Saturday: sausageless, self-gifting and superfoods

It was election day today. State election in Victoria. To be honest, I couldn't care about the outcome (Brumby or Ballieu, and a friend of mine is running in the Sex Party). (I don't think having sex is an activity needed to run the state or country, however. But members may have sex to celebrate/commiserate the outcome (pun!) of election day.) (I have a Sex Party sticker on my TV table, come to think of it.)

All I cared about today was getting a sausage. Remember the Federal election day? Sausages were abundant, even when I'd already voted during the week. And I even forgave the apostrophe misuse on this clever sign at my local primary school.

Today there were no sausages for the state.

I was eager to get a sausage. My Facebook updates prove it:
Approx 7.15 am: What time do the Victorian polling booths open? I want a sausage.

And then disappointment:
Approx 8.30 am: What sort of democracy is this? No sausages at the polling booths.

Apparently I was too early for sausages. It's never too early for a sausage. But I wasn't in Melbourne during the day to get a sausage. And I missed out.

Friends provided Facebook updates about the state of the sausages (excuse the pun). A few missed out, including an election official - 'what does that say about the state of the state?' is an excellent summary from a friend about this sausageless election day. I got an election tip: 'My boyfriend says you should move to a marginal seat if you want snags, and a really marginal one if you don't want to pay for them...' - I don't know what marginal means, but if it means getting a sausage, then HELL to the YEAH!

In other election news (and don't I feel stupid writing about the election when I am so uninformed and disinterested?), I received this pamphlet from the man himself on Thursday:

Justin Madden is my local member and was at my train station. He used to be a footballer. (I had a bit of a fan girl moment, for just a second, and on the inside. Strange, because I hate football? And don't care for the election. Perhaps I go 'fan girl' over any 'celebrity'?)

People can be ANYTHING (they aspire to?) these days. Serious career changes are made. Footballers and musicians (Peter Garrett) become politicians. Meanwhile, Shane Warne, former Australian cricketer and former crush of mine, pre text messaging, becomes a creator of a McDonalds burger.

(source - or should that be sauce?)

I mentioned I wasn't in Melbourne today. I took a day trip to Bendigo to see my friend Danielle, her husband and their cute three month old baby girl. It was lovely meeting and cuddling her baby - I am better with kids than I imagined! On my way home I called in at Bob Boutique, my favourite Bendigo store. The owner remembered me and my love of pandas.

I did some self-gifting (a term coined by Faux Fuschia) at Bob. It is filled with delightfully cute things. As I said to the owner, I always marvel at my ability to buy so many things in such a small amount of time (I made my choices in, say 10 minutes?!?).

I bought four things - the one with the Christmas wrap is a present for my Aunty in the UK.

Here is a panda stamp.

And another panda spoon.

And a wombat and koala writing set - I adore stationery and also love wombats.

I am supposed to be seeing a band tonight. But the band comes on at 11.20pm. I can't stay up that long! On account of the scheduled time of performance, my hayfever, a long drive today, and feeling a bit sore, I am not going. Sorry, The John Steele Singers. You make nice music and I know you're on the cusp of greatness. And I know I've vowed to see bands before they get astronomical (regretful I was too sick to see Megan Washington back in September and now she's stomping the music scene like nobody's business), but you're just on too late for Nanna Carly. I need a matinee show.

Instead, I stayed in and had a very healthy dinner of superfoods.

Raw salmon (I prefer it raw).

My salad was inspired by Apples under my Bed - but I hate broad beans so I used kale, spinach and asparagus, topped with mango and and feta.

Fresh sardines - more oily fish - great for my skin!

Look how cheap they were! 73 cents for five! Less money than a tin of sardines, and better for you!

Right now I am sort of watching Stardust on TV. I like the idea of it - fallen stars, fairytale romance, but...it's a bit too much fantasty genre for me. Claire Danes looks exactly as beautiful and delicate as she did in Romeo and Juliet, except in Stardust she wears silver.

