Before I begin, a warning.

This post will make you hungry, very hungry. It will also make you very thirsty. And it will make you hate being just about anywhere else in the world but here. I’m sorry.

So the very first day I’m in Thailand and already I can’t wait for Happy Hour to begin.  Given that Phuket is four hours behind Melbourne, I figured it was fair game to break out my first Mai Tai at 9.30 am… that and I’d been up with the children since dark o’clock.

Deciding to brave the tourist trap that is Patong Beach, we headed to the beachfront restaurant which was recommended by our cab driver as having incredible seafood.  Although the seafood was good, I think it may have been the kick back he was no doubt receiving from the restaurant that was incredible.  The drinks on the other hand, seemed to be more their specialty. I wonder if this is because the typical customer is a sun soaked, beer drenched punter stumbling in like a lobster from the sand….? Either way, when I received my blended coconut drink it was pure heaven. Blended coconut, that is coconut milk, meat and ice blended together like a slushy; and it is an OMG moment.

I cannot remember what Mr SKM was drinking. I only know that it came in a glass with boobies and a big butt. So classy.

Evenings weren’t all waterside dining, as after taking small children on big adventures, we were lucky to make it to room service.  Prawn skewers, Pad Thai noodles and a cold Asahi beer are the perfect end to a perfect day.

Breakfast buffets and I have a love hate relationship.  I always adore the selection of food, but feel guilty if I don’t try everything. I always began the day with a small bowl of congee (rice porridge) which is one of my favourite foods, so that I didn’t feel disloyal. Then I’d move onto sampling something from the breakfast menu of each continent.  This is another thing I love about breakfast buffets in hotels; the way they cater to such a variety of nationalities and their breakfast habits.  It means I get to try things I usually wouldn’t and generally end up expanding my breakfast repetior when I get home too. Hence, I began this particular morning with a very American breakfast of waffles, pancakes and berries all covered in maple syrup and chocolate sauce.  Can I hear you say “Diet Death”! Woo!

Eventually,we had the opportunity for one child free dinner and went somewhere just for grown ups. The Andaman Grill at JW Marriot on Turtle Beach. I’m telling you where this is as, if there is any chance you ever get to Phuket, you MUST go! Not only is the aspect totally gorgeous, the food was unbelievable!

To start with, we were greeted with a sample selection of the seafood on offer.  My Australian readers will be all too familiar with prawns, given that they are a staple of all entertainers at special events. But even for we Antipodeans who are used to really large prawns (‘Shrimps’ for the Americans), these babies were altogether another alien creature.  Check out how big these are next to Mr SKM’s hands!!

The first course was a mixed seafood tasting platter, quite delicious. But what came next was almost embarrassingly delicious.

This (not perfect iPhone picture of) my Swordfish Steak, was the most INCREDIBLE steak I have EVER eaten.  It is possible that there was a little moan emitted from our table at the moment I took the first bite of this.  This moan may have been followed up by sighs of rapture, closed eyes and effusive compliments to the chef.  I do recall at some point saying, ” You could feed this to a Texan and they wouldn’t know it was fish!”.

So yes, I liked the fish.

After all that, I’ve realised that I have a veritable slew of food photos and stories, so I’m going to break this up into two posts. Next up Singapore; but before I go one more drink.

Coconut juice with a tequila shot sinker! Tee hee…

Food is always so much better with a face on it. If that face is Hello Kitty’s all the better! It’s no great secret that I’m not the world’d greatest chef, I ADORE food in all its glory, but I am in truth, a very lazy cook. Mainly because I prefer to be doing other things, or even when I do cook I get distracted and things burn. But then that is my own stupid fault for having twitter open on the laptop while trying to make white sauce.

Food with a face on it is also a brilliant way to get kids to eat healthy, that’s why they have been making faces out of peas and mash for generations. Luckily for me, this reasoning comes in handy when justifying why I’ve been buying myself Christmas presents from Japan this year. Wanna see?

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Why Hello Kitty – what fabulous task might you perform?

Ahh – turning plain old rice into a party for your mouth! The girls are going to love you.. but wait, what’s that? A Kitty-fier that does even require cooking?

