use my new kitchen goodies.

November 12, 2008

Lush

Some of you will know that over the last couple of months I have become a bit of a fan of Lush, in fact just about everything I use in the skin/shower line is Lush. My face is the clearest it has ever been thanks to Herbalism, my hair is a lot more controllable thanks to Godiva and Jungle. I have even found a moisturiser that doesn’t leave my skin feeling really gluggy thanks to Enzymion.

Tonight the stores launched the Christmas goodies with a VIP night so I popped along to the Brisbane store on the mall for my first ever Lush VIP night. We were all given cute little sample bags when we walked in filled with assorted samples and then I won a Marzibain bubble bar and a piece of Snowcake soap. I also picked up some goodies I had been wanting, chatted to a few people, had a good laugh and am very much looking forward to going to another VIP night.

November 11, 2008

Vidya and Abhi, continued

A little later than I expected to post these photos but better late than never. As per usual I pulled out the trusty assistant cap for Vidya and Abhi’s wedding with Tim at the start of the month. The wedding/reception/celebration took place at a new function venue run by the Logan City Council on Clarks Rd, we then moved on to UQ where Vidya and Abhi’s relationship blossomed. Here is a selection of my photos, I still smile when I think about all that colour!

You can have a look at the rest of the photos in this set on Flickr

November 10, 2008

food dreams

On Saturday when I went to visit Amanda and Madi they were just finishing lunch, it was chicken with salad. I eyed it off with desire. I had an avocado for lunch. It’s not that I don’t like having braces, I do because it means the end is near but it also means that all the things I like eating are off the menu for the current time.
The other day for breakfast all I could think about was how much I would love some poached eggs on toasted sour dough with mushrooms and tomatoes and a tiny side salad of rocket and mizuna. Of that combo I could eat the poached eggs and the mushrooms and the tomatoes, couldn’t eat the toast unless it was french toast and short of swallowing the salad I can’t see that going down my trap. Instead I had some french toast.

We had prawns for lunch for three days at work last week as the Woolies beside where we work had them cheap and they are soo easy to “throw on the sandwich press”. I will admit that they were hard to eat and mainly involved cutting them up in to small enough pieces that I could swallow them. As the days have heated up and the humidity is kicking in I just couldn’t say no to prawns and with all the family coming home for Christmas I can see us eating many many many kilos of prawns.

I made another soup last night for dinner which was quite tasty a mix of green and yellow lentils with sweet potato and capsicum but oh I would like a piece of grilled chicken with salad. I’m hoping that this week I might start making some light stir fries and see how they go.

My mouth is still saw, biting into anything is painful and now I have a tooth ache to add to the haul as well. gah!

November 9, 2008November 11, 2008

Good Food and Wine Show

Today I went to the show and oh what a day it was.

Number 1. Ben O’Donoghue has moved to Brisbane and will be opening a restaurant sometime next year, currently looking for a location. Let me repeat that. Ben O’Donoghue now lives in Brisbane (though he is south sider ….) and will be opening his own place next year. Helen excited much?

Number 2. Matt Moran will open his new restaurant at Eagle St Pier in the Pier 9 space next March. Note to self, could be very very good.

Number 3. Helen somehow managed to win not one but two give aways at the cooking theatre. I won a I.O. Shen 21cm Cooks knife in the Alister Mcleod session and then I won a bottle of heavenly Kailis Extra Virgin Olive Oil during the Ben O’Donoghue session.

Number 4. Dairy, Chocolate and other dry groceries are the things that ended up in my bag. I was also so impressed with the Kailis EVOO that after some serious tasting I picked up a bottle of their Dolce oil which is infused with Blood Oranges – so so yummy, I could just about inhale that stuff.

Number 5. I picked up some PAMA Pomegranate Liqueur. Quite tasty

Number 6. I now have a pair of Crocs – Black Prima ballet shoes. I was looking at the strappy sandals but then I tried on the Primas and I can see them getting a work out at Woodford this year.

Number 7. I ran into a handful of people I know which was great.

Number 8. Tasted lots of yummy things, some not so yummy things, would have liked to have tasted a whole lot more but I still don’t have that whole biting/chewing hard things going with the braces yet.

Number 9. I wished that Karl was already here so he could have come and tasted the various beers/wines and picked the good ones.

Number 10. I did enjoy the show more last year – there were a few producers missing this year which was a bummer – no Zone Fresh stand, no Gympie Goats Cheese, no Curtis Stone….

November 8, 2008

Photos with a little girl

I spent a little time this arvo taking some photos of Madi, who is the daughter of Amanda, one of the girls I work with. From day 1 at work, outside of the Medical girls, Amanda has probably been one of the people I have had the most to do with. So the other week I got a call from Ms Manda asking me if I could take some photos of Madi, I just couldn’t say no could I? We spent a little time taking photos by the pool before Madi decided she would much rather be in the pool. A change of clothes later and little drive down the road we arrived a gorgeous little tract of parkland that I had eyed off on they way over for a few photos, a little searching for lady beetles and a photo or two more.

And a last one to share, Mama and Bubba together.