To ensure the smooth running of your household, always make sure you empty your offspring's lunch-boxes at the START of the school holidays.
Failure to do so may result in:

1) a 3/4 eaten sandwich looking like something out of a laboratory experiment that has gone hideously wrong.
2) A smell in the lunchbox that is impossible to eradicate.
3) Awkward questions about what your offspring are actually eating for lunch, if they haven't eaten your perfectly good sandwich.

This handy tip is bought to you by A. Very. Bad. Mother.
Feel free to reign hell down on my housekeeping skills, or soothe me with your tales of domestic shortcomings.

Image from We Heart It.  Sadly for my offspring, their lunchboxes have never looked remotely like this .

It is a timely thing that I start running club this week.
In fact, quite possibly it would be legally required.
Why?
Because my weekend has been book-ended by supremely yummy food.
I gatecrashed my way into a meet up at Koko Black with The Food Pornographer, Kirsti Melville, Sue Yeap and Chloe Jarvis. All fabulous and interesting women.
Twitter has a way of connecting people and drawing dots together. So it made perfect sense for us to spend Saturday afternoon, in a cafe tasting food and talking all things glorious and food.

One of the group and I were mystified as to why we hadn't met before. But how very glad am I we did.
I bought gifts for the offspring while there.
I am ashamed to say that unfortunately, this didn't make it to them in one piece.

I did spread the chocolates out a bit so they wouldn't notice visible gaps, does anyone else do that?
And today, I abandoned my "the only good spontaneity is planned spontaneity" philosophy.
My brother texted to say there was a street festival on, and instead of worrying about the school uniforms that needed ironing or lunches to be made, we piled in the car.
We wandered down the streets admiring the craft and artisans.

I LOVED this. I'm ordering one saying "WRITE."

And we ate. Again.

Running club people.
Starts Tuesday.
What are you up to this week?

It's been a week where the letter B has dominated. yes it's only Tuesday but it's been very busy
Firstly B for baby. The week began with the wonderful and much anticipated news that I became a proud auntie again, coincidentally to a baby whose name actually begins with B. I can't wait to cuddle kidnap my new nephew because even though texted photos are great NOTHING beats a tender cuddle with a newborn baby.
Part B was meeting the gorgeous and talented Belle Bijoux and becoming the proud owner of a new bag. It's PINK people. P.I.N.K. No more black for me for a while. And given its size I suspect this bag will be dominating my landscape for some time to come.

It meant a great night out with a couple of my besties and the sheer thrill of sipping wine and cooing over bags for the better part of a Monday evening. Which given I managed to skip the dinner, bathtime, bedtime routine made the day infinitely more exciting.
I also met up with the talented Alecia Hancock whose name does not begin with B but I've loved her blog for a while and it's so worth a visit.
In addition to all these events there was a birthday for my husband which involved catching up with some wonderful friends.
And an interview/meeting which proved quite interesting and indicates that 2011 is going to be a pretty busy one for me. But I think I knew that would be the case anyway. Whenever it feels like I'm getting overwhelmed I remember my parents mantra growing up: "Family First." No, not a political movement but the knowledge that the family unit comes in the forefront of everything else. And so while I strive for balance I'm looking forward to the thrill of the unknown at the same time.
At least this role is a subject close to my heart. Fine food.
Yes I know.
It's AWESOME.
All this and it's only Tuesday.
What have you been up to this week?

