When Mum comes to town (we eat a lot of great food).

 

Last weekend Mum came to stay. We got a fair bit of stuff done around my house, but most of the time was spent eating. And teaching Mum how to use social media (Twitter, Instagram and the art of the selfie).

It's so good having a foodie Mum - we spend a lot of time talking about food - especially the food we cook. She is happy to come to stay and be well fed.

We ate at some local restaurants...

For Friday night dinner...Toast with eggplant, feta and honey (amazing!) and lamb, apricot, date and almond tagine (so warming on a freezing night). We also had quail in a chocolate sauce. That was our first time at Arcadia. Really impressed with this restaurant and will go back soon.

 

And for lunch the next day, we had a Mexican share plate at La Tortilleria. I am so in love with this place - it's fresh and tasty Mexican. My favourites were the toasted tortillas filled with pork, pineapple and cheese - crispy tortillas, tender pork, sweet pineapple and melty cheese. Yum!

The tortillas are made on site in this big machine. It was great to watch this process. Mum and I both bought packets of freshly made tortillas - hot from the machine.

Eating great food at restaurants inspires both Mum and I to cook great food at home. And of course we did. We went to my local shopping strip to stock up on fresh produce - meat, veggies and cheese. I bought a rolled pork roast - I felt so grown up!

I made a major purchase - a new fridge - which I admit has rekindled my passion for spending time in the kitchen. This fridge holds a lot, its shelves are sturdy, and the crisper keeps the vegetables crisp. The milk has some friends now - there's cider and wine on the bottom shelf now!

Once the fridge was delivered and installed, Mum and I got cooking. On Saturday night we cooked a Mexican inspired feast:

Pico di gallo (onion, tomato, coriander, olive oil)...

Salad of spinach, beetroot, mandarin, hazelnuts, feta, lime juice...

And roasted pork filled tortillas like the ones we had that day...

It was a fantastic meal! Quite healthy, and really relaxing preparing all the dishes. Lots of leftovers too.

On Sunday we lunched at Hausfrau with Camille. Mum hadn't met Cam before but she had heard lots about her of course - and loved her of course!

I ate a pumpkin fritter with beetroot, creme fraiche and a poached egg. Yum!

And we had some cake...

I cooked a faux-fancy meal for dinner on Sunday night. That is, a dinner that looks quite fancy but is really easy. It's chicken fillet rolled in prosciutto and stuffed with spinach and cheese, with herbed potatoes and turnips, steamed choy sum and carrot, and cranberry sauce. Yum!!

It was a really lovely weekend - thanks Mum!

 

Bob Evans at Spotify HQ

 

Sometimes I pinch myself about how lucky I am. I love my life. This weekend just gone, I went to Sydney for Healthivate, the health focused blogging conference (so much inspiration, and I will blog about it all soon). The weekend was packed with exciting stuff, so much so, I need a holiday after my holiday. On Friday I saw Bob Evans at Spotify. I won a little competition he ran - five words or less about why we want to see him live. "I'm in Sydney for blogging", I wrote. And then "I'll bring my mum". I'm not great at maths, but I'm good at five words or less.

It seemed like a bad weekend to fly. Due to inclement weather in Sydney and Queensland, many flights were delayed or cancelled. Including mine. On the way up and back. And my Mum's flight from Albury was delayed too (though she had further dramas, with a boom gate closing on her car at the airport parking!). It seemed Friday was a day of delays. My train to the skybus was delayed due to some signal fault, I missed Kevin doing Like a Version on Triple J because the train was stuck in the wasteland of no phone reception, and then when I arrived at the airport with minutes to spare before check in closed, I was told my flight was delayed one hour and 20 minutes! We later found out Kevin's flight was delayed and lengthy too.

When we were finally in the air, we circled a holding pattern for an hour. So I arrived in Sydney three and a half hours after I was due to depart. Sheesh! And it was raining. So much rain. Which, along with our lateness, effectively scrapped our early afternoon plans of popping into the Mama Mia office for a quick hello. So after dropping our stuff at the dodgy motel, getting changed, and waiting for a taxi then a bus in the hideous rain for half an hour, we made it to the Spotify office with enough time to wolf down a delicious pork crackling roll and a well deserved alcoholic drink - at 3.45 pm.

Spotify is a digital music service that allows listeners access to a huge range of songs. I think the music is stored in a cloud? I really want to explore the app now. As I imagined, the office (just new) was very trendy, and its workers equally as trendy. Is it a sign that I am not trendy when I use the word trendy?

The Bob Evans show was the first live Spotify office gig in Australia (Spotify has only been in Australia since May last year). And it was pretty special. There were about 25 people in the room - Spotify staff, music industry people and a few fans. There was wine and canapes and a brilliant fruit platter. What would an event be if I didn't take a food photo?!

Mum and I talked to some great people - music fans, including one girl who saw Nirvana play back in 1992 - this impressed me a lot! It was Mum's first Bob Evans experience and she loved it.

Kevin played five songs: his newest release Go (incredibly beautiful played acoustically, and catchy too), Hand Me Downs (my favourite of favourites), I Just Don't Wanna Grow Up Anymore, Someone So Much (a request from the man who was late) and Don't You Think It's Time (the song that got me into Bob Evans). Some of the audience members I spoke to were impressed with the way Kevin hit the high notes - they described his sound as pitch perfect. I don't know anything about music, other than the enjoyment it provides, so I'll just say that I am continually impressed with how his electronic sounding songs translate so well into acoustic versions. And it was a privilege to see Kevin play such an intimate show.

After the set, we stuck around to talk and drink, and caught Kevin for a quick chat. Mum edged in first - launching in to tell him she was my Mum, and then telling him about the airport boomgate on her car.

I went to say hello, and we had a chat about the plane delays and the difference a gig with lights on makes, and the upcoming conference I was speaking at. And we had photos. Mum told Kevin that I talk about him a lot. A bit embarrassed by my fandom being discussed before the star, I quickly said "No Mum, that's Darren Hayes that I talk about a lot"! Kevin was amused.

It was such a great afternoon. I feel very lucky to be a part of it, and I love being a fan. Thank you for putting on the show, Spotify, and thanks Kevin for the tickets and for being genuine, participating in your own social media and for being awesome!