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You cut the crusts off the sandwich AND turn my lunch into a happy face?! I think even if I filled you with anchovy paste the kids would still eat this. Me, I think I’ll fill you with Nutella and hundreds and thousands.

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But wait… Christmas morning we had a very special breakfast; a Christmas miracle if you will.

Is that the face of….?

It is! It is Hello Kitty pancakes!

Given you can only make one at a time, but they do take the time to remind you that this is “for Mama to cook”, so clearly it was meant for me. I can’t tell you just how fantastic breakfast was that morning. If you want to impress a loved one, bring them a tray of these in bed and watch the happiness quotient explode.

Of course, none of this is out of place at my house where Kitty graces more surfaces than I’d care to count. And after breakfast, bubble maker kitty is there to help with the washing up too!

So where did I find all these treasures? I took a visit to J-List which, (hide your credit cards) will have you going ‘click to buy’ happy! I found it near impossible to stop adding things to my cart, so thank goodness it was Christmas and I could justify the addition of so many of these things as gifts for other people.  I didn’t just stop at Kitty however, because as soon as I saw they stocked so much Totoro merchandise, I couldn’t help myself.  So now I am eating my Hello Kitty pancakes propped up against my Totoro nap pillow on my 1950′s couch! Yeah, that’s pretty much how my house looks – Like you dropped Betty Draper into Sanrio Land!!

As part of Relaxation August I decided I needed to give my body a bit of a break from the usual stress that I put it through. And a part of that has been giving up coffee, for now at least.  This is a VERY BIG DEAL for me. I LOVE coffee, and I love it in it’s pure, unadulterated creamy black goodness. No sugar, no milk, just me and a thick black creme.  So going cold turkey from this nectar hasn’t been easy.  Still, given the amount of time and money we put into all these ‘anti-stress’ skin care remedies I thought it was about time to address one of the causes and not just deal with the symptoms.  So for August I have given up coffee.

I may be aiming to give my body a bit of a break, but I can’t go from hard core coffee to only spring water,  so tea has once again been my saviour.  I already have a fairly extensive tea collection, (although not as huge as some of you I hear) but when trying to give something up I find it helps to have something else to obsess about. Hence, finding new varieties and new ways to drink my tea.

This morning’s tea – White Tea with Rose in my good old 1970′s Finnish enamel tea pot. Nothing fancy, just keeping it simple and delicious!

One of my favourite local tea houses is Serenity Tea House out in Boxhill, Melbourne. It isn’t the easiest place to find, but when you do it is like stumbling into a hidden Alladins cave of tea wonderland. Their tea comes from Taiwan somewhere high up in the mountains, as I learnt when the proprietor told me wonderful stories about the growing area and collection methods.  She sat me down with a gorgeous yellow, traditional tea set and we talked and drank tea for over an hour, uninterrupted.  It was clear that tea was her passion, not just her day job, as I learnt so much not just about the tea itself, but all the nuances of each tea set. The different clays that help to absorb the flavour, the scent cups used for capturing the fragrance of the tea allowing you to drink in the experience on a different level.  The process of drinking tea became so much more than I was expecting from a visit to a local tea store.

Of course it wouldn’t be a tea odyssey without a visit to T2, once a smaller concern and fast becoming a Goliath of the tea world here in Australia. I’ve had my regular favourites from here, The Vanilla, The White Tea, The Gen Mai Sen Cha; but I wanted to try something different.  T2 is the perfect place to explore by yourself if you want to be left alone with your thoughts, or if you need help there is always some at hand. The girls there were very helpful walking me through my coffee free options, as I wanted to try and choose teas that also had a low to nil caffeine content to aid this relaxation plan.  I found myself stocking up on even more tea accoutrements; pot sized infusers, strainers, pots sized for one. Walking out with only one small box of tea from here is a surprisingly difficult exercise in self restraint.

They have a great website, which as I’ve just discovered, does online Tea dating! They match your personality to tea choices, which I tried and the selection came out bang on for those I just adore. I’m also rather partial to their fancy china selection from the super fancy bone china right through to the unbreakable enamel ware.  But then, once you start looking it is possible to spend all your pocket money in one fell swoop.

The stunning deco lines of the Avanti tea pot is something worthy of coveting.

