Adventures in Sydney with The Lady Llama. Perfect day 1: Clothes. Zumbo. Photos.

My weekend was so fantastic I don't even know where to begin! I do know that being back to routine and reality is going to be hard this week, but I know I'll get through with thoughts that I'm truly loved and admired.

I flew to Sydney early Friday morning. I was exhausted from the event at work on Thursday, but I was so excited about my trip, it was like the day before Christmas! My flight was delayed and so I was placed on an earlier flight which was also delayed. Delayed flights mean free Foxtel, so I watched bogan rock on the music channel! Nothing like November Rain at 700 feet.

My flight got in at 9.10 am and I set off on the airport shuttle train to the city to meet my lovely blogger friend The Lady Llama for the first time. She greeted me with a handmade felt rose and a hug, and we didn't stop talking for five hours!

 

The taxi driver who took us to my hotel looked at me and told me I'm beautiful, twice. Wow. And at that moment, I knew it was going to be a great day - and I felt beautiful all weekend.

We were tourists, training, bussing and walking it. Ouch my feet. Us on the bus!

The Lady Llama is so so wonderful. She is stylish, super beautiful, and takes great photos. I had a wonderful day with her.

We went looking at clothes - I am going to dedicate a whole blog entry to this, but for now here are a few pictures for you.

 

 

She tried to convince me to buy this hat, but wearing the hat for this photo satisfied me.

I wondered whether ducky hat would go with this skirt?

We stopped in at the delicious Simon Johnson store in Pyrmont. I got excited at the fromagerie room, and vowed to make Fromagerie my middle name by deedpoll.

SO MUCH CHEESE! Cheese for the tasting.

 Cheese for the lusting.

And cheese for simultaneous photographing.

 Simon Johnson is a foodie heaven.

 So many bottles and jars of gourmet goodness.

Our mission, however, was to find another foodie heaven. Not the pharmacy, they only sell jellybeans and meal replacement bars.

It didn't matter if we only had dessert for a meal at dessert king Adriano Zumbo. In theory. Only, after walking about three kilometres, we discovered the cafe version of Zumbo had gone from Balmain, and we had to make do with the hole in the wall patisserie version.

So we did have a meal before Zumbo. I had the brunch that transcends cities - or my limited brunching palate when approaching new and not very notable cafes - salmon, avocado and scrambled eggs. It was good.

Back to Zumbo after a proper meal. We saw this dog with a rugby top on. I patted him. His name is Junior. He was bogan, like his owner. I mean that in a nice way - I have a thing for bogan males.

Zumbo was like Wonka. So many delightful desserts...

 With whimsical names...

 And suggestive names...

And intricate designs.

The myriad of choice was marred by knowing that we had to eat our dessert in gazebo type arrangement.

I love that photo The Lady Llama took. We sat next to the man in the foreground. He showed us some pictures of penguins in the newspaper he read.

So bearing in mind our dining arrangements, I got something simple to eat then, and take away.

I got the milo milkshake cake thingy, and four macarons - blueberry mudcake, rice pudding and mango. I ate a rice pudding one on Friday. It tasted exactly like rice pudding. I could eat a million. I am saving the rest for after work treats.

The milo thingy on the other hand, made me feel like I had food regret. It was delicious, but I wish I had have gotten the corn on the cob dessert.

Still, I ate my dessert and enjoyed it. There are layers of thick dark chocolate discs, cake, mousse, chocolate slivers, milo powder, and milky milo. Yum!

Thank you so much to The Lady Llama for taking the pictures, some that you see here, and blogging about our day out. It was so much fun! I've definitely made a friend for life.

 ♥♥♥

When the shit hits the fan...

I'm learning the art of resilience and coping without retail therapy.

Shit's hit the fan. Not a major poo explosion. But the past seven-eight days have been quite craptacular.

I've realised that when you're somewhat successful, it can be a long way to fall. Thud.

I've had some pretty yucky days professionally, soreness and some more heartbreak. Craptacular.

The heartbreak hasn't sunk in. I feel numb, angry, hurt, still loving and forgiving, and that I should have known better. It's all so final. Maybe. It's all so up in the air, indecisive. It's just like Jebediah's Harpoon: 'There is no use pretending that there's hope for you and me'. I've been told reminded there's no hope in one form of 'us', and I've been ok with that for some time now. But I can't see hope for us even to stay friends. And that's what hurts the most.

I guess all I can do is smile, keep going knowing that things will get better. And that I got lots of good people going into bat for me. Thank you.

And this no shopping caper in the midst of life and other crises is proving difficult. I still haven't bought clothes, shoes, music, accessories or fun stuff. I've been sticking to the remix challenge, except for Wednesday when I was sick and spent most of my day on the couch in my pyjamas.When I went to the doctor, I wore grey and black. As neutral as Switzerland.

Here's what I wore yesterday. Remixing it, 30 for 30 style.

My favourite Sportsgirl linen blazer, green Temt top, Valleygirl skirt, Diana Ferrari shoes, Yeojin Bae for Target belt, Mimco headband, Wiyomu necklace and Diva ring and bangle.

I love the hot pink background too!

Last night I watched the Adriano Zumbo macaron documentary on SBS. There is a great blog about the patisserie too. It was amazing! There were 63 different macaron flavours made. Bubblegum macaron. Salt and vinegar macaron. Hamburger macaron. Chocolate jumbo macaron. Pig's blood macaron. Errrr....

(source)

Zumbo is like Willy Wonka. And Wonka is one of my heroes. I need to visit Zumbo when I am in Sydney in March!

To compensate for no shopping, I had a carb and fat laden dessert (after a vegie and steak meal).

Stove top rice pudding. Nigella's recipe. One of the first things I began to cook when I moved out of home.

 Only the best ingredients were used. Including one of my favourite and rarely consumed fruits, a fig.

And that's why I don't give a fuck about the calories.