On the cooking show with Nigella Lawson, the end of most episodes shows her furtively tiptoeing to her fridge late at night for a snack, or to eat the leftovers from a feast she created earlier.
Nigella makes this little endeavour seem enticing and tantalising.
Except it isn't.
Not for me at least.
I've made too many of those trips to the fridge to count.
Usually after a "good" day. You know, one of those days where you've counted calories or points. You've written it all down in your food diary.
And then you blow it.
If you've never obsessed over food this will make no sense to you at all.
If birthday parties and celebrations haven't proved to be the equivalent of a total headscrew for you, this won't seem logical.
For YEARS I've dreaded parties in some ways. What will I eat? Can I eat that? Is that a "bad" food? Please waitress can you tell me what's in that? How many calories is in THAT? If I eat that what will the people around me think?
It's EXHAUSTING.
For years I've tracked food, written it down, thought about it constantly.
If I haven't done that, then I've exercised obsessively as a counterbalance to eating whatever the hell I want. Note to self, exercise is great for making me feel better but not a great weight loss tool. At least for me.
I spent alot of time reading Fat Acceptance blogs earlier this year, and whilst I found many of them kind of aggressive in tone, one point that kept coming up over and over. It was that overeating wasn't something that had a quick fix. It is a complex issue. It deserves more attention than buying some diet shakes and hoping they'll be the magic solution.
To me that made sense.
I've been very successful at weight loss in the past so why did I regain it?
Why did food and eating it (or not) take up so much of my thinking time?
So I made the appointment to see a therapist and hypnotherapist.
Since then it's all fallen away.
The weight, the issues, the angst, all of it.
It isn't a quick fix by any means. The hypnotherapy has calmed my anxieties and means that food is no longer a source of stress for me at all.
But I've had to confront other issues as a result.
As my therapist said, once you change a pattern, then other things shift to replace it.
I'm a work in progress.
I still have weight to lose but my attitude towards food has changed.
I liken it to when I first got glasses. I spent a long time marvelling at how the lenses allowed me to see things in focus. I was so damn grateful to be able to see properly. I feel the same about this.
Right now my house is littered with showbags and chocolate from our recent jaunt to the Royal Show. In the past I'd have spent hours thinking about what was in them. Craving it. And if I'm completely truthful in all likelihood, bingeing on it too.
Now I know they are there. That's it. I also know there is cat food in the cupboard and I don't need that either.
I enjoy my 3 healthy meals a day.
That's it.
I haven't eaten any chocolate since I started therapy which was quite a while ago the insatiable craving for it is simply absent.
For the first time since the age of 12 when I was put on a diet I am at peace.
Food isn't bad.
It isn't good.
It's just food.

I love weekends like the one we just had. They are rare and in and of themselves, absolutely perfect. These rare days remind me that this is what REALLY matters. Actually, it's all that matters.
During those rare days I feel my anxieties ebbing away. I get excited about the unknown. The past, the irrelevant, the meaningless is washed out to sea, only to ebb back in on the Monday.
But for those two days
THIS
is where my head and heart is.
It's celebrating
by working my Junior Masterchefs to bake and then eat cake:

by enjoying the handmade baguettes lovingly baked and produced over three days by Poppa.

It's taking the offspring to the Swan Valley to enjoy ice-cream, some wine (for us) and letting them run around gardens wherever we go.


It's talking excitedly with my Husband about our future plans, where buoyed by the delicious food, yummy wine, the hassles of the changes are mere details that matter as much as the paper they are written on.
Perfect weekends are few and far between. And judging by the amount of food here, it's just as well! What did you get up to?

Illustration in my Nu.nl cartoon style, for a campaign inviting restaurant visitors to bring along their own bottle of wine.

You're invited to Sevensheaven.nl for more imagery.

I'm not here today
I'm here
please stop by and visit me
xxxx

I'm sitting in th executive lounge of my hotel in Singapore, looking out over SunTec City and the city beyond while I wait for my flight. This has been an interesting trip, no doubt, but I'm happy to be headed home. Will I be back? Probably. Will I eat my way through the city again? Absolutely. Will I be a bit more touristy? Sure, why not! I might even check out the Night Safari if I get the chance. Unfortunately, too much work and too little time left little time for me to explore the city after last weekend.

Things to do next time I am back:

• Check out more hawker centers for lunch and or dinner. Visit Lau Pa Sat on the weekend for satay again.
• Eat more chili crab. And white pepper crab. And any other crab I can get my grubby hands on.
• Go back to Muthu's Curry for dinner. I had lunch at the outlet in SunTec City Mall today and it was amazingly good. And super spicy, in a good way.
• Find some chicken rice. I know its the local specialty and I was supposed to eat it during my stay. Somehow I screwed that up.
• Eat more laksa.
• Drink more Guinness Foreign Extra Stout while avoiding the local craptacular brewpubs. (Oh, Brewerkz was OK, but The Pump Room was total shit.)
• Shop less. I don't want to visit another damn mall anytime soon.
• Take more pictures. I failed on this count.
• Drink a Singapore Sling. Yes, I managed to not have any whilst staying here.
  

Clearly, I have a lot to do next time around. Amazingly they all seem to focus on food. Hmmm, is eating the national pastime?

My time here is coming to an end. It has been fun, but I've been gone a long time (7 days) and won't make it home until Saturday night around 8 PM. I'm totally missing Maya and Steph right now.