If you’re looking for a brilliant and inexpensive tea shopping option, head down to your local Chinatown or Asian grocer. Not only will you find more tea varieties than you could poke a stick at, you can also find some gorgeous tea pots and cups for only a couple of dollars each.  One of my favourite tea pots is a $4 pot from one of these stores. It has lasted me so well, even though it has had a few minor accidents, it is still going strong and used for tea every day.. and even occasionally as a vase! As far as tea selection goes, it is a little more tricky if you can’t read the languages the packaging is written in, but that is half the adventure! Another great thing about tea found in Asian grocery stores is that it quite often comes in very pretty re-usable tins and other containers. So you don’t have to fork out extra cash to keep your tea fresh and you can create your own special collection of canisters as you try each new variety. Oh, and my other cracking find in these stores has been the humble thermos. Perfect for on the road, keeping at your desk or even behind the shop counter for sneaky sips.  You can get some excellent basic models for $10 in these stores and even some more beautiful versions like this one if you’re lucky.

So far, the lack of coffee is proving to be a good thing.  It did take a few days to get past the nasty headache stage, but with the aid of some White Tea and Rose brewed with a teaspoon of delicious honey, it is proving to be just the tonic that my stress levels and my skin needed.

Where do you shop for your tea? Do you have any secret tea addictions? Confess all!

Recently I’ve been asked the same question by a number of people, both readers and good friends. That is, “How do you know who you are?”.  What they want to know is that in my role as wife and mother, how do I retain such a strong sense of self?  Let me tell you, this hasn’t always been the case.

Just like anyone else, I have had times in my life when I’ve “fallen off the wagon” so to speak.  Times when work took over everything, time when appearances were the last thing on my mind, and time when I thought, “Is this it? Is this as good as it gets?”  But by and large, these moments have been blips on the radar of an otherwise colourful and memorable life.

One such time for me was after the birth of my first daughter. I had a body that no longer belonged just to me, in a shape I didn’t recognise and responsibilities that I hadn’t even contemplated before hand. A demanding schedule with very little sleep and only a small baby for company did nothing to help the situation.  Like so many women before me, I would look through old photo albums barely recognising the woman I was just twelve short months before hand. But it didn’t make me sad, melancholy or wistful; it made me mad. And just like Dylan Thomas said, I could feel a “rage against the dying of the light”.

Of course, my life wasn’t literally over, but as many mothers know deep down there is a little grieving that goes on for the girls we used to be. And frankly, I wasn’t having any of it. I didn’t want to be surrounded by Wiggles music and the life of a homogenised happy baby commercial; I wanted something that was mine, that was ours and that was a unique reflection of the people we are.

Yes, that is all a little deep and raw but it applies to so many situations. Those times a job is lost, when children leave home, when we go through a bad break up; any life situation that we have allowed ourselves to become overly content in and sneakily, it has come to define us. That’s when it is time to take measures into your own hands and rediscover what makes you you. It can be a long slow process, but it is ultimately a joyful one. So take heed my friends and I’ll give you the secrets that help me keep my groove each day.

ART -

Image via Patrick Ng on Flickr

In order to think about who I am I also have to think about who I was. Fortunately I kept my school art folio with pieces dating right back to early primary school.  Each piece contains a memory of a time, of friends, teachers, passions and stolen kisses behind the shed. This is super powerful stuff and a brilliant place to begin your journey.

Whether you draw, paint, doodle or whatever; now is the time to pick up your tools and start to create something for yourself. It never needs to be seen by another person, but the process of creating it, what inspires you and learning to look at the world with different eyes is something you need to retrain yourself to do.  These are the skills that you will use each day when doing the most simple things like choosing an outfit, picking the tea set that makes your happy instead of the one that is just on sale, or finding beauty in the small free moments that each day brings.

MUSIC -

Image via Buttha on Flickr

I still have a little child’s suitcase full of my very first cassette tapes.  The first cassingle I ever bought ( Poison’s ‘Unskinny Bop’!), Mixtapes with love messages from high school boyfriends and even recordings I made myself with a little microphone and a portable tape recorder.  Some of it makes me cringe but I never fail to see the influences of this music on myself. The times I bought albums to impress a boy but really hated the band, and those that I never played for anyone, my heart set to music. The albums I would dance to like my life depended on it ( Jive Bunny & The Mixmasters anyone?), and the albums I have bought many times over that still appear in my collection. Music feeds your soul. Don’t let it starve.

