Public Holiday Weekends and PhD-itis. Cappuccino competition.

Harro, and a happy Queens Birthday (or Normal Monday) to you.

Another grinding, busy week, culminating on Friday. The degree of difficulty of everything on Friday was higher, because I felt a bit tired, but also just because they were difficult. I got yelled at in Arabic (via an interpreter), twice in a row, for starters. Then I had to give difficult news.

But I did lots of fun stuff, starting on Thursday evening. One of my girlfriends, M, invited me to a Thermomix party. I was well impressed, despite the $1950 price tag. It is an appliance that I think I will use. You can even make bread, from Milling the flour to the finished product, without even getting your fingers dirty. See? There is a raw baguette on the left, on the right is a yummy and very healthy beetroot salad, and in the rear right is the machine itself. Isn't it pretty?

The woman who ran the party, my gf's sister, is vegan. We had vegan custard. It was not flash but it was ok. I have told the fella that we will get one together when we moved in. To further my cause, whenever I see any food on the telly, I tell him that we can cook that in a thermomix. I will grind him down, hopefully.

On Friday evening I went to go see the Great Gatsby with that same gf. The costumes were very pretty, as were the actors. Carey Mulligan (as Daisy Buchanan) was elfin and breathy, and Joel Edgerton (as Tom Buchanan) was impressively brutish. I was less impressed by Isla Fisher. Leo, as Gatsby, was great too. I remember reading the book in year 12, and enjoying it. It is very relevant today, and serves as a reminder to hold on to what is real, because many things (and people passing through your life) are fleeting, or can potentially create a lot of damage on their way through.

First, though, we went to Shakahari in Carlton for some grub. My gf is vego. Fortunately, the food is yummy and I didn't miss the meaty goodness too much.

We stopped in at Brunetti afterwards. The new location, where Borders used to be, is lovely.

Saturday began the weekend of Brunches. The first one was fairly healthy. The cafe proprietors at Julio (a cafe near me) really know how to make a cappuccino. They don't use the fact that it is a cappuccino as an excuse to make it weak. They put froth on there, plus a generous sprinkling of chocolate powder. Behold.

The fella and I headed down to his house, via Chapel st. I saw Burch and Purchese sweet studio and on a whim decided to go pay them a visit. The photo is not great quality but you may discern a chocolate Terrarium. Behind it is Darren Purchese, one of the owners and a sorta-celebrity-chef. He made a crack about Dannii Minogue instagramming the terrarium and calling it tres chic.

If Dannii Minogue has said it, it must be true.

There were some uber-impressive cakes and sweeties. White chocolate with roasted quinoa, anyone? They had smoked white chocolate, too. We had some chocolate with honeycomb and popcorn. Light and healthy, as it has vegetables.

I went for a run along the beach (gettting yelled at by grumpy older female cyclist for changing direction suddenly to take a drink which did disturb my mojo a little) then the fella and I went out for some Steaky goodness. No photo, as I nommed it.

Saturday night, at about 2am, I had a bit of a meltdown. I woke up in a real (work and PhD related) panic, which I had not done for a while (but used to do regularly when I had to look after 40 patients on my ward). I bounced off the walls for a little while. I think the presence of rip-roaring PMS was not helping either.

The fella was lovely, and did a great job of talking me down off the roof, bless him. Plus I took some panadiene (neck was still giving me gip) and swigged a bit of Pedro Ximenez. Though I got back to sleep, Sunday was a bit of a write-off, and I felt crappy most of the day. I did catch up with some other girlfriends for brunch, and was suitably sunny. Most of the rest of Sunday was spent sitting on the couch, drinking wine and eating cheese. If you are going to feel crappy, probably best to do so while consuming wine and cheese, no?

This morning, I caught up with another GF (who is about to head OS for a month) for brunch. We went to the Hardware Societe (which she lives in an apartment above so knows the staff). I had the croque madame. It was made on brioche. It was light, but still rich. Here it was, before I nommed it.

The more observant of you will have noticed the presence of another cappuccino in the top right hand corner of the picture. Julio's capp was superior.

This arvo, as I type, I am in at work. Yes, distasteful. There are quite a number of loose ends I need to tie up before I go away, and I won't have a great deal of time to do them this week. It is not great for me, as I am tired and headachey, plus work has already invaded my weekend in the form of a number of phone calls and issues I had to help sort out.

I am super looking forward to going away. It will be strict phone-free time, apart from the Fella and maybe my Mum (if I can manage it)....

'Scuse my work related whinging, peeps. :D

Have a good week, 'kay?