Sunday in Melbourne was the perfect day for High Tea. It was cold, wet and windy outside, so it made perfect sense to be inside eating cakes, sipping tea and talking vintage with friends. It was also the perfect place to wear this fabulous vintage cashmere embellished sweater I recently picked up. (It didn’t have magical properties that made me shrink Alice style – the flowers were just that big!)It has cord and bead detail with three dimensional white plastic flowers too! The skirt is also an original 1950′s atomic star burst skirt that I’m wearing with a yellow silk blouse and that great vintage style framed handbag from yesterday’s post.

An afternoon at the Langham Hotel is all about the ambience. I’d like to pretend this is my home for just a little while… That sweeping staircase, the amber light, the glitter from the chandelier… le sigh..  It forces you to slow down and enjoy the finer things, like these delightful little cakes.

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The arrangement of the chocolate table was beyond belief. There was a swell of gasps and giggles when we reached the table, but it was all so stunning and delicious that to tease you with images on a screen just wouldn’t be fair. You know that expression “good enough to eat”? Well these were all really far too pretty to eat; and yet somehow we managed it.

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Of course, everyone had frocked up for the occasion, not that this is any big surprise with a group like this; but it makes all the difference when you have an appreciative audience and can break out the ‘fine china’.

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No matter how polite we all are, there are definitely thoughts of mugging each other crossing our minds at this stage.

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With my lovely friends Anne Marie from Melbourne store The Button Tree, Dolores Daiquiri Australia’s tease queen and Abbie Cardwell songstress extordinare.

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We were very tempted to start singing show tunes right about now…

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It doesn’t matter how ‘vintage’ you are, there is no escaping the latest apps to capture the day!

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The only thing I think that is still sorely missing from the High Tea menu of everywhere I’ve been is a bit of sneaky ‘Irish’ in the tea!

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You know how sometimes you look through the glass window into the cake section, fighting with yourself over “should I, shouldn’t I?”, then when you finally give in an eat those first few forks fulls, it isn’t at all the sensation you expected?  Not so with Sugadeaux. In fact, if you tried to dream up just how wonderful cake could be, it’s likely you still wouldn’t come close to how endorphin inducing these creations are.

Thanks to a chance meeting on Twitter some time ago, I discovered the delicious world of Sugadeaux, cupcake maestro.  So when I was invited to come and taste the latest range of flavours, I whipped out my cake themed skirt and raced there as fast as I could. And oh boy, were we all in for a treat with five brand new flavours about to spark our senses.

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Being a food writers event, most everyone came armed with cameras, notebooks, and their tasting faces on. Me, I had my camera, fancy skirt and stupidly happy grin on.

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Blueberry pie cupcakes, topped with an icing creation that tasted like something from The Magic Faraway Tree!

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PB&J were the overwhelming hit of the evening with their salty sweetness, decadent smooshyness and all around groan of pleasure inducing, ways. (Yes, I’m not much on the technical jargon for food blogging, but I know what tastes amazing!)

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The cupcake maestro herself, Jess from Sugadeaux; and me before I went into raptures of delight over my Blueberry Pie.

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Can you tell we’re all on a brilliant sugar high?

I know seeing all this can be pure torture if you’re reading this before you’ve had lunch; but the good news is that Sugadeaux delivers!  You can actually get online to their website and place your order to be delivered to your door (with a bit of lead time).  In fact, you can even try out these exact flavours come April 21st, when they’ll be available in tasting packs.

Midweek cake fest? Yep, life is tough.

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!!

Happy New Year’s Eve everyone!! I’m super excited about 2011 for some reason. It has been feeling for the last half of 2010 that things are going to be on the up next year with far less fails and far less dramas. Don’t know why I think this, it’s not like I’ve taken to hanging out with Gypsies on my vacation, it’s just a feeling.

Anyway, I did have big plans for tonight until 24 hours ago. Big plans for someone with two children on a babysitter impossible night, involves hanging at a friends house and watching fireworks and being poked into consciousness at around 6am by said children. Anyway, when that riveting plan went belly up I was a little sulky, knowing all the great things I could have been doing and all the parties my friends are playing at. But really, it is just another night and it is all about what you make of it. So I decided to give myself a good kick in the pants and make my New Years start the right way; with friends, food and shopping!

We all slept in then got fancy before heading off to breakfast as a family. Instead of our usual go-to of Eggs Benedict, I decided to shake it up a bit and find somewhere we could all indulge our culinary cravings, even the kids. So it was off to Box Hill for traditional Chinese breakfast of congee and steamed pork buns! For two small girls you’d think they’d died and gone to heaven such is the reaction to a meal like that. As for me, I am very (very) partial to a tasty congee, so I was grinning from ear to ear.

Then it was off for a spot of indulgent post-Christmas sale shopping and a few treats each, before heading to lunch with fabulous friends. Here is where I’ll let my pictures tell the story…

It is really hot today… 40 degrees celsius, thats 105 for you Northern hemisphere people. That explains the ‘white out’ in this pic. The sun is so strong and bleaching it is hard to look anywhere, especially when it keeps hitting back at you from the pavement.

We went and met up with my long lost buddy Violet ( I say this because we’ve both been working so hard we’ve only seen each other on Twitter these last few months!!)

How amazing is her hair?! She not only styled it herself but did the incredible colour too!

Lunching with other bloggers will always mean one thing…. photos!

Yes, we are both photographing our lunch.

A spot of shopping lead to the following for my afternoons entertainment.

I picked up the ‘new’ (read October issue now imported) of Vivi to read in the shade on this hot afternoon.

Laying around in the near dark with fans going and reading all about cute Korean spring looks.

And I did buy one other little treat to add to my ever growing vanity collection. Not only cute and practical, but exactly what you need in this weather.

Anna Sui blotting paper in the trademark gloss black case! I’ve been collecting this whole series piece by piece and nearly have a full set now. So pretty!

And that’s it… so far.  I’m heading off to get started on part two of my day. This is the bit that involves Margaritas, foot massages and movies. Now THAT is how you spend an evening celebrating the year!

Happy New Year Everyone!!!!