Also, never say never. When asked to define my music tastes I used to say, “Oh everything but XX, I hate X.” Mind you, I had never really given X a good go and neither had I explored it properly. So I took off those blinkers and made a foray into previously forbidden territory only to discover a brand new passion that set my soul on fire. This is how I found New Music Me and she can make even the worst day shine!

FOOD -

Image via Sifu Renka on Flickr

I’m not the greatest cook. In fact I’m downright lazy. But when you have to do it and you have more than yourself to cater for, the things you love often go out the window. You find yourself living on a diet of spaghetti that pleases all and indulging in a block of chocolate afterwards as if that will make up for the neglect your palate has been suffering. Allow yourself to eat something that you really want. Something that may not be loved by all, may not be PC or even cheap. But do it, and do it just for you. If you want to eat a whole dozen natural oysters with caviar, then by golly  you’d better do it! Even if you have to hide in a tub of bubbles, or eat the sitting alone on the front porch, it is just you and your food. Treating yourself like the King of the Castle every now and again with nary a thought for the other occupants whims is key to true decadence and a great way to get in touch with what you really love.

There is so much more I could say on this topic, but this is the place to start.

So I’m offering you my challenge, my life line if you will.  Try these three simple things and tell me what a difference it makes to you. You can come back here and ask me questions or leave me comments to let me know how you get on.

Remember, life is for living – do it with all the passion and verve you can!

This year’s Wintersun held the first inaugural 1950′s Cake Bake Contest, and what a hit!  All the Ladies, and Gents, were invited to enter a cake of their own creation to be judged on looks, taste, presentation, as well as their own personal presentation. We had no idea what sort of reception such an event would receive, but it was such a hit it has already been made a part of next year’s calendar.

I was honored to be asked to judge this year’s heat and made sure I brought my best CWA judging criteria to the table.  Each cake was cut and prodded, tasted and tested, contestants grilled about secret recipes and outfits appraised with a critical eye.  But what a difficult job!  These contestants brought their ‘A’ game, and without a complicated points system I never would have been able to determine the winners.

It was a very windy day down by the seaside, so precautions had to be taken to ensure we arrived looking our best. Mistress Chrissy was there to whip the contestants into line and keep proceedings moving along.

All the contestants arrived to set up their creations and present them to an eagerly awaiting crowd.

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All the best dressed at the festival turned up to either participate or simply to watch and hope for a taste.

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This lovely lady had on the most gorgeous Eiffel Tower print vintage frock!

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We began with a little coffee to set the mood.

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But the competition was fierce! Play nice girls.

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The entries were all unbelievably good, with this stunning entrant even matching her cake’s colour to it’s flavour, to her outfit, to her car!!

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And so the judging began. Knowing I had to slip into a swimsuit in the next hour I kept my taste tests small, but what a job!

So, who won this test of sugar, eggs and will?

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3rd Place went to the delightful Mz Vicki and her rather ugly
(by her own admission), but unbelievably good Marshmallow Cake. Made to an original 1950′s ladies magazine recipe, this was one tasty delight!

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2nd Place went to Amanda and her “Flamin 57 Chev” which was a work of art inside and out. Layer upon layer of vanilla and red velvet on the inside, with each flame and a total car created entirely by her, by hand!

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But the 1st Place Winner?.

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Mimsy of Mimsy’s Trailer Trash Tattoos, created a replica of her trailer right down to the Flamingo’s on the lawn and the picket fence!

It looked amazing and tasted out of this world!

So Ms. Mimsy took home the winner’s silver cake server and added another title to her string of talents.

It was such a highlight of the weekend for me, as my childhood memories of the wonderful cake competitions that used to be seen at the Royal Melbourne Show, came flooding back.  The bar has been set so high by the contestants this year that I can hardly wait to see what next year has in store!

A big Thank You to Nicole Jenkins of Circa Vintage Clothing and Miss Kim of Vintage Charm by Kim, for providing these photos, as once again my hands were otherwise occupied.