Far North Queensland

It's hot, very hot. It's also very humid. I heard someone say today "you can drink the air" as we climbed down the stairs from our Qantas 767 when it arrived at the terminal in Cairns. I feel wet and I haven't ventured anywhere near a pool.

It's strange to fly in the same longitude in your own country and have the time go back an hour - but such is Queensland - a daylight savings non-believer. And the day is still young. So it's 11.30am and we're climbing into our black Astra hatchback. Why on earth do they have so many black cars up here? The rental carparks are filled with them. Surely they know that black absorbs heat, not something one needs to conserve up here. Thank god for air conditioning I say.

We head to Pool , yes that's the name of the place we're staying at, in Port Douglas about an hour north, and it is just like in the photos. When we jump in the mammoth pool though it's not quite the refreshment we're looking for - at above 31 degrees the water feels like a bath, so laps are attempted but it's futile. We splash about though and in the end feel cooler and it is feeling like a holiday after all. I collapse on the lounge afterwards having slept about 3 hours last night at work, and then head out to Zinc for an alfresco dinner featuring barramundi as main. The food is sensational, and when we leave despite declining dessert we feel overstuffed, or is it just the humidity?

There were no storms that they predicted - and I'm wondering what's in store for us tomorrow.

Ecstasy

In contrast to the week before it, the weekend was positively fantastic. I'm typically a gregarious person; there's nothing more that I love than catching up with friends and spending time. Some connections were by pure chance, some arranged well in advance and others much closer to the moment, but a collection of different people shared food, drinks, watched movies, walked swam or ran, discussed life the universe & braved the quite stormy elements with me this weekend. I've eaten some truly amazing food - highlights are the Tapas selection at diggies, the flourless chocolate cake at Fireworks cafe in Austinmer (honestly the best cake ever), the hot chocolate at Bourke Street Bakery, and the lamb strips at Onde. But the connection with all is they were meals and experiences shared. Perfect. 

I also managed to find a new pair of speedos that I like, and I managed to test them out in a brief moment of sunshine at Boy Charlton pool. They swim fast.

I'm very much looking forward to the week ahead. Who knows what will be thrown at me this week, but I'm recharged and ready for it!

Wild-Bake Wednesday

I've baked rusks again, of the South African variety, with a recipe courtesy of Martin at The Green Light at the End of the Dock - they're starting their overnight journey in the oven. I want to eat one now, they're highly addictive, but I'll have to wait until the morning. This is batch number 3 in as many weeks, and after the first batch I have modified the recipe each time. (Prior to this baking frenzy the last time I'd baked anything sweet was like a year ago.) Here is a photo of batch 1. This new lot will have more nuts added in various forms, gotta love nuts.

Through the night we're going to smell the continuing baking process this Wild-Bake Wednesday, and I'm going to wake up hungry.

So what's the Wild Wednesday challenge? I'm glad you asked. It's to hit the kitchen and bake something special. I think all around the world we're focussed on the election in The States, so your work in the kitchen will hopefully result in something to celebrate with. Failing that - some consolatory baked goods can't hurt. My next favourite thing to bake is banana & chocolate cake (the chocolate is in bits / chunks). It's a great one to share. 

Oh and Martin - if you're keen to share the rusk recipe - feel free to post it in the comments, but given it's your family recipe, I'm going to leave that to you.

Change of plans

What do you do when you find yourself at the end of a cancelled dinner party invitation on a Saturday night? You take other guests who are also left hanging and go do a progressive dinner, at various eateries, why limit it to just one?

So at 6.30pm on Saturday we find ourselves at Longrain in Surry Hills, Sydney. The last time I was here was a few years ago, but the wait was so long that we disappeared off somewhere else. Hunger wins. Tonight though we are greeted by a well dressed woman who opens the door and sends us in the direction of the restaurant NOT the bar. We're seated at the very long table (it's a trademark of Longrain) where we're fitted in between other diners. The ambience is great though it's a little loud and hearing my fellow diners opposite me at the table is, at times, a lip reading experience. The food is delicious, upmarket Thai - we go straight to mains - and there's little left on our shared plates when a very loud Englishman sits down beside me. He's not loud to me but my fellow diners sitting opposite can't hear themselves think, so we decide it's time to head out - the desserts look great but not tonight dear, we're getting a headache.

Next stop is IVY - the new watering hole with various restaurants and bars on multiple open air levels. It's quite glam, though if it's called IVY can they please have real ivy on the columns? There is more security than cute men, but the main guy - we'll call him the concierge - is drop dead gorgeous. He makes our brief visit here worth it, but they're not serving dessert unless you order the whole set  menu - so we leave. 

We wander towards Circular Quay and head up to Cafe Sydney. I give ourselves a 40% chance of getting a table the others are more optimistic ranging from 62% to 94%, and while we're initially offered the low low bar area where my knees rest at eye level, we're rapidly whisked away to a table on the deck which overlooks the finest Sydney Harbour has to offer (you get an idea in the link). We sit back, relax and enjoy the ambience that is unbeatable. It really is one of my favourite spaces anywhere in the world and we spend hours chatting away with the only distraction our waitress who calls our bill some kind of account, pours water like it's a bad child who needs to be disciplined and otherwise makes us pause conversation for fear of laughing. I really could have stayed on, the combination of conversation and ambience intoxicating - but at midnight we agree to move on. 

We decide we're going to do it again - next time with entree, main and dessert each at different locations. Already contemplating potential venues, I can hardly wait.