I felt like my jet lag got better through the week, but tonight I'm just absolutely spent. Its 7 PM and the gin and tonic I had in the lounge has totally knocked me out. I was hoping to go out for one last nice Singaporean meal tonight, but I fear I am probably going to stick close to the hotel due to the incoming storms and my sleepiness. Teaching all week definitely takes its toll...

Last night I met a local for dinner. While I forget where we went for dinner, we ate an amazingly large amount and variety of Chinese food. Celeste would probably correct me and tell me it was Cantonese or Haianese or something else, but at the moment I forget what it is exactly. No matter, it was all good stuff that I would never find at home. Admittedly, I felt like a bit odd eating with Celeste since there are some significant cultural differences between how we eat. For instance, in Singapore people eat with a fork and spoon, using the fork to push food on to the spoon. No knife. I was totally klutzy trying this. I am sure I was even less graceful with my chopsticks, making a fool of myself. Do I pick the bowl of rice/soup up toward my mouth when eating or is that rude? I'm such a clueless American. But I'm learning!

However, it was a good time overall. I learned a bit of Singaporean culture and world view while sharing some American culture with her. I learned about SPGs (Sarong Party Girls), the fact that women (men?) can't rent an apartment until they are 35 or married, and the concept of a 3 room or 4 room (apartment with 3 or 4 rooms + kitchen) and the fact that Singapore is a "fine" country (in other words, you get fined for anything and everything possible). This is a bit of an odd country. Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore...

Its time for dinner, then I need to pack my bags. I'm leaving after class tomorrow on a 10:50 PM flight to Seoul. I'll spend Saturday in Seoul before heading home to Atlanta to see my beautiful wife and daughter. And those crazy dogs, too...

So its my first full day here in Singapore. Some initial thoughts:

The city is clean. Really clean. The only foul smells anywhere are from some of the stalls selling raw fish or other dried fish products that have that have a funky, fish out in the open on a hot as balls day smell to them.

It is hot. Damn hot. I walked around from ~8 AM until 11:30 AM and I am just dripping with sweat. Hot and humid, two great tastes that go great together. Bugis and the Arab district (Arab St, Hajj Lane) were the destinations of the morning. Mostly aimless wandering and some photos now and again as I orient myself. I did some shopping on Arab St. and found a nice present for Steph and some potential batik fabrics which we could hang in our entry way. Gotta check with the boss first and see if she approves before buying them.

Eating here is quite fun. First I ran into a fruit stand with some cut open dragon fruit, something I had never tried. So I bought a piece, it reminded me of a firm, purple kiwi, but not as tart. The hawker also convinced me to try some jackfruit, it was nothing special. I walked around the hawker food stalls in Bugis and sat down with some seafood laksa (seafood coconut milk soup, yum! I'm sure this was much better than what was featured on Top Chef last week), a Guinness Foreign Extra Stout and then a cool glass of soya milk to soothe my burning tongue. That laksa was seriously spicy but so very good. And cheap! All in I spent about US $6.

No signs of jet lag yet. I slept about 6 hours last night (1 AM - 7 AM, thanks Ambien!). Since the middle of the day is the hottest, I'm going to chill at the hotel for a bit before exploring a bit more tonight, possibly in Little India. I'll be poking around Wikitravel further to see if there is anything else that I need to see on my 2 days off here before work begin

Hola!

Steph and I are in Buenos Aires, Argentina (BsAs to locals) for a week during the upcoming Thanksgiving holidays back in the states. We arrived this morning and spent the day getting acquainted with the city while walking around Puerto Madero, Microcento and Recoleta neighborhoods. So what's caught my attention so far?

FOOD!

Yeah, I'm obsessed with food and drink and this city is great for foodies. The food is good, plentiful and CHEAP! We just had dinner in one of the more upscale restaurants in Puerto Madero, La Caballeriza Puerto (yes, its almost midnight and we just finished dinner... that's typical here!). For the grand total of 120 ARS (slightly less than $40USD) we had a huge meal with more beef than two people should be allowed to eat, potatoes, salad and a bottle of Argentine malbec wine. I really am enamored with BsAs! And a bit tipsy too, since the bottle was mine to consume given Steph's current state.

More pictures and travel notes to come as the week goes on... look forward to stories about dulce de leche, dead people, side trips to Uruguay and yet more Argentinian beef! Just wait until I get a bit of mate in me for that extra caffeine boost before my next trip report!

Off to bed for now, a long day of shopping, sightseeing and eating is yet to come!