(source)

(source)

I am soon going to drink pink wine and read magazines. Again, apologies to The John Steele Singers (but you still get my ticket profit, right??).

I wonder how Good Weekend will be without my favourite columnist Maggie Alderson?

Penguins and pandas. Cute and functional

Can you believe it's a Saturday night and I'm in bed at 7.30 pm! Party central at Chez Carly. I am very tired after a lengthy drive to Bendigo and back. It was a windy, rainy day and the drive required much concentration. My trusty iPod played all the right music though - very pleased!

I visited my lovely friend Danielle and her husband and their dog. Danielle is due to have a baby soon, and it was very exciting seeing the nursery and the cute things she has made. Danielle is a very talented artist and designer! We had a leisurely catch up at a cafe - we haven't seen each other for a while, so this time spent together was nice.

Here is what we ate for lunch at Green Olive Cafe.

Danielle had French onion soup and ciabatta bread. The thing floating in it is cheesy bread. She said it was beautiful and filling.

She also had a juice.

I had a smoothie full of raspberries, blueberries and strawberries. I needed something healthy after the wrath of Friday night drinks and junk food.

I love all day breakfasts. I had a veggie breakfast with grilled tomato, garlic mushrooms, scrambled eggs, potato rosti and a side of salmon. It was great. Especially the rosti. A nice alternative to hashbrowns.

Given lunch was at 12.00 pm and I had not eaten since the wrath of Friday night drinks with colleagues including the fabulous Jentopia (hello deep fried samosas and spring rolls, party pies, chips and dips, plus the sausage roll I had beforehand!) I was famished. This meal was well deserved.

After a long walk around the shops in Bendigo, braving the icy weather, we found that the cafe that sold Fraus chocolate had closed for the day, so I decided to make some real hot chocolate at Danielle's house.

Here it is on the stove. There may or may not be two blocks of Cadbury's in this milk.

It was so rich. So delicious!

Mandatory marshmallows.

Danielle's husband said I can be a guest chef anytime!

This is what I wore. It was quite warm in Melbourne when I left home at 8.15 am. It was considerably colder in Bendigo.

Merino cardi and sparkly top from Portmans, grey dress from Sportsgirl (oil marks care of Vaseline), leggings from Kmart, boots from Tony Bianco, necklace from Wiyomu via Etsy via Polly for Kris Kringle, brooch that used to be a necklace from Henty Field Days (glued by me) and handmade beanie from Salamanca market in Tasmania (it's a year today since I bought the hat!). I actually have two more tops on underneath - rugged up snuggly!

Aside from the theme of friendship in this blog entry (Dan and I have been friends for 10 years this year, and though there are some years between us, we get on as though we are contemporaries - apart when we don't know the music from each other's era!) shopping is very important. You may be wondering what I bought. Bendigo has some nice boutique stores - we browsed homeware and baby stores. It was nice. These stores reminded me a lot of Hobart's (how I miss Hobart!).

My favourite store in Bendigo was Bob Boutique. I could have bought almost everything in this store. Everything is so cute and luxurious. I wanted the stamps and the brooches and the necklaces and the stationery...lucky they have an online store...

I bought this penguin mug-jug. It can be a mug and can be a jug. Lucky for this because I rarely serve tea and coffee. Maybe the penguin would like some custard with his fishy...

Its little beak is the lip of the jug. So cute!

I have wanted a penguin since I read a book about a penguin in year three and made a penguin place-mat. But apparently I am not allowed to keep one in my bathtub so the mug-jug will have to do.

I also bought this panda cup and spoon set. Adorable. I love pandas. I like pandas as much as penguins. I actually have three items of clothing with pandas on them. Bob Boutique had a lot of things featuring pandas.

The panda spoon has little paws that grip the cup. And the back of the cup has a ladybug.

The awwwww factor of today's purchases is a million.

Thanks for a great day, Dan xx I had fun :)