Friday night I flew to Newark where I met Steph to celebrate out fourth anniversary. Of course, I was a day late to the celebration, due to Cf.Objective() and work. I figured a trip to NYC would be a good way to say "I'm sorry" for having to be away.
Times Square

We got in to midtown Manhattan around 9:30 and searched around for someplace to eat dinner. You know how when you're so hungry that you can't seem to make a decision on where to eat? Combine that with being in a city that neither of us are really familiar with and you have a serious issue! We decided on an Indian place on West 52nd, but when we walked up to check out the menu, we saw the Indian place was empty... but the Greek Restaurant next door was quite busy! So Greek it is!
Katz's Deli

We sat down at Anthos and proceeded to wait for a menu. And wait. And wait. Finally we got some menus. And we waited some more. Finally I grabbed a waitress and explained to her that we were feeling ignored and would really like to order. Turns out I just ratted out our crappy waitress to our waitress! Oops! After this she got much better.

We had a few cocktails along with appetizers. Grilled octopus, a contemporary Greek salad with beets, radishes, endive, ramps, feta and fresh garbanzo beans and a raw meze platter with five different kinds of fish were brought out. The food was well prepared, nicely presented and rocked our world. Kyma, eat your heart out.
Katz's Deli

After dinner our waitress, who had previously enquired as to why we were in NYC, brought us out two different desserts on the house to help us celebrate. The first was some kind of round donut. filled with an orange blossom cream and served with burnt honey ice cream. I thought I would have a food orgasm! The second was a trio of three kinds of baklava. While they were all good, the donuts were the winner of the evening. We'll definitely be heading back to Anthos next time we're in NYC. After a quick drink at P.J. Clarke's it was time for bed.
Lips and Assholes
YUM!

Saturday morning we woke up early and headed for the only scheduled task of the day: shopping for clothes! Of course we were too early to actually shop, so instead we wandered around midtown and into Times Square where we ran into a run/walk for breast cancer research. Having participated in a number of the Susan B. Komen Walk for the Cure events (a.k.a. "Walk for Boobs!"), it was pretty cool to see the absolutely huge crowd as they walked and ran north from Times Square. We continued to wander around Midtown until around 10 AM when we finally got in a bit of shopping.
Pommes Frites

After a quick stop back at the hotel to drop off our newly acquired schwag we headed to the Lower East Side for lunch at Katz's Deli. Somehow our cabbie didn't understand East Houston at Ludlow and wound up taking us to Chelsea before we ditched cab #1 and hailed a second cab with a driver that understood my broken English. *smirk* After a corned beef on rye, potato knish, pickles (old, new and sour tomatoes) and a Dr. Brown's cream soda, we were fat and happy. We waddled out of Katz's and wandered around the Lower East Side and East Village for quite a while. Walking through the village we decided it was time for a drink and someplace to rest our feet. I thought I knew where we were, so I suggested we hit up McSorley's Old Ale House, the oldest continuously operating bar in NYC.

Unfortunately, we were a block too far north when we hit 2nd at St. Marks Place. But what a fortuitous mistake! As I tried Googling an address I spied Pommes Frites, a Belgian style pommes frites (French fries) shop. Being big fans of pommes frites ever since our first trip to Europe in 2001, we had to stop in for a bite. Yummmmmm. This also put us a half block from McSorley's where we stopped in for a few beers. (Definitely get the dark. The light was, well, too light.)
Drinking at McSorley's

With a nice beer buzz going we hopped back into a cab and headed up to the TKTS booth in Times Square. We picked up a pair of seats to Spring Awakening for that evening. I headed back to the hotel to relax for a bit — I was still exhausted from my previous 6 days on the road — while Steph did a bit more shopping.

Before the show we headed out for dinner at Dervish, a Turkish restaurant in the theater district recommended by our New Yorker friends, Annette & Jed. After another great dinner we sauntered over to the theater for the show. I'm not a huge fan of the theater, but the show was quite enjoyable. If you're in NYC, I highly recommend getting tickets.
MAN TITS!

After the show we headed back to the hotel and made it a pretty early night. The next morning we woke up early (again!) and headed to Park Slope to visit some friends. After brunch at n Austrian restaurant and a great walking tour of the neighborhood, it was time to head to the airport.

While it was a short trip, we had a great time in NYC celebrating our anniversary. Where will we go next year? Perhaps if Steph is lucky I'll take here to Bumblefuck, WI! Nah